One of These Nights (1975)
1. One of These Nights
2. Too Many Hands
3. Hollywood Waltz
4. Journey of the Sorcerer
5. Lyin' Eyes
6. Take it to the Limit
7. Visions
8. After the Thrill Has Gone
9. I Wish You Peace
In many ways, this album can be seen
as a continuation of On the Border. The
sounds and style is basically the same. The difference, for the most
part, is just about every song sounds well crafted and was given plenty
of love and care in the recording studio. They actually came a long way
from their earliest work that seemed to be much more of a democracy. By
the time they got to this album, Don Henley and Glenn Frey were slowly
emerging as the prime song writers and the "core" of this band. It's
not necessarily that the other guys were being squeezed out, it's just
that they seemed to be writing more original material with less outside
writers.
There's so much variety on this album, and most of it sounds so
refreshing. This album boasted three top five singles, and none
of them really sound like one and other. Of course it helped that each
song was sang by a different Eagle, but that really doesn't matter.
Lyin' Eyes probably deserves the award for the most "Eagle"
sounding Eagle song, that has just enough country in a pop song to
highlight the best characteristics of the band. It never sounds "long"
even at a length well over six minutes. The irony is that the title
track, one of the other top five hits, should get an award for the song
that sounds least like The Eagles. This is a funky, danceable,
sort of groovy song that shows absolutely no signs, nor hints, of
anything they've ever done. Then, to confuse the fan even
further, they scored big as
well with the grandiose, orchestral heavy Take it to the Limit,
which is another one of the most popularly known Eagle songs, and their
only hit to be sang by original bassist Randy Meisner.
Looking at the diversity of the three hit singles, it's almost a bit
surprising that nothing else was released as a single. They certainly
could have scored huge with Hollywood Waltz, or the Frey-Henley
co-sung After the Thrill Has Gone (actually, that was included on
Greatest Hits Vol. II, but that was
more to fill up space than it was representing any kind of "hit"). Even
the Bernie Leadon penned I Wish You Peace is sort of heartwarming
charmer. It would sort of
serve as his "farewell" to the band, and I honestly don't
know if he, or anyone else knew it at the time.
Leadon's other track, the instrumental Journey to the Sorcerer is
a bit of a mixed bag. It has a lush, classical string session backing
up the song, yet at the same time has Leadon picking through the tune on
a banjo. It's a bit of a weird listen at first, but it does grow on you
in a strange sort of way. Don Felder helps write the other two songs,
Too Many Hands with Meisner and Visions, with Frey and
Henley. Both of the songs are strong and have their merits, but don't
quite match up to the rest of what's here.
Had this band not followed up fifteen months later with Hotel California, this album may have
"stood out" significantly more than it did. It was incredibly well
received when it came out, and it has aged tremendously well, so that
alone should, and probably is, more than enough.
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