I agree that the main reason the Eagles album did better was because the Eagles have always been associated with country music and therefore they have a broader appeal than FM. The powers that be for the Eagles were brilliant to reallize that given their age that 10-25 year olds probably weren't going to be lining up to buy their album so they marketed them to a country audience. Not only does that audience buy CD's and shop at Walmart but they tend to be the most loyal (as compared to a pop/maistream one) and they have no problem with fact that their music is being sung by senior citizens. Even though the Eagles went more rock in the second half of their careers, they still managed to hang on to some of that audience, which is why I believe that their greatest hits I album sold a bizillion copies (it appeals to pop, country and rock audiences). They also played up that association by going on country award shows, radio stations and having their first single be a country song/video that was played on CMT. FM is at a much bigger disadvantage because they don't and have never had that audience. As for SYW, I like about a 1/3 of the songs. I think it would have been a better album if they had shortened it to about 10 songs, taken out their more avant-garde songs, and slowed down Say Goodbye (that is the best song but not so good of a record). It lost it's poignancy by being sped up to fast. When I hear that song from the Soundstage with L and S, all I can think is "Why Lindsey didn't you do it this way on the album?"
|