By 1980, The Eagles were going through a schizophrenic time. The band had another chart-topping album out of The Long Run but inner tensions between drummer Don Henley and guitarist Glenn Frey reached fever pitch. The strains of keeping up with success were taking a toll on messieurs Henley, Frey, Don Felder, Joe Walsh and Timothy B Schmit.
Before splitting up, the band decided to release a live album recorded from its 1979/80 Long Run Tour with some tracks recorded from the pre-release tour in support of Hotel California from November, 1976.
The 1980 portions consists of spirited versions of "Hotel California" which is arguably better than its studio counterpart with Don Felder's excellent Gibson double neck guitar and Joe Walsh's Fender Telecaster work, a rocking "Heartache Tonight", a soulful "I Can't Tell You Why", a soul-tinged "The Long Run" featuring some excellent alto sax work from Phil Kenzie (whom played on Al Stewart's Year of the Cat and Time Passages albums), a laid-back unplugged "Saturday Night', a stellar "Life in the Fast Lane" and the closing extended rocking "Take it Easy" which is better than its studio counterpart with some excellent guitar work from Walsh at the end.
The 1980 portion also included the band's take on two of Walsh's solo tracks "Life's Been Good" (arguably better than the original) and the then new track "All Night Long" which buried the sterile sounding version on the Urban Cowboy Soundtrack. Lastly, it featured the acoustic "Seven Bridges Road" which was a country number the band would play in rehearsal (see the 1977 Hotel California concert film for proof) and would be the band's last hit for 14 years.
01 Hotel california - 7:00 02 Heartache tonight - 4:33 03 I can't tell you why - 5:17 04 The long run - 5:51 05 New kid in town - 5:53 06 Life's been good - 8:56 07 Seven bridges road - 3:54 08 Wasted time - 5:21 09 Take it to the limit - 5:14 10 Doolin-dalton (reprise ii) - :41 11 Desperado - 3:57 12 Saturday night - 3:47
13 All night long - 5:34 14 Life in the fast lane - 5:09 15 Take it easy - 5:16