Don Henley: Building The Perfect Beast (West German ''Target'' Pressing) CD Track Listing

A list by checkmate

Don Henley Building The Perfect Beast (West German ''Target'' Pressing) (1984)
Building The Perfect Beast (West German ''Target'' Pressing)\n1985 Geffen Records, Inc.\n\nOriginally Released 1984\nCD Edition Released 1985\nMFSL Gold CD Edition Released August 12, 1997\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: After experimenting with synthesizers and a pop sound on his solo debut, Don Henley hits the mark on his sophomore release, Building the Perfect Beast. This album established Henley as an artist in his own right after many successful years with the Eagles, as it spawned numerous hits. While the songs seem crafted for pop radio, it's hard to fault him for choosing arrangements that would get his messages to the masses. Unlike most pop in the 1980s, however, Henley had deep intellectual themes layered beneath the synthesizer sounds and crisp production. In the opening song "Boys of Summer," he talks about trying to recapture the past while knowing that things will never be the same. Henley has a gift for writing about the heart and soul of America and for mixing his love for the country and small-town life ("Sunset Grill") with cynicism about government ("All She Wants to Do Is Dance") and modernization ("Month of Sundays"). Although the politics and the sound of the album make the decade of release easy to place, Henley's earnest delivery and universal messages give many of the tracks a timeless feel, which is no small feat. This is Henley's most consistent album, and it is the place to start for those wanting to sample his solo work. -- Vik Iyengar \n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nHenley--arguably the most talented member of the Eagles--had toyed with playful pop hooks on his I Can't Stand Still solo bow in 1982. Two years later he got down to business on this brainy, politics-themed sophomore disc, which indicted his native Hollywood as venomously as "Hotel California" once did. Surfaces were still somewhat glossy--there's no denying the foot-tapping elan of "Boys of Summer or "All She Wants to Do Is Dance." But the vitriol roiling just beneath those surfaces was deep, intellectual stuff. Henley, as he continued to prove with the more eloquent The End of the Innocence a few years later, is someone his fans can neither underestimate nor predict. Can we say the same of Glenn Frey or Randy Meisner? --Tom Lanham \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nMuch more than just another '80s record., August 6, 2001 \nReviewer: Themis-Athena (from somewhere between California and Germany) Songwriting is no trifle matter to Don Henley. And although in the early 1970s the magic duo of Henley/Frey churned out hits with enough speed to allow for the production of four albums in four years, followed by an all-time best-selling Greatest Hits (Vol. 1) album even before the release of the Eagles' classic "Hotel California," he started to take things considerably slower in his post-Eagles solo career. The two years he took to follow up 1982's "I Can't Stand Still" with "Building the Perfect Beast" were actually the shortest time between any two of his solo albums; in part due to the fact that, as Henley explained, his collaboration with Danny "Kootch" Kortchmar worked along lines different from those he had established with Glenn Frey in the Eagles. These were not two guys sitting down together in a room with a guitar and a drum kit any longer: For Don Henley's second solo release, bowing to the musical developments of the 1980s, they relied heavily on synthesized sounds (Henley's tour promoting the album even featured an elaborate light show, something that would have been inconceivable for any of the Eagles' tours). And while making most of the songs on the album easily "listenable" and producing several top-selling singles ("All She Wants to Do Is Dance," "Sunset Grill," "Boys of Summer" and "Not Enough Love in the World"), that choice of instrumentation also seemed to render "Building the Perfect Beast" the most easily dateable of all of Henley's solo releases.\n\nLyrically, however, Henley had lost nothing of his bite; the album's very name is indicative of that fact. "We're the ones who can kill the things we don't eat," he warned in the title track, musically the edgiest song on the album (synthesizers or not) - "we have met the enemy, and he is us ... the secrets of eternity; we've found the lock and turned the key ... all the way to Malibu from the Land of the Talking Drum, just look how far we've come." "Sunset Grill" and "A Month of Sundays" lament the death of small mom-and-pop farms and businesses and their takeover by large corporations; a criticism of Reaganomics Henley would take up even more forcefully in 1989's "The End of the Innocence." (Ironically, his beloved Sunset Grill in L.A. later went down that very same path, too - "Don't Go There," he therefore quipped during the closing appearance of his recent "Inside Job" tour, "it ain't there anymore. Even though it still has the same name. Even though the guy has my name on the menu. Don't go there!") "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" has a similar theme, focusing on corporate and political greed in general. "The Boys of Summer," musically based on a guitar riff supplied by Heartbreaker Mike Campbell, is a warning not to look back and romanticize the past but rather, to look toward the future - just keep your eyes open whatever you do, though, because if you're Driving With Your Eyes Closed "you're gonna hit somethin' ... but that's the way it goes."\n\nAs on all of his solo releases, Henley was able to secure the collaboration of a virtual all-star cast of musicians, from Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham and Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench to Randy Newman, Patty Smyth, Belinda Carlisle, Richard and Waddy Wachtel, Toto's Steve Porcaro and David Paich, "inofficial Eagle" J.D. Souther, and many, many more. And despite the seeming bow to the 1980s' musical tastes in the instrumentation of many of the album's tracks, their lasting quality becomes apparent like on no other occasion when Henley performs them live, as he did on his recently-concluded tour. Stripped of some of their fancy effects, they stand up even more visibly to the class of his other work, both with the Eagles and solo - and you just have to have heard that stunning, several minutes' long drum/percussion intro (not even performed by Henley himself) to "All She Wants to Do Is Dance," the closing song of the tour's regular program.\n\n"Building the Perfect Beast" cemented Don Henley's standing as a solo artist, and it paved the way for his biggest release to date, "End of the Innocence." As he had done with his bandmates a decade earlier, Henley again proved that he was able to create something lasting, in whatever format he chose. Maturity added more focus to his work (lyrically if nowhere else); and vocally, many of the tracks on this album are among the most demanding he has ever written. Unlike the output of the era's countless hair bands, disco kings and queens and punk bands, all of Don Henley's first three solo releases still have a large enough audience to warrant their inclusion in the catalogue of every major record store - including the seemingly so 1980s-sounding "Building the Perfect Beast." \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nLight California rock shows Henley has solo potential, December 3, 2003 \nReviewer: Daniel J. Hamlow (Farmington, NM USA) \nOf the ex-Eagles doing solo material, I so far have only gotten Don Henley's second solo album, Building The Perfect Beast. He gets a lot of help from guitarist Danny Kortchmar in music, songwriting, and keyboards. This is a nice exercise in light rock that still has hallmarks of the mellow California sound popularized by his ex-bandmates the Eagles, J.D. Souther, Karla Bonoff, and Linda Ronstadt. Even though Glenn Frey had more notable hits than him, Don Henley's reputation is more intact, as Frey meandered into poppy soundtrack music that alienated his old crowd.\n\n"The Boys Of Summer" having been covered recently by DJ Sammy and AFI, makes me appreciate the original all the more. I mean an oontsa-oontsa remix or a punk cover clearly can never capture the wistful pain of trying to forget a lost time on the beach.\n\nAnother variation on the wealth not being able to buy love is told on the leisurely "You Can't Make Love" featuring Lindsey Buckingham on guitar and harmonies and the Heartbreakers--EBenmont Tench on keyboards. There's an added dimension to the theme, that one can make a promise and walk down an aisle, and "make a life for her that fits like a glove" but--you get the idea.\n\nThe rocking "Man With A Mission--Ewith a 50's rock-and-roll sound, of someone out to have a rowdy partying time, such as running a few red lights, starting some fist fights, drinking a few beers. I was surprised this didn't make it on the Fast Times At Ridgemont High soundtrack, because thematically, this would fit. Charlie Sexton helps on guitar, as does Belinda Carlisle on harmonies.\n\n"You're Not Drinking Enough" has a trace of the country rock that popularized the Eagles. The idea here is trying to forget a woman and if "you still wanna hold her/you must not be drinkin' enough." The way he writes how men get stomped caught my eye: "She passed on your passion/and stepped on your pride/turns out you ain't quite so tough."\n\n"Not Enough Love In The World" is a timely song that has shades even today. "I know people hurt you bad/they don't know the damage they can do, and it makes me sad/how we knock each other down just like children on a playground."\n\nThe tribal drums and chants of the title track is a jab at creating the ultimate person with motifs of the gods of Olympus and Methuselah. "Relieve all pain and suffering and lift us out of the dark/turn us all into Methuselah/But where are we gonna park?--Eis a cheekily humorous question to the age old quest for immortality. Patty Smyth, J.D. Souther, and Martha Davis of the Motels contribute to the chants.\n\nThe fuzzy bass synth in "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" makes this one of the most familiar songs by ear on the radio. Martha Davis and Patty Smyth help out here again.\n\nThe tearful "A Month Of Sundays" is by far the best song here, on the reflections of a farmer now on hard times, a familiar sight during the Reagan era. The generation gap is shown with the more left of center grandson and the son-in-law, a Vietnam veteran who's dismissive: "That little punk, he never had to serve" The last few verses alone make a melancholy sunset.\n\n"Sunset Grill" is a social commentary on the mean city and the soul-draining effects it has. The subject here wants to leave, but here's the tragic joke: "What would we do without all these jerks anyway? Besides, all our friends are here."\n\nHenley gets a lot of help from varied musicians, such as some Heartbreakers, a woman from a Motel, and a woman who causes a Scandal. The light style rock does still give out that peaceful easy feeling of his former band, but his solo album shows he was the lynchpin of the Eagles. \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nLove and Hate, Bi-Polar Country Cousins !, April 28, 2004 \nReviewer: billy c bowden (dallas,texas) - See all my reviews \nThough Don Henley is to put it politely, a very prickly pear..He' smart..He's out there somewhere in his own galaxy..But his talent won't be denied..And the music (the net result of his inner angst) more than compensates for whatever character flaws he might possess..Apparently Henley's a control freak and something of an intellectual bully..Henley is/was a transplanted East Texas boy to the Gold Coast of Southern California (who voluntarily checked himself into the Hotel California)..And Henley struggled mightily, like all aspiring artists do early in their careers, likely further melding his nasty character, fidgeting philosophically, As to Artist vs. The Record Companies..The eternal struggle between art and enterprise, Good vs. Evil..Henley claims the labels really taught him how to hate, not to trust anyone, but himself..Probably a good idea.. He apparently mastered the game..Hired David Geffen to be his personal manager because he thought, "I know he's an SOB"..a shark in a suit..but he's my "SOB"..the net result of all this manuevering was..More Great Music..Big Ideas and Themes..Big Money..Rock Star Status...More Independence..Leading Henley to (have enough money and freedom) to write music of choice about relevant topics rather than the formulaic piffle much Eagle's music represents..Without a doubt, Henley is the best mind, deepest thinker, best overall talent to evolve out of the Eagles..Not a bad drummer either..And this album is worth its weight in Gold.. "Boys of Summer".. "Sunset Grille".. "All She Wants To Do Is Dance"..Are bang up hits..Self explanatory..Brilliantly well thought out juxtapositions..Brilliant structures..From an unusually razor witted mind..Yet, possibly at times, a conflicted, tortured soul..Environmentalist/Gazillionaire?..Reconcile that..Doesn't matter much in the end..This is a bone crushing collection of tunes, as universally omniprescient as a Jackson Browne faire..Though I might not care to know Henley personally, one can't help but admire and respect the music, even begrudgingly..I'm not sure who the Perfect Beast really is in this sceario?..Henley, the music, or both ? This CD is almost a Perfect Beast..Henley, like Jackson Pollack might not win any personal popularity contests, but like Pollack you can't deny the talent, the music..There's a very fine line between love and hate..Perfect Country Cousins! Even Henley might agree with that! \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nBest Don Henley Album - One of the Best Albums of the 1980s, November 21, 2003\nReviewer: "argon78" (Forest Hills, NY United States) \nOne day during the summer of 1985, on one of my occasional jaunts to the local strip mall to buy records, I obtained two albums by former Eagles members - "The Allnighter" by Glenn Frey, and this album by Don Henley. Interestingly enough, I had never really listened to the Eagles (sure I'd heard "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California", but it was only on the radio when I was much younger and I didn't even know who had done them...) and did not know that both of these artists had been in what I would soon discover was an amazing band. Of the two albums I bought, this was by far the better one and it became a part of my regular listening rotation even into the 1990s.\nThere are so many good songs on this album - they fit together to form a cohesive whole while at the same time each stands on its own individually. I don't think there is one song on this album that I don't really like except perhaps (and maybe ironically), the title track. Standouts range from the beautiful, longing and urgent "Boys of Summer", to the pretty "Not Enough Love In the World" and "Land Of The Living", to the songs that rock out "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" (complete with sarcastic, cynical political overtones) and "Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed". But to me, the highlight of the album are the two songs which segue into each other on what used to be side 2 of the album - these are "A Month Of Sundays" which is a heartfelt and heart-tugging glimpse at the struggles of farmers hit during the glut of farm foreclosures which were taking place in the mid-1980s. This beautiful, sad song relaxes into the cool, jazzy "Sunset Grill", which for some reason evokes Los Angeles to my mind....\n\nAt any rate, to sum up - this album brings out a wide range of emotions through really well played, well conceived songs. There are pretty songs and songs that rock on this album. An unusually solid blend of great lyrics and great music that plants images in your head and induces contemplation...Just what music is supposed to do...HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nA Little Dated Musically, But Still A Lyrical Powerhouse!, October 9, 2002\nReviewer: D. Hawkins (Denver, CO United States) \nAh, the sound of those synthesized drums that were EVERYWHERE in 1984. If Orwell had his book to write over again, he'd warn us about the shelf life of those babies. Musically, songs like the title track and "Sunset Grill" scream to you loud and clear exactly when they were made, but the album still hits home today. With Walmart and various other corporations running the world, the lyrics of "Sunset Grill" are even more relevant today (and ironic, since the real location is now owned by a corporation!). "A Month of Sundays" has got to be one of the most poignant songs I have EVER heard, and it could certainly apply to many industries besides farming. "The Boys of Summer" still holds up as just about the best song from the 1980's, and "Not Enough Love" and "You're Not Drinking Enough" show us why Don just might be the best vocalist in all of popular music.\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nA Snapshot of The Reagen Wasteland..., April 25, 2002\nReviewer: Greg McDowell (Tacoma,WA) \nAlthough several songs here haven't aged well, the majority of this album allows us to remember the days of conspicuos consumption and moral bankruptcy that defined the 1980's. "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" is my favorite here: anyone who has ever traveled abroad and been embarresed in public by the rude, ignorant behavior of our countrymen will relate to this one! "A Months Of Sundays" takes up the forgotten plight of America's farmers, whose suicide rate for a while, at least among males, rivaled that of Western Samoa! "Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed" sums up our politicians today as well as it did in 1984. Henley writes for Americans who still read books, and stil believe that individual freedom is the last doorstop we have left before the door of government-imposed conformity slams our heads in its marble-encrusted frame. \n\nThis is easily one of the top 10 American rock albums of the 1980's!\n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nHenley Soars, August 24, 2000\nReviewer: Thomas Magnum (NJ, USA) \nWith Building The Perfect Beast, Don Henley released an album that was his most bitingly critical and cynical album to date. The album is a commentary on the baby boomers, who in the 60's were the counterculture, but where now the mainstream yuppies in the Reagan-era 80's. There is alot of commentary on the Reaganomics mentallity of greed is good. He takes on his adopted home state of California in numerous songs. In the title cut, Henley comments that back in the 60's, California was a place of rebellion, trying to build social change, but now it was a place trying to build the perfect money making machine. "Man With A Mission" is about the seemingly singlemindness of the country to succeed at any and all costs. "Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed" is a veiled commentary on how he felt Reagan was running the country. The big hit single "Boys Of Summer" is a lament about trying to recapturing the past, but knowing things will never be the same again. "All She Wants To Do Is Dance" talks about the bad things going on down in Central America, but our country's lack of care as things are too good here. Not everything is politically charged like the country-blues sounds of "You're Not Drinking Enough", the moody "Sunset Grill & the pretty "Not Enough Love In The World", but they are critical in nature. The album is one of the defining releases of the 80's as it employs a very contempary sound with alot of synthesisers and drum machines, but since the songs are so great, it a timeless release and the apex of Don Henley's solo career.\n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nBelinda Carlisle, Contributing Artist\nCharlie Sexton, Contributing Artist\nDavid Paich, Contributing Artist\nJohn David Souther, Contributing Artist\nMike Campbell, Contributing Artist\nPatty Smyth, Contributing Artist\nRandy Newman, Contributing Artist\nSam Moore, Contributing Artist\nGreg Ladanyi, Engineer\nNiko Bolas, Engineer\n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel includes: Don Henley (vocals, keyboards, synthesizer, drums, percussion); Lindsey Buckingham (guitar, background vocals); Danny Kortchmar (guitar, omnichord, keyboards, organ, synthesizer, synthesizer guitar, synthesizer horns, bass, percussion); Mike Campbell (guitar, synthesizer, percussion); Charlie Sexton (guitar); Ben Tench (piano, keyboards, synthesizer); David Paich (piano, synthesizer); Mike Boddicker (synthesizer, emulator, programming); Bill Cuomo (synthesizer, percussion programming); Steve Porcaro (synthesizer, programming); Randy Newman (synthesizer); Larry Klein, Pino Palladino, Tim Drummond (bass); Ian Wallace, Jim Keltner (drums); Belinda Carlisle, Sam Moore, Patty Smyth, Martha Davis (background vocals).\n\nProducers: Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar, Greg Ladanyi, Mike Campbell.\n\nRecorded at Record One, Sherman Oaks, California; Bill Schnee Studio, Universal City, California; The Villa, North Hollywood, California.\n\nAlthough the 1980s production values sound a bit dated, Don Henley's BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST is made up of 11 smartly written songs that stand the test of time. Henley's second solo endeavor, the release shows the various faces of the singer/songwriter, surrounded here by an excellent group of musicians, including longtime partner Danny Kortchmar. From the rocking "Man with a Mission" to the folk narrative "Month of Sundays" to the country ballad "You're Not Drinking Enough," BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST is a record built upon variety. Two Henley hits are also found on this album, namely the steamy "All She Wants to Do Is Dance" and the reflective, bittersweet "The Boys of Summer," the latter of which features some of the artist's finest lyrics, along with music by Heartbreakers guitarist Mike Campbell.\n\n\nROLLING STONE REVIEW\nWhen The Eagles left their gilded nest, America didn't lose its favorite band, it gained a plethora of solo artists. Among them, only drummer Don Henley is making consistently compelling music, and his second solo effort manages to maintain the highest standards of studio professionalism and lyrical acuity set by that high-flying band. Spontaneity has never been Henley's strong suit, so he looks to score points with craft and tosses in a few topical curves for good measure.\n\nHenley is currently riding high with "The Boys of Summer," a wistful look over the shoulder at a faded summer romance. Guitarist Mike Campbell frames the song with his piquant single-note picking, while Henley offers up an aching vocal that'll tug at the heartstrings of anyone who ever bid a soulful sayonara to a bikinied baby. "The Boys of Summer" sets a mood of romantic dolor that prevails, though is not equaled, throughout the first side. Even the titles abound in weary negatives: "You Can't Make Love," "You're Not Drinking Enough," "Not Enough Love in the World" -- all of the songs draggy ballads in the mold of the Eagles hit "Take It to the Limit."\n\nSide two is another animal altogether, wherein Henley and pals -- guitarist-sidekick Danny Kortchmar, various members of the Heartbreakers and Toto, plus other guests and sessionmen -- really spring to life. On this side, Henley moves from the personal to the political, mapping out with black humor a modern world barely hanging on its hinges.\n\n"Building the Perfect Beast" builds up steamrolling momentum as Henley nervously ponders the madness being loosed in laboratories in the name of science: "The secrets of eternity/We've found the lock and turned the key/We've shakin' up those building blocks/Going deeper into that box." That's Pandora's box, friends. Here, and throughout the side, synthesizers are used not as sentimental embellishment but to sound an air-raid siren on the impending apocalypse. "Beast" sounds something like big-band jazz, driven by a bank of brassy synths and a register-scraping vocal from Henley.\n\nAfter the abstract horror of the title track, "Sunset Grill" zeroes in on its protagonist's tangible sense of entrapment in a dead-end hangout in a big city. Hunkered over his beer while whores and bums promenade outside, Henley sings, "You see a lot more meanness in the city/It's the kind that eats you up inside." "Sunset Grill" ends in a long, jazzy instrumental fade as evocative of darkened streets and unraveled dreams as "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue."\n\n"All She Wants to Do Is Dance" is a caustic, dry-witted look at Americans abroad, partying obliviously in dangerous places. It's Henley's own "Undercover of the Night," full of images of violence and heat: Club Med

Categories

Latest lists

Don Henley: Building The Perfect Beast (West German ''Target'' Pressing) CD Track Listing

Category

Tags

cyList

Legal