Eagles (1979) Teenage Jail - LOST 70s GEMS

From their last album of the 70s, the dark tinged, hard rock and ballad heavy The Long Run, Teenage Jail is a flawed song from a flawed album but it still stands as highly underrated within the band' catalogue. What I love about it is that despite it's lack of taste, complexity or the very on the nose and on the beat directness it's still a guilty pleasure I can't stop listening to.

The ballsy guitars come in a Black Sabbath-esque droning figure, sliding in achingly wearied way while Glenn Frey's nasally and intoning vocals sing over it alone with a remarkable quality to sound like a chorus. Frey is the chieftain of this track, a rare contribution from him during the second half of the 70s where he took a backseat, for some this is an explanation why. That nasally tone of his voice fits the up and down melodies and the undulating vibe of this odd tune; part satanic hard rock, odd Moog solo and bluesy coda.
 Don Henley's vocals on the sparse verse is uncharacteristically animated and draped in a ghostly echo, sharing some of the slapstick delivery of another Eagles oddity on this album, The Greeks Don't Want No Freaks, he noticeably takes a sharp intake of breath at one point. Once Henley is done, Frey returns with a equally buzzed Mini-moog solo, increasing and decreasing in pitch with some long held notes that audibly waver as they are pressed down; quirky. Then the song picks up with Don Felder launching into a truly scorched earth solo, simple but full of drama and intensity sought how I would describe this song. Warning: Don't expect any hidden layers to this tune.