Fifty five years ago today, Brian Wilson called it quits on the SMiLE project. The story goes that Brian saw himself in competition with the Beatles.  Pet Sounds  was in response to  Rubber Soul  - an album without filler. Like  Revolver  "Good Vibrations" demonstrated a mastery of the studio, and its use as an instrument in and of itself. The intended follow-up,  SMiLE , would be the same - writ large - in album form. What happens? Supposedly he hears "Strawberry Fields Forever" on the radio - in January '67-  and gasps, claiming that the Beatles "got there first." At another point, he heard that several conflagrations had broken out all over LA during recording sessions of the "Fire (Mrs. O'Leary's Cow)" from the "Elements Suite." He feared that some bad karma linked the tune and the fires.  Then there was the cat. Brian had built a sandbox in his living room. He placed his piano in it so that he could twiddle his toes ...

If you think about it....and you might not want to....you can divide the Eagles' output into two periods. The first, beginning with the release of "Take it Easy" --fifty years ago this past week--constituted their slick country-rock, adult contemporary easy listening period. That which was encapsulated in that first Greatest Hits album.  This period coincides with Bernie Leadon's tenure with the band. He had previously been in the Flying Burrito Brothers (for their second and third albums) and, before that, had played with Gene Clark in Dillard and Clark. His B-bender telecaster and banjo were, as much as anything, responsible for much of the Eagles' country sound. At the end of the One of These Nights tour, Bernie poured a beer over Glenn Frey's head and - in what would become an end of tour ritual - quit the band*. Enter Joe Walsh and so begins the second, laid back stadium rocker, period. The riffs and guitars got heavier. Joe playing featured more heavy s...