The Best Take Ever On Shit

From '20,000 Roads – The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music'.

Discussing Parsons reaction to the rise of music influenced by his seminal but poorly selling work with the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers

The greatest affront had to be the June 1972 release of the Eagles' self-titled debut, which went platinum (that is, sold at least one million units) and hit number twenty-two. The single "Witchy Woman" -went to number nine, "Take It Easy" to number twelve, and "Peaceful Easy Feeling" hit number twenty-two. A band offering the most pallid rendition country rock was a smash—with Gram's former bandmate Bernie Leadon, at its core. Eagles drummer Don Henley said of himself: "I have a high tolerance for repetition." Gram lacked this quality. Henley's abundance of it helped provide the Eagles' music with its soulless, over-rehearsed, antiseptic, schematic, insincere, sentimental core. The Eagles managed to deny every roots-music source of their sound. Their country rock—with its self- satisfaction, misogyny, absence of pain, junior high emotions, pop hook-- and facile faux virtuosity—was more than dumb enough to please the broadest American audience. And still is. The Eagles were and remain arguably the most consistently contemptible stadium band in rock. Gram famously. referred to their music as "a plastic dry-fuck." He bore the Eagles a special loathing, as any sane listener might.