The Eagles or The Crickets?

Now, first of all, let us apologize for having to go by the order of notoriety rather than mere alphabetical order here...!  (The poor Crickets would have lost to the Beatles as well; and they would have been fine with that, too!)

The thing is, both legendary bands are booked in early November to appear in the same area, far, far away from home...!  At separate venues, mind you, but in the same misbegotten town in North America, as fate would have it: Montreal, of all places.  The Americans get the Bell Center; while the Bulgarians, catering to the tastes of an estimated-to-be smaller crowd, were originally scheduled to perform at... Collège Notre-Dame. Yes - THAT COLLEGE; the college that once was the home of a recently canonized saint, who worked there for close to 40 years as a doorkeeper. The college, also, that has been plagued by scandals that took place afterwards, once the saintly man was no longer there... The college right across the street from that famous Oratory; yes, that's the one...  Inside, there is some sort of auditorium, of course, and the seating capacity of roughly 350 people was deemed to be sufficient by the organizers of this one-night only event.  However, since the demand was greater than expected, they had to move it to another venue and, now, it will take place in the ''théâtre Desjardins'' housed within the CEGEP André-Laurendeau; pretty much at the other end of town! With a seating capacity of 800, this one should truly suffice now!

Both bands are pretty much in the same league, age-wise but also following-wise, to tell the truth. And both bands have marked the history of music in their own way, at opposite ends of the globe (almost parallel worlds; almost, verily!) with neither one of these bands being qualified as ''major influence'' in anyone's mind, virtually...!  Everyone would cite the Led Zeppelins, the Whos, the Rolling Stones, on both continents involved here; but who has ever really cited the Eagles?  And who, outside of Eastern Europe knows who the Crickets are?

And yet, and yet - here we are in 2013 and here are these two bands, precisely these two, not only (surprisingly) back together and set to perform for their aging fanbase in a town they've rarely visited in the past (heck, have the Crickets ever visited there before?!?) but also competing for the (adoring?) public's ticket purchasing-power...!

Let's ask the question now, then: which band deserves to be supported this way, now, at this stage of their ''stardom'' - in the twilight of their career?

To answer that, we need to do much more than listen to evenko's rants, trying to stimulate pops and mammas to go, while tickling their nostalgia bone...!  We need much more than mere propaganda here: we need to listen to the evidence here!

Obviously, the surest way to determine anything here would be through listening: by listening attentively now, to their tunes, to their music, to their art:

Another way to determine which band to support in their cranky old age would be to learn more about them: now, everybody knows the Eagles...!  But only true music connaisseurs along with men (and women) of the world can possibly have heard of the Crickets...!

First of all, let us ascertain that the Crickets that we are talking about are NOT these Crickets right here! For these Crickets did come to Montreal before (for damn sure they did - back in 1957!) but they are all out of the loop ever since their leader, Buddy Holly, passed away extremely suddenly...

The Crickets we are talking about are, as you may have already seen in one of the videos above, nothing less than ''The Bulgarian Beatles'' - comparable to the ''Fab Four'' in the influence that they had as well as in their body of work.  The Eagles, for their part, will  *never* be compared to The Beatles; although their ''In The City'' is emblematic enough for city slickers such as me, ''Hotel California'' is a timeless classic and there are more, of course... The sum of the parts is greater than the whole, here, though: for Glenn Frey's and Don Henley's solo efforts have also become nearly ''iconic'' tunes and, then, there is Joe Walsh to consider as well (although the term ''iconic'' has been used way too loosely for roughly 50 years now - I Can't Tell You Why - but that is beside our point here...) however, collectively, it is clearly The Crickets who are a real band - and the real deal!

Still, it must be precised that the Crickets coming to the erstwhile Île-Marie are... actually, one Cricket, Kiril Marchikov, and some friends from a younger generation that he inspired into making music!

Earlier this year, Petar Gyuzelev, one of the founding members of the Crickets, passed away.  He passed on in peace with himself and with the climate he had been caught in all of his life that has culminated in the tense situation prevailing now in his country.  Most importantly of all, he passed on having made peace with his Maker and thus died as a Christian - quite the feat for one who'd lived most of his life weeding through one of the staunchest communist regimes of all.

In his wake, the most influential member of the erstwhile 'Crickets'' aka Shturtzite in their native land, Kiril Marchikov toured all the more in earnest with three other notable Bulgarian musicians as... The Foundation.

So, yeah - this is really between a bunch of dissolute Eagles in disarray and The Foundation; such are your choices!  One band, widely known, swore they would never get together again until ''Hell would freeze over'' - and then, for monetary reasons only, they did get back together on a tour appropriately named (for them) - ''Hell Freezes Over'' - how conveeeeeenient.  The other band, a rag-tag assemblage of elements from at least four different outfits, merges together in complete harmony, singing all the classic tunes in their language, not merely limiting themselves to their own respective or common repertoire.  Such a show of unity is uncommon - not to mention that it is, also, quite paradoxical as, in most other areas, their fellow countrymen lack such unity... It may be changing now, at long last...
But that is another story... for another blog!

Make your choice now, then: a band that can't stand one another but tours on for the cash *or* The Foundation of Bulgarian Rock, proud heirs to both ''Petsi'' Gyuzelev's heritage as, also, of that left behind by one Georgi Minchev - the Bulgarian Elton John (but he wasn't gay!)


Once again, I made it soooooo very easy for ya: THE (LUMINOUS) CHOICE IS CLEAR!

;)

Sempre Por O Melhor!

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