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The Sad Cafe song meanings
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    General Comment

    This song is definitely about the legendary club in Los Angeles - Doug Weston's The Troubadour. The Troubadour was the center of the musical universe from the late 60's through the mid-70's. Members of the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, JD Souther, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, David Crosby, Elton John etc.. hung out/performed there frequently in those early days of their lives/careers. The song tells the tale of how they all started out idealistically but now time has moved on and its taken its toll on everyone. Careers were made there and others went nowhere - for reasons that are hard to say. The song seems to long for the simpler times in their careers - before it became big business. The Troub is actually a very small club - even more so when one considers the size and population of Los Angeles - but that made playing there more real and personal. By the time Henley/Frey/Souther/Walsh wrote this song they were all millionaires playing to thousands in stadiums but many other musicians they met and hung with back in the day at The Troub were now struggling, broke, depressed and strung out. Or in some cases, dead. And the part about the Glory Train not stopping there no more - I think that's an acknowledgment that the music business had moved on to new music - New Wave and synth-pop and the coming of the video age through MTV. They knew things would never be the same. That was a time they'd never see or experience again.

    Most of us aren't musicians who played at The Troubadour back in the day but if you live long enough each of us has our own Sad Cafe.

    Rickveeon February 09, 2016   Link

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