The Eagles lay down the ultimate L.A. metaphor with a 2005 live performance of “Life in the Fast Lane.”

You don’t have to listen to many car songs to realize that many of them aren’t really about cars at all. Cars and the road often are just handy tropes—for loneliness, for escape, or in this case, living too fast for too long:

Life in the fast lane, uh huh 
Blowin’ and burnin’, blinded by thirst 
They didn’t see the stop sign 
took a turn for the worse 

In 1976, everyone in America had heard enough about Los Angeles to know what the Eagles were on about there. Glenn Frey later said the title was inspired by a scary drive he took on the freeway with a crazed drug dealer called the Count. When Frey pleaded with him to slow the car down, the dealer replied, “What do you mean? It’s life in the fast lane.” Sure. It was all of a piece with the album and its title single, Hotel California. 

Against all odds, given the personalities and circumstances, the Eagles have continued to perform together for more than 40 years. This live performance, which features the usual virtuoso guitar work of Joe Walsh, is from the Farewell 1 Tour — Live from Melbourne concert DVD, available at Amazon.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10gm5t_the-eagles-life-in-the-fast-lane-live-2005_music