History of the Eagles on Showtime

Too bad they didn't keep the kid that made that pass. Maybe they would have won a playoff game this year.

 

To get this thread back on track:

Yes, the first part (history of the band before their first breakup) is two hours. Part II (solo careers, reunification) is an hour. It's worth it.

PS: Spoiler alert: Randy Meisner has not aged well.

 

Thought the show was well done, with lots of history of how the songs came about, sometimes from just a turn of a phrase or a tune while warming up. A lot of the music and inner conflict is included. Conflict highlighted by a fundraising performance for a politician when Frye and another member kept telling each other while on stage how much they hated each other and were ready to kiil one another once they were done.

And I'm a big Eagles fan. So I politely disagree with comments that their music sucked. I guess that's why they're still popular after 40 years?

 

Some Eagles' tracks are decent, others not, others (cough ... Witchy Woman/One Of These Nights/The Long Run) suck out loud. I used to have the On The Border album, which wasn't that bad at all, but not so good that I didn't sell it to buy macaroni-and-cheese back in the day.

Way too many Eagles' songs have been overplayed, particularly Hotel California, which isn't a bad song, but it's been run into the ground like an offshore oil drill.

I don't consider them an essential band, but they were an enormously popular band and they do have an interesting fractious history. I'd like to see it.

 

I hardly listen to the radio anymore either, but what little I do, they're still overplayed big-time on classic rock stations. I guarantee your wait wouldn't be longer than three hours to hear either Heartache Tonight or Life In The Fast Lane, et al.

Anyway, where's your top 10 Eagles songs, bitch?

 

I saw only the two-minute trailer, and I'm a huge Don Henley fan, but it seemed to me that Henley and Glenn Frey came off as pretty arrogant or pretentious or whatever. Are they like that throughout the show? I know the Eagles were difficult to work with back in their heydays.

I love pretty much everything Henley has ever done, but I'm guessing he's a prick to work with. There was a lot of great Henley stuff up on YouTube for a while, but it's all come down. Some terrific live versions of his best songs, even better now because of how his voice has aged, but they are not there anymore, and I don't even know where you could find them. His right to have them taken down, but does that help him or hurt him at this point? As a fan, access to those clips would make me want to catch his live shows even more.

From the story link in a post above, these two criticisms ring true about the Eagles' perceived arrogance and their concerts, where I never saw any extended jams or any real deviations from the studio versions of their songs:

6. Special access packages. The Eagles actually charge thousands of dollars to apparently emotionally challenged people to meet them, or a subset of them, before a show to, like, shake hands and eat dinner in the same place and get autographed trinkets and stuff. Guys, you're supposed to act like rock and roll royalty, not a bankrupt former shortstop from the 1970's signing autographs at a strip mall in New Jersey for chrissakes.

5. The completely scripted and non spontaneous concerts. In fairness, the Eagles have always been about professionalism and perfectionism. That IS part of the appeal. But guys, would it hurt you much to play a lost classic in concert? To try SOMETHING new? It's always the same. Every night. Every note. Every joke.


All that said, I love Henley's work especially, and I loved the Eagles, too. I hope I get to see the Showtime tribute at some point.

 

I thought the Eagles always had the rep of being shitty live. Even in their 70s heyday.

 

I keep catching bits and pieces up to shortly after they talk about "Life in the Fast Lane". I'm trying to remember if the parts I saw about Randy Meisner being scared to sing the high parts of "Take It to the Limit" on stage and the part about the vocals on "Victim of Love". I might have seen a little bit about Timothy Schmidt being brought in to replace Randy Meisner, but then haven't seen anything after that.

 

I've seen them five times, and the songs are played the same way every time. Minimal talk between songs. No real feeling of interaction or spontaneity.

The sound has always been great, so you get the studio effect of each song. The "shitty rep" stories probably stem from the actual concert experience. To name just one act by comparison, John Mellencamp and his band always put on a hell of a show. They knew how to play to a crowd.

 

I don't know if it's arrogance or pretense, but they both freely admit they are Alpha personalties and it's clear they realize the band revolved around them, and they called the shots, just as Lennon and McCartney did with the Beatles. (Not comparing them to the Beatles, just noting that of each group, two members clearly stood head and shoulders above the rest).

I love the Eagles. Not all their work, of course. But they wrote some darned good music in their prime and certainly rank as one of top three American bands of the 1970s-early 1980s. Great road-trip music too. I just saw the Eagles once live, and they were fantastic. Maybe it's because they had an unexpected day off before their show.

You could always tell who listened to Jackson Browne's version of "Take it Easy" first because in his world, lovers who won't blow your covers "are just a little hard to find," not "so hard to find" as they are for the Eagles.

 

Used to really enjoy these guys. Saw them twice on the first reunion tour, they were very very good. Loved that set was heavy on the solo stuff.

Now they're openly admitting that they're that which they pledged to hate for so long: a corporate band whose newer music (Long Way out of Eden) is mostly rote repeats of what made them popular, and who charge a pretty penny to see their shows.

Did the documentary include the part how in 1994 they divided the financial shares thusly: Split seven ways, with Henley and Frey each getting two shares and the other each getting one?

Bunch of a-holes, they are.

 

"Hotel California" is epic. That said ...

The two Eagles songs I never get tired of hearing: "New Kid in Town" and "Sad Cafe."

The two Eagles songs I never want to hear: "Heartache Tonight" and "Seven Bridges Road."