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Eagles (band)

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Eagles
"The Eagles" redirects here. For the British band of the same name, see The Eagles (UK band). For the bird, see Eagle. For other uses of "Eagle", see Eagle (disambiguation).

The Eagles are an American rock music group that was formed in Los Angeles, California in the early 1970s. With five number-one singles and four number-one albums, the Eagles were among the most successful recording artists of the 1970s. At the end of the 20th century, two of their albums, Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 and Hotel California, ranked among the ten best-selling albums according to the Recording Industry Association of America. The best-selling studio album Hotel California is rated as the 37th album in the Rolling Stone list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". They are also the best-selling American group ever (followed by Aerosmith), with Eagles: Their Greatest Hits 1971–1975 being the best-selling album in the U.S. to date[1] and the second-best-selling album of the 20th century worldwide after Michael Jackson's Thriller[2]

The Eagles broke up in 1980 and were disbanded for 14 years, but reunited and have since toured regularly, making new fans in the process and continuing to record. The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998.

Overview

The Eagles' early music was a hybrid of country and bluegrass instrumentation grafted onto the harmonies of California surfer rock, producing tender ballads and soft top-down country-flavored pop-rock about relationships, cars, and the wandering life. The originators of this genre were gifted singer/songwriters, among them Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, Jackson Browne, J.D. Souther, and Warren Zevon.

The band took the singer-songwriter ethos to a group setting with increased emphasis on arrangements and musicianship, and the group's early sound became synonymous with the southern California country rock. On later albums the band dispensed with bluegrass instrumentation and gravitated to a more straight-ahead rock sound.

History

Formation and success

The band formed in 1971 when Linda Ronstadt's then-manager, John Boylan, extracted Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner from their previous affiliations. They were short a drummer until Frey phoned Don Henley, whom he had met at the Troubadour in Los Angeles. The band backed up Ronstadt on a two-month tour, then decided to form their own band, which would become the Eagles.

Their first album, Eagles, was filled with pure, sometimes innocent country rock, and yielded three Top Forty singles. The lead off single, "Take It Easy", was a song penned by Glenn Frey's friend, neighbor and fellow country rocker, Jackson Browne. Frey heard him playing it and asked if the Eagles' could use it. Browne agreed and with a few lyrics added in by Frey, the song was recorded and became a classic, reaching #12 on the Billboard Hot 100 and propelling the Eagles to stardom. The single was followed by the bluesy "Witchy Woman" and the soft country rock ballad "Peaceful Easy Feeling"; charting #9 and #22 respectively. Eagles was a major force in popularizing the southern California country rock sound around the nation.

File:Deperado2.jpg
Eagles playing dead on back cover of Desperado

Their second album, Desperado, was themed on Old West outlaws and introduced the group's penchant for conceptual songwriting. The album wasn't as successful as the first, reaching only #41 on the U.S. pop album charts. Although it yielded the classic "Tequila Sunrise" and "Desperado", the former struggled on the Billboard Hot 100, only reaching #64, while the latter was actually never released as a single. The only other single from the album was "Outlaw Man", which became the highest charting single from Desperado, reaching #59 on the charts. Ironically, "Desperado" and "Tequila Sunrise" became two of the Eagles' most popular songs, the former commonly being the Eagles' last encore in a concert, while "Outlaw Man" has become an obscure Eagles' A-side. The bluegrass songs, "Twenty-One", "Doolin' Dalton(Instrumental)" and the ballad "Saturday Night" are significant for showcasing guitarist Bernie Leadon's abilities on banjo, fingerpicked guitar and mandolin.

The first two albums were produced by Glyn Johns, who previously worked with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and The Who. The band wanted to rock, but Johns tended to emphasize the lush side of their double-edged music. On their third album, On the Border, the Eagles' started off with Johns producing, but after completing only two songs, turned to Bill Szymczyk to produce the rest of the album. Szymczyk brought in Don Felder to add slide guitar to a song called "Good Day in Hell", and the band was so impressed that two days later they invited Felder to become the fifth Eagle. He appears on only one other song on the album, the uptempo breakup song,"Already Gone", in which he performed the memorable dual guitar solo with Glenn Frey. On the Border yielded a #1 Billboard single in the song "Best of My Love", which hit the top of the charts on March 1, 1975, becoming the Eagles' first of five chart toppers.

Their next album, One of These Nights, had an aggressive, sinewy rock stance. The album further displayed the growing strength of the Henley/Frey songwriting team, particularly on the album's title track and the Grammy Award winning "Lyin' Eyes". "One of These Nights" hit #1 on the Billboard chart August 2, 1975. The song itself has often been cited by Frey as his all-time favorite Eagles tune.[3]

File:Leadon walsh1.jpg
Bernie Leadon and his replacement, Joe Walsh

By this time, members of the band had started clashing with each other and there were many fights. Recording and touring had been brutal since the eponymous debut album and tempers were boiling over. Between the album release and the subsequent tour, Bernie Leadon left the group, disillusioned with the direction the band's music was taking. They were no longer concentrating on the country rock in which Leadon excelled and the hiring of Don Felder meant that Leadon's role would be significantly diminished. The group quickly replaced Leadon with Joe Walsh, a veteran of such groups as the James Gang and Barnstorm and a solo artist in his own right, in order to continue with their tour schedule. The addition of Walsh made the group's aim perfectly clear: they wanted to rock.

Meanwhile, in early 1976, Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) was released. It went on to become the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling over 29 million copies to date.[4]

File:Htelcal.jpg
Band photo on inner sleeve of Hotel California album

The group's next album, Hotel California, came out in late 1976. "New Kid in Town" was a #1 hit in Billboard on February 26, 1977, and "Hotel California" on May 7, 1977. "Life in the Fast Lane" was also a huge hit, becoming a catchphrase in the process, and established Joe Walsh's position in the band with its more hard-rock sound. The striking, mournful ballad "Wasted Time" closed the first side of the record, while an instrumental reprise of it opened the second side. The album concluded with "The Last Resort", the song Frey, to this day, refers to as Don Henley's greatest work.[citation needed] In all, Hotel California is generally considered to be the band's masterpiece, and has appeared on several lists of the best albums of all time; it is also easily their best-selling studio album, with 16 million copies sold to date in the U.S.

File:Hocaltour.jpg
Glenn Frey, Don Felder and Joe Walsh during Hotel California tour

During the final leg of the ensuing tour, Randy Meisner decided he had seen enough hotel rooms in his seven years as an Eagle and left the band for the relative quiet of Nebraska to recuperate and begin a solo career. The Eagles replaced Meisner with the man who had succeeded him in Poco, Timothy B. Schmit. 1977 saw (what was at the time) the entire Eagles lineup performing instrumental work and backing vocals for Randy Newman's album Little Criminals. However, the album credits them as individual performers rather than as the Eagles, possibly to avoid a contract dispute with the Eagles' record label.

In February 1978, the Eagles went into the studio to produce their final studio album, The Long Run. The album took two years to make, but yielded the group's fifth and last #1 single in Billboard, "Heartache Tonight" (November 10, 1979). The tour to promote the album intensified personality differences between band members, made worse on the night of November 21, 1980, when Henley was arrested for cocaine, Quaalude, and marijuana possession after a nude 16-year-old prostitute had drug-related seizures in a hotel room. Henley was subsequently charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In addition, Glenn Frey and Don Felder had to be separated by police and fellow band members backstage at a 1980 fundraising concert for California Senator Alan Cranston. Frey claimed he confronted Felder after he heard him insult Senator Cranston under his breath.[citation needed]

Break-up

The tour ended on July 31, 1980, in Long Beach, California, when tempers boiled over into what Bill Szymczyk memorably described as "The Long Night At Wrong Beach." Frey and Felder spent the entire show describing to each other the beating each planned to administer backstage — "Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal," Frey recalls Felder telling him near the end of the band's set. Felder recalls Frey making a similar threat to him just as they began to sing "The Best Of My Love." As soon as the show was over, mayhem broke out. Frey launched an assault on Felder, who protected himself with his guitar. Within seconds, the rest of the band had joined in. It took a dozen roadies to pull the warring factions apart.[5]

It appeared to be the end of the Eagles, although the band still owed Warners a live record from the tour. Eagles Live (released in November 1980) was mixed by Frey and Henley on opposite coasts — the two decided they couldn't bear to be in the same state, let alone the same studio, and as Bill Szymczyk put it,[citation needed] the record's perfect three-part harmonies were fixed "courtesy of Federal Express." With credits that listed no fewer than five attorneys, the album's liner notes simply said, "Thank you and goodnight."


After the Eagles

After the breakup of the Eagles, each ex-member tried their hand in a solo career. Joe Walsh had already established himself as a solo artist in the 70's before and during his time with the Eagles, but it was uncharted waters for the others.

Walsh tried continuing his solo career, which included the hits, 1973's "Rocky Mountain Way" and 1978's "Life's Been Good", but found hits hard to come by after the breakup. 1981's album, There Goes the Neighborhood was considerably successful, but successive albums throughout the 80's, such as The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get and Got Any Gum? proved to be mediocre. During this time he also performed as a session musician for Dan Fogelberg, Steve Winwood and Emerson, Lake and Palmer, among others.

Don Henley turned out to have the greatest solo success of the five during this period.

Resumption

Thirteen years later, an Eagles country tribute album titled Common Thread: The Songs of The Eagles was released (1993). Travis Tritt insisted on having the Long Run–era Eagles in his video for "Take It Easy", and they complied. After the "Take It Easy" video was completed the following year, the band reunited after years of public speculation that they would. The personnel were the five Long Run–era members — Frey, Henley, Walsh, Felder and Schmit — supplemented by additional players on stage. "We never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation," announced Frey at the taping of their first live performance in April 1994. The ensuing tour spawned a live album titled Hell Freezes Over (named for Henley's recurring statement that the group would get back together only when hell froze over) which debuted at #1 on the Billboard chart, and two new singles — "Get Over It" and "Love Will Keep Us Alive."

Controversy followed on September 12, 1996, when the band dedicated "Peaceful Easy Feeling" to Saddam Hussein at a United States Democratic Party fundraiser held in Los Angeles.

In 1998, the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During the induction ceremony, Frey, Henley, Felder, Walsh, and Schmit performed together, and former members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner rejoined the band for the performance, where the band played "Take It Easy" and "Hotel California". Several subsequent reunion tours would follow (without Leadon or Meisner), notable for their record-setting ticket prices.

In February 2001, Don Felder was fired from the group; Felder and the Eagles filed lawsuits against each other. In 2003 the Eagles released a new single, the September 11–themed "Hole in the World."

On June 14, 2005, the Eagles released a new 2-DVD set titled Eagles Farewell Tour I: Live from Melbourne featuring two new songs: Glenn Frey's "No More Cloudy Days" and Joe Walsh's "One Day at a Time". A special edition 2006 release exclusive to Wal-Mart and affiliated stores also included a bonus audio CD with three new songs, a studio version of "No More Cloudy Days" plus "Fast Company" and "Do Something". [6]

As of 2006 the Eagles consist of Frey, Henley, Walsh, and Schmit. On their "Farewell Tour I" they are supplemented by eight additional players: a drummer/percussionist (Scott Crago), guitarist Steuart Smith (to play Felder's parts), two keyboard players (Michael Thompson and Will Hollis), and a four-person horn section (Al Garth, Bill Armstrong, Chris Mostert and Greg Smith) that also can play violin and additional percussion. The band toured Europe in the summer of 2006. In May 2006 the Eagles were interviewed for a 2-hour BBC radio special [7] about their careers, with specifics about each of their albums, and a look to the future.

A new Eagles album - their first new studio album since 1979 - expected to be titled The Long Road To Eden, has been reportedly in production for several years. In an August 2006 interview, Joe Walsh predicted a 2007 release.[8]

Band members

1971 - 1974
1974 - 1976
1976 - 1977
1977 - 1982
1982 - 1994

Band not active

1994 - 2001
2001 - present

Awards

Discography

US chart positions are Billboard Hot 100 unless otherwise noted.

Studio albums

Live albums

Compilation albums

Hit singles

From Eagles
From Desperado
From On the Border
From One of These Nights
From Hotel California
Non-album single
From The Long Run
From Eagles Live
From Hell Freezes Over
From The Very Best of the Eagles

References

  1. ^ RIAA Top 100 Albums (US)
  2. ^ http://archives.cnn.com/1999/SHOWBIZ/Music/12/08/eagles/ "Eagles hits album named best-selling of century," December 8,1999, CNN
  3. ^ "A Peaceful Easy Feeling," "Detroit Free Press," October 14 2003.
  4. ^ As reported by the RIAA [1].
  5. ^ http://www.eaglesfans.com/info/articles/old_devils.htm
  6. ^ TheRockRadio.com [2].
  7. ^ May 2006 BBC interview available at [3]
  8. ^ Billboard interview

See also

Official websites

Fansites

Others

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