BEFORE: Kicking off the second half of my 52-part Summer Music Concert Series / Documentary Investigation, and it's another long film tonight, this was made as a two-part series, one part covering the initial 1970's run of the band, and the second episode covering the reunification and subsequent touring, the time during and after "Hell Freezes Over". It's really perfect timing, because I launched the whole thing back in July with the Beatles, the most popular British band ever, and now I'm starting the second half with the most popular American rock band ever. Who's going to argue that point, it's the freakin' EAGLES, man, their music is everywhere, with its blend of country, bluegrass and rock it's just part of the fabric of our country.
And it's very easy to draw a comparison to the Beatles or the Rolling Stones - after about 10 years time, any band is likely to collapse under the weight of its own members' egos, along with other factors. The Stones had "World War III", those five years when Mick and Keith weren't talking to each other, and working on solo projects. The Beatles also broke up after just 8 years of recording, possibly for very similar reasons, and maybe after 15 years apart they might have reunited too, if not for Lennon's death. Who can say?
I'm going to try to watch this all in one go, late night in the hotel at a Connecticut casino. Maybe I should spread it out over two nights, but I don't want to slow down at this point. Before watching this documentary, though, we caught a Meat Loaf concert on TV, on a channel in the hotel that I'd never heard of before, called AXS. They seem to have a lot of rock-oriented programming, like Ronnie Wood from the Stones has an interview show, there's a travel show that goes to different rock festivals, etc. This was a concert from Meat Loaf's "Guilty Pleasures" tour of Australia and New Zealand in 2004. Earlier in the day, we'd watched a good part of a Peter Frampton concert, too - and together they raised questions about when an aging rocker should stop touring. In the case of Frampton, he seems very happy, agile and vibrant on stage, but Meat Loaf (and this concert was recorded in 2011) was anything but. He was shaking quite a bit while singing - I realize he's got a powerful voice and singing takes a lot out of him, but watching him shake, I was genuinely concerned for his health. Most of the time he was lagging behind the beat, or singing the harmony part instead of the melody, I'm guessing because he can't reach the high notes any more. In some cases, it sounded like he was singing a totally different song.
So, I have to ask the question, at what point should an aging rocker stop touring? I'm going to say when the quality of the performance starts going downhill. We saw Meat Loaf live in concert in 2003 or 2004, a tour called "The Last World Tour", and since then he's broken that promise by touring 11 times, so I feel pretty ripped off. And speaking of farewell tours, let's get to the Eagles. Record producer Glyn Johns carries over from "Joe Cocker: Mad Dog with Soul", and so do two of the Beatles.
THE PLOT: The life and times of the super-successful American soft-rock band, the Eagles.
AFTER: This film was very informative about where the Eagles came from, how they met and came together, and how they developed their musical style. There's also a lot about how they functioned together as a band, and in some cases how they failed to, which of course eventually led to their break-up. A foot can only have one big toe, and a band can only have one leader - occasionally two, like the Beatles or the Stones. Glenn Frey and Don Henley were and are the clear leaders here, they wrote most of the best Eagles songs (though there are exceptions and differing opinions, of course), and threw their weight around the most when they were unhappy with something. They were also the first two members of the band, they met while backing up Linda Ronstadt and then built up the band around their pairing, adding THIS guy from Poco and THAT guy from the Flying Burrito Brothers.
All of this set the tone for the years to follow - band members would come and go (umm, mostly go) but without Frey and/or Henley, there simply was no band. If Frey and/or Henley brought a song to record, the other members were expected to approve it, more or less, while other members had to fight harder to get their material considered for the new album. This all is explained by putting the cream of all the Southern California bands together, taking the Alpha Male from each band and thinking they'll play nice together. So was it just too many chiefs and not enough braves in the end? That's probably a debatable point.
Of course, I had to buy the two Eagles Greatest Hits albums during the 1980's, when I was really getting into the rock Genre - I didn't have many 70's albums, but basically every record collection back then had to have their Greatest Hits I and Greatest Hits II. But my knowledge of the band MEMBERS didn't really extend past Frey, Henley and Joe Walsh. Before watching this documentary I knew a little bit about Timothy B. Schmit, just that he was the lead singer on "I Can't Tell You Why", but I didn't know when he joined the Eagles, who he replaced, and so on. I also couldn't have picked Randy Meisner or Bernie Leadon out of a line-up, and didn't have a handle on what Don Felder's contributions to "Hotel California" were. Now I think I've got a better idea on the whole timeline, at least.
Part 1 of this documentary is amazing, I loved seeing the Eagles come together, and I think I also enjoyed watching them fall apart. The famous on-stage threatening words between Frey and Felder makes for a great story, even the back-story of that one is good, it's one of those rock feuds that was simmering for years, and finally came to a head one night over something stupid. These guys seriously seemed like they were going to kill each other - but again, on one level that's just alpha males reacting to each other. There are situations where two male friends could punch each other out, then maybe have a few drinks and the next day be playing in the band together, like nothing had every happened - but since Felder got right into the limo after the show and drove away, things didn't get resolved for about 14 or 15 years.
For the record, as one Eagle stated at the start of the "Hell Freezes Over" concert, officially the Eagles never broke up in 1980, they just took a 14-year vacation. Come on, nobody's buying that. There's a good deal of material here devoted to the "solo years" in the 1980's, when Don Henley released "The Boys of Summer" and "Dirty Laundry", while Glenn Frey was busy guest-starring on "Miami Vice" and releasing "The Heat Is On" (from the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack) and "You Belong to the City" and "Smuggler's Blues" (from the "Miami Vice" soundtrack. That's probably how I first knew who Glenn Frey was, I watched a lot of "Miami Vice" when I was a teen.
Meanwhile, the other Eagles were scrambling quite a bit during the hiatus. Joe Walsh and Timothy Schmit both went out on tour with Ringo Starr's All-Starr Band at various times, and Schmit (who had the bad luck of joining the band just three years before the "vacation") also played and sang background vocals on songs by Toto, Richard Marx, Sheena Easton, Jars of Clay, Stacey Q, and toured with Jimmy Buffett and Dan Fogelberg. Don Felder, meanwhile, found session work for Diana Ross, Andy Gibb and Barbra Streisand and wrote a couple songs for the animated movie "Heavy Metal" - hey, you do what you have to do to keep working, I guess. Joe Walsh released solo albums that didn't achieve much success, and you have to wonder how much a part alcohol and drugs played in that.
Yep, it's the same old story here, even for the damn Eagles - alcohol, drugs, fights with record company executives (David Geffen again, fighting not once but TWICE with the Eagles) and that struggle for identity - are we a rock band? Are we a country band? Can our band survive without all of its original members? Can we maintain both relationships and a busy touring schedule? How do we achieve fame and success without feeling like a "commodity" controlled by Big Vinyl? And how do we do all that without burning ourselves out?
But while Part 1 is a great thrill ride, Part 2 is too much of the same, over and over again. I don't recommend anyone watch Parts 1 and 2 back-to-back like I did, because you're just going to hear the same songs again, mostly, once the Eagles get back together in 1994. And then they really feel the need to play ALL of the good ones again, in order to prove that they sounded even better when they were older and sober. "Hey, this is what we sounded like when we played "Take It Easy" after we got back together, isn't it GREAT?" OK, fine, I get it, enough already. "Hey, this is what we sounded like when we played "Desperado" after we got back together, isn't that one great, too?" ENOUGH!
"Hey, wait, you haven't heard what "Life in the Fast Lane" sounded like after we got back together, here's that one..." Jeez, if I wanted to hear the whole "Hell Freezes Over" concert, I would just watch that!
As for the Eagles group that's touring now, with only three original members left, they seem to have followed the example of that other huge American band, the Beach Boys. As long as there's one original Beach Boy on stage, they get to use the name, and the other band members are hired guns, studio musicians, family members, friends, and John Stamos for some reason, if you're lucky. The three official Eagles are now touring with Deacon Frey (Glenn's son), Vince Gill, Will Henley, Steuart Smith, and I presume a whole posse of hired guns. By all means, go to see them now if you want, but be aware that there are now more former and deceased original Eagles than current ones.
Also starring Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Don Felder, Joe Walsh, Randy Meisner, Bernie Leadon (last seen in "Keith Richards: Under the Influence"), Timothy B. Schmit, Jackson Browne, JD Souther, David Geffen (last seen in "George Michael: Freedom"), Jack Tempchin, Irving Azoff, Bill Szymczyk, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Nicks, Steuart Smith, John Boylan, Gary Burden, Henry Diltz, Gov. Jerry Brown with archive footage of John Belushi (last seen in "National Lampoon: Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead"), John Bonham, Jimmy Buffett, David Crosby, Tom Cruise (last seen in "American Made"), Roger Daltrey (last seen in "Janis: Little Girl Blue"), Keith Moon (ditto), Pete Townshend (ditto), Melissa Etheridge (ditto), George Harrison (last seen in "Joe Cocker: Mad Dog with Soul"), Paul McCartney (ditto), John Lennon (also last seen in "George Michael: Freedom"), Elton John (ditto), Don Johnson (last seen in "The Other Woman"), Carole King, Joni Mitchell, Keith Richards (last seen in 27: Gone Too Soon"), Ringo Starr (ditto), Linda Ronstadt (last seen in "Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll"), Dee Snider, Stephen Stills, Sting (last seen in "Zoolander 2"), James Taylor, Philip Michael Thomas, Travis Tritt, Bill Clinton (last seen in "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me"), Hillary Clinton, Sen. Alan Cranston, Martin Luther King Jr. (last seen in "The Doors: When You're Strange"), Richard Nixon (ditto), Robert Kennedy (ditto), Ted Kennedy,
RATING: 7 out of 10 lawsuits
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