Post by erik on Jan 27, 2024 18:33:09 GMT -5
The self-titled album by The Eagles is in this week's Pop Music Album Spotlight.
THE EAGLES (The Eagles; Asylum; 1972)
Perhaps only in Los Angeles could one get four guys from different parts of America converge to form one of the most important rock bands in history. And this is what happened when Don Henley (from east Texas), Glenn Frey (from Detroit), Randy Meisner (from Nebraska), and Berne Leadon (from Minneapolis) came together in 1971 to become The Eagles.
Henley had been in his own Texas C&W-rock group Shiloh; Frey had worked with future songwriting heavyweight John David Souther in the folk/country duo Longbranch Pennywhistle; Meisner had been an original member of the country-rock band Poco, and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band; and Leadon’s extensive experience included a background in bluegrass and a brief stint in the Flying Burrito Brothers. But it took getting offered a deal from producer John Boylan to serve for a time as the backing band for Linda Ronstadt in the spring and summer of 1971. Although the original quartet only actually backed up Linda for a single gig, namely Graduation Night at Disneyland in June of that year, they each were featured on her self-titled 1972 album. When they told Linda that they wanted to be their own group, both she and Boylan endorsed such a move.
But even after having been signed to David Geffen’s burgeoning Asylum label, they had a difficult time of sorts in honing in on that “perfect” Eagles sound, and it didn’t help that their chosen producer, the legendary Brit Glyn Johns, had worked with heavyweights like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, didn’t think they could actually “rock”. He thought they were better off as a country-orientated group, mostly because of Leadon’s adroitness with a Fender Telecaster electric guitar and banjo. It wasn’t made any better that Johns insisted that they record in his native England, some eight thousand miles away from their chosen base of operations in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, they made the most of the two weeks of being basically “imprisoned” by Johns and the lousy English weather to give the world one of the best debut albums in rock history.
The clash of wills between Frey’s and Henley’s desire to give the band a mainstream rock sound and Johns’ desire for more C&W twang does show up on The Eagles, which was released in June 1972. Leadon’s bluegrass-influenced banjo playing is evident in the second half of “Take It Easy”, and on the track “Earlybird”. But there are also elements of the more floor-rattling rock sound that the band wanted on “Witchy Woman”, and the acoustic folk/country of the Bernie Leadon/Gene Clark song “Train Leaves Here This Morning” (originally recorded by Doug Dillard and Gene Clark for their Dillard and Clark Expedition album in 1968). The Eagles got up to a respectable #22 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, and spawned three Top 40 hits that would be mainstays of AM Top 40 radio and FM rock radio from that point on: “Take It Easy” (#12, August 1972); “Witchy Woman” (#9, November 1972); and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (#22, February 1973). Johns would produce the band’s second album, 1973’s Desperado; but continuing clashes between Henley, Frey, and Johns resulted in them looking homeward for their new producer, whom they found in the personage of Bill Syzmczyk, starting with 1974’s On The Border.
This debut album, besides being one of the best such albums ever, also began a story of debauchery, mass disagreements, and, near the end of their original run, a lot of animosity between Henley and Frey. But for this one album, the Eagles personified how country-rock, considered a fringe genre (way too rock and roll for country fans, and still too country for rock fans), could actually work.
THE EAGLES (The Eagles; Asylum; 1972)
Perhaps only in Los Angeles could one get four guys from different parts of America converge to form one of the most important rock bands in history. And this is what happened when Don Henley (from east Texas), Glenn Frey (from Detroit), Randy Meisner (from Nebraska), and Berne Leadon (from Minneapolis) came together in 1971 to become The Eagles.
Henley had been in his own Texas C&W-rock group Shiloh; Frey had worked with future songwriting heavyweight John David Souther in the folk/country duo Longbranch Pennywhistle; Meisner had been an original member of the country-rock band Poco, and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band; and Leadon’s extensive experience included a background in bluegrass and a brief stint in the Flying Burrito Brothers. But it took getting offered a deal from producer John Boylan to serve for a time as the backing band for Linda Ronstadt in the spring and summer of 1971. Although the original quartet only actually backed up Linda for a single gig, namely Graduation Night at Disneyland in June of that year, they each were featured on her self-titled 1972 album. When they told Linda that they wanted to be their own group, both she and Boylan endorsed such a move.
But even after having been signed to David Geffen’s burgeoning Asylum label, they had a difficult time of sorts in honing in on that “perfect” Eagles sound, and it didn’t help that their chosen producer, the legendary Brit Glyn Johns, had worked with heavyweights like The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and Led Zeppelin, didn’t think they could actually “rock”. He thought they were better off as a country-orientated group, mostly because of Leadon’s adroitness with a Fender Telecaster electric guitar and banjo. It wasn’t made any better that Johns insisted that they record in his native England, some eight thousand miles away from their chosen base of operations in Los Angeles. Nevertheless, they made the most of the two weeks of being basically “imprisoned” by Johns and the lousy English weather to give the world one of the best debut albums in rock history.
The clash of wills between Frey’s and Henley’s desire to give the band a mainstream rock sound and Johns’ desire for more C&W twang does show up on The Eagles, which was released in June 1972. Leadon’s bluegrass-influenced banjo playing is evident in the second half of “Take It Easy”, and on the track “Earlybird”. But there are also elements of the more floor-rattling rock sound that the band wanted on “Witchy Woman”, and the acoustic folk/country of the Bernie Leadon/Gene Clark song “Train Leaves Here This Morning” (originally recorded by Doug Dillard and Gene Clark for their Dillard and Clark Expedition album in 1968). The Eagles got up to a respectable #22 on the Billboard Top 200 Album Chart, and spawned three Top 40 hits that would be mainstays of AM Top 40 radio and FM rock radio from that point on: “Take It Easy” (#12, August 1972); “Witchy Woman” (#9, November 1972); and “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (#22, February 1973). Johns would produce the band’s second album, 1973’s Desperado; but continuing clashes between Henley, Frey, and Johns resulted in them looking homeward for their new producer, whom they found in the personage of Bill Syzmczyk, starting with 1974’s On The Border.
This debut album, besides being one of the best such albums ever, also began a story of debauchery, mass disagreements, and, near the end of their original run, a lot of animosity between Henley and Frey. But for this one album, the Eagles personified how country-rock, considered a fringe genre (way too rock and roll for country fans, and still too country for rock fans), could actually work.