#368 - Eagles - Eagles (1972)
MUSIC HISTORY WRITTEN BY HEAD WRITER DJ MORTY COYLE:
Released on June 1st of 1972 on Asylum Records and produced by Glyn Johns this is the debut album from the American, Country, Folk, Rock and Roll band.
We covered a decent amount of the band’s backstory on the Don Henley episode with Alan Tudyk so let me catch y’all up.
In 1970 Gilmer, Texas drummer and vocalist Don Henley was brought to L.A. with his band Shiloh to be produced by fellow Texan Kenny Rogers for a local independent record label.
It was there that he met Detroit, Michigan guitarist and vocalist Glenn Frey who had previously played with Bob Seger and was also on Shiloh’s record label as a duo with future Eagles-collaborator J.D. Souther called Longbranch Pennywhistle.
The bands also played and hung out at The Troubadour club in Los Angeles which was a hotbed of music in the late ’60s and early ‘70s with future stars of the new Southern California, Country, Soft Rock, and singer/songwriter genres mixing and jamming together including Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Carole King, and even comedian/musician Steve Martin.
After both bands broke up, in the spring of 1971 Henley and Frey were hired to play in Country Rock rising star and Troubadour-darling Linda Ronstadt's backup band.
While on the road Glenn and Don spent time together and realized they could have a solid songwriting partnership and maybe a band and they informed Linda of that plan.
By summer Linda’s band came to include Minneapolis, Minnesota string-multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Bernie Leadon and Scottsbluff, Nebraska bassist/vocalist Randy Meisner who had both been playing around Los Angeles since the ‘60s.
Now Bernie was previously in past 500 artist Gram Parsons’ band, the Flying Burrito Brothers as well as Dillard & Clark and Randy had been in Poco and then Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band so their Country-Rock credentials were bonafide.
Although the four of them only played one show together with Ronstadt when they got back to L.A. they all recorded on her next album.
That album was a bomb but it set things in motion as the four musicians soon formed a band with her urging and approval.
About the unnamed new group’s directive Henley recalled, “We had four singers… we wanted to create material that would showcase each of the band members’ strengths. … Our main goal, at the beginning, was to write good, memorable songs, make albums that had little or no filler, that were consistent from beginning to end in terms of songwriting and production.”
Former William Morris agents David Geffen and Elliot Roberts were just starting their Asylum Records label who Linda signed with and she suggested they take on this new group.
After some time to develop, by the next year they were off to England to record their debut with legendary British producer Glyn Johns.
Although Don and Glenn wanted a rougher Rock and Roll record Glyn really pushed for an acoustic Country Rock sound and utilized Bernie’s proficiency on the banjo to help.
The record did great and spawned three hit singles.
Ironically they quickly became more popular than Ronstadt whose career really didn’t break until 1975.
They went on to make five more studio albums, tour worldwide, have several personnel changes, become one of the most successful and profitable acts of the ‘70s, break up, get back together, put out another studio album, tour, and become one of the most successful and profitable acts in the ’10s.
They’ve sold over 200 million records, had 5 #1 singles, 6 #1 albums, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, won six Grammys and many other accolades including The Best Selling Album of the Century for “Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975)”.
They were still touring when tragically in 2016, Frey died at 67 from complications due to a host of health issues leaving Henley as the lone survivor of the original band to carry on their legacy and saga.