Two for Tuesday

Rock Icons, the Eagles: Pt 1 of 2 - The Early Years to the Break-up

Michael Pezent Season 1 Episode 4

Explore the fascinating early years of the Eagles in this first part of a two-part series on their journey from formation to breakup. Host Michael Pezent delves into the band's birth, creative tensions, and eventual hiatus. Uncover the stories behind iconic songs "Lyin' Eyes" and "Hotel California," and learn about the clashes between band members Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and others. Discover how their rise was marked by power struggles, transformations in musical direction, and the influence of California's lifestyle, promising deep insights for music lovers.
I perform "Lyin' Eyes" and "Hotel California" on my YouTube channel, link below and don't forget to subscribe, follow, like and/or comment. 

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Part 1: "The Early Years to the Break-up"

Introduction
Hello my music loving friends and welcome to the "Two for Tuesdays Podcast," your go-to podcast for deep dives into the stories and histories behind some of the greatest musical acts of all time. I'm your host, Micheal Pezent of 2nd Round Music, and today we're kicking off the first of a two-part exploration of the legendary rock band, the Eagles.

In this first episode, we'll delve into the early years of the Eagles – from their formation in the 1970s to their dramatic breakup and the 14-year hiatus that followed. It's a story filled with creative tensions, personal struggles, and the meteoric rise of one of the most iconic bands in rock history. The songs we’ll talk about in this episode will be two classics, “Lyin’ Eyes” and the ever iconic “Hotel California”. So let’s get started!

The Birth of the Eagles
The origins of the Eagles can be traced back to the early 1971, when two young musicians, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, first crossed paths in Linda Ronstadt's backing band. Frey and Henley quickly bonded over their shared love of country, rock, and pop music, and they soon set out to form their own group, one that would blend these diverse influences into a signature "California sound." There are varying stories concerning the name of the band. One story I’ve heard is that it came from a peyote and tequila induced outing in the Mojave Desert. Maybe this was just another in a long line of reasons these guys couldn’t get along. They can’t even settle on how the band is named! Well I digress.

To round out the original lineup, Frey and Henley recruited guitarist Bernie Leadon and bassist Randy Meisner, and the Eagles were born. Their early albums, like "Eagles” (Platinum), and "Desperado” (Double Platinum) showcased the band's remarkable songwriting talents and their ability to craft infectious, radio-friendly country rock hits like "Take It Easy,"(#12) "Witchy Woman,"(#9), “Peaceful Easy Feeling” (#22), “Tequila Sunrise” (#64) and of course the title track from "Desperado". Although, that song was never officially released as a single. It was however one of the first songs that Frey and Hendley collaborated on and is not only one of the band's most well-known songs, it also rank #494 on the Rolling Stone Magazine 2024 list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
On the next album On the Border (Double Platinum), Frey and Henley wanted to move away from the country rock sound due to the really lackluster sales of the album Desperado. They wanted to go into more of a driving rock sound. This would ultimately be the beginning of the end for Bernie Leadon who was called a ‘purist’ holding true to his country, bluegrass, acoustic roots. He did, however, encourage the band to recruit his old friend and high school bandmate Don Felder to the band. This album produced some the Eagles first chart success with songs like, “Already Gone” (#32) and the bands first #1 hit, “Best of My Love.  
Their 4th album created even more success. One of These Nights (Platinum x4) produced hit songs like “One of These Nights” (#1), “Lyin’ Eyes” (#2), “Take It to the Limit” (#4). 

On the other side of this short break, we’ll start to see some ‘chinks in the armour’ as tensions start to rise within the band.

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The Tensions Rise
Welcome back! Now as the Eagles' star continued to rise, the creative and personal tensions within the band began to escalate. By this time the album One of These Nights started taking off, Bernie Leadon was feeling frustrated with the direction of the band leaving the country rock sound and moving into a more album-oriented stadium rock sound. He quit in 1975 by pouring a beer over Glenn Frey’s head and saying, “You need to chill out man”. Also Frey and Henley, the group's primary songwriters and de facto leaders, found themselves locked in an ongoing power struggle, each vying for control over the band's musical direction and creative vision. Then in 1977 Randy Meisner decided to leave the band citing exhaustion and health issues stemming from the 11 month tour schedule supporting the Hotel California album. See, Randy preferred not to be the center of attention, and was quoted to say: "I was always kind of shy... They wanted me to stand in the middle of the stage to sing 'Take It to the Limit', but I liked to be out of the spotlight." Now ‘Take It to the Limit’ had become not only one of the Eagles most loved live performance songs, but it was also considered Randy’s signature song. But he was also concerned about hitting those high notes in the song. So he and Glenn started having feuds over his reluctance to perform. Another smash hit album from the band, get this, a 2x Diamond, 26x Platinum selling album and produced the hit songs “New Kid in Town” #1, “Life In The Fast Lane” #11 and of course the title track and again by far their best known song “Hotel California” which was also a #1 hit and 3x Platinum selling song.

The departures of Leadon and Meisner, replaced by the equally talented but also strong-willed Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, only served to amplify these tensions. The band's growing issues with drug and alcohol abuse also took a toll, further straining the relationships between the members. Now Walsh was believed, especially by Don Henley, to be too wild for the band. But Schmit was actually the bassist that replaced Randy Meisner in his previous band before the Eagles, the Pocos. 

The Breakup and Hiatus
These cumulative pressures finally boiled over in 1980, after the release of the bands' sixth studio album, "The Long Run." A 7x Platinum selling album that also reached #1 on the album charts, it was the third #1 charting album for the band.   The album produced the hit songs, “Heartache Tonight” #1, “The Long Run” #8 and the Timothy B. Schmit tune, “I Can’t Tell You Why” #8. They also released the album Eagles Live which was also a 7x Platinum selling album. They released my favorite Eagles song from that album in 1980, “Seven Bridges Road”. We’ll talk about that song in Part 2. 

On July 31, 1980, in Long Beach, California, tempers boiled over into what has been described as the "Long Night at Wrong Beach". The animosity between Don Felder and Glenn Frey boiled over before the show began. The story is that Glenn got ticked off at Don when he said, "You're welcome – I guess" to California Senator Alan Cranston's wife as they were thanking the band backstage for performing a benefit for Cranston’s re-election. This anger spilled out onto the stage because they both spent the entire show telling each other about the beating each planned to give the other backstage when the show was over. Don tells Glenn, "Only three more songs until I kick your ass, pal," near the end of the band's set. Then during the song "Best of My Love", Glenn tells Don, "I'm gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage." Following a tumultuous tour, the band members reached a breaking point, but they had a contractual commitment to Elektra Records to make a live record. This was how the Eagles Live album came about. By this time, Glenn Frey stayed in Los Angeles and the rest of the band went to Miami to work on their parts to the song “Seven Bridges Road” because Glenn refused to speak to any of the other members of the band. They officially called it quits, Glenn Frey and Don Henley did not speak to each other for years.

The 14-year hiatus that followed saw the individual members pursue solo projects and other musical ventures, but the legacy of the Eagles continued to loom large. Fans longed for a reunion, and the band members themselves eventually realized that their story was far from over. And thanks to one of today’s country music legions, fans would get their wish. We’ll pick up there next week on Part 2 of this series. 
But when we come back, we’ll talk about two iconic songs, “Lying Eyes” and “Hotel California”. See ya on the other side of this short break.

“Thank you” Break

The Eagles, one of the most iconic rock bands of the 1970s, produced a wealth of timeless music that resonates with audiences to this day. Two of their standout tracks, "Lying Eyes" and "Hotel California" showcase the band’s unique blend of rock, country, and poignant storytelling.

"Lying Eyes"
So now in contrast the song, "Lying Eyes," which was released in 1975 on the album One of These Nights, delves into themes of betrayal and disillusionment. Written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, the song tells the story of a woman caught in a web of deceit, torn between her desires and the reality of her situation. The inspiration for "Lying Eyes" came from Glenn and Don’s observations of relationships in Los Angeles, particularly the superficiality of love in the fast-paced world of fame and fortune. The story goes that they were at one of their favorite hang-outs, a place called Dan Tana’s. Now supposedly this place was frequented by some very beautiful women and they surmised that these women were probably cheating on their husbands. At that point they saw one of these beautiful young women with a “fat and much older wealthy man” and Glenn said, “She can’t even hide those lyin’ eyes”. Now they finished this song later when they were living together in a house in Beverly Hills. Glenn was quoted as saying, "the story had always been there. I don't want to say it wrote itself, but once we started working on it, there were no sticking points. Lyrics just kept coming out, and that's not always the way songs get written."

The song features a bit of a haunting melody, underscored by a blend of rock and country influences, which was a hallmark of the Eagles’ early sound. 

Henley and Frey crafted the lyrics to evoke a sense of empathy for the character, despite her flaws. The song's instrumentation, featuring smooth guitar riffs and rich harmonies, enhances the emotional weight of the lyrics. "Lying Eyes" became a commercial hit, reaching #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and even climbed to #8 on the Hot Country Songs Charts. The song ended up a Certified Gold record. This song was masterfully written and continued to solidify the Eagles' reputation as great storytellers.

“Hotel California”

So the next song in the discussion is "Hotel California". You know, this song could be its own podcast episode due to so much depth in this song! It was released in 1976 on the album of the same name, and is, by far, the Eagles' most famous song. I mean it was obviously a #1 hit, but it also went Gold 3 weeks after its release and now sits as a 7x Platinum record as mentioned earlier in the podcast. The song also won the Eagles a Grammy in 1977 and was ranked #49 on the Rolling Stone Magazine list ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. And it’s also listed as one of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. No other Eagles song comes close to those numbers or accolades and let’s face it, it would be hard to argue that Hotel California is far and away the Eagles most popular song. 

Now the song’s writing credits were rightfully given to Don Felder, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley, who each had significantly different roles in its creation, but it only emerged from collaboration with Felder's unmistakable guitar riff on his white Gibson EDS 1275 double neck guitar. If you’ve never seen one, it’s a glorious looking instrument. The writing of this song was inspired by the excesses of the California lifestyle and the music industry, which they felt trapped them in a cycle of fame and fortune.

So let’s first talk about the lyrics of the song. I know what you might be saying, ‘I’ve heard that it’s about satanic worship!’ No, it’s NOT! The lyrics depict a traveler who arrives at a luxurious hotel that initially seems inviting but soon reveals a darker, more sinister undertone. This duality serves as a metaphor for the seductive nature of fame and the music business. Don Henley, the primary lyric writer, has described the song as a commentary on the hedonism of the 1970s, where the allure of success often led to personal and artistic disillusionment. The line "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave" encapsulates this theme, suggesting that once one is ensnared by fame, escape is nearly impossible. 

Now another lyric, “They stab it with their steely knives”/”But they just can’t kill the beast” was a friendly jab to the band Steely Dan who had referenced the Eagles in one their earlier songs “Everything You Did”. Now this little side story that I read about from the website of Far Out Magazine from our brethren from across the pond in the UK, goes that the lyric “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening” would wind up in this song and whether it is truly an insult or not is up to the listener’s interpretation, but the song itself is a pretty severe indictment about a less-than-loyal lover.

“Apparently, Walter Becker (one of Steely Dan’s founding members) had a girlfriend who loved the Eagles, and she played them all the time,” Evidently ol’ brother Becker wasn’t too crazy about it. 

So the anger definitely isn’t directed towards the Eagles, but the association probably isn’t a celebratory one, either. In any case, there didn’t appear to be any ill will. The groups shared the same manager, and future Eagle Timothy B. Shmidt would contribute backing vocals to a couple of Steely Dan albums. The Dan, as they would be referenced in this article, would bring in Don Henley to try and record some backing vocals also, but that didn’t end well. Our boy Don got fired, but there didn’t seem to be any hard feelings.

So then to return the favor, Glenn and Don decided to reference Steely Dan in the lyrics to ‘Hotel California’. Originally, the line “stab it with their steely knives” actually had the band’s full name in it, but according to Glenn, “We just wanted to allude to Steely Dan rather than mentioning them outright, …”.

So this article went on to say that Steely Dan’s take on lyric writing would also inspire the lyrics in ‘Hotel California’, as Glenn explained: “One of the things that impressed us about Steely Dan was that they would say anything in their songs, and it didn’t have to necessarily make sense.” Hum, OK. Is this actually a complement? 

Glenn went on to say, “[We] were sort of trying to expand our lyrical horizons and just take on something in the realm of the bizarre, as Steely Dan had done.” Very interesting! I’ll let you make your own determination on those statements. Maybe statements like this drove this band apart! Well, I’m not passing any judgement.

So Don Henley goes on to explain more about the lyrics by stating that The Beverly Hills Hotel has become a focal point of their lives at the time and that it was a mythical place for them. He said, “I’d sum it up as the end of the innocence, round one.” 

Now Don Felder, who primarily wrote the melody/music, (more on that later) once said in an interview with Howard Stern that the song lyrics were inspired by driving into L.A. at night you could see all the lights on the horizon and the images that ran through your head of Hollywood. 

And Glenn Frey, the primary lyric idea mind or the one who provided the outline to which Henley wrote the lyrics from, came up with the idea of writing a more cinematic type song, once said in an interview with Cameron Crowe that he and Henley wanted to write a song, ‘to open like an episode of the Twilight Zone’. He went on to say that they wanted a song that played out like a movie. And we wanted the character to enter ‘a weird world peopled by freaky characters", and to become "quickly spooked by the claustrophobic feeling of being caught in a disturbing web from which he may never escape". So yeah, as Glenn was quoted earlier, something “bizzare”. So there you have it guys, the real story on the lyrics and meaning of this song. 

Now musically and melodically, that was Don Felder’s brain-child. The track was submitted as just one of about 16 or 17 tracks to the band as ideas for songs to be on their next album. Now the band would work to refine the original track, but the demo was originally recorded by Felder in his rented house on Malibu Beach. Felder brought influences of latin and reggae music and I found it interesting that Don Henley actually gave the song its first working title, “Mexican Reggae”. 

The song's production is equally notable, featuring intricate harmonies and memorable guitar solos by Joe Walsh and Felder. They recorded the track with Don Henley on lead vocal three different times, twice at a studio called the Record Plant in Los Angeles and finally at the Criteria Studios in Miami. They first recorded an opening guitar riff, but it was decided too high for even Don Henley’s tenor voice. So they re-worked the song down the B minor from its original E minor key. The second recording, however, was then determined to be too fast. In the Miami studio, the band fine-tuned the instrumentation and the lyrics and recorded numerous complete takes. Five or six of the best ones were selected, and the best parts of those tracks were then spliced together to create the released version. They actually ended up having 33 spliced edits on the two‑inch master. In the final section of the song they feature a ‘guitar battle’ so to speak between Joe Walsh on a Fender Telecaster and Felder on, surprisingly enough, a Gibson Les Paul. Now this recording took the two of them sitting together working for around three days. The two initially started improvising but Henley insisted that the recording should follow the music as first recorded in Felder's demo. In production, however, some of the improvisations did make the final cut of the song.

Now Don Henley decided that the song should be a single, but Don Felder had doubts and the record company was also reluctant to release it because, as you can recognize, this song is over six minutes long and this far exceeds the general song duration that radio stations will play. The record label requested that the band shorten the song, but they held strong and refused. They obviously won out in the end. This song does a really nice job of blending rock music with elements of folk, classical, and lets not forget the latin and reggae flavors, which contributes to its timeless appeal, making "Hotel California" a staple in rock music history.

Conclusion
In this first episode, we've explored the formative years of the Eagles, from their humble beginnings to the heights of their success and the dramatic events that led to their eventual breakup. We also talked about two classic songs, “Lyin’ Eyes” and the ever iconic “Hotel California”. Remember you can hear me perform these songs over on my YouTube channel. But as we'll discover in the next installment, the story of the Eagles doesn't end here. Stay tuned for part 2, "The Reunion Years," where we'll dive into the band's triumphant comeback and their continued impact on the world of rock music, and we’ll also discuss two more classic hit songs.

So thank you for joining me today on the Two for Tuesday Podcast with Michael Pezent of 2nd Round Music. I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know your thoughts. I’d love to hear from you. Just type your comments below if you’re listening on YouTube or drop me an email and give me your recommendations for future artists or songs. You can also click the link in the description to hear me perform two incredible songs by the Eagles. Don’t forget to subscribe or follow this podcast, click the ‘like’ button and share this with all your music loving friends. So just remember we love you and we need you and tune in next time for Part 2 as we continue to explore the stories behind the music we love. God bless you!