Eagles books

[Freypower]

Right back atcha, UnderTheWire - I'm now hunting for a copy of the Inventing David Geffen program.

Do you guys really recommend Marc Eliot's "To the Limit"? The reviews on Amazon on mostly negative. They make it sound like the book only praises Henley, while everyone else is trashed and their contributions to the band's music and success is belittled.

Also, I don't want the groupies 'n orgies tales to tarnish my opinion of sweet Randy

Take the plunge if you must, but the reviews are correct.

[thelastresort]

Aye, it's a decent enough read but not great. It's also interesting to read Henley and Eliot's clashes at the end of the book, there's some very choice words used!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

There might be reviews on here somewhere as well, I know there was a thread that pointed out the errors in the book. There was too much backstory on a few things that slowed it down and encouraged me to read another book for a while. It is sided towards Henley, a lot, and if that was the only book a person read, you'd think that Glenn was Henley's sideman. Lastly, from my point of view, it wasn't written well. Regardless of facts and inaccuracies, his style of writing didn't do a lot for me. I know he's written other books about other bands, but he blew his chance of writing a great book on this one, so I have zero interest in reading others. Having an inside track to Henley on this should have made it an incredible book instead of the 'blah' that it turned out to be.

[sodascouts]

I found the book interesting and worth reading, but as with anything, you can't take everything in it as gospel truth.

I'm going to check out the book on Geffen and the music industry book. Thanks for the recs, guys!

[NightMistBlue]

I'm almost finished with the Marc Eliot book. Very interesting. There is a lot of candid content from Mr. Henley (whether told directly to the author or culled from other sources I don't know), who I would have thought would rather chew glass than talk about his romantic relationships.

The two pages devoted to Randy's leaving the band were sad and kind of alarming, i.e. the harsh things that Azoff and DH had to say about Randy's character. History of the Eagles gave the impression that Glenn was largely responsible for pushing Randy out, but "To the Limit" leaves the impression that Henley had even more of a problem with Randy, whereas Glenn had been mostly patient with him. Anyway, Glenn refused to accept Randy's apology for the "Knoxville incident" and that was that.

[sodascouts]

Yeah, I've said this elsewhere, but it seems that Glenn and Randy actually had a pretty good relationship for a while. Glyn Johns talks about how Glenn and Randy would always hang out together during the sessions for the first album, sneaking joints. Glenn asked Randy to sing "Most of Us Are Sad", which is pretty significant considering that Glenn was basically saying "I wrote this song, but I think you will sound better singing it." I know of no other time where Glenn has handed over a song he wrote by himself to someone else to sing. At that point, Don was writing with Bernie.

I think when Glenn and Don became BFFs during Desperado, Randy started to feel excluded, and viewed Don as coming in between him. Still he felt closer to Glenn than Don. He asked Glenn to play lead guitar on "Too Many Hands" and "Try and Love Again" - that wasn't forced upon him. Glenn typically stepped back when it came to lead guitar parts, but Randy requested he do it. In fact, "Try and Love Again" is the ONLY song on Hotel California where Glenn plays lead guitar, and it was at Randy's behest.

Even watching the History of the Eagles documentary in some of that old concert footage... Glenn is the one who comes over to Randy and gives him props after TITTL. You can see him actively encouraging Randy, moreso than the other guys.

So, when you go a little deeper than the generalizations made in the documentary, you see that the Randy/Glenn relationship is a lot more complex than the simplified soundbite version we're presented with... sadly, though, that's the version a lot of people have latched onto. Thus, Glenn gets vilified and Henley gets a free pass, despite how Henley pours contempt all over Randy in interviews - he's the one that accuses Randy of being up all night drinking and whoring; Glenn says nothing about that. I say this not to make Don H look bad, but to point out the irony that so many people make Glenn the bad guy when it comes to Randy. To be fair, Randy's fight with Glenn at the end was the breaking point, but before then, it seems that Glenn was his ally.

I wonder what Randy would say?

[MaryCalifornia]

Ya know, I was just wondering today if we have seen any pictures of Randy with either Glenn or Don post-1977, other than at the RRHOF ceremony. We have a couple of him with Timothy from over the decades, and they even performed together (Richard Marx). Any contact with Don or Glenn that we know of, ever???

[Freypower]

Ya know, I was just wondering today if we have seen any pictures of Randy with either Glenn or Don post-1977, other than at the RRHOF ceremony. We have a couple of him with Timothy from over the decades, and they even performed together (Richard Marx). Any contact with Don or Glenn that we know of, ever???

No photos that I know of although the two of them appeared on his One More Song album.

I feel I should point out that there is a shot in HOTE where Glenn is wearing his Eagles jacket, and appears to look at Randy in a way which suggests extreme annoyance and/or frustration. In the HOTE video of Lyin' Eyes Glenn looks over at Randy and says something like 'come on' as if he feels Randy isn't keeping up with the song, or whatever (unless I have misinterpreted it & it's him encouraging Randy as Soda says).

And yet everything Soda says about the relationship is true, plus Glenn's enthusiasm about giving Randy TITTL. The incidents described above may just be him exercising his leadership and not necessarily a personal thing.

[NightMistBlue]

In the 1988 video interview that I linked before (the one on YouTube with the Gene Clark interview), Randy said that he kept in touch with "Henley and Don Felder" but hadn't seen or spoken to the other guys in awhile.

Don Felder claims in his book that Henley snubbed Randy's wife at the Hall of Fame soiree when she asked to take a photo of him with her husband. Henley supposedly "turned on his heel and walked away."

Oh, these complicated men...

Quoting Soda: He asked Glenn to play lead guitar on "Too Many Hands" and "Try and Love Again" - that wasn't forced upon him. Glenn typically stepped back when it came to lead guitar parts, but Randy requested he do it. In fact, "Try and Love Again" is the ONLY song on Hotel California where Glenn plays lead guitar, and it was at Randy's behest.

Didn't know that - thank you. Randy was reaching out to his old friend. Of course we don't know what state of mind or health dear Randy is in now. I just send him love and light.

[MaryCalifornia]

No photos that I know of although the two of them appeared on his One More Song album.

Well, I think this says a lot about their relationship. That they agreed to be on his album and then actually performed...they must have been on decent terms. Sounds like no hard feelings. Like if Felder had asked them to be on his album haha!