Discussion of Eagles Documentary "History of the Eagles"

[Brooke]

OMG thank you! I just listened to it three times in a row! I love that song!!! Such great vocals and lyrics and love the steel.

My favorite Poco song! LOVE!

[WalshFan88]

It's officially stuck in my head now lol....

Dunno why I never heard it before...

Just like a couple years ago I found out about James Taylor because I heard Fire And Rain on the radio - even though I was a huge Eagles fan I didn't know of JT. I then learned about Jackson Browne, Buffalo Springfield, Byrds, and CSN. Now just listening to Poco for the first time (I knew the name but none of their music really).

[MaryCalifornia]

Yay! I will get back on topic and finish by telling you, WF, that there is a Poco thread in Singing for the Sake of the Song, and a lot of the videos in the TBS video thread are Poco-related. Poco was/is active for a long time after Timothy left, so at least these threads will narrow it down to songs he is involved with. And now for your listening pleasure, from tbsonline.com, a live audio recording of Keep on Tryin' with the Eagles at the infamous Long Beach show in 1980.

http://www.timothybschmitonline.com/...ongBeach80.mp3

Back to documentary.

[Freypower]

Goran - you are correct in that the doc focuses only on Don and Glenn's childhoods, and that they are the narrators. There is no question that they emerged as the leaders of the band and are to this day. At the time the four guys came together as a band that would eventually be called the Eagles, I don't think those two were considered "the leaders". Bernie was probably the most experienced/successful/talented at that point in time. There is much discussion about this topic on these boards, and opinions are split, but the general consensus (I get the sense, please feel free to correct me) is that the Eagles success was attributable to all four founding members, and that Don and Glenn emerged as the leaders, as they wrote and sang most of the hits. This is a very brief explanation.

Also, I think that all four of them were playing behind Linda, together, at some point before they formed their own band - again, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

My understanding is that the four of them played only one show as Linda's backing band at Disneyland but I also think I may have been corrected on this before.

Regarding leadership in my view Glenn was the leader from the beginning. There were conflicts over this especially during the HC period when Don was singing most of the songs, but from what I understand Glenn always had final say on decisions & still does.

[thelastresort]

I believe too that they only did one show for Linda, however Don and Glenn's jamming together shone through well before that - it was only when Don and Glenn actively began to seek people to be in the band that Bernie and Randy emerged. I also get the impression as FP alludes to that whilst they are both leaders in some regards Glenn is the most prominent - I've always thought of Henley as the more quiet one who'd get stuck into legal matters and internal affairs whilst Frey would be a lot more animated and forthright - see his induction speech to the RRHOF back in 1997 (?) where Henley does the emotion / backstory element and Glenn just goes no holes barred and sets the record straight, and on the doc where he says of Glyn Johns - 'you don't f***ing tell me what to do'.

[tjh532]

OMG thank you! I just listened to it three times in a row! I love that song!!! Such great vocals and lyrics and love the steel.

Agreed Walsh Fan - I just love that song. It does get stuck in your head!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Re: Rose of Cimarron is my alltime favorite Poco song as well. I absolutely LOVE it. I always jokingly say that it's a shame it's not an Eagles songs. I think it would have been a perfect fit for the Desperado album, particularly since the lovely 'Rose' of Cimarron was the real-life lover of George 'Bitter Creek' Newsome.

[tjh532]

Re: Rose of Cimarron is my alltime favorite Poco song as well. I absolutely LOVE it. I always jokingly say that it's a shame it's not an Eagles songs. I think it would have been a perfect fit for the Desperado album, particularly since the lovely 'Rose' of Cimarron was the real-life lover of George 'Bitter Creek' Newsome.

That is so cool! Wonder if they knew that when they wrote the song?

[GoranV]

Thank you MC, thelastresort and Freypower.

Glenn and Don are really precursors. glenn prints the momentum and character, Don's in the shade with his creativity, but no less important. HOTE certainly not be helping them with their fights with leadon & meisner. I can understand that meisner & Leadon had liked to participate more and they did, but their songs were not as successful as the Don and Glenn ones (excepting Take it to the limit, awsome song, but it had collaboration of Don and Glenn). But IMO. I don't want to hurt the meisner & leadon fans but my Frey passion gets me lost.

[UndertheWire]

Goran,
I don't believe the HoTE documenary continued any fights with Leadon and Meisner - if anything, it has lead to a reconcilliation. Bernie Leadon is on the current tour (he plays for the first set and in one of the encores) and Randy Meisner is mentioned during the show but has not been well enough to take part. (Of course, there is no mention of Don Felder but that's a different issue).