Reason behind no Henley/Frey solo material on history of eagles

[kevycanavan]

Hi
This is more or less my first post.

I've never seen any inside info on the politics behind who gets to play solo songs, and what percentage of the set.
Considering, according to felder's book, Henley and Frey consider themselves the quarterbacks, it's strange that there's none of their solo songs in the current setlist. Especially Henley whose Dirty Laundry and Boys of Summer have been staples for a while.
If you look at the hell freezes over tour there were a lot of solo songs included, even obscure ones like Ordinary Average Guy.
Has this ever been discussed?

[Glennsallnighter]

Just my opinion but I guess that they wanted to focus purely on the band as a whole. They play 31 songs/instrumentals through each show, and yet you could still add extra 'Eagles' material, How Long would be an example, there are many more. I imagine Glenn and Don feel that they have enough in that. To move into the realm of even one solo song each it would mean sacrificing two of the Eagles songs on the playlist. I know Joe Walsh does some of his solo stuff in the latter part of the show. I imagine that this is to satisfy a significant number of fans who come specifically to see Joe. And because traditionally he has taken less leads on Eagles songs. Man, you GOTTA see him rip that guitar!!!

[Brooke]

This is the History of the Eagles tour, so I assume they decided to just do Eagles songs for it for that reason.

ETA: Ga, we posted at about the same time! lol

[VAisForEagleLovers]

I agree, Brooke, and as I've said before, they've been doing Joe's solo stuff since the mid 70's, so it really is part of Eagles history at this point.

[sodascouts]

Personally, I don't miss it. If I want to hear "Dirty Laundry" and "Boys of Summer," I'll go to a Don Henley solo show. Heck, if it were up to me, they'd drop one of Joe's solo songs during the encores for the "Seven Bridges Road" / "How Long" combo.

And welcome, kev!

[VAisForEagleLovers]

Personally, I don't miss it. If I want to hear "Dirty Laundry" and "Boys of Summer," I'll go to a Don Henley solo show. Heck, if it were up to me, they'd drop one of Joe's solo songs during the encores for the "Seven Bridges Road" / "How Long" combo.

And welcome, kev!

WHAT DON HENLEY SOLO SHOWS? Sorry...felt the need to shout. I'm getting impatient for the new album and resulting shows.

[kevycanavan]

Thanks for the welcome.

So I guess it's never been discussed by the band, or former band members, how they make these decisions?
You'd imagine they are the sorts of things that could lead to arguments.


I saw the history tour two weeks ago in Dublin, and I have to say that the Walsh songs stuck out like a sore thumb in that set.
For me, usually, the solo spots are some of my favourite parts of the show, but in this particular concert, not so much.

It was a weird set, because some of it seemed really fresh, like doolin'-dalton and those shoes, and some of it seemed really forced, like Joe's stuff, and the likes of Heartache tonight, which I guess they think they have to play at every show. It made the show seem a little less coherent than it could have been.

For me songs like Last Resort and Seven Bridges Road would have been much better fits than Funk 49 and Rocky Mountain Way.

I think they could have also done with skipping Love Will Keep Us Alive this time, and maybe played Get Over It instead.
It felt like, in places, they just took the set they have been playing since 95, and spruced it up with a few new ones.

[thelastresort]

I only really miss Boys of Summer (it's probably my fave on the F1 DVD). I would also take the perhaps controversial line of dropping some of Joe's stuff. RMW was not at all gripping last night and Funk #49 drags a bit. I really wish they'd do Walk Away, it's probably my favourite Joe song and is short and sweet. You can't get rid of Life's Been Good though!

I do kind of wish there were one or two more surprises in the setlist. Obviously the show kicks off with two but expect for Those Shoes the last 3/4 of the show is very predictable. I'd love for them to do stuff like Get Over It, Good Day in Hell or even something totally random like ATTIG or Teenage Jail.

[UndertheWire]

Could it be partly that Don and Glenn's solo material usually involve different musicians (eg horns) and that didn't fit with the "history" theme of the tour?
I was very happy to hear so much of the Desperado album played on this tour but I'd still rather have Outlaw Man and Bitter Creek added than any solo stuff.

[thelastresort]

I don't think so re: musicians especially in Don's case: they are rather basic musically, and especially with five guitarists, three keyboardists and if need be two percussionists I can't imagine they'd have been in trouble. It might have endangered Glenn's songs though - of course you have YBTTC and THIO on sax, but you could probably smuggle in (I'm soooo funny) Smugger's Blues.