Glenn to be Guest at Songwriters Hall of Fame Master Session at NYU

I LOVED the song. He simply picked up the acoustic guitar and just let if flow out of him. There was dead silence in the theater during the performance. The lecture was fabulous and although it was two-hours long, it felt like it went much too quickly and after a standing ovation and some thank-you's it was over. :wave:



Thanks for your help Soda. I could not have done this without you.
Don't get spoiled, boarderers. I am SO NOT taking notes at the Vegas show. I'm planting my butt in that front row and soaking it all in. I'm not even bringing a pen!

Lol! Well, we did pretty good, eh, HH? ;)

I thought of some additional bits I'd like to add:

I remember when he was talking about Detroit, he mentioned he had taken piano lessons from the time he was 5 until the time he was 12, and he said, "I'm now a firm believer in early education" because playing just comes naturally to him even now, after all these years. If I'm not mistaken, his mother was in the audience sitting not too far from us, and I wonder if she was thinking "Yep, that was sure a good idea I had making him do that!" lol

As HH mentioned, Glenn talked about his association with Seger. He said that when he was a senior in high school trying to make it with a rock band, he wanted to be managed by Punch Andrews who was also managing Bob Seger, since Andrews owned a lot of clubs that all the bands wanted to play. He met Seger and was in awe of him because Seger had a record deal and had songs getting played on the radio. Glenn said that Bob kind of looked at him as a little brother and introduced him around to people like Marvin Gaye, and let him sit in on studio sessions like for "Heavy Music" when he was just 19.

He is very specific in his memory of when Seger told him he needed to write his own music - amazingly specific, I thought! What a memory! He recounted, "Bob and I went to Ann Arbor ... I was spending as much time with him as I could. We were at a club in Ann Arbor called The Fifth Dimension and we were watching a band called The Rationals. Now, The Rationals was a very good, four-piece white R&B band. They had a great singer named Scotty Morgan and a guitarist, bassist, and drummer. And we're sitting there watching The Rationals at the Fifth Dimension and Bob said to me, 'You know, they're never gonna make it, Glenn.' And I said, 'Really? Why?' And he said, 'Because they don't write their own songs. If you wanna make it, you have to write your own songs.... so you need to start writing your own songs.' I looked at him and I said, 'Well, what if they're bad?' And without blinking an eye he said, 'Oh, they're gonna be bad. You just need to keep writing, and keep writing, and eventually you'll write a good one.'"

Glenn's retelling of his time with J.D. Souther as Longbranch Pennywhistle was also cute. He called them "The Everly Brothers without a band" because "it was just the two of us, playing guitars and singing harmony parts." He said they met Jackson Browne at a benefit for the Long Beach Free Clinic. According to Glenn, "Jackson was walking around in the back singing a song called 'Jamaica Say You Will.' It's a beautiful song that has a great chorus that just cries out for harmony parts. So J.D. and I jumped out and after we got done with our stuff, we started singing harmony parts with him." At this point, Glenn actually sang a snatch of the chorus of "Jamaica Say You Will." SIGH!

He continued, "We met him, and we talked, and it was interesting how at that time, nobody was really in competition with each other. 'Oh, you're a songwriter, too? Well, where do you play? What do you do?' And actually J.D. and I were both breaking up with our girlfriends and we were looking for a place to live. And Jackson said, 'I have a place down in Echo Park that's really cheap, and there's a place up above me that'll take two people.' So we rented the house at Jackson's request in Echo Park. So now, J.D. and I are living above Jackson in this really tiny place. Jackson's got a piano downstairs. And J.D. was... uh... he had a quite a way with the ladies. And he actually... J.D. didn't come home a lot when we were living in Echo Park."

And this point, the interviewer interjected, "And you did?"

Glenn nodded emphatically. "And I did! I wasn't quite as good as J.D. yet. I didn't have all those moves together. " The audience was laughing pretty hard at this point. He went on to tell the story of how listening to Jackson work diligently on his songs, playing them again and again and again until he got them right, showed him that songwriting wasn't just about inspiration. It was about hard work. "At 9:00 in the morning, I'd hear his teapot going off, and then I 'd hear him playing the piano. He'd be working on the song 'Rock Me on the Water.' And he'd play the intro, and verse, and first chorus, over and over again for like a half hour. And then there'd be silence. And then the teapot would go off again. And then there'd be some more silence. And then, 20 or 30 minutes later, I'd hear him play it again and there'd be a second verse. And I'm upstairs going, 'So THAT'S how you write songs! You get yourself a cup of coffee, you roll up your sleeves, and you hunker down and work at it!'" He said Jackson showed him that it was craftsmanship, that you "sand and varnish" songs like a table until they were perfect.

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Originally Posted by EaglesKiwi

I particularly like that Glenn was so respectful to both Randy and Felder. (Did Bernie get any mention?).

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As far as I know, Bernie only got mentioned when Glenn was talking about how Witchy Woman, which was a Leadon/Henley composition, was really the only good song from the first album that wasn't at least partially written by a non-Eagle.

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Wish I'd been there to see Nancy's face at the origin of Steely Dan's name.

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I gave a little scandalized gasp, covered my mouth, and turned red. Luckily it was dark in there. lol

BTW, someone mentioned filming... it was filmed by a single camera set up on a tripod in the middle of the seats. Perhaps they will make some kind of low-budget release of the series?

Some more additional tidbits that occurred to me:

I thought it was funny that he compared Don Henley's small-town roots to something from The Last Picture Show.

I want to expand more on that story about Glenn making demos at Muscle Shoals because it cracked me up. While he was on the road with Linda Ronstadt, they stopped by Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which has a famous recording studio. Glenn called up David Geffen and asked him if he could record some demos there because they had a couple days off. Geffen told him "OK, you can spend $500." As Glenn puts it, "So I recorded for two and a half days and I spent $2300. He was furious. He asks me, 'What did you do?!'" At this point, Glenn imitates his 70s self and in a drugged up voice gives his reply: "Well, man, the guys were soundin' so great and we were havin' such a great time, and I just kept on recording!" The audience was really laughing at that. So, that was when Geffen told him "You know what? You need to be in a group. You need to be in a group with people who will have strengths to cover your weaknesses and will give you an opportunity to show your strengths, too." Glenn said he took that advice, kept it in mind, and when he and Don were touring with Linda, they decided to form a band together within days of performing together.

Factoid: Ned Doheny gave them The Gunfighters book that inspired Desperado.

Glenn said that they were different from country bands at the time because they didn't dress in "country finery" but rather "Jeans, T-shirts, and cowboy boots" and that they "drank Heineken onstage."

At one point, the interviewer said he'd found a version of Linda Ronstadt doing "Desperado"on YouTube and he actually attempted to play the video during the lecture (he had a laptop hooked up to a projector, where he also displayed lyrics that, sadly, weren't 100% accurate). Unfortunately, there were some technical difficulties and he was unable to play the video of Ronstadt's version. I had to wonder what would have happened if someone interviewing Don had tried to play a YouTube video of Desperado! Veins would have been popping! lol

I thought it was noteworthy that he said sometimes you "own" a song more after touring with it, that you start doing it better. I especially found this interesting considering how the Eagles often strive to stay married to their original recordings, which doesn't seem to allow room for making it better.

List of artists he said he respected and influenced him in the 70s: Neil Young, Stephen Stills, Joni Mitchell, Brian Wilson, Jackson Browne, Tom Waits, Danny O'Keefe, and Laura Nero (?).

He said that when Don and he would get together, Don would ask him, "You got any chords? You got any song titles?" and they would start from there and it would just flow.

He compared finding the right songwriting partner to finding the right dancing partner. "Maybe there would be ten pretty girls who were all perfect but only one would feel right in your arms."

Factoid: The first album Szymczyk ever produced was BB King's The Thrill Is Gone, so he brought some blues cred to OOTN.

When Glenn said that Felder wrote the intro to OOTN, he added that Felder was a good bass player and had also written the bass part for Hotel California. He said, "Felder did a lot of good things.... for a while," and left it at that! lol! At any rate, it took Randy a day to learn the parts that Felder came up with.

Glenn mentioned that guitar parts should be singable, using George Harrison as an example - that they need to respect the vocal, but also add to the music and not just be filler. He said they would spend "hours if not days" on guitar overdubs.

Factoid: John Boylan is the one who suggested the "angel in white" lyric for OOTN; they originally were thinking of using "daughter of God."

An interesting comparison he made when talking about the brevity of songs was that, like ads, you had to get the message out there as memorably as possible without much time.

He compared dedicating oneself to working at songwriting to dedicating oneself to calisthenics - going to the gym and getting oneself in shape (and he even - perhaps unwittingly - used the same phrase he used in his 1988 Bally's ad that the most important thing is "showing up" to do it).

Factoid: "The One You Love" was written while they were working on "I Found Somebody." Glenn just randomly brought up that famous introductory sax line and they went from there.

(And... in the interest of accuracy I have to throw this in.... Hotel California has not yet surpassed Rumours in sales. However, Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 has blown Rumours out of the water, of course!)

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Originally Posted by sodascouts

I'll try to add a little more while HH takes a break!

IMHO, they spent way too long playing that crappy Nancy Sinatra cover. You know, I couldn't help but notice that they didn't play a clip from an Eagles song GLENN sang one time! We heard clips from Desperado, OOTN, LITFL, and HC. Now, I can only surmise this is because Glenn thinks that those are the Eagles' best songs and he wanted those highlighted but still, I was kind of bummed. At least we got to hear him sing ICTYW and, of course, IYWN.

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This sums up why Glenn apparently seems to think that the best Eagles songs are the ones sung by somebody else. Perhaps I was wrong to use the word 'gushing' about his praise of Don but in my opinion Glenn downplays his own talent to the point of .... well, you just want to say to him 'stop it. Give yourself some credit'. It would have been interesting to hear him sing ICTYW.

I can correct a couple of other names Soda referred to. In the George Harrison doco they would have talked to Ravi Shankar, & Laura Nyro is one of the songwriters he talked about.

At least he finished with IYWN which sounds if he is proud of his work on LROOE (by the way, if they had reverted to him only having one lead vocal on a double album, it would have been ludicrous. I am sure he knows that, even if he'll never say so). I notice that he barely mentioned his solo career.

Thanks again to Soda & HH for their insights.

I LOVE READING ALL OF THIS...WHAT A GREAT EVENING...THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING!!!!:bow:

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Originally Posted by sodascouts

I'll try to add a little more while HH takes a break!

After talking about bittersweet songs and BOML, the interviewer commented that many people thought BOML was a great love song. [Me, Nancy, I'm sitting there thinking, "Who are these people and do they not understand lines like 'We both see it slipping away'? Um, BOML is so obviously NOT a love song!"] But back to Glenn, lol.

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Minor point, but most people probably still classify breakup songs under the category of love songs, especially given the title of this song.

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Originally Posted by sodascouts

He came up with an example of not-so-clever vs. clever: "'My baby left me, I'm all alone, I sure am blue.' Now, that's not as interesting as 'An empty glass, an ashtray, a lonely room' - that's more interesting, but it's the same story. Again, it's about spinning a tale, casting a little intrigue out there. I mean, is there anything more interesting than the intro of Phil Collins' 'In the Air Tonight'? That intro comes on, and just the chords, and the dark pad, and you're hooked, you're there. It's not always the lyrics, sometimes it's the mood, but the whole idea is to draw people in. It has to be interesting. It can't just be slop. Like I said, if you find yourself writing cliches or hating the chords that you've written, well, then you keep working and find some good chords. You find another way to do these things. You just keep working."

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This is perhaps the most insightful part to me of how he approaches songwriting. The part about 'my baby left me' etc reminds me of Some Kind Of Blue, which is that type of song, but now I understand why he wanted to start it with 'sunny day, two people walking' etc to give it some background.

I am just delighted that he seems to love In The Air Tonight as much as I do (and Koala, if I'm not mistaken). Apart from the Beatles this appears to be the only non-American song he talked about.

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Originally Posted by Freypower

This sums up why Glenn apparently seems to think that the best Eagles songs are the ones sung by somebody else. Perhaps I was wrong to use the word 'gushing' about his praise of Don but in my opinion Glenn downplays his own talent to the point of .... well, you just want to say to him 'stop it. Give yourself some credit'. It would have been interesting to hear him sing ICTYW.

I can correct a couple of other names Soda referred to. In the George Harrison doco they would have talked to Ravi Shankar, & Laura Nyro is one of the songwriters he talked about.

At least he finished with IYWN which sounds if he is proud of his work on LROOE (by the way, if they had reverted to him only having one lead vocal on a double album, it would have been ludicrous. I am sure he knows that, even if he'll never say so). I notice that he barely mentioned his solo career.

Thanks again to Soda & HH for their insights.

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Thanks for the corrections, FP - I should have looked them up myself, but I was too busy trying to get everything down.

I agree that sometimes Glenn gets a bit extreme with regard to self-deprecation and downplaying his contributions and talent. Modesty is a virtue but sometimes it gets a little bit over-the-top. To hear him talk, you'd think nobody wants to listen to him sing - Don's voice is "money" and the unspoken implication is that Glenn's voice isn't on the same level. Meanwhile, Glenn's vocal achievements such as his Grammy-winning lead vocal on "Heartache Tonight" aren't even mentioned. I only hope he knows his true worth in his heart and doesn't really believe that his voice is so inferior to Don's, despite what his words would indicate.

Thank you Soda. You just summed that up perfectly. I hope he doesn't believe that either. His voice will always be Number One for me & the songs he sings with the Eagles will always be my favourites with a couple of exceptions.

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Originally Posted by Freypower

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Originally Posted by sodascouts

I agree that sometimes Glenn gets a bit extreme with regard to self-deprecation and downplaying his contributions and talent. Modesty is a virtue but sometimes it gets a little bit over-the-top. To hear him talk, you'd think nobody wants to listen to him sing - Don's voice is "money" and the unspoken implication is that Glenn's voice isn't on the same level. Meanwhile, Glenn's vocal achievements such as his Grammy-winning lead vocal on "Heartache Tonight" aren't even mentioned. I only hope he knows his true worth in his heart and doesn't really believe that his voice is so inferior to Don's, despite what his words would indicate.

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Thank you Soda. You just summed that up perfectly. I hope he doesn't believe that either. His voice will always be Number One for me & the songs he sings with the Eagles will always be my favourites with a couple of exceptions.

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Same here, FP! He is my favorite male singer. I adore his voice. It's got such richness, such emotion, such texture... it's not every singer who can get me to fly across the freaking country. His voice can give me chills, bring tears to my eyes, make me smile, make me breathless.

In other words...
Glenn Frey is Made of Awesome!

This was just posted on the GFO blog by a guy named Chris:

"This was the single best discussion on songwriting I have ever attended and someone I met last night agreed. For songwriters out there, it looked like NYU was recording this so it would be worth trying to get a copy.

I always liked the Eagles- this made me like them, and especially Glenn, even more. I think most people think that a band is about sex, drugs, and more drugs, and music. The reality for these guys is it was constant hard work- and they were dedicated.

The other thing is Glenn Fry is a real gentleman, at least it seemed that way to me- I was very impressed. And I spoke with him at the end- what a decent guy; he was nice to everybody who approached him. I doubt he made a ton of money for this, but he imparted more wisdom about songwriting and generally hard work and dedicating yourself to excellence- I wasn't expecting that at all. The Occupy Wall Street crowd could learn a lot from his message, but then again they'd have to want to work- and they'd probably get depressed to find out that a musician works so hard.

Thanks, Glenn, that was memorable."

- Chris

http://glennfrey.blogspot.com/2011/0...ngwriters.html

Isn't that nice! I wonder if it would be worth trying to get a copy of the recording.

As for your previous post Soda, as you know I flew across the world to see him, he is the only singer I would do that for, and he knows it. ;) :inlove:

So he did meet with people afterwards. I wondered if he would, it seemed to be the kind of atmosphere where that would be an option. Guess I should have stuck around longer...

Thanks to everyone for doing this. Glenn's detail on writing these songs is just amazing. Especially enjoyed his telling of "Hotel California". I had heard some of it before, but this was great. Glad everyone's memories are so sharp. This is the kind of thing that needs to be part of their 40th anniversary Dvd.

Jack Tempchin shared this on Facebook:

http://songhall.org/news/entry/1283

It has photos!

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Originally Posted by VAisForEagleLovers

So he did meet with people afterwards. I wondered if he would, it seemed to be the kind of atmosphere where that would be an option. Guess I should have stuck around longer...

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I guess folks just approached him informally after he came outside or something like that.

Hey! Looks like he's wearing the same outfit as the first night at Niagara Falls!

Love the air guitar pic! :inlove:

Oh, WOW!!! How wonderful! :bow: 8-)

Love the one with Jimmy Webb & is the first one In Charge, or not? And yes, that is the Niagara Falls tie at least.

GREAT! Love the photos!

WOW! Ladies I've been reading the various posts by Soda, HH and VA over the past few days. What an experience this must have been for all of you. I love hearing insights into Glenn:heart:'s life and his songwriting, and what inspired home ( and even what didn't). It's so interesting to hear from him about the craft and discipline of writing songs. Of course we only hear the finished products. We have no idea what brings them to that point. What a wonderful and talented man he is!

I've tried the link posted but can't find the pictures :confused:. Have they been taken down already?

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Originally Posted by Freypower

Isn't that nice!

As for your previous post Soda, as you know I flew across the world to see him, he is the only singer I would do that for, and he knows it. ;) :inlove:

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Ditto FP, and hopefully if the chance presents itself, I will do it all again!

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Originally Posted by Glennsallnighter

I've tried the link posted but can't find the pictures :confused:. Have they been taken down already?

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They're a flash slideshow under the text - if you don't have the correct plug in, you might not be able to see them. I posted what I felt were the most flattering two in "Frey Fever."

Yep! I caught them later, thanks! They look wonderful. Glenn :heart: looks fantastic. I'm delighted you all had such a great evening.

Okay, I just opened two windows so I could go back and review what I want to comment on.

First of all, it was so great that you guys got to go to this, and I'm really impressed with your note-taking skills. I'm also very thankful, because where else would I have learned all of this stuff! I love it when songwriters let us in on how they wrote a song, what they were thinking when they wrote a song, what they intended for the song to convey, etc. This sort of reminds me of that tv show, Inside the Actor's Studio with host James Lipton. The format seems the same.

I'm not sure, but I don't remember if any of you said what row you were sitting in from the stage. And I have to say that I'm very surprised (and slightly disappointed ;)) that you didn't wait to see if you would be able to approach Glenn afterward. I'm sure he would have been happy to chat with you.

Being a Jackson Browne fan, you can imagine how much I enjoyed the story of Glenn living upstairs from him and literally listening to him write songs, and then actually crediting JB as an influence.

I know exactly what Glenn means when he credits The Beatles for writing "all kinds of different songs". It's great when a band does not pidgeonhole themselves into one category. I'm not a big fan of country music, but when I hear my favorite singers/bands do a country flavored song I usually enjoy it.

Love the part about the criteria for whether a song was good or not was the feedback from Neil Young or Joni or Jackson. Can't you just close your eyes and imagine them playing a song to one of these guys and asking, "So, what do you think?" and waiting for the answer? Oh, how I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in that room!

I agree with Glenn - Don's voice is money - but I remember that when I first started listening to the Eagles one of the things I really liked about them is that they had multiple lead singers, unlike the bands that were around at the time that had one lead singer. I liked that you never knew who you would hear singing lead on a song, and I agree with those of you who enjoy Glenn's leads just as much as Don's.

I got off on the part where Glenn talks about listening to The Beatles' Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds and thinking about what it must have been like at the session, who was playing what and where they were sitting... doesn't he realize that that's what we would love to know about Eagles songs?

Question: When Glenn started singing ICTYW did he start from the beginning? How far did he go?

Concerning BOML not being a love song, I'm going to have to disagree with Soda. I think it's a very loving thing to say, "We've always had each other...I guess that wasn't enough. But here in my heart I give you the best of my love." It's like he's saying even though the relationship is not going to work, he will always hold a special place in his heart for her.

Question: Did any of you submit a question and if so what was it?

Interesting that Glenn mentions that the audience can tell if you want to be there (onstage), that they can tell if you're just going through the motions. How often have we mentioned here that at times they just didn't seem to be enjoying themselves onstage?

I am very encouraged that Glenn's memory is so good. Maybe the Eagles will be able to put out some kind of retrospective of their career. I hope so!

I think one of you mentioned that Cindy and Nellie were there...were the kids there too?....I'm thinking Taylor must've been...had to be a special night for Nellie...he's very lucky to still have both his parents around...

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Originally Posted by Prettymaid

I'm not sure, but I don't remember if any of you said what row you were sitting in from the stage. And I have to say that I'm very surprised (and slightly disappointed ;)) that you didn't wait to see if you would be able to approach Glenn afterward. I'm sure he would have been happy to chat with you.

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We were some of the first people in and got our pick of seats, essentially, but we didn't want to be all "in your face" so we just sat in the left section on either the third or fourth row. After we sat down, I noticed an elderly lady on the first row of our section off to the side and it looked like Glenn's mom to me. Cindy Frey later sat down on the first row in front of us. Taylor wound up sitting a couple rows behind us with some friends.

Glennhoney - As far as I could tell, no other male Freys were there, but maybe I missed them.

Lucky for us, we chose a great spot, because Glenn's chair happened to be angled our way (probably why the Frey Fam was sitting in that section, too).

As for afterwards, I didn't really want to approach him because I figured he was there for the students and I didn't want to come off as some attention whore fangirl who flew to New York to get a smile. It was enough to just hear him speak about his craft; his lecture was truly fascinating. On top of that, to hear him perform IYWN - what a privilege!

However, in retrospect, I do wish we would've stuck around so that HH and V could have had the chance to meet him.

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Originally Posted by Prettymaid

Question: When Glenn started singing ICTYW did he start from the beginning? How far did he go?

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He started at the beginning... "Look at us baby, up all night..." and sang all the way up to the first "I can't tell you why." Considering how high it was, he did pretty darn good.

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Originally Posted by Prettymaid

Concerning BOML not being a love song, I'm going to have to disagree with Soda. I think it's a very loving thing to say, "We've always had each other...I guess that wasn't enough. But here in my heart I give you the best of my love." It's like he's saying even though the relationship is not going to work, he will always hold a special place in his heart for her.

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I see what you're saying. Point taken.

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Originally Posted by Prettymaid

Question: Did any of you submit a question and if so what was it?

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I think I was the only one of us who submitted a question. HH and V were giving me a hard time because it was kind of long. In fact, it filled up the index card, lol. It went along these lines: "We know you often collaborate with other songwriters, most notably Don Henley and Jack Tempchin. How does that process work? For instance, do you brainstorm together or come up with ideas separately? Do you divide up duties, such as one of you devising chords and the other lyrics? Also, has this process changed over the years?" Then I added as a postscript, "Thanks for doing this!"

Even though my question wasn't read, I essentially got the answer in the discussion and that answer would be: "All of the above."

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Originally Posted by Prettymaid

Interesting that Glenn mentions that the audience can tell if you want to be there (onstage), that they can tell if you're just going through the motions. How often have we mentioned here that at times they just didn't seem to be enjoying themselves onstage?

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I thought that too, but Glenn was very insistent that such was never the case with the Eagles. I wondered - how could that be? Surely there have been a few occasions where the Eagles didn't really want to be playing but did so out of professional obligation. However, he was adamant that the Eagles never said they wanted to be there unless they truly did.

I wonder why (the Frey women) didn't all sit together...security, maybe?

Taylor probably wanted to sit with her friends from school - not very surprising considering they were at her university.

As for the two Mrs. Freys - they sat near each other, just a few seats apart on the front row.

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Originally Posted by sodascouts

We were some of the first people in and got our pick of seats, essentially, but we didn't want to be all "in your face" so we just sat in the left section on either the third or fourth row.
Lucky for us, we chose a great spot, because Glenn's chair happened to be angled our way (probably why the Frey Fam was sitting in that section, too).

As for afterwards, I didn't really want to approach him because I figured he was there for the students and I didn't want to come off as some attention whore fangirl who flew to New York to get a smile. It was enough to just hear him speak about his craft; his lecture was truly fascinating. On top of that, to hear him perform IYWN - what a privilege!

However, in retrospect, I do wish we would've stuck around so that HH and V could have had the chance to meet him.





I think I was the only one of us who submitted a question. HH and V were giving me a hard time because it was kind of long. In fact, it filled up the index card, lol.

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I totally agree, Soda. I thought it would have been kind of pushy and somewhat inappropriate for us to stick around and "chat". It just seemed like the right thing to do to make a quick exit and let the students and faculty have the "kodak moments".

And seriously, your saying your question was "kind of long" ???? Hello? War and Peace was "kind of long". Just sayin . . . . .

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Originally Posted by sodascouts

As for afterwards, I didn't really want to approach him because I figured he was there for the students and I didn't want to come off as some attention whore fangirl who flew to New York to get a smile. It was enough to just hear him speak about his craft; his lecture was truly fascinating. On top of that, to hear him perform IYWN - what a privilege!

However, in retrospect, I do wish we would've stuck around so that HH and V could have had the chance to meet him.

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I understand your reluctance to be noticed here Soda, but I really don't think Glenn :heart: would think like that about you. he knows you are one of his biggest fans - he KNEW you'd be at Niagara Falls and I'm sure he would have felt you were just supporting him in another one of his ventures. I guess too he would realise that as such a big fan you might actually be interested to hear what he had to say. This was something so totally different from anything else he has done in so long.

It has been absolutely fascinating hearing everything that he had to say - I have certainly gained new insights into the craft of songwriting from what I have read over the last week or so.

Well, perhaps my language was a bit hyperbolic. ;) I just meant to convey the same idea HH did in her later post.

Wow! Believe it or not, I just now got around to reading this entire thread. I was so busy around this time of the lecture that all I was able to do was scan the thread. I regret more now than ever that I missed this although VAisFEL, HH, and Soda, you all did a remarkable job of taking notes for us. I would definitely give you all an A+.

Anyway, it was very interesting to read about Glenn sharing his insights about songwriting. I do find it interesting that he does tend to underscore his contributions so much, especially considering how cocky he was back in the day. :lol: I realize that he may not want to come across as being boisterous, but nor should he be so modest. Seriously, he tends to downplay his role so much to the point that he misrepresents his contributions. There is no indication from anything I've ever read from Glenn and Don back in the 70's that these two guys were anything other than a true partnership and pretty equal contributors in the songwriting process.

As far a his singing role, PrettyMaid said it best in another thread - Don's voice may be money, but Glenn's is heart. I told her I wish I'd said that because I had a sneaky feeling that I may be using that line again. :wink: I have always said that one of my favorite things about this band is the fact that all of the band members can sing lead. This makes listening to an Eagles album so much more interesting for me. Again, Glenn should not minimize the importance of his singing role in the band's success.

My guess is that he does recognize his contributions, and I understand that he may no longer want to come across as the cocky rock star that he was back in the day, but there's no need for revisionist history either.

Hear hear, Dreamer. :applause:

I think Glenn has come a long way in the appreciation of the long term success of the band. His reputation and cocky attitude back in the day was really a turn off (to me anyway). I think it's always smart to be modest & humble. The work speaks for itself. In my opinion, it only makes him look better! I think the praise for Henley shows his true appreciation for the partnership and the success they had working together.:thumbsup:

Well TK - You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think the cockiness of all the guys back then was mainly part of their rock star persona. All rock stars had to have attitude to be cool and our guys were very good at that. :wink:

As for today, I would agree that Glenn's modesty is a good thing, but not when it's at the expense of distorting facts about the past. I am basing my comments on all the information and interviews that Don and Glenn gave back in the 70's. I have read most of the information that is available about the band back then, and as I said earlier, I never got the impression that Glenn played the role of second fiddle then as he often does now. If he wants to take a somewhat lower profile now, that is his choice, but he shouldn't confuse it with his role in the band during the 70's. JMHO

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Well TK - You are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I think the cockiness of all the guys back then was mainly part of their rock star persona. All rock stars had to have attitude to be cool and our guys were very good at that.

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I have to disagree with you on this one. Not all rock stars were cocky, and Glenn was downright nasty & had made several comments, especially in NYC where his attitude didn't make him cool, it made him seem like a jerk. Sorry, but that's how I saw it. I think however, it may have been the coke that was taking over & exaggerating some of his personality. I know people who had met him at this time & didn't have much nice to say about the guy.
I'm just glad to see that he has changed for the better.

As for him downgrading his writing skills as compared to Don, maybe it's true. Henley has always been know as the master of the lyrics. Maybe Don actually did do more of the writing. None of us were in the room with them. If Glenn wants to credit Don, why would anybody doubt what he says?

Yes, I've read a lot of comments from people who met him in the 70s and early 80s and didn't have a lot of good things to say. In my case, the comments came from people who wanted something from him (DJs, media, etc) and thought they had a right to it. I'm sure he could have handled it much better.

It's a free country and he can say what he wants. He can be modest and sing Don's praises. I just know that I'm a fan and it's a free country and I can sing Glenn's praises til I'm blue in the face. And I will!

Well said VA! I will too!

Well - you can count me in there as well VAisFEL and GA. I've never been one that has blind adoration for my idol, and I'm not really interested in belaboring this, but it was pretty typical bad boy behavior for rock stars in the 70's to have a cocky attitude. Doesn't mean it was right, but Glenn certainly wasn't alone in this regard. And it appears that he's a bit better behaved nowadays. :wink:

And with regard to the way Glenn minimizes his contributions in the band, the reason someone may doubt Glenn's recollection these days is because it doesn't really jive with most of the accounts from the 70's. I totally agree that none of us knows exactly how the songwriting process transpired in the band back in the day, but most of what's been written about it is that Glenn was very involved up until the late 70's when he felt that the band's end was inevitable.