Originally Posted by
Delilah
Yes, I missed the context of your post, sorry about that.
I agree that most fans during the pre-Wiki/pre-google era probably didn’t care about line-up changes, if they were aware of them at all. Just seeing Henley, Frey and Walsh (the most recognizable members from the 80s) was probably enough for excited fans during HFO, especially.
For the record, I don’t believe losing Glenn is equivalent to losing the other 3. I recognize and appreciate the impact of Glenn’s role in the band. I’ve said it before that the band isn’t the same without him and never will be.
However I do take issue with the notion that the loss of Glenn completely wrecks the legitimacy and/or authenticity of the band, as if that authenticity had been intact all along. And therefore fans who have seen or plan to see a Glenn-less “inauthentic” Eagles are different from those who saw a less than authentic version of the band with Glenn.
The band may have churned along just fine without the other 3 but that doesn’t transform the Final 4 line-up into something it is not. The fact is that line-up does not reflect the version that recorded most of the songs on the typical setlist. So I don’t see that as a valid argument for why its wrong for fans to go see the current line-up (and I’m not saying it’s you necessarily making all these claims, I’m speaking generally about what I’ve come across on this board).
Finally, this generation of music-lovers is the most informed ever in the era of popular music, thanks to the internet and social media, which wasn’t around in the past to gauge how fans felt about the absence of some band members. Interesting that in the current backlash, the most common criticism seems to be that Henley is now the only original member. At any rate, I suspect there were many fans who missed Felder over the last couple of decades, but they attended and enjoyed the concerts anyway. And now, many of us will miss Glenn and regret his absence, but as last summer showed from concert attendance, reviews and social media, fans still attended and managed to enjoy the concerts, thanks to Don H, Joe and Timothy, plus Vince and Deacon, who are also very talented and have much to offer.