Discussion of Eagles Documentary "History of the Eagles"

[AftertheThrill]

It is a sorry site. Since they put up the trailer, you can't even get into the old sections or articles

Before the Atlantic City concerts, Don was on the radio talking about how nice of a website the Eagles have. For a band that prides themselves on perfection, the website is a sad, sad joke.

[tjrrockandrollmaster]

I think you must be right about the second half especially. Nobody said anything about Don Henley's arrest, Stevie Nicks's abortion of his child, Glenn's career tapering off in the late eighties ~ in fact they made it sound like Glenn and Don Henley had the same level of success. They made it look like Glenn had a big acting career. They didn't talk about any other band conflicts besides the one with Felder. There was no talk about the backlash against the Eagles when they were the first band to charge over $100 per ticket. Like someone else said they pretended like the lawsuit never happened.

I didn't think about it until you said something but if you listen to the way they described recording the song Long Road Out Of Eden, you'd probably think the whole album was done together instead of them emailing each other mp3's of their parts. You'd probably also think it was released six months ago instead of six years ago because they were acting like it was brand new.

Maybe it wasn't a control thing though, maybe the filmmakers just didn't investigate beyond what the Eagles told them. If it wasn't brought up by one of the Eagles they didn't go looking for more information, and they didn't fact check to make sure the Eagles were telling the whole truth. Who knows.

Then The Rolling Stones were the second band to charge over $100 a ticket as well in 1994 (the late Rick Wright of Pink Floyd back in 1994 did criticize The Eagles and Stones' motives "saying who wants to pay over hundreds for nostalgia whereas PF were out promoting a new album and were only charging $35-$70"). Part of The Eagles' proceeds did go to charities (Walden Woods and so forth) at least while Mick and Keith wanted to inflate their wallets because they were jealous that The Eagles and Pink Floyd were outselling them ticket sale wise (all of The Eagles and Pink Floyd's shows sold out quick whilst The Stones had to play fewer shows due to the Floyd and Eagles tours) plus The Eagles and Pink Floyd did play to more people on their respective tours than Mick and Keith and company in the States in '94. Furthermore, The Eagles and Pink Floyd each had #1 albums here in the States (Hell Freezes Over and The Division Bell respectively) whilst The Stones were anchored at #2 with Voodoo Lounge (thanks to Elton John's Lion King Soundtrack) and The Stones took ticket prices to crazier heights hence why they grossed more than The Eagles and Pink Floyd combined.

[tjrrockandrollmaster]

Can you please give some evidence to support your claim that Randy Meisner was fired? Such a claim has never been made, not even by Felder (see page 188 of Heaven & Hell, which claims that Meisner left after one last confrontation with Frey).

Just an observation. The Randy and Eagles fall out was like when Roger Waters forced Rick Wright out of Pink Floyd gradually starting with Animals (where Roger refused Rick's musical ideas and restricted David Gilmour to one song the 17 minute "Dogs") and then fired Wright during The Wall's mixing sessions (and threatened to turn The Wall into a solo album if he didn't leave, makes what the fall outs in The Eagles look like sitcoms by comparison). Then when Roger Waters quit, David Gilmour rehired Rick Wright and when Wright died Gilmour officially ended the band. To be fair, The Police, Bad Company and The Kinks also had fistfights as did The Who.

I wish more bands were like Genesis and would try and sort things out peacefully (when Phil Collins' first marriage collapsed, Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford gave him some time to personal issues whilst they did their first solo albums), Led Zeppelin, the original lineup of Queen (well John Deacon saw fit to retire when Freddie Mercury died) and of course Rush but the bottom line is all bands have (as Joe Walsh put it) ALPHAS.

[zeldabjr]

I'm watching Part 2 again...Timothy "yelling" on Poison and Twisted Sister records?....LOL

[RebeccaLovesEagles]

I'm watching Part 2 again...Timothy "screaming" on Poison and Twisted Sister records?....LOL

That had me shocked

[TimothyBFan]

Then again I didn't know Randy Meisner suffered from stage fright during the Hotel California tour and had to sing "Take It to the Limit" night after night which led to his firing (Frey said he quit, he was fired from the band).

Can you please give some evidence to support your claim that Randy Meisner was fired? Such a claim has never been made, not even by Felder (see page 188 of Heaven & Hell, which claims that Meisner left after one last confrontation with Frey).

Randy was not fired as far as anyone knows. In the doc, they state Randy was to the point where he didn't want to sing TITTL any longer and was afraid he couldn't hit the high notes at the end any more.

Glenn says he told him- this is an exact quote from the doc: "Ok, don't sing it. Why don't you just quit. You say you're unhappy. Then quit."

[Prettymaid]

Didn't Randy go on to sing TITTL live during his solo career? I guess I just don't get it.

[Houston Debutante]

We don't have to just take Glenn's word for it, everybody else in the band says he quit, too, even Randy himself.

Sorry tjr, if you're going to call someone a liar ~ in this case Glenn ~ you should make sure you have your facts straight. Not trying to be rude, you're new here and I haven't been here very long either, it's just a pet peeve of mine.

[Brooke]

Didn't Randy go on to sing TITTL live during his solo career? I guess I just don't get it.

Me either!

To refuse to sing one of their biggest hits would be grounds in my book! Just sayin' and I do believe he just quit.

[TimothyBFan]

Here's another one of those arrangement questions for someone who knows more than I do about music.

When Randy left and Glenn took over singing TITTL, did they change the arrangement so that the notes at the end that Randy didn't think he could hit any longer were better fitted for Glenn? I know we've talked about Glenn not getting the high notes any longer, yet he's still singing this one in concert so I'm assuming they've been brought down a bit. And I wonder if they had changed them earlier would Randy have stuck it out or went ahead and left. Just speculation of course.