Quote Originally Posted by sodascouts View Post

For me, even something as simple as Don asking Glenn if he'd eaten anything and Glenn replying "I had a bowl of Rice Crispies" makes me smile. It's like we're getting a little peek into their everyday lives, and I think that's cool.

Thank goodness for the Super 8 Camera with sound!
Quck question, if anyone knows--was that Super 8 footage actually from their time on tour with Linda Ronstadt? It was aired during that section of the doc, but I thought Glenn's hair was much longer during his tenure with her...? That image of Linda they have inserted there certainly looks like Super 8 footage as well. If they taped a lot of that time, I wish they would have shown more of it--I'd love to see more of their performing and dynamic together--but maybe Linda requested they didn't air it? Bad quality overall? God, those trips together, her being the only woman, must have been a trip...
I still wish she had allowed them to interview her now in present day, and I'm happy to read in interviews that both Don and Glenn find it "peculiar" not to see her represented in their history with a current POV. She does do interview yet, despite being retired from performing, so it's not like she's a recluse. I just get the feeling she doesn't want to be overly tied and associated with her 70s image. I do think that group of friends is still friendly to a degree--recent interviews with JD Souther imply they chat quite a bit yet, and she and Glenn did exchange notes about "After Hours"--maybe if she ever gets inducted into the RRHOF, one of the guys can intro her...

And RE: Glenn-- what I always keep in mind if how young he was at the time--in fact the youngest in the group--yet he was the one who stepped up and decided to be band leader. As much as the rest of them wanted more input, I don't think any of them, including Don, wanted the responsibility and stress of being "leader." Randy didn't like the conflict; Bernie didn't like the business aspect of it; Don the messy grey area issues of personality vs. performance; Joe wanted to be the good time guy, and Don Felder seemed to be only caught up in the have/have not aspect of it all. Glenn seemingly was the only one to step up and realize someone within the internal structure of the band had to take charge and not just bitch and moan and play the "blame game" when things went pear-shaped. Glenn knew they couldn't let the whims of the Industry and of Geffen decide their fate--they'd have to chart their own destiny and be sorta ruthless doing it. I think only he had the drive (and yes, ego) to do it. Did he always do it right and well? No, but at least he did it. Without a leader, I think they would have imploded much earlier than 1980.

I always think back to all the acts they saw on the Troubadour stage in the early years, supremely talented people who failed because either the Industry chewed them up and spit them out, or their own demons ate them alive. Those individuals and groups have been great "cautionary" tales to all of them on how to approach succeeding in music. For Glenn, I think it taught him that they couldn't afford to be overly-romantic or starry-eyed about themselves, the band and their "destiny." They'd have to work and fight for it and approach it as a a job, not as a hobby or even a "passion." It sounds cold, but that drive has kept the music popular all these years, even as the personnel have changed over the years. It had to be about the quality of the music first, and thst music had to be bigger than the band members making it. I think Glenn gets that to this day. I don't think that it's necessarily that he enjoys being in charge of the other guys, but that he likes being in charge of the band's musical legacy and reputation..

I think what the grand problem in the 70s became is that fame and money and drugs walled them off from each other and they didn't talk to each other enough. Glenn has that great line in the doc that when dynamics went bad "they just didn't talk about those sorts of things," and things "festered." Because their guys and guys hate feelings. And I can't overstate enough how much cocaine and other nasties probably fucked up their judgement and relationships. Being young, emotionally-repressed and coked up is a horrible combination in any situation--being in a band must have skyrocketed the paranoia and mania to hellish levels. They're lucky to alive and still have careers.