As a founding member of the Eagles, Glenn Frey met Don Henley in 1970. Linda Ronstadt needed a backing band and hired Frey, Henley, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon on the advice of her boyfriend JD Souther (who incidently appears in the TV series Nashville) After they toured with Ronstadt in 1971, the for of them formed The Eagles.
The Eagles broke up in 1980 and during the next 14 years both Frey and Henley were asked when and if at all are the Eagles thought about reforming ? To which they both replied ...When Hell Freezes Over! In 1994 they did just that and put togeter "The Hell Freezes Over Tour"
During their first live concert in 1994, Frey told the crowd "For the record, we never broke up. We just took a 14-year vacation"
I have that Dvd and it's something pretty damn special ,their version of "Hotel California" in Degital Theater Sound, just numbs my mind sometimes! How 5 guys can reform after 14 years ( I know they rehearsed) and play with such clarity and passion just shows that they belong in the high echelons of the music world.
The Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998
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"Take It Easy" was the Eagles first single and was written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne.It started life as an unfinished composition of Browne's (who was struggling to finish it) Frey who was a friend and neighbour of Brownes heard it earlier and in one meeting asked Browne about it so Browne sang his unfinished line "Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see" and Frey completed it by singing "It's a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowin' down to take a look at me."It then progressed from there and became the lead song and first single on the Eagles debut album.
"Hotel California" from the album of the same name , was mainly written by Don Felder with lyrics by Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Through the years fans have given many interpretations of the lyrics but basically it's the Eagles description of the "high life" in LA.
Frey came up with a cinematic scenario of a person who, tired from driving a long distance in a desert, saw a place for a rest and pulled in for the night, but entered "a weird world peopled by freaky characters"
The line containing the lyrics "her mind is Tiffany twisted" is in reference to Heley's break-up form his girlfriend Loree Rodkin, and another lyric , "They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast"is a playful reference to Steely Dan who in their song "Everything You Did" included the lyric "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening".
The "spirit" that Hotel California hasn't had since 1969 refers to Henley and Frey's dislike of 1970s disco music and how pop music had changed from the spirit of social activism of the 1960s
Take it Easy
Hotel California