TAKE IT TO THE LIMIT
One more time with Glenn Frey and the Eagles
For the decade of the 1970s, country-rock band The Eagles was about as big as it got. Their smooth sound filled the radio waves with hit after hit after hit. But success has a funny way of turning on one, and the band was often torn by strife and misbehaviour.
The Eagles emerged out of the musical stew that produced so many popular performers. Linda Ronstadt (the woman who really launched the band) and Jackson Browne, the downstairs neighbour whom Glenn Frey credits with showing him how to be a professional songwriter, were only a few of the people that the Eagles crossed paths with.
Hard-partying and toughtalking, the band pretty much blew up as the years unfolded.
All of this is detailed in a truly fascinating and surprisingly frank documentary called the History of the Eagles that serves as a backdrop for the band’s current, and likely last, tour.
Older and maybe wiser, Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Bernie Leadon — who was in the Flying Burrito Brothers before joining the Eagles — Timothy Schmit on bass and company can still put on a show, even if it is also a bit of a history lesson.
The evening began where it should, with a song from that first big album, Desperado.
The buddies in bad times, Henley and Frey harmonized their way through a lesserknown tune Saturday Night.
Leadon (reunited once more) then strolled out to deliver Train Leaves Here This Morning from the debut disc called Eagles. That was followed by songs like Doolin’ Dalton and Desperado itself.
But the mellow mood turned rockier with the arrival of guitarist Joe Walsh on stage for Witchy Woman. The band kicked into high gear with a romp through many of their biggies: Take It To The Limit (in tribute to ailing original bassist Randy Meisner), Tequila Sunrise, Already Gone and Lyin’ Eyes. The second set included a nice rendering of New Kid In Town and there was a doff of the cap to later material like The Long Run and Life in the Fast Lane. There was even a nod to Walsh’s other career with the James Gang with a cover of Funk #49.
After more than two hours full-on showtime, they came back with encores that featured a moody and magical Hotel California.
It’s hard to talk about the Eagles’ music without pushing through all the “stuff.” They were so successful, so omnipresent during that decade that the music has been dismissed.
The critics have not been kind, with one describing them as “sort of the Hollies with mesquite.”
But there is a reason the music is popular still after all these years. The harmonies were, and remain, elegant and the playing is also impeccable. And when the audience of 17,500 is singing the words to every song, you know the night is going well.
Reviewing a “legendary” band touring on the strength of their musical history is pretty much a mug’s game. There is little that one can say that has not been said before. And the music by definition is so familiar and well-loved. But, for what it’s worth and for one final turn of the dial, the Eagles soared just a little bit higher on Monday night in Ottawa.