This is an interesting take on the Eagles then and now.
Sad that what not only the Eagles have become but how the golden era of rock is still desirable but just not same as the good ole days.

Time moves on and even if all were still alive and in the band, it would sound much different when live.
I listen to the stuff I like and not the stuff I don't like.
This guy should get over it.

quote:

This guy should get over it.

Well, I think it is more than just "like" or "not like".
The point is that there is only one original member left and the sound has changed.
As he points out ~ it is not really the Eagles but Don Henley and friends.
You might say it is semantics but in reality it is more like false advertising.
Too many old school rock bands have been reactivated by the insane prices they can command in concert.
Partially because normal song/writing/etc revenue is not same since digital media and ...
partially because of nostalgia of us old folks for the old sound.
Problem is for that astronomical price you get a vastly inferior product.
It is what stopped me from seeing most all of these old acts but love, buy and support their old recorded music.

YMMV

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
the golden era of rock is still desirable but just not same as the good ole days.

The best rock n roll has always been music for the young, written from a youthful perspective. But now you have 70 yo old people trying to sing and perform the same songs to a much older audience. These very same musicians, who decades ago stated they would never "play Vegas", are doing exactly that, except taking it on the road. It's not really about music or creativity, but business. One old rocker stated years ago that they have to do tours, to sell concert t-shirts, etc. because they are a large corporation, and have many employees and families to support. For me, it is difficult to get excited about seeing a band like The Who, when only half the original members are in it, and are over 70 years old playing and singing songs about "hope I die before before I get old", and "teenage wasteland". I much prefer to just listen to the original recordings instead.

I think it's a real shame when classic rockers play and just don't sound good....like they did in their youth. Though to come to their defense, if this has been their life for all those years, I can't imagine it's very easy to give it up, especially given the high they must receive from performing. I also think the age has most to do with vocals. That seems to be the most obvious downfall.

As for bands continuing without original members for one reason or another, they still probably have the desire to play and perform. And yeah, I'm sure money has a lot to do with it too.

The Eagles aren't dead.

They just prefer kippin' on their backs.

Even though members change over time as it is inevitable ~ at some point they just become a cover band of their own music.
Especially, when virtually all the original and/or primary members that contributed to their trademark sound are gone.
I can deal with a little aging and would like to see them rather than replacement unless they are so out of and can't perform.

^^^^^^^^^^^
When Ron Wood replaced Mick Taylor, The Stones were still peaking, they came out with Some Girls a couple of years after Wood joined. But when Keith Moon died, the sound of The Who changed drastically, IMO they stopped being The Who, now especially without Entwistle.

Robert Plant is notorious for his refusal in reforming Led Zeppelin, literally turning down the possibility of being the first billion dollar rock tour. And his most likely reason - no John Bonham. His son Jason said:

quote:

“On the way back I said [to Plant], ‘I’ve got to ask you… are we gonna get the band back together?'” Bonham recalls. “And he said, ‘I loved your dad way too much. It’s not disrespect to you; You know the stuff better than all of us, and no one else who is alive can play it like you. But it’s not the same. I can’t go out there and fake it. I can’t be a jukebox. I can’t go out there and try to do it that way.” Bonham adds that Plant also felt strongly about Zep’s declaration shortly after his father’s 1980 death that the band was indeed over.

“He told me, ‘When your father left us, left the world, that was it for Led Zeppelin. We couldn’t do what The Who did. It was too vital.’

https://www.billboard.com/musi...elin-reunio-8491221/

quote:

"When your father left us, left the world, that was it for Led Zeppelin. We couldn’t do what The Who did. It was too vital."

I have a lot of respect for that.

It's the same thing with The Pink Floyd, and I use them not because I'm a big fan but because they're the perfect example. Completely leaving aside any more discussion of Syd Barrett except to acknowledge that he was once part of the band, I say David Gilmour made that band complete, and everything they put out with him in the lineup, is to me, Pink Floyd. Now you can go see David Gilmour, Roger Waters, and Nick Mason on tour, and they'll all play your favorite Pink Floyd songs, but you can't see Pink Floyd in concert. I have family and friends who've gone to see Pink Floyd in concert in recent years when such a stage act was touring, but it wasn't the lineup from the albums, and as such, was basically just a cover band. You've got three of the original members all doing their own individual cover bands of the original.

Some say "hang it up." I think if I was one of those guys and made a living at being the ____ist or____er for Pink Floyd, or The Who, or The Eagles or whatever, I'd have a hard time simply stopping being that just because forty or fifty years went by. If they can still hack it, I wouldn't want to be the one to say they shouldn't. People who grew up with that stuff who couldn't afford to see them thirty of forty years ago who can now should get to, I guess. Since it started as "rock n roll," them still playing the same stuff in their 70's does diminish it a bit. It does make bands like Led Zeppelin look more legit as a rock band, however. I personally know a few baby boomers who would be pissed to hear that. The Rolling Stones seem to be kind of immune to this for whatever reason, but maybe that's because as much as this statement will piss some fans off, that band is Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and some other guys who probably don't matter so much.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
... This guy should get over it.

Ahem. This guy should Take It Easy.

Personally, I have the same opinion as Lebowski.

As a life long fan and have seen and read most everything about them I have never once heard of them referred to as the American Beatles. His entire Beatles Eagles comparison is rather pointless. As far as them still touring and charging astronomical prices is because people are paying the price and going. These guys even if not the original band are still filling arena's and stadiums. They are not playing the casino circuit. As far as the inner workings of the bands most people could give a rats ass who is making what money and who isn't. Who's part of the corporation and who isn't. Just play music.

After fifty some years you don't have to listen to a FM classic rock station very long before one of their songs pop up. I was rebelling against the old country back then too. My parents owned a small tavern and our house was attached to it. When you were in the house the juke box could always be heard. Always the old country from the 50's and 60's. Hour after hour day after day. I'd go to sleep to it.

Then it was Black Sabbath, Led Zepplin. James Gang, Uriah Heep that's what I would listen to in my room or out with friends. Then Take It Easy, Tequila Sunrise, Saturday Night, Old 55 came along and that was it for me. Like the guy said country rock was pretty much born and it allowed you to have both.

I saw them this year on my 50th Birthday in Indianapolis and it was one of the best concerts I've ever been to. The mixing and overall sound was fantastic.

Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Tim Schmidt, and Vince Gill (standing in for Glen Frey). No, it's not the same, but Vince is so good that if you didn't know it wasn't Glen, you wouldn't even think twice.

And most of them are a quarter century older than me and they are still kicking it.

3 hours worth - the entire Hotel California album (with strings and chorus) and then "everything else" as Don said before the intermission. A lot of far younger bands won't do three hours.

I saw them in 1994 in Detroit at Tiger Stadium with Glen Frey and Don Felder on the Hell Freezes Over tour. They were good then too.

My wife and I went to Hotel California tour in Tulsa at the BOK, we sat on the left side of the stage and watched, they all changed guitars between songs. It was a great concert have thought about finding another before they Quit touring again.

In memory …
“Hotel California (Eagles) 46and2 related”

https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...920071394#4920071394

I can understand the idea that it’s simply now Don Henley and friends. They certainly aren’t The Eagles.

By the same measure you could say the same thing about Rush and The Rolling Stones. Yes you could find a drummer to replace Charlie Watts but it’s not the same. The same for replacing Neil Peart.

All good things come to an end. Music isn’t immune.

So you can get on with your search, baby,
And I can get on with mine

And maybe someday we will find . . .

That it wasn't really wasted time

This article is about their recent performance in Des Moines, about three hours west of me. I did not attend.

From Joe Walsh: "I had a lot more fun being 20 in the '70s than being 70 in these '20s."

Complete article:

https://www.desmoinesregister....-moines/69659445007/

The Eagles played 'Hotel California' in front of a packed Wells Fargo Arena

Isaac Hamlet
Des Moines Register
8:16AM, Nov 18 2022

Thousands of fans checked in to Wells Fargo Arena to see The Eagles on Thursday night. Once inside, it was clear that some never wanted to leave.

When the classic rock band left the stage after 23 consecutive songs, the arena glowed from the light from hundreds of audience members' phones as the crowd attempted to entice the classic rock band back to the stage. As The Eagles took to the stage again, they rocked out to four additional songs.

The event was part of the band's "Hotel California" Tour, which kicked off in 2019. The tour includes the performances of the entirety of the band's celebrated "Hotel California" album, followed by more than a dozen more of the band's most memorable hits from "Take It to the Limit" to "Tequila Sunrise."

The show started with a curtain lowered over the stage. As the lights went down, the neon words "Hotel California" flickered to life on one of the arena screens as rain and thunder mingled with a few stray musical chords. A man came to the stage, cameras went close up on a record player as the man placed a vinyl on the player. The curtain raised and the album's title track was welcomed to a sea of applause.

Once "Hotel California" concluded, the band didn't waste any time before starting to show off the other eight songs from the album including "New Kid in Town," "Victim of Love" and "The Last Resort."

"That concludes the 'Hotel California' portion of the show because albums were only 40 minutes long back then," founding band member Don Henley said to the crowd after the first eight songs.

Henley proceeded to introduce several of the people on stage, the symphony orchestra at the back of the stage and the band's choral accompaniment for the night.

"Back there in the pretty robes, the Des Moines Choral Society, ladies and gentlemen."

After the choral society received its due applause Henley added, "We're going to change into our work clothes and then we're going to come back out here and play everything else we know."

Welcome to the stage, Deacon Frey'

Following a 20-minute intermission, the band returned to the stage and, after a performance of "Seven Bridges Road," the group invited a new performer to the stage.

"Ladies and gentlemen, will you please welcome to the stage, Deacon Frey," Henley called.

With that, Frey — the son of Eagles founder, the late Glenn Frey — took to the stage with the band to play "Take It Easy" and "Peaceful Easy Feeling." After the second song, Frey left the stage as a monochrome picture of his father filled the screen above the stage.

Henley introduced a few more of the main performers on stage, including guitarist Steuart Smith and singer-songwriter Vince Gill, who has performed with the band since 2017. After Henley's intro, the orchestra flared and Gill began to sing "Take It To the Limit."

“It’s interesting because in either case, because whether it’s my own show or The Eagles' show, it’s songs that have a lot of history to them, a lot of years to them," Gill told the Des Moines Register ahead of one of his solo shows earlier this year. “The reverence the audience has for the songs they love is important... You do want to please them and the things they plan to see and want to hear.”

A handful of songs later, guitarist Joe Walsh took some time to address the audience.

"I had a lot more fun being 20 in the '70s than being 70 in these '20s," he joked shortly before sending the band soaring into "Life's Been Good."

"We're gonna take things down and end on a mellow note," Henley said to the crowd as the night began to near its end.

"This year this band marks its 50th anniversary. That's a long time in this business. And in this season of Thanksgiving, I want to thank you for sticking with us through thick and thin."

As part of that thanks, Henley invited the audience to sing along with him to "Best of My Love" as the arena camera panned over couples from the crowd. After the song ran its course, the five remaining performers on stage took their bows, waved to the audience and before the arena lights came up, they were already gone.

Des Moines 'Hotel California' Tour setlist
"Hotel California"
"New Kid in Town"
"Life in the Fast Lane"
"Wasted Time"
"Wasted Time" (reprise)
"Victim of Love"
"Pretty Maids All in a Row"
"Try and Love Again"
"The Last Resort"
"Seven Bridges Road"
"Take It Easy"
"Peaceful Easy Feeling"
"One of Those Nights"
"Take It to the Limit"
"Witchy Woman"
"In the City"
"I Can't Tell You Why"
"Lying Eyes"
"Tequila Sunrise"
"Life's Been Good"
"Boys of Summer"
"Funk #49"
"Heartache Tonight"
"Rocky Mountain Way"
"Desperado"
"Already Gone"
"Best of My Love"


Isaac Hamlet covers arts, entertainment and culture at the Des Moines Register. Reach him at ihamlet@gannett.com or 319-600-2124, or follow him on Twitter @IsaacHamlet.

Reading this fantastic thread has left me a tad down, I just realized how old I am!

Went to an Eagles concert a few years back and Joe Walsh said one of the funniest things I've ever heard from a rocker..

"they all say I wrote this next song and so I guess it's true... not that I can remember doing it"

or something like that....

One of the most amazing things about these old rockers is that they are actually still alive... it gives me hope.

Good recap! Huh…country singer Vince Gill associated with the Eagles. That’s interesting, in a good way. Have always appreciated Gill.