Well, if Elliot did, in fact, go back on his word, then I don't blame Don - I would have been pissed too!![]()
Well, if Elliot did, in fact, go back on his word, then I don't blame Don - I would have been pissed too!![]()
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
I picked up "To The Limit" yesterday & am already almost halfway through it. I don't really see it as negative toward Don Henley, but that is so far!
My opinion so far is that it goes into the management & the recording deals way too much for my interest, but I guess that's a big part of the story. What I find more interesting is the early days of forming the band, where they came from, how they got to LA & what happened during the recording of the albums. That stuff is a good read, as well as stories about some of their relationships with Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, Crosby, Stills & Nash; all interesting stuff. According to the Acknowledgments, Henley, Walsh, & Meisner were interviewed for the book, which could explain the lack of information about Glenn.
It isn't negative towards Henley. It is entirely pro-Henley. The only negativity occurred when Eliot published a new edition of the book & Henley complained about it. Eliot then wrote a long addendum where he basically trashed Henley's behaviour.
I think it is possible to write a decent book about the Eagles and include rather more 'information' or analysis about Glenn than Eliot chose to give, even if he did not have access to Glenn. My point is that Eliot appeared to gloss over or minimise Glenn's work.
Just received a notice from Amazon that the new Eagles book will be released 10/4 instead of 10/11.
They also offered a new Fleetwood Mac book that is suppose to be release on the same day, so I preordered that.
Well after writing this, I received two more e mails from Amazon and now I am so confused that I'll just let you know when I get both books.![]()
Last edited by AzEaglesFan; 09-25-2011 at 06:08 PM.
Thanks for the info, AzEF. Based on what I'm hearing from you all that have read it, I guess I'm going to go ahead and order the book. I figured that I would unless you all had convinced me that it was hardcore suckage!![]()
"People don't run out of dreams: People just run out of time ..."
Glenn Frey 11/06/1948 - 01/18/2016
You are absolutely 100% correct...the book is completely "PRO-HENLEY"..until Don started complaining..BTW, in that book, doesn't Eliot mention Henley getting married to some TV news girl, or am I not remembering this correctly???.....seems to me I've heard people say that Don has only been married to Sharon, but yet I seem to recall something said in that book about a wedding...?????????![]()
The only wedding I remember was the one to Sharon. However, I have a 'pre-release' version of the book (very similar to what someone posted last week from ebay) that I got at a flea market a long time ago. It does NOT reference Don's incident with the underage hooker. Just that there was an incident of some kind and that he had been set up. The entire portion is a direct quote from Don. And, there is no appendix or addendum that trashes Don's behavior. There's an acknowledgement in the back that gives a very gracious thank you to Don for his cooperation. Until I joined this board and read these reviews, I never realized it was different.
VK
You can't change the world but you can change yourself.
I have the book in front of me now. The breakdown of the addendum:
According to Eliot, Henley "was furious that while I had eliminated the offending passages, I had still referred, in the most general way and without any details or incriminating material, to the episode [regarding his trouble with the law in 1980] he had so vehemently objected to" (271).
Henley also claimed there were lies in the book such as the statement that he had a perm (I am using Eliot's example here, which was presumably given because it is the most ridiculous. However, it is Eliot who begins to look a bit ridiculous when he proudly states he would not give in to the pressure to hide the fact that Don had a perm and spent half a day defending this choice. Oh my gosh, really?? This is what Eliot considers a noteworthy example of his journalistic integrity? LOL).
Note: Eliot is referring to the original edition, not a later modified one. Henley was displeased with the original. However, Eliot didn't realize this until after he had already written the nice thank-yous and sent it to the publisher. In fact, Eliot says he believed Henley would like the book since he had so much input into it, and that he was completely blind-sided by Henley's rage.
What it boils down to is that Henley felt personally betrayed by Eliot, and reacted badly... to put it mildly.
According to Eliot, Henley first had his lawyers threaten a lawsuit and then, when it became apparent that such threats were impotent, began a campaign to sabotage the book's sales. This campaign consisted of Henley pressuring stores not to allow book signings or at the very least not promote the book. He apparently told any book or record store thinking of doing a book signing with Eliot that he would do an album signing there himself if Eliot's appearance were cancelled.
Eliot then places the blame on Henley's antics for the fact that his book did not sell well.
Is Henley a scapegoat for Eliot's book's failure or did Henley really damage its sales? In my opinion, Henley probably damaged its sales to a degree, but not enough to cause the book's sales to drop worldwide. I'm afraid he damaged his dignity much more than Eliot's book sales; indeed, the media reporting on his determined efforts to quash the book might have even piqued interest in it. I imagine Eliot is misguided in laying all the blame for the book's failure at Henley's door.
At any rate, Henley's behavior backfired considerably. It inspired Eliot to publish an "updated" version of the book with this addendum which not only detailed Henley's sabotage attempts and made him out to be a frothing-at-the-mouth irrational and hypocrital jerk, but also devoted a paragraph to giving details about the incident that Henley did not want even vaguely referred to. Ouch.
Me, I always read such things wondering what the REAL story is about what went down between them. Henley doesn't seem like the type to go ballistic for no good reason. There's always more to it than folks are willing to tell you... and that includes Eliot.
This all sounds really petty. Henley overreacted. I mean to get upset over the perm. OMG. His lawyers would have sued if there were grounds for it. The book made Henley look great. I don't know what he was complaining about.According to Eliot, Henley first had his lawyers threaten a lawsuit and then, when it became apparent that such threats were impotent, began a campaign to sabotage the book's sales. This campaign consisted of Henley pressuring stores not to allow book signings or at the very least not promote them. He apparently told any book or record store thinking of doing a book signing with Eliot that he would do an album signing there himself if Eliot's appeareance were cancelled.
Sometimes I think Henley overthinks things. I mean if he didn't mention these things, nobody would even give a rats ass about his perm or the incident with the underage girl. I even heard him admit to the incident in a TV interview, I believe on "60 Minutes". I even think the interview is on YouTube.
Don needs to chill. Sometimes if you just ignore things like this they go away. He made it worse by overreacting & bringing attention to it.