Never knew they hired a mansion to finish writing Hotel California. That is amazing
Never knew they hired a mansion to finish writing Hotel California. That is amazing
Thanks, UTW -really interesting to get an insight into their process. Just goes to show how in tandem Don and Glenn were.
...Well it sure makes you wonder the things that some people will say. They can see black and white but they don't seem to notice the grey...
Thanks UTW for that!!! I never knew about the Miami recording and that was an awesome read.
~*Amanda*~
"So often times it happens that we live our lives in chains and we never even know we have the key."
Many thanks, UtW. This is news to me, about them renting a house at 5242 N Bay Road*. I thought they were staying in Golden Beach, at 461 Ocean Blvd. - and they were, but not exclusively it seems.
This touches on the actual hard copy of the HC lyrics, which are being sold by Ed Sanders (ex-Fug, author of a book on Manson and an extensive, though unreleased tome on the Eagles). This article reminds me that one of the women who ran Home at Last said *she* owned a copy of the hardwritten lyrics to HC.
*A wealthy enclave called LaGorce - Barry Gibb has lived there with his family for decades; his brothers had homes close by. Jimmy Page lived there for a short time, but couldn't stand the tourist boats going by each day and a fellow on a loudspeaker talking about him!
Here's the rest of the article:
The Eagles already had recorded three hit albums and had five Top 40 singles when they first came to South Florida in August 1974 to record “One of These Nights.”
The band did much of its best work in Florida.
“We’d always get more of a swamp sound in Florida,” Szymczyk says. “The best thing about working and living in Florida is it got them out of their hometown, and by doing so made them a hell of a lot more comfortable. They were in a much more creative, non-hassle environment than in L.A. They wrote more because they were interrupted less.”
It wasn’t all work. The band never recorded on Sundays. Group members, especially Frey and Henley, were sports fans and Szymczyk, a Dolphins season ticket holder, took them to all the home games. The band members talked in sports terms, calling Szymczyk “Coach” and “The Don Shula of Rock ‘n’ Roll.”
Along with the rock ‘n’ roll, there was plenty of sex and drugs. All anyone will say about that is, “There was a lot of debauchery with that band.”
The band and crew rented several homes in the area, the most popular being 461 Ocean Blvd. in Golden Beach, where Eric Clapton had stayed while recording his classic 1974 album, which he named after the address. “Everyone wanted to stay in Eric Clapton’s house,” Szymczyk recalls.
They liked the area so much that after finishing each record, they put their beds, TVs, pillows and even a favorite coffee pot and grinder in storage so everything was quickly available when they returned to make the next record.
Each record was more successful than the previous one - and more emotionally and psychologically difficult to make.
By the time the Eagles set up camp in Szymczyk’s own Bayshore Studios in Coconut Grove in late 1977 to make “The Long Run,” the pressure to feed the beast was immense.
“Every album from ‘On the Border’ on,” says producer Szymczyk, “when we’d convene, we were very aware of the two-edged pressure sword, peer pressure from (the music industry) and pressure from the public. It got bigger, so now what do we do?”
Szymczyk notes that “On the Border” took three months to record; “One of These Nights”, six; “Hotel California”, nine. “The Long Run” took 18 months over nearly three years.
Perfectionists as they were, band members became obsessed with every little detail, literally laboring for hours over syllables. Egos and patience were stretched to the limit.
Szymczyk realized this was the Eagles’ swan song.
At the beginning of “The Long Run” sessions, Szymczyk thought the band had another two or three albums in it. “But in the middle, I knew it was over. For us to do the live record (in 1980) was a minor miracle.”
Szymczyk won’t pull skeletons from any closets. He attributes the demise of the band in 1980 to “friction amongst the band members themselves, an `I’m tired of dealing with you’ mentality. And you could apply that to any two people in any combination.”
Pressures within the band remained long after they reunited. Felder, who grew up in Gainesville, was removed from the band and wrote a good memoir about his experiences. Frey died earlier this year from complications of colitis and rheumatoid arthritis. On Sunday, band members Frey, Henley, Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit were awarded Kennedy Center honors by President Obama. But even that was tinged with the typical controversy that has always surrounded the band: Felder thought it was wrong that he and original members Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon were not honored in the ceremony.
Very interesting article! I never knew about 461 Ocean Blvd either!
Thanks UtW and NMB!
"They will never forget you 'till somebody new comes along"
1948-2016 Gone but not forgotten
The last time I saw the band, in Brisbane, before The Long Run Don told the story about recording in Florida at Eric Clapton's place. 'Was it Avenue or Boulevard'? he mused.
'Boulevard', I said. I was directly below him.
'Boulevard, thank you' he responded. He didn't look at me but he heard me clearly.
That's MY special Henley memory, that and the wave I gave him at the end which he returned.
Possibly the wrong thread for this but this Friday at 20:30 on Sky Arts TV channel here in the U.K, there is a documentary on the Eagles which appears to be a new one.
It's part of Sky Arts 'Discovery' series. Although only 30 mins, I will definitely be watching.
One of the co-founders of the Eagles former manangment company, Front Line Management, has died; Howard Kaufman. I don't think he had any involvement with them after they reformed.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/howard-kaufman-dies/
I'm glad the article explained the evolution of Front Line b/c it was very difficult to understand (for me, anyway):
Kaufman and Azoff created Front Line Management in 1974, where their roster included the Eagles, Steely Dan and Jimmy Buffett. Nine years later, Azoff left to become president of MCA Records, where he stayed until 1989, and Kaufman formed HK Management. They merged and revived the name in 2005, and sold it to Ticketmaster in 2008, at which point Azoff became its CEO.