Henley certainly gets bothered about almost calling Led Zeppelin "The Led Zeppelin" in the doc, so maybe the band had something against "the".
Henley certainly gets bothered about almost calling Led Zeppelin "The Led Zeppelin" in the doc, so maybe the band had something against "the".
I've decided that how I'm going to handle it is this... They are a band, not a flock of birds or a football team. So using substitution, when it's appropriate to say 'band', I'll say 'Eagles'. When its appropriate to say 'the band', I'll say 'the Eagles'. At no time will I ever say 'The Eagles'
When listing thing alphabetically, The Eagles puts them way down the list. I never know if I should look in the 'E' section or 'T' section, because I never know if the person publishing the list knows they aren't The Eagles.
In general, I think it looks stupid to put the word 'The' in the name of a group. I can see why The Rolling Stones did it, sort of, but the rest that have the word 'the' in the title baffle me. It's not like anyone tries to make it The Philadelphia Eagles or The Pittsburgh Steelers, yet James Harrison plays for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
I think our guys have the right of it, and I doubt it would be such a big issue except Felder made such a big deal of it being 'The' (if I remember correctly).
VK
You can't change the world but you can change yourself.
There is a Mancunian radio presenter who nearly always calls the band Theagles.
Apparently, he saw a local Lancashire band , cover an Eagles tune with the introduction "This next song was originally sung ba't Th' Eagles"
It's been pointed out to me that Glenn has never introduced a concert with "Hi! We're Eagles from California"
[quote=Funk 50;303067]There is a Mancunian radio presenter who nearly always calls the band Theagles.
Apparently, he saw a local Lancashire band , cover an Eagles tune with the introduction "This next song was originally sung ba't Th' Eagles"
It's been pointed out to me that Glenn has never introduced a concert with "Hi! We're Eagles from California"[/quote]
Well no, he doesn't, because he's talking normally so he uses normal speech. In any case he hasn't done that since the reunion.
For the record NO football (soccer) team is called 'The' because the vast majority of team names are the name of a place. Very occasionally you will hear 'the Arsenal' as in 'one-nil to the Arsenal'. Arsenal are almost alone in having been named for where they were founded (Woolwich Arsenal) & then not changing it to a more specific locality.
I have seen video in which Steve Martin, while reminiscing about the old days at the (The?) Troubadour, recalls Glenn insisting that the name was Eagles, not The Eagles. Steve commented that he thought it should be the former.
There are lots of bands who don't officially have "the" in the name, but they don't get all hot and bothered when "the" gets used/capitalized. I'm not sure why it annoys the Eagles so much.
I will say this: you'd sound a little silly if you didn't use "the" in front of "eagles" in normal speech regardless of whether it's the band name or the animal because like it or not, the band named themselves after those animals and they have to follow the rules that apply to the common noun they chose as a result. As Funk 50 has pointed out, the band members themselves realize this and use "the" when speaking about the band.
The argument about "the" is nothing more than a semantic issue and I truly hope the band considers its misuse nothing more than a mild annoyance (the T-shirts being done as a joke).
What I take away from all the hoopla is this: do not capitalize "the" in written usage as it is not a part of the name officially, and do not put "the" at all when putting the name of the band in isolation such as on a list. Both of these I keep in mind when writing about them, but neither matters when speaking about them.
Funny aside: recently on a Doctor Who forum, there was a multi-page thread heatedly debating whether the character's name was "Doctor" or "The Doctor". It's not just our guys who care! lol
This is true even for the non-geographically rooted club names - north of the border in Scotland I have never heard people refer to 'The Celtic'. Rangers is a bit different but even then it tends to be either 'The Gers' or simply Rangers.
However, 'the' is very widely used as part of the nicknames of most clubs, with obvious examples from the English Premier League include Liverpool (The Reds), Arsenal (The Gunners), Newcastle United (The Magpies) and Crystal Palace (The Eagles (!)). However there are a few that don't feature 'the' as part of the nickname, such as Tottenham Hotspur ('Spurs' is the near universal nickname) and Wolverhampton Wanderers (Wolves).
I am currently sitting in my living room with the window open and I can hear the constant chirping of a bird in the garden. It made me think of the Eagles because it reminded me of the bird chirps from Earlybird!
It's typical Irish summer weather here today - Overcast, humid, windy and can't decide whether or not to rain. I heard several people say "Strange weather out".
Made me smile
"The more I know, the less I understand...."
Don't crack up, bend your brain, see both sides, throw off your mental chains"