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Thread: Remembering Glenn Frey

  1. #11
    Stuck on the Border AlreadyGone95's Avatar
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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Cameron Crowe's Rolling Stone article:
    http://www.rollingstone.com/music/fe...-king-20160121


    It was 1972, and "Take It Easy" was on the charts. The Eagles came to San Diego, where I was working for a local underground paper. I grabbed my photographer buddy Gary from school and made a plan. We were going to sneak backstage and grab an interview with this new group. I loved their harmonies, and the confident style that charged their first hit.


    Glenn Frey introduced the band: "We're the Eagles, from southern California." They were explosive, right off the top, opening with their a cappella rendition of "Seven Bridges Road." Then, this new band, filled with piss and vinegar, launched immediately into their hit. There was nothing "laid back" about them. No "saving the hit for last." They were a lean-and-mean American group, strong on vocals and stronger on attitude.

    Gary and I talked our way backstage with ease and found the band's road manager, who threw us all into a small dressing room where drummer-singer Don Henley, bassist Randy Meisner and guitarist Bernie Leadon took us through the story of the band. Every other sentence began with "And then Glenn..." Glenn Frey was the only guy not in the room.

    After about a half hour, the door whipped open and Frey walked in. He had a Detroit swagger, a memorable drawl and patter like a baseball player who'd just been called up to the majors. He was part musician, part tactician and part stand-up comic.

    It was immediately obvious that Glenn had his eye on the*big picture. He'd studied other bands, how they broke up or went creatively dry. He had a plan laid out. He even used that first interview to promote his friends — Jackson Browne, John David Souther and songwriter Jack Tempchin. His laugh and demeanor were infectious. Immediately, you wanted to be in his club.


    At the end of the interview, I asked the band to pose together. The photo is one of my favorites. It captures one of their earliest, happiest, freest moments. A band that would later brawl memorably was giddy and happy that night, arms wrapped around each other. The look on Glenn's face is priceless: This is my band, and we're on our way.

    Glenn and I exchanged phone numbers, and he stayed in touch. He brought me in early on the making of the Eagles' second album, Desperado. As I'd begun to do more and more work as a correspondent for Rolling Stone, he began to complain to me about the magazine calling the band "soft" or "laid-back," along with much of the East Coast literati. The Eagles, in my*time around them, were many things, but "laid-back" was not one of them.
    brother. It was easy to share your personal stuff with Glenn. He'd help you plot out the answers to your problems like a seasoned coach. He once laid out the psychology of getting and maintaining a buzz at a party. ("Two beers back to back, then one every hour and 15 minutes. ... You'll be loquacious, and all the girls will talk with you.")


    I found that I went to him often for gender-specific advice that would have stumped or even horrified my sister. When I once told him about a girl I was in love with from afar, a girl I was sure I needed to impress with a better "act," Frey reacted hugely. "No!" he said with a pirate's smile. "You don't need an act — all you need is to be you." He leaned in close. "If she can't smell your qualifications, move on."

    Frey was a big character, and as I began to write fiction, I often plucked liberally from things he'd told me. The above quote I gave to Mike Damone in*Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

    Glenn valued camaraderie, which was apparent whenever he was around crew and friends or in a recording session. Glenn and Don would coach the vocal takes like seasoned pros, giving sharp directions, as well as nicknames and athletic truisms worthy of John Wooden. Along with longtime friend and manager Irving Azoff, Glenn was also careful about keeping his band above financial water. He'd read too many biographies about genius musicians who were now broke. Early in the band's history, he took me aside. "I don't want to be super-rich; I don't need the big money," he once said. "I just want 1 million to spend on a house and a life, and 1 million to put in the bank and live off the interest. And then I got a life."

    Six months later, before playing a sold-out show in Oakland, he casually told me the good news. "Cameron, remember what I told you about the $2 million?" I nodded. "Got it. Now all I gotta do is make a buncha records that I would buy myself!"

    The sound of those records made for scores of hits, changed the way concerts and the music business would be conducted in*modern times, and also redefined what we now know as country music. None of this was by accident. Glenn was the playmaker. His and Henley's deep knowledge of sounds, of R&B and soul, country and pure rock, warmed up three different generations. Their success never even flagged during the decade-plus hiatus they took starting in 1980.


    Their 2013 documentary,*History of the Eagles, told the whole warts-and-all story. And in it, you see the Frey that his friends knew. Funny. Tough. Cynical. A ruleskeeper. Along the way, these scrappy carpetbaggers from Texas and Detroit wrote about Los Angeles with a clarity and wit that few have matched, in novels, music or movies. Critically, the East Coast critical intelligentsia continued to slight them, and sometimes even mock them.

    Frey gave up trying to please them long ago. The Beach Boys had the far more media-attractive tale of Brian Wilson and a troubled young genius' mythology of pain. The Eagles had Glenn and Don, an avalanche of public acceptance, fewer scandals and a cleareyed adult's view of the same California. They were, frankly, a winning team. Some never forgave them for their success. But that success, as Frey would explain to you, was always part of the plan. "You can be in the gutter talking about all your missed opportunities," he said, "or you can be successful, and pull the other guy out of the gutter."

    Frey made success look like a ballgame anybody could suit up and play with him. Within a half hour, he'd have given you a nickname. Because I made him laugh with an imitation of James Brown's MC ("Ladies and gentlemen, it is star time tonight. ..."), I was "Get Down Clown." And Glenn, who along with Henley made a regular habit of charming the ladies with gallant good manners, was "the Teen King." Because of his ability with charting Eagles harmonies, he was also "the Lone Arranger," and once, because he'd collected a small garbage bin filled with weed in his backyard, he was "Roach." Don Felder, his guitarist, was "Fingers." The other band members had a psychedelic ever-changing collection of nicknames that each had deep and swirling meanings. I forgot most of 'em, but Glenn never did.

    When I later moved in with Glenn and Henley for a couple of weeks*while they were writing the*One of These Nights*album, we talked about life and love and music for days on end. I watched as they incorporated their nighttime adventures into daytime classics. They worked meticulously on songs like "Lyin' Eyes" and "One of These Nights," often spending hours on a single word.

    And at one point, Glenn took me aside. We had the very conversation that appears in Almost Famous, when William is guided to leave some stuff off the record. Frey eventually capitulated. "Everything's on the record," he said. And then the famous Glenn smile. "Just make us look cool."


    In Jerry Maguire, Glenn played Dennis Wilburn, the general manager of the Arizona Cardinals. I had auditioned several other actors for the part. Somehow they all had a problem harassing and beating down Tom Cruise's character, who was then at his low point. Many were intimidated delivering soul-crushing lines to such a superstar. Glenn came in and had more fun harassing Cruise than a kid at summer camp. "It's just sports to me," he said.

    His turnaround at the end of the film was far sweeter for the vigor he put into the performance. He was an excellent actor with generous people skills, friends with the entire crew. For all those who worked with him, from the beginning to the end, he was the team captain who you could call late at night. Glenn was also never far from the Teen King, awash with the enthusiasm and wickedly fun humor of his youth.

    After the enormous critical and commercial victory of the band's masterpiece, Hotel California, Glenn also became a family man. He approached that role with the same verve of the kid who first got in a car and drove from Michigan to Laurel Canyon, spotted David Crosby on his first day and never looked back.


    For fans of Frey feeling the pain now, I have a simple suggestion. Enjoy a long-neck Budweiser, and put on some soul music. Something with great vocals, like Johnnie Taylor's "I've Been Born Again." Or a song that Glenn was so intent on playing for me that he drove back and forth on Sunset Boulevard, again and again, just to listen and study: Eddie Hinton's "Get Off in It."

    A last image. Working on our show Roadies, I was set on hiring Glenn to play the band's skilled but flighty manager, Preston. The word that came back was upsetting. Frey was in tough shape, hospitalized but fighting. I tried not to worry too much. Glenn Frey is, and always was, built for the fourth-quarter win. I last saw him over the summer, and I told him I wanted him to act again. He was enthusiastic. "I got an idea for a TV show," he said. "Kauai Five-0.*I'm Hawaii's toughest cop, and I live in*Kauai. And in the off-season ..." There was that pirate smile again. "... I get to be in the Eagles. It's a good life, right?"
    Last edited by AlreadyGone95; 01-26-2016 at 12:18 AM.
    -Kim-


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  2. #12
    Stuck on the Border shunlvswx's Avatar
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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    My heart breaks when I saw what Joe said about Glenn. He is soo right. What can you say.

    http://www.billboard.com/articles/ne...awards-winners

    Other artists expressing their appreciation for synchs included Joe Walsh. Three days after Eagles bandmate Glenn Frey’s passing, Walsh was on hand to co-present the award for best use of music by a brand. Talking to Billboard before the ceremony, he declined to comment on Frey’s death. “I haven’t said anything because there are no words,” he said.
    ETA: I just saw the other post about this.

  3. #13
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Randy's statement to the Daily News:
    Late Eagles legend Glenn Frey spent his final weeks battling pneumonia in a New York hospital, his former band mate Randy Meisner told the Daily News Tuesday.

    Still, Frey's death at 67 on Monday came as a "complete shock" to Meisner, he said in an exclusive phone interview.

    "I heard he wasn't feeling well, but I didn't think it was that serious. Then we heard he got pneumonia," Meisner said.

    "I knew he had some problems with his stomach, but I figured he'd be OK and get out of the hospital and do his thing again," he said.

    "All day yesterday, I was like a zombie. He was the last person I expected to go first. He was such an energetic guy," Meisner said.

    "This is very sad for me," he said. "I'm sad we couldn't take it to the limit one more time."

    Frey battled colitis most of his life and took a turn for the worse in November, his good friend Bob Seger told the Detroit Free Press.

    The Eagles singer and songwriter was placed in a medically induced coma during his treatment at Columbia University Medical Center in Manhattan, he said.

    "First he caught one set of pneumonia, then he caught a very virulent set of pneumonia," Seger told the newspaper.

    "They were trying like hell to keep him alive. He'd been at Columbia University Medical Center since November," Seger said.

    The band's longtime manager Irving Azoff "pulled every ace out of the hole — he had the eight best specialists working on Glenn. About a month ago, they had to throw up their hands," Seger said.

    Meisner, 69, recalled meeting Frey at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and naming their iconic band after seeing an eagle fly overhead while hanging out and meditating in the desert in the early 1970s.

    "Glenn, with his playing and his personality, he was one special person. He was the frontman on stage. He was a good talker and really good with people. I was more shy, staying in the background," Meisner said.

    When Meisner suffered his own medical scare in 2013 and 2014, his Eagles bandmates helped him out financially, he said.

    "I aspirated some food into my throat and choked," he said. "I was in a coma for a little while, too. They paid for everything, me being in the hospital."

    As the oldest in the band, Meisner thought he might be the first to go —not Frey.

    "He was so energetic and full of life. He has his children, I was so happy for him. It's really sad," he said.

    Meisner said he'd been looking forward to traveling to the Kennedy Center Honors that was postponed last month because of Frey's health.

    "I was looking forward to this one. I was going to go to the Kennedy awards and was thinking, 'Man this could be the last time we'll all be together.' Now that really hurts my heart that we couldn't be together one more time," Meisner told The News.

    A statement on the band’s website Monday said "The Frey family would like to thank everyone who joined Glenn to fight this fight and hoped and prayed for his recovery."

    The official cause of death was listed as complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.

    Azoff reportedly told The Wrap that Frey's health problems were due in part to his medications for his inflammatory disorder.

    "The colitis and pneumonia were side effects from all the meds," Azoff said. "He died from complications of ulcer and colitis after being treated with drugs for his rheumatoid arthritis which he had for over 15 years.”

    Azoff declined to specify the medication in question but said Frey suffered from joint pain that attacked his knees and hands.

    "I couldn't believe he went to so quick," Meisner said. "When I heard yesterday, I started crying for a long time. You're like brothers in a band like that. Sometimes we got in arguments, but it was like a marriage, we all loved each other. I sure will miss the guy. He was really fun."

    Always in our hearts, Never forgotten

  4. #14
    Stuck on the Border AlreadyGone95's Avatar
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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Graham Nash talks about David Bowie and Glenn Frey.
    http://www.billboard.com/articles/co...wie-glenn-frey

    Not a whole lot about Glenn, but:

    On his beautiful new album, This Path Tonight, due April 15, dual Rock And Roll Hall Of Famer Graham Nash, who is enshrined with both Crosby, Stills and Nash and the Hollies, opens up on his own mortality.

    So when Nash presented This Path Tonight*at L.A.'s landmark Village studios, where he recorded the recorded the album, it took on even more poignancy given the recent two deaths of two of his fellow musical icons, David Bowie and Glenn Frey.

    Before he played the album Wednesday night (Jan. 20) for a gathering of friends, family and industry-ites, Nash sat down with Billboard for an extensive conversation. During that time the 74-year-old Nash reflected on his experiences over the years with both Bowie and Frey and the thing that makes him saddest about the loss of the two greats.


    Nash reflected on his more personal relationship with Frey, who he knew for years. "Glenn I've known since the late '60s, early '70s because he was growing up in Laurel Canyon, making music the same that we all were at the time and I hung with him several times in the journey of the Eagles," he said. "And we actually lived on the same island in the Hawaiian chain for 30 years so I did see him occasionally."
    What upsets me is what songs were almost finished in Glenn's mind that we'll never hear because he hasn't demoed them or presented them to make a record of them or maybe he hasn't even sung them to his old lady or his family," Nash wonders. "It was the same when*John [Lennon]died, it was the same when*George [Harrison]died, what songs were in their head at that moment that we'll never hear."

    I think that we all agree about the music that we'll never get to hear.
    Last edited by AlreadyGone95; 01-26-2016 at 12:28 AM.
    -Kim-


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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    I'm afraid the Lefsetz article, which treated Glenn as a symbol rather than a man, and over-emphasised the alleged 'hatred' of the band, did nothing for me at all.

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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    The Cameron Crowe story is my favourite as it is so vivid. I wanted more.

    Looking at my saved links...

    Wade Biery, who several board members met when he was playing in Glenn's band.
    http://www.stillmusic.com/?p=1880

    Bob Seger:
    http://www.theoaklandpress.com/artic...MENT/160119510

    Alison Ellwood:
    http://www.rollingstone.com/music/ne...piece-20160119

    I was going to quote just parts of it but then the context was lost.
    Glenn Frey's interviews in the unvarnished 2013 History of the Eagles documentary can best be described as delightfully unrepentant. Over the course of the candid two-part film, currently streaming on Netflix, Frey, who died Monday at 67, pulls no punches when discussing the band's formation, its lineup changes and especially his fractured relationship with guitarist Don Felder.

    Alison Ellwood, who directed the film and sat with Frey during his series of interviews in 2012, says his outspoken commentary inspired the other band members to open up.


    "Glenn was the leader of the band in getting stuff done. He was the doer. He understood when we agreed to do [the film] that it had to be honest, that we're not making a fluff piece. He said, 'I don't want a fluff piece,'" Ellwood tells Rolling Stone. "His willingness to be completely honest, warts and all, made a huge difference in the film and set a precedent for the others. Joe Walsh, after seeing a first cut of the film, asked to be re-interviewed, because he realized how open Glenn was being."


    Ellwood cites Frey's recollection of listening to Jackson Browne compose "Doctor My Eyes" as her favorite moment of the documentary. Frey lived above Browne at the time and was tortured by the songwriter's incessant fiddling with the 1972 single. In the end, he learns the trick to composing: "elbow grease," Frey calls it in the film.


    "Glenn not only had the knowledge, the wisdom, the insight and the soul to understand that, he actually implemented that," Ellwood says. "A lot of the myth of rock & roll is that it's seat of your pants. . .but these guys worked hard. And Glenn had a vision."


    It was a vision for both the band's albums and Ellwood's film. She says that when her team approached Frey with audio of his infamous onstage blowup with Felder in 1980 — in which Frey threatens to kick the guitarist's ass — he offered no hesitation in using it in the documentary.
    "We told Glenn we had it, and he said, 'Go for it, man,'" Ellwood says. "He was brave."

    Last edited by UndertheWire; 01-25-2016 at 07:17 PM.

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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Yes, those are better. And I've been annoyed at the Guardian but they did have this:

    http://www.theguardian.com/music/mus...les-spark-plug

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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Speaking of recognition for solo work, here is a nice article about The One You Love:

    http://somethingelsereviews.com/2016...-one-you-love/

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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Quote Originally Posted by Freypower View Post
    Speaking of recognition for solo work, here is a nice article about The One You Love:

    http://somethingelsereviews.com/2016...-one-you-love/
    That's a great article and very true of Glenn's talents. If I might add, the first time I heard "The One You Love" it struck me how much it reminded me of "I Can't Tell You Why" in mood and in style. I think that goes to show how much Glenn really shaped the finished version of Timothy's song.

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    Stuck on the Border Jonny Come Lately's Avatar
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    Default Re: Remembering Glenn Frey

    Cameron Crowe's piece is absolutely great, he's definitely put some time and thought into it and it's so personal as well, which makes it even better. I think I agree with FP in finding that Lefestz's piece doesn't quite hit the mark. I agree it overemphasises the 'haters', but I don't think the analysis of this hits the mark either (to me, admittedly as a non-American, I suspect the East Coast/West Coast rivalry was/is probably more significant than the factors he does mention). However, the article did prompt a lovely comment from Bernie, so I can't complain.

    I have listened to a few Eagles songs but not a full album just yet I'll probably play at least one tomorrow, leaning towards the debut album right now. Most Of Us Are Sad actually came into my head today actually before I'd even read Bernie's comment, so I think I'll listen to it again for sure.

    I have to admit I was listening to some non-Eagles music on the train this evening and there were a few songs that rather got to me. I was listening to Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here album (which as you may know is a huge personal favourite of mine) and I was moved by Shine On You Crazy Diamond and the title track more than usual. It's worse though when you're not expecting it - I was listening to a bit of R.E.M. and I was reminded of Glenn when I heard Man On The Moon ('See you in heaven if you make the list') and Find The River ('Watch the road and memorise this life that passed before my eyes'). Those lines caught me off guard and I was pretty closing to welling up.

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