Great doc, but I'd like to know...
Any details in naming the band (I thought that would have been a key mention in such a movie), and if Meisner and Leadon were asked to join the reunion.
shareThere was a PBS documentary recently about The Troubadour, the famous LA music club that was THE place to be in the early 70s if you were a musician. It's called "Troubadours: Carole King / James Taylor & The Rise of the Singer-Songwriter." Very informative, especially since the Eagles documentary mentioned The Troubadour and how important it was.
Steve Martin was around there then, playing the banjo and doing his act. This was around 1970. Glenn Frey was there a lot, as he said.
Martin says he and Frey were talking when Frey said (IIRC):
"I know a great name for a band: Eagles."
"The Eagles?"
"No. EAGLES."
I guess at some point Frey acquiesced to the use of the article.
The LA rock movement in the early 1970s was pretty bankrupt if the Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne and the Eagles were the flag-bearers. When I'm watching this documentary, I'm thinking real rock was dead in LA in the formative years of the Eagles. James Taylor, Carol King, and Joanie Mitchell were well established east coast performers.
The Eagles were a pop act, nothing more.
Who's High Pitch?
A perfect reason to use the "Ignore this user" link.
shareIn answer to your original question, oscarflix, I remember either Frey or Henley saying that Meisner and Leadon were not asked back because the 1994 Hell Freezes Over event was a "resumption" of the 1980 line-up and not a "reunion." Plus, those greedy skunks would have to pay Meisner and Leadon if they included them.
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It also wouldn't surprise me that Frey/Henley didn't want Bernie and Randy back because they didn't 'look as good as they used to". IE: Bernie was losing his hair and put on some weight, Randy's hair was getting grey and he was also putting on a few pounds.
Just my opinion. I think Frey and Henley were all about image at that point. Both of them had been in the public eye post-Eagles and kept looking good. Bernie and Randy were long forgotten by 1994. And it was probably cheaper to bring back T.Schmidt.
More to the fact that Frey couldn't stand either of them.
Frey feuded with Leadon...with Randy (which turned into a fist fight backstage at one point) & of course with Felder, which they detailed in the doc.
Leadon was asked along and he is/was on the tour. There were some things about this documentary that just don't sit right. I see "The History Of The Eagles" as Henley and Frey's response to Felder's book "Heaven And Hell..." A couple of things that are questionable - Frey claims "Take It To The Limit was our first number 1..." not true; "Best Of My Love" was their first #1, "Take It to The Limit" only made it to #4. They also talk about how Irving Azoff had to take Don Felder out to dinner so they could put Don Henley's lead vocal on "Victim Of Love" because Felder wanted to sing it and the rest of the band didn't like his voice. This doesn't jive with "history" as the "Hotel California" album has "VOL Is Five Piece Live" etched in the close out groove on it. According to a 1980 interview with Joe Walsh he said Bill Symzcyk put that on the album because the track "Victim Of Love" was recorded live with no overdubbing - Walsh elaborated "even my guitar solo was live, no over-dubbing on it at all..." If that track was "live" in the studio then the story about them putting Henley's vocal on it in Felder's absence doesn't fit. I wouldn't put it past Henley/Frey/Azoff to concoct a story like that to get back at Felder.
shareDon Felder on Victim of Love:
"Victim of Love" was one of those songs. I remember we went in the studio and we recorded it live with five guys playing. The only thing that wasn't played in a live session was the lead vocal and harmony on the choruses. Everything else was recorded live."
http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/don_felder/
And yes, Glenn Frey was wrong about Tale it to the Limit being their first #1. I think I've seen that it was their first Gold single, so he must just have got mixed up.
The documentary was commissioned by the Eagles so to some extent it was controlled by Frey, Henley and Azoff, but they claim they gave the filmmakers freedom to make the film the filmmakers wanted. It certainly shows more warts than a puff-piece.
I've read that the settlement of the lawsuits between Felder and Henley/Frey included a non-disclosure agreement and that may expain why there was no mention of the lawsuits.
I'm not certain "Victim of Love" sounds any more live than the rest of the album. I understand why they wanted all the drums to be miked up. But, I'm not disagreeing with your account.
It's a really good track, and there are breaks in the intro.
That's interesting.
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