JUNE 75/VOL 5; ISSUE 9/6{l cents

"l want to sbep with you in some chocolate tonisht," Glenn Frcy sings in impromptu addition to the lvric of "Peiceful Easy Feelin." and the crowd shrieis. with delisht tor this iE the Hershey Park Arena ', th Eagles are playing in HershsY, Pennsvlvania, "Chocolate Town, U'S'A." home of

"Right All the oxcuses are thero: dope, women. Or the businesst 'Oh, the business is so hard, of course I'm not makin' it.' L,A.'s got every kinda

to WoHman Jack from Mexico, three Listninq -in

o'clock about rock and roll.

the world famous Hershey Chocolate Factory, whose smokestacks sp6,r, out cocoa fumes that dtift down Chocolato Avenue, past the lampposts with globs

the shape of chocolate drops, and sttle into th cracks and corners of th town so thoroughly that not only the air outside but closed rooms and the insides of dresser drawers reek of the rich brown

it is yourse/f. Granted, there's a lotta people who were very good who didn't make it; they iust didn't have the right tornporament. I ws determined to make it. The music thing, when all is said and dono, it /s a business. lt's a weird combination of art and dollars. The opportunities are there, but il you're not smart you're gonna get ripped off. lt's as simplg 8s that. Rock and roll is a business. Rock and roll music
is marketed like deodorant or detergent.
masses would never get to hear

reason an' crutch." "The only thing you can blame if you don't make

hours until the Wolfman had gone through his playlist and would put "Go Now" on again. Dreaming
Glenn saw,the Boatles twice at Detroit's Olympia Hall. He had this fantasy about someday selling out that hall himself, He started to play the guitar, and

the morning; staying awake anothet thre

began

sesisions. "seeger was cool, I was never

to

hang around Bob Segor's recording

but he likd me, and he let me come to

in his band,

stuff. The twelve thousand or so young peopl in the Hershey Park Arena tonight, residonts of Hershey and suirounding burghs. seem revivified by the blast of fresh California air wafting at them. as it were, through the Eagles' bank of amplifiers; they suck up the aira emanating from the stage as if it were the very breath of life. This group has brought them more than music. But of course! Any band ready to graduate to the top rank of rock has to offer its lans more than first rate tunes and licks; it must present an artistic vision of reality, a compelling way of life for its admirers to emulate and aspire to. The Eagles-who,

"Of

course

it /,as to be

marketed or the it, but somtimes it's

with a month-old number one single, a

year-old

album still on the charts, its predecessor reentering them and the latest album shipping gold, are most certainly making their push into that heady upper reoion-have one of the most attractive gestalts ever *iih *hich to bedazzle crowds: a marriage of the California Oream with the Romance of the Open Road, Dressed in denim and coiton tee-shirts, they work their roles expertly; it's hard to tell where they leave off and the audience begins-with the essential exception that the Eagles are supposedly possessors of the secrets of cars, sun, movement and en mass to extract them from the music' ln a logical paradox, the crowd gets most frenzied when Glenn launches the lvric ad-vising "Take lt Easy;" and by the time the band sings "Already Gone," the kids from Hershey are dancing in the aisles, sitting on each other's shoulders, screaming approval, and moving in unison

business separate. remember we are primarily musicians and songwriters. "And to make it, you either go to New York or to L.A., depending upon where you were brought up, where your head is at an'what kinda image you wanna project. For me, L.A. is definitely the center of what's happening now, the focus of excitement. There's that romance that's alwavs been there, like Horace Greeley said: 'Go West, young man, go West.' L.A. rock is different fiom New York rock. New York rock is...decadent,.,chaotic...surreal.,," Sometimes it's hard to

hard

to keep the art and the

Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther. By the time the Eagles were assembled, Glenn was pretty confident of the simple image he wanted to proiect.

some sessions, when he was recordin' four-track. Ho let me play maracas, an' on one song he let me play acoustic guitar," After moving to L.A., Glenn formed Longbranch

"How about if we say'slicke/?"

"Whatever. There's a delinite polarity."

"is

"The most critical songwriting," Glenn offers, going on in the living rooms of Southern "Rod Stewart's moving to L.A. Elton John's

California."

remembers, " 'Live your trip.' lt's a lot easier for us, bein' the same Deople onstage as we are off. lt's easier to draw the line an' know where you're at. There comes a moment when all of a sudden you're receiving simultaneous love from fifteen thousand people, it's pourin' into your body in a gigantic orgasm, an'you're drenched in sweat-allright, then you can draw the line an' say,'that's me.' An' I think it's .lust that all of us chose to remain the same people onstage as we were off. So we didn't bring any kinda schizophrenia into it. lt's not like puttin' makeup on, an'goin'in front of an audiencel Like a young actress would, who sees herself on television

"somebody told us

a long time ago," he

in' digs how good she looks all

madeup an'

from the dull and deadly boring and towards some

bittersweet tequila sunrise. What a great band they are tonight, heating this

like human waves-they, too, would like to be already gone, on the road to another town, away
hockey rink

"The-Band moved to L.A. Neil's moved back from San Francisco." "lt's very romantic," Don says, "lt gets a hold on ya, You love it, an' you hate it. lt's a whore, but it's a fertile mother. L.A. is more American to me. L.A., to me, is what,America is all about." "You know," Glenn says, "it's got New York mixed in it too." "There's a line in this song on our new album, 'Hollywood Waltz': 'She looks another year older from too many lovers who used her and ran/But sot,re nights she looks like an angel, she's always willin' to hold you again'-and it's true. The nights after it rains, Los Angeles is the most beautiful city in

moved to L.A."

highlighted, an' wants to look like that all the r,mel Tdat breeds a schizophrenia that I don't think any of us wanted to deal with. "Of course, doin' it as yourselves, it takes a lot longer. At first I didn't think anybody would be interested in seein' a group dressed in tee-shirts an' ieans, just like them.lt takes a while for all the water to accumulate in the bucket. You can't fill it all in one day; you have to wait for it, drop by drop." When success was accumulating in measurable quantities, it brought with it a peculiarly East Coast style of hostility. Critics there who prided themselves on being politically aware claimed to find the Eagles'

supposed noninvolvement anathema, and they continue to chide the band for being an extension of

Navajo:design banner draped on a screen behind the drummer to establlsh any ambience' Bernie, Randy, Don, Don and Glenn really crackle and roll, as if they knew for a notarized fact what they will all tell you if you show the slightest interest: that they have never been closer thaniight now to having it all, that this is indeed Their Year. After the concert, after the young citizens of Pennsylvania have filed politely from the hall and the band has been limo'd sans superfluous hangers-on

to an L'A, swelter with only a

the world. The sun goes down, you're up

light show - lt's just a turnon. Other days, it's smog an' dirt city."

Mulholland, all of a sudden you see this incredible

on

"Los Angeles is the Rome of today"

"l'm not sayin' it's wholesome," Don
clear.

back

Motor Lodge, and after musicians and roadies have unwound over nothing more
Hershey

to the sprawling and formidably

antiseptic

with a telling shot between the goalie's legs), Eagles Don Henley and Glenn Frey adjourn to the latter's room for an interview that will touch upon such concerns as their imminent consolidation of the elements of huge success, the nature of those
elements, and the price they exact. present contrasting images onstage and off, Frey, as performer, is the lowkey leader of the band, introducing the songs, setting the pace and kicking things along, while Henley the drummer is a solid backbone, perched behind his kit and alternating lead

extraordinary than a tray of shrimp and the last ten televised minutes of an NHL playoff (won in overtime

"lt's not Mecca. lt's not the Rockies; it's

makes no

John Denver trip."

an' all that. lt's a little bit harder out there...But

Denver tells you they are, either: lovb an' soybeans

"Hey, the Rockies ain't exactly what John

Henley and Frey,

the group's principal

stars,

kids...Kids on the East coast..They call out to us, 'Tqll us about the desert! Tell us about the desert!' These kids...See our strongest area outside of Los Angeles is the East. Gettin' back to the idea that what people want is to escape reality...l mean, I know, 'cause l'm

from the East, from Detroit, An'

vocals with Glenn, ln person (tonight, at least) it is Don who is the aggressive talker, wired with emotion, while Glenn exercises a soothing influence: yot Henley never forgets his manners 6nd is careful to flick his ashes into 6n empty beer bottle, while Glenn doesn't give a thought to letting his drop onto the
rug. The Eaglos in the minds of many are the epitome band, and I begin by asklng for their rhoughts about their adopted city. Frey takss the first

iou

of an L.A.
lead.

Magazine, I got the Beach Boys albums, I took acid an' listened to the first Buffalo Springfield record an' got chillbumps an' had to lay on the floor an' stuff. know, an' got into this' whole 'California consciousness.' I saw the articles in Post Magazine and in Life, about people takin' marijuana an' LSD an' goin' to Golden Gate Park an' all that stuff, an' the Grateful Dead an' Surrealistic Pillow, An' I mean / was a victim of the media the same way everyons e/se was. An' I just went out therel" Glenn was raised in the Motor City; his father had moved there from Pennsylvania, to work in the auto industry after the war. Pay was good in the '50s,

saw Surfer

"My feeling," Glenn says, pulling the top o+i a can of Budweiser, "is that Los Angeles is the Rome of North America, during the chaos' And if there's gonna be any kinda fall of the dynasty, l'd like to see it from L.A., 'cause I think L.A. will feel it first." "L.A. gives an' takes," Don says. "lf you're strong enough, that's where you go, an' you can makelt. lf you don'tmake it, you can blame anything you want .

lo

the summer too. we did okay. I got fed all right. But there was no high flyin' about it; it was all Little League baseball and drive-ins. Cheap thrills. lt was all cheap thrills in the suburbs of Oetroit." Like Don Henley, Glenn had to find inspiration in simple pleasures and in his own dreams. ln a city with over a million people, he whiled away his time the same wistful ways Don did in a tiny Texas town. Watching trucks roar by on their way to someplace belter.

and the Fr6ys did well. "Dad took good care of himself. 30@ bucks in the bank all the time. We bought school clothes every fall, an' some stuff for

somebody cuts us fo'r not bein' political an' for not doin' political sotgs or not takin' a stand o( anY of that crap.' I rtially resent that a whole bunch." He should listen to our song "On the Border." "l don't see that there s anything relative to chaos," Glenn offers, "except sanity. you know? And I think we're in the age of chaos right now. This isn't 1968 anymore, 'Three for McGovern' and all that." "lt's our lob to get people off," Don continues, "not to get them crazy an' militant." "There's nothin' provocative about an orgasm; an' that's the best l've ever felt. Better than yellin' at anybody." "People are concerned with their own individual lives, an'gettin'their own personal trips together, an' that's what we write about. "You know you can't help anyone until you help yourself. That's another thing that galled me about that New York Times l---r-he labeled our songs 'escapist rock,' Now to me our songs are more realist rock, confontist rock, than anybody's! To mo all that gr?ler stuff is escapist rock, thal is fantasyland. What we're doin' is all stuff lhal happened to us. We don't make any of it up! lt happens to us in real life-a relationship with a girl, a spiritual thing-whatever. "l hate ihose stupid labels! I hate when people call us a country-rock band because lhey are so full of it. We can do anything! We can do rock and roll, we can do country music-anything. When they call us 'a country-rock band with high-flying harmonies and soaring vocals' -" All this is especially galling at a momant when the band is consolidating its generally favorable critical response with a popular acceptance that seems ready to expand to enormous proportions. Things change when you begin to breathe the rarefied air of headliners; the stern attention of writers only adds to the pressure. "Know what happens?" Glenn asks. "You make

"Some guy," he says, his anger rising, "reviewed us for the New York Times the other night in New York, an' he sorta cut us down for our songs not bein' political. He said how pleasant we were an' everything, an' t really resent the fact that

California frivolity. This particularly rankles Don, who is still seething over a recent incident.

a great record, right, an' you go through all the moves-you snort the coke, you drink the beer- an'
it's all very in an' vogue, an' all of us did that...But then when you become a headliner, all of a sudden

there's something expected of you, something other than the moves. lt starts to'..it gets serious"' "'Best of My Love' did it," Don reflects. "Bein' number one..,We'd been close. 'Take lt Easy' was number seven. 'Witchy Woman' was five. When Desperado came out no one took it seriously; now it's regarded as a masterpiece, it's back on the charts again, it's gold." "'Refreshingly selfindulgent,' they call it now,"
Glenn muses.

its first single). While not a concept album in the Desperado iashion, it extends what Henley explains
as the group's basic PhilosoPhY.

An'that is: Looking for lt' lt. Whatever lt is, iust lookin' for it. Whether it be a satisfaction or success or or woman, or happiness, peace of mind or riches or any of that. Lookin'for it, and tryin' to deal with it. 'lt.' Know what I mean?
been basically the same.

"The theme of all our albums," he says, "has

was readin' an article the other day about another group, never mind who. lt said thal four ot
their albums are platinum. ."They took the easy route. Coupla years from plummeting motion with his thumb. "l figure, the iaster you go up, the sooner you come down. 'Cause once you're up there, there ain't but one place to go. "We been takin' it slow' We're well respected over the lyrics. We analyze every 'and' and '!he' a.nd to us. We bust our ass to make records. We agonize over the lyric. We analyze every 'and' and 'the' and 'but.' lt's iike buildin' a table, an' then once it's built, deciding how much time you want to spend sanding
and glazing

"l

"Your whole life is a journey, right? An' the

journey is more important
end.

to us than the iourney's

with Crosby and with Nash, they were definitely catalysts, team players. I iust know that if me and Henley split up, the lyrics to my songs would be weaker and the music to his would be weaker. Wb put it together real good, an' I ain't givin' that up for nothin. We'te gonna write lotever, even if it's only
once a year."

"lt takes Henley for me to finish a song. And it takes me for Henley to finish a song. And it takes all of us to do that for each other. lf I was by myself, I know I wouldn't get as much done l identify strongly

now, they'll be goin' like fh,b." He makes

"The new album was written durin'the wintertime. lt's dark. lt's kinda occul! kind of a
'Witchy Woman' feel."
Glenn: "lt's anxious. lt's anticipatory. lt's'One of These Nights.' This album has a lot to do with our career. This is an album we wrote all by ourselves,

Not that Henley always writes the lyrics and Frey the melodies; it changes back and forth all the time,

but those are the strong suits for each.

"One of These Nights'-lt's like, puttin'things

off..Everybody l'm sure has said, 'One of these nights l'm gonna...' Gonna drive back to that restaurant an' take that waitress in my arms. whatever."

iTequila Sunrise,' 'One of These Nights' and (with Jackson) "Doolin-Dalton"; Don began'Desperado' which uses a progression written years ago for a song that never got finished.

Glenn hesitates to say who "wrote" specific songs, but he qives a few credits for initial inspiration: Frey started

it."

"We've had great record producers who

have

helped us enormously." "Yup. Doin' our first album with Glyn Johns was a stroke of genius on everyone's part' Especially his' 'Cause he was a real strong producer, in the face of

first album weirdness. He was able to say, hey, Henley, yuu go here, Frey, you do this, etc. etc., an'even if you don't know where it's leadin',
trust me, this is for the best. He really helped us make two albums." supervises their recording these days. His

'someday.' And'someday' is uP to You." A theme runs through their music, according to Glenn, which links romantic love with the music business. lt's not just the ambit;ous Desperado album, which equates the gunfighter of legend with today's rock'n'roll musician. There's a supplementary

"Find that girl, make that money, buy that house. Move to that country. Any of that stuff' Everyone's got his ultimate dream, savin' it for

Bit by bit; drop by drop. As their body of woik accumulates and their popularity grows, the mix
becomes ever more volatile; there's alot at stake here. Henley speaks with particular fervor as he spells out the realities of the business, the words coming out fast and with feeling.

"The rock and roll business is like crammin' sixty years living into thirty. We live tvvice as fast an' twice as hard as normal people. lt's like sports. You can't

play professional football forever, you know;

physically, you just deteriorate. You can be a docto

theme-in "James Dean," "My Man" (written for

Gram Parsons and Duane Allman), "Good Day in

Bill Szymczyk, "the vowelless producer,"

alive)-of those who make the fatal mistake of living

too hard too fast.

Hell" (written about Gram while he was still

track

record includes producing and/or engineering ior Aaron Neville, B.B. King, Rick Derringer, Edgar Winter, Lorainne Ellison and the James Gang. As Glenn puts it, "He's got a heavY hand." Their latest collaboration with him is the new album, One of These /Vbhrs (with the title track being

"The meaty lines," Glenn says, "we're always sneakin' 'em across. That's when you learn to use svmbolism. 'You can see the stars an' still not see the light' - they're lookin' right in my face when lsing tliat! I swear to God I don't know whether they're even thinkin' about what it really means!

Supreme Court Justice until you fall over an' d/e, but you can only be a rock and roll star for a certain amount of time. you only got so long to get there an' get yours-so to speak, quotations, parentheses, whatever-an get out. lt's no sin. l'm not ashamed. I

or a lawyer until you get

senile;

you can be

am giving. And I expect to receive! By the time l'm 31 I want to be able to sit back an' have my ranch in the country, an' my bread, an' so forth. Because I am bustin'my ASS, an' if I come outta this sane l'll be

Flrur desperados

hiding out in the hills

. Relaxing in the mountains before guitarist Don

Feldet joined the group.

somehow.

very lucky. So I don, leel guitty about...about gettin, 3qo@.bucks a nisht. or ss. d, ,"r oi think this is a...pic-nic... "People's values can get really screwed uD. I .. thrnk mine do, from time to time. I forget what,s realfy important to me. ln Cat on a Uot fii noof, Btg Daddy sjy.s, 'Y9, 9?n be young wittrout money, bui you can't be old without money.,An, that strucii m;,

tr,;;'iili;

oo wnat you want to do.,,

y:,

thar there are certain...compromises ino saciifice! you have to make. ln other words, you have to do what everyone else wants you to do ior a wnrc.- Ai ounng that time you have to maintain vour identitv. remember who you are an, what you *int to do. An lhen aftq you've achieved your position of power,

about. That,s basically what the Desperado album deals with. With gro-ing up, learning what the real world is abo-ut, aJ fei"rning "nd

"lt's sad when you learn what the rock and roll . . Dustness is all

y"y can say screw

vo.u to all those people an, go

ONE OF THESE NIGHTS Eagles

become vindictive as soon as you get in your place oi power. To feel your oats at the expense of everubodv else around you. Hire a buncha peopte *tro ieiivo,l you're the greatest guy in the whole world. That,s a

"There's a. danger in that, though,,, Glenn warns. "lf you're not stra,ght, you cin oecome petty about it. There,s a great temptation to

Asylum 7E-rUXt 8y BUD SCOPPA

Teet Ike anyway.

a great athlete.He was the second-string quarterback for the New Orleans Saints; now he,sr:n the World Football League or somethin,. Just about everybody else I graduated with is still back there. They hiven,i changed. Got married when they were lg, ha; ; couple kids, an' now they,re miserable. Gettin, divorces an'wonderin, what,s wrong. An, ldon,t have a thing in common with them. tvti t"n_v"", ci"." reunion is comin'up this year on June2lst.'On Jurii 21st all those people,ll be back there at the American Legion Hall, havin' a dance an, qettin, drunk, an, i,ti be in tondon at Wembley Stadium with Elton John playin' in fronta eighty thousand people.,' No one could accuse the Eagles of being programmed. Their individuality conitantly asserti itself in the form of internal squabbles. Don addressed rhe subiect by saying: "Perspective's a real hard thing to keep in this . . business..Some days you just feel like, well,'the iiell wtthtt those guys. I don.t feel like doin, this, I don,t

dotn' that, an, they,re screwin, me over

talent an' a.great manager un, u ,""orJ company, an' you're sctewed. you,ve "rr*rny gotta have all those things workin' for you at once. dne weak link he smiles at Glenn, "we,re very connivino oeoole_ We're not dishonest. But we,re tungry, a-nd' *6;; smart, and we want it. We want it real bad. We

That's what's gotten us where we aie, the songs we've written. And the choice of producers, anJ tf,e fa-ct.that we had a good manager. lt,. of all those things. you can be the grealest_you " "o*Uinition cin ha,ve all the talent in the world an,ii *on,r rnit difference; if you don,t have a good " "nu screwed. You can have a great manag6r, an, no lalent, an' you're screwed, you can hive a lotta

you're from or what you do. "The bottom line is, it,s the songs that count.

everyone has a certain amount of experience, that you go through no matter where

there's a hidden curse. lt,s how you deal wittr ttrii kinda stuff that determines your true stature.,, not selling any answers,,, Don goes on. ,, ^ ,,"We're "Att we're doin' is reporting. ,Eyewitness Music., We're not saying California is better than New york that if you tive in.Newyork you,re dumb. ,f ;m join;'iJ the_country and cut off my telephone an,-screw you figure -we're not sayin, any of that. We just -unive-rsal

great pitfall. lt's like,

in

every dream_come-true

unprecendented perf ection.

fhe Eagles' new fourth album is at once the most musically adventurous and the most consisteni work yet from this latter-day classic L.A. Aana, Oni ot these.Nights is brimming with self-assurance, and ror good reason: this fivesome is unrivalled in its mastery. of a demanding rock g roll genre that emphastzes multiple-part singing, picturesque but bracing playing, and the theoratic interaition of sentiment and worldly cynicism. The Eaqles u"t rn a ctass with the original Byrds, who-invented "ren,t ihe genre, but they have its stylistic bases down to

;;;ag;;-;;;;;

rn the chaln, man, an, you can forget it. "P.ut me an' him,', Don says, easirig up a tad as

alwavs wanted

inside the five-yard line_it,s tirsi Oown_ai; we gor czonka in the backfield. I mean we smell the goal linel We smell it on every song!,, "You gotta want it bad, man.,, "Thafs rightl The only man who can? be beat is rne man wno won? be beat. lt,s heartl lt,s a whole thing we joke about: the punt Theory.'' "Well we want it,,, he ties up the thread. ,,We want it bad." ,,,Follow the Dath . . "lt's Don Juan,,, Don says. wrth heart.' A warrior accepts his own death. When you.accept the fact of your own death, nothing elie matters." . ."lt tempers your spirit, it makes everything:you do have more meaning, ,cause every pdrtorri"ncJ might be your last."
Henley, so passionatbly determined to make rr, has come.a.long way in miles and spkit from his Drrtnptace, Linden, Texas, a town ,,in the middle was an auto parts dealer' whose wife became i schootteacher atter his death. tAoth Oon and dLni had parents invotved intimatetv *itrl auiomoiifJsi'is it any.w-onder they both have iucfr a firm eiip o;if,J Ameflcan rematned unchanged in over 20 years. His father

it." the sports buff has a metaphor handy. ..... 9l"ln "We're

surt-the lead and combined vocals oi Don Hen'iev. Glenn Frey, and Randy Meisner. With ,"rp*li; ji; vocals, One of These Nights is the richesisoundino atbum l've heard this year. On the other side o; tnrngs, the Eagles have decided to forqo overt pxilosophizing and large-scale conceptuilization tDesperado's premise_that rock stars are modern_ day outlaw heroes-was treated with a great deal more seriousness than it deserved) in -favor of succincl songs mostly abgut man-woman conflict. Jwo ol these-,,Lyin' Eyes,, and ,,One of These rJ19nts' lboth Henley-Frey collaborations)_reveroerate with conviction and intensity despite their simplicjty. And ,,Hollywood W"ltr;, iwitf, i"-aOon",s flst on the cr;dir) is filed wiih"weil;;;; lamg oetalr. I he melodies of all three songs seem terriblv familiar but nor quite placeabte, *'G ;;-;it;; il; case wtth memorable music; it,s as if the writers have rntutttvely mined some collective vein. Up to now it didn't seem that any of rhe Eagles dr-;;;';; songwnttng on this level of proficiency.
aoventurous touches to enliven and update the stylistic conventions it continu6s to aotrere'to-itresi ar,e epiromized by the intro to the titl; .;^s; ;#; srmurtaneously quotes three varied sourceiFree,s

ot-both irs strengths and its timiGtions. Tt". .;i;;i"t and arrangements emphasize the Eagles, stronoest

.. Group-written material has improved with each album, right along with the playing anO .inqino. io the extent thal One of These Nights is virtuallt fr;e of the jnterm;ttent lapses (such is ttre first 'album;s "Early Bird," Desperado's aptly named ,,Out oi control," and the non-integration of Don Felder,s slrde into On the Brodels texture) that mar the other albums. .The mosr unappetizing thing on it"l"* lp-.Bernie Leadon's spaghetti_Western oous for banjond strings, ,,Journey of the Sorcerer.,_is sillv and.tnte, but hardly intolerable. That still leaves eiohi tracks- or over 35 minutes_of handsome, vari-ed, intelligently.made music, encompassing much o? i# best work this three-year old band has done. . The album works in great part because the band nas come to terms_ and is willing to take advantaoe

. r he group has brought in a number of

atong. But.things kept gertin; b;tte;'i; .piij"Ji ourselves. No matter what we did to mess it'up, no
other.-which we really don,t, b! ttre way...Aut... "On the Border's been on the charis for a vear_ . il's platinum; the new album,s gonn"

of his own grandmother's cabin, ,,l,ve lost a lotta frienas aion" th.e. w.ay Ail these guys thal I *u" i;- ih" l;;; y'tl....W.. grew yp rogetherq Grade school. Junior hrgh. Htgh school. Now I don.t ever see ,em: thev hardly talk ro me. ,Cause I made it, ir,"v id"t1 You have no idea the lrauma and the "", grili f-*"ni through. When I left this band, atter eiitrr veri"l ii was like gettin' a divorce. Aut i tearnedl i.irs ti;r; ago,.some people can come with you an, some people you gotta leave behind. .. "The Eagles never expected to make more,n two albums together, because we found out we didn,t oet
porCh

..-- "But that's what makes our group good. We are different. lf everybody thought t-he si.n'e an, ofi*J tlg sar_ne an' everything was homogenous, it would a_ll be.dull and boring. The fact that rie ar" dittereni ii the thing that makes us better. it,s a .theory we;v! developed, the theory of Creative Tension.,, . This theory accounts for the friction that exists as. ar inherent part of the Eagles, makeup, a prickliness which is never far from ihe surfacei i;i.tett yes, we fighrl" Glenn admits readily. ,,We fight with our manager..We fight with each other. Don and Bernie nearly.had a fistfighr the other day. We fight about everything: playing too loud, facial e,rpressio-ns, dnnktn too _much, stayin' up too late...Talking in a restaurant. /yot saying anything when you slioulda spoke up. The issue is not the important thing; the important thing is that it gets vented. "When you're in a band, when you,re workino .. wrth a producer, with managers, with a whole lot o-f other people. it's all a romantic relationship. When the band don't ger off, rhe band fiqhts. Whbn a ouv and his old lady don't make good lo-ve in the .p"."" o't a certain time, rhere's gonna be a fight. lt,s gonna get released some way. lt,s Creative Tensio;. We"G knom each other now for a long time, but...it,s stitt a very frightening experience when you bare your soul to somebody. There's very few people on this planei you ever do that to, an' we,re doin, that to each other constantly. Bein'in the Eagles is bein, married to four men. The music is our love life.,' . . There is an album lying on a table next to Don,s chair. He picks it up and Iooks at il. lt,s the debut anJ farewell album by Shiloh. Oon,s frigl,schooilroui from Linden: , ."You know," Don says, gazing into the cover

photograph taken

on the

matter how much we fought or tratea iactr

"hip "Now we've all grown up, an, decided we

nowhere" whose population figure

of 2000 has

of

myth of the Road? Linden is lite ile town Last picturc Showwas set, and Don iivs_' "All y.ou can do in a ptace tite that is'dieim-.- --'-' I nere wasn't anything to do but sit there an, . watch the sun sink in the West. An, I used to watch it an'say, the sun,s goin, down in Califo;;;. .'Boy, someday I'm gonna go there., where

lhe

who often does rhis sort of thing, w+lo doesn't. Stan to finish, top iL

gorgeous, soul-influenced falsetto vocals bv Meisnei_

"the Ste.ater" in its bailooning U"* fi"",'iSbp'i" ilmoer, Ittting. rhythm section, and eueen in it, iti portentously droning electric guitar_while ret;inin; rrs ragtes feel. ,,One of These Nights,, also boasti

like a miracle to me.

s"ld.ili;j
aae

gooo. reopte have accepted us, an...this is our vear_ I rnean, tast night was our last night to do two shows in.a.smail halt..tt,s gonna Oe Uii hails

i"t

anf, orcnestrated.texture of Jackson Browne,s innovative r.ne Lale Show.,, Less obvious filigree adorns the other tracks.

rhe Limit,,,buitt around thl besileai It-to Meisner's

arrogether irresistible track. Just as unusual is ,,Take ever recorded, and based on ttre ttreme

1611o,il,'["';;

O'"

i"-rflrl

";J

Czonka-

over.Jhat's what separates tne men'tr6m tf,;;;ff' btenn bnngs us back to the present. ,,We,re g:rl::_blguk.*ige wide open this yeir. Wt;" s;;;; go lrom ntnety to ninety_nine, an, that,s the touihesi ten yards. But I iusr know it. lnside the tive-witfr

we lust stuck il out. There,s a hump you qotta oet

ail';;;;:

"lt's like Mick Jagger said in 'Rubv Tuesdav., man:_'Lose your dreams an, you will tose'you mini., "l'm the only person who got out of'that plac;. There's one other guy who got-out, OecautJtS wa"

.One of These Nights makes the Eaqles, earlier worK seem tentative and cautious by comoarison. The atbum ma,y wel turn out to be i .ir"Ji""5l" t'nli oano sieretofore halting search for a distinct identity wnhrn the genre it perpetuates.

"l mean .we got. the songs. We got the best country guitarist in Bernie Leadbn, an, tie Uest ,tcl and roll player in the world in Felder, luri high-singin'bass player,.an, the best singin, "n,-tt," ,iil.;;; an' I know l'm the grease an we are goin,. I know ' wnen we're on, there,s ,obody better. A-n, thafs all I
know."