Balding Eagles that are far from extinct

By Warwick McFadyen
November 13, 2004
The Eagles start their

The Eagles start their "farewell" tour at Perth's Subiaco Oval. They are still popular, despite having recorded little in the past 20 years.
Photo: Steve Ferrier

The Eagles have landed, again. On Thursday night in Perth, they embarked on a national tour composed of five shows at Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena (the first is tomorrow night), four shows in Sydney, three in Brisbane, two in Adelaide and the one in Perth.

The tour is billed as a "farewell", although given that hell was supposed to freeze over before the band would play again after it split up in 1980, this may be a loose description. They reformed in 1994 and the resulting DVD and CD from the reunion concerts have been huge sellers.

This time around, people are willing to part with up to almost $600 for the privilege of seeing the group up close. (And you get a souvenir cushion as well, for that peaceful, easy feeling.)

However, reforming and recording are not entirely the same thing. Apart from a new song here and there, they've barely set foot in the recording studio together for more than 20 years. So, why have they sold out shows in 2004?

Don Henley, one of the founders of the band, puts it down to a depth to the music that was not appreciated at the time, despite their massive success. Many thought of the band as simply a product of the American West Coast scene in the 1970s.

In an interview with The Age this year, Henley said the band's appeal and longevity was broader and deeper than surface descriptions. "We were labelled immediately as a country-rock band, but there's much more to it than that," he said.

Perhaps it was the seamless harmonies and stitching of the musical threads that blinded people to the richness of the fabric. "We have a broad appeal because we incorporate so many different kinds of American music," Henley said.

"I come from a place that was a musical crossroads (Linden, Texas). Ostensibly, there was nothing going on culturally, but I see now that I'm older that there was a great deal going on in terms of music and musical influences.

"It was the same thing for Glenn (Frey), who's from Detroit, the home of Motown. The rest of the band came from diverse regions and all those things came to bear. California was a great melting pot for us musically."

What the band served up to the world, the world loved. Their first album, in 1972, had three hit singles: Take it Easy (by Jackson Browne), Peaceful Easy Feeling and Witchy Woman. Their next albums - Desperado, On the Border and One of These Nights - were only the presage for the main event, Hotel California. After that, they were sitting on top of the world, and while the view may have been exhilarating, the only way from there was down.

They released The Long Run in 1979, and broke up the following year. They have sold about 120 million albums. Their Greatest Hits 1971-75, which came out before Hotel California, has sold 28 million copies, making it the biggest-selling album ever in America. That's a lot of albums sitting in people's dusty record racks.

Henley has been a champion in latter years for the rights of the artist in the music business. Asked if he would like to be starting out in the industry now, he said no.

"Careers now are very short," he said. "Somebody asked me if I could name one band starting out now who would be around as long as the Eagles and still playing music from now. I can't. It's a whole different world."

Testament then to the internal fortitude of aquila nostalgia, and the arc of their song, that people still flock to see them.