2016 Sounding Like the Year the Music Died: Now, Glenn Frey

These days, we’re having more than a few “days the music died.”

Natalie Cole seems like a little while ago. David Bowie, just last week. Glenn Frey.

Frey, co-founder with Don Henley (his collaborator and best bud, no question) of the Eagles, the soulful, rock-and-country-tinged super band-hit machine of the endless summers of the 1970s, died Jan. 18 at the age of 67 from complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.

Henley, who issued the evocative solo album, “Cass County,” last year, said, “He was like a brother to me, we were family, and like most families, there was some dysfunction. But, the bond we forged 45 years ago was never broken, even during the time when the Eagles were dissolved. … Glenn was the one who started it all. He was the spark plug, the one with the plan. … We are all in a state of shock and disbelief and profound sorrow. … I will be grateful every day, that he was in my life… Rest in peace, my brother, you did what you set out to do, and then some.”

A mega-rock band, is still a group, so that when one of its members passes, there’s a temptation to go into tribute mode for the whole band.  With Frey, it’s probably entirely appropriate to do just that.  While and Henley wrote co-wrote many of the songs, and the band members—the originals were Frey, Henley, Randy Meisner, Bernie Leadon, Don Felder, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, Frey was probably its most dynamic, charismatic and resonant member, who set the band’s tone.

That tone and that amalgam of talent over the years produced a huge number of just downright perfect hit songs, in the 1970s  songs that were particular but also universal mode, one that was hard-driving, full of rueful melancholy, romantically cynical, regretful about last night, eager for the next night. Their music was one of the most successful attempts to marry rock attitude and beats to the best and most resonant kind of country content, tinged with frayed cowboy hats, hangover blues and stretches of long highways with road stops at diners and clubs and somebody else’s bedrooms.

Run that list through your mind sometimes:  if you heard one of their songs, you’re bound to hear them a thousand times, same as ever, the lyrics going into your blood stream like a straight shot of pure, 30-year-old scotch.

Here you go start your engines, alphabetically: “Already Gone,” “Best of My Love,” “Desperado,” “Doolin-Dalton,” “Guilty of the Crime,” “Heartache Tonight,” “Hotel California,” “How Long,” “I Can’t Tell you Why,” “I Don’t Want to Hear It Anymore,” “James Dean,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” “Long Road Out of Eden,” “Lyin’ Eyes,” “One of These Nights,” “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “Take It Easy,” “Take It To the Limit,” “Tequila Sunrise,” “The Long Run,” “Wasted Time,” “Witchy Woman.” You get a drift in just the song titles, of what it was like for them in the 1970s and beyond. Frey was long considered the Warren Beatty of rock and roll and did not shy away from drugs.

The Eagles always seemed to be on the verge of breaking up and eventually did, only to reform years later and tour again.

But the two versions, while much the same, in terms of the music, didn’t  quite look the same, especially Frey.

Look at them, those early Eagles. They appear as if they came out of the shade of the summer of love, the long hair, the eager playing, the frayed shirts, all of that tanned look, but the guitar rolls are the same, and the pretty blonde hippie madonnas in the audience are bopping up and down. Years later, here they are again, Frey, minus the beard, a friendly but craggy look, short hair, pink shirt, blue suit, playing hard, singing with soul and clarity and the same girls are out in the audience, with their boyfriends (now their husbands?), smiling knowing smiles at the lyrics. In later life, Frye, who had a solo career, was into fitness and health food, looked like a guy who could give a power-point talk.

First point:  Take It Easy.

Last point: Take it to the Limit.

He did both—personified it all.