Glenn Frey: A Tribute

Late Monday evening while many were commuting home, the world found out the sad news that founding member of the Eagles, Glenn Frey had passed away.

Born and raised in Michigan Frey learned the keyboard and moved into the 60’s rock scene. After stints in local bands he formed a group named ‘The Mushrooms’ that saw Bob Seger writing their first single.

As fate would have it Frey’s 1st professional recording came when Seger asked him to perform back up vocals and acoustic guitar on 1968’s ‘Ramblin’Gamblin’ Man’

Seger’s encouragement was a major influence in Frey writing original songs.

In 1971 Frey along with Don Henley formed the Eagles. The project started after Frey & Henley had been recruited to perform as part of the backup band for Linda Ronstadt, for which they only performed one show that July at Disneyland.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhZ-7_tQcxY

Afterwards Ronstadt gave them the go ahead to start their own band and were quickly signed to a record deal.

The band’s name was decided after a drug fuelled trip to the Mojave Desert where they were inspired by a Native American tribe’s reference to the eagle.

Their 1st album was recorded in England in the winter of 1972, released in the spring of that year “Eagles” was a massive success earning three top 40 singles starting with a tune written by Frey and his friend Jackson Browne……

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhH3mRkKDX8

“Take It Easy” was followed by two more hits, “Witchy Woman” & “Peaceful Easy Feeling”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwz2gR6Achw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaG00zRHDJY

After the release of “Eagles” the band followed it up with 1973’s “Desperado” which saw Frey & Henley co-writing tunes like the title track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCdjvTTnzDU

and “Tequila Sunrise”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Sy5Tdksuwo

1974 saw the Eagles and Frey decide to move away from the country rock style of their previous album to write a more rock centric effort, which brought them the number one hit “Best Of My Love”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFqg4J6o3E4

The accolades continued for Frey as the Eagles released their fourth album, “One Of These Nights”, in 1975, earning them their first grammy with “Lyin’ Eyes”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCoFc661GZU

and then scored their 1st certified gold single with: “Take It To The Limit”

1976 saw the release of the album “Hotel California”, which took a year and a half to complete. It was the second single off the album and the title track that would become their most memorable song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puHoadtIivc

Other tunes included on “Hotel California” were “Life In The Fast Lane” & “The Last Resort” It should come as no surprise the album won the grammy for Record of the Year in 1978.

A year after the grammy win Frey and the band released what would be their last album before breaking up in 1980.

Taking two years to complete and despite critics blasting it, “The Long Run” was a commercial success with three Top 10 singles including “Heartache Tonight”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRMlHRo7eAE

While 1980 saw the break up of the Eagles it was not the end for Frey musically. He earned another two Top 10 hits with soundtrack songs for “You Belong To The City”, from Miami Vice, & “The Heat Is On”, from Beverly Hills Cop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-mU-YSk32I

Along with his solo musical career Frey had acting success, as well, appearing in movies like Jerry MaGuire, and television shows such as Miami Vice.

In 1994, at the insistence of country star, Travis Tritt, members of the Eagles were present for the taping of his tribute song to the band. With this, Frey, Henley and the other members ended years of speculation and formally reunited.

The reunion resulted in the 1994-2000 ‘Hell Freezes Over tour’, which saw the creation of their first album of new material since the breakup in 2007 with their ‘Long Road Out of Eden’ album.

In 2013 the band kicked off a tour that would last until 2015 in support of a career spanning documentary named: History Of The Eagles. During the initial dates Frey was quoted saying the tour ” could very well be our last…”

Ultimately he was correct, as Glenn Frey passed away at the age of 67 on January 18th, 2016 of rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia while recovering from intestinal surgery.