Last night I spent a totally enjoyable 3 hours watching the HISTORY OF THE EAGLES. No, not the bird, the band. It is a well done documentary following the band from the beginning in 1971. I love The EAGLES music although I must confess I really didn’t know much about them until about 15 years ago. Good thing they got together again in 1994 or I may have missed them completely. It seems that during the 70’s and 80’s I was too busy working, raising a family and listening to talk radio, to notice what was happening in the music world.

Many reading this already know the story of the Eagles, but some may not. The band was formed by Don Henley and Glen Frey in 1971. Two other guys, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon joined at the outset. Leadon was replaced eventually by Joe Walsh and Meisner by Timothy B Schmit.  Henley & Frey wrote most of the music and the history documents how some of the songs came about. Some of the best were written in the early 1970’s and have endured all these years.

The band stayed together for almost 20 years but the stress of drugs, booze, parties and travel ripped them apart in 1980. They all went on to have success as single acts until the band got together again in 1994 and stayed together for another 22 years.

They recorded, toured and continued to perform their great music. They made a fortune too. Henley is reportedly worth $200 million, Frey $90 million, Walsh $65 million. Were the Eagles a commercial success?  Apparently. One album, The Greatest Hits sold 42 million copies world wide.

In January 2016 Glen Frey passed away at age 67 and his death pretty much was the final chapter in the amazing Eagles story. Don Henley has said that it’s unlikely that the band will ever perform again. Not many bands survive for nearly 50 years but these guys did.  Great music!

What genre are the EAGLES.  Country, Rock?  I say the were unique and their genre was simply, THE EAGLES!

If you have not seen this history, I highly recommend it to you.

The History of The Eagles is on Netflix and can be purchased on DVD too.

Just saying…