Glenn Frey

Glenn Frey, who has died aged 67 from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia, was a successful actor and solo performer, but leaves a huge legacy above all in his body of work with the Eagles. One of the most successful bands of all time, they defined a particular strain of melodic, sophisticated American rock in the 1970s. “Glenn was the man who started it all,” wrote the band’s drummer and vocalist Don Henley, whose partnership with Frey was at the core of the Eagles’ success. “He was the spark plug, the man with the plan.”

As the Eagles developed from the country-rock sound of their 1972 debut album, Eagles, through a stream of bestsellers that included One of These Nights (1975), Hotel California (1976) and The Long Run (1979), Frey was prominent as guitarist and vocalist, and as co-writer on their most memorable songs. Their first single and breakthrough hit, Take It Easy, was co-written by Frey and Jackson Browne, and he subsequently contributed to the US No 1 hits Best of My Love, One of These Nights, New Kid in Town, Hotel California and Heartache Tonight. The songs Tequila Sunrise, Desperado, Lyin’ Eyes and The Long Run also carried the Frey writing imprint.

In sales terms, the Eagles set benchmarks that will almost certainly never be matched. The 1976 compilation Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) is said to have been the bestselling album of the 20th century, with more than 40m copies sold. Their most successful non-compilation disc, Hotel California, sold 32m worldwide. The Long Run, their swansong before a 14-year hiatus, was deemed dull and disappointing by critics but still managed to shift 7m copies, reach the top of the album charts and produce three Top 10 singles.

The Eagles came to be regarded as the quintessential California band, but only their bass player Timothy Schmit, who replaced Randy Meisner in 1977, was a native of the Golden State. Frey was born in Detroit, Michigan, the son of Edward, a car factory worker, and Nellie, and grew up in the suburb of Royal Oak. His mother insisted he take piano lessons, but when the Beatles exploded over America, he switched to guitar. He played with such local bands as the Subterraneans and the Four of Us, and in 1967 formed the Mushrooms.

Frey had become obsessed with a local Detroit hero, Bob Seger (who would eventually become a major star in the mid-70s), and by dint of hanging around recording studios persuaded Seger to listen to him play. “I liked him right away because he was so funny, he had a great sense of humour,” Seger recalled. He let Frey perform acoustic guitar and sing backing vocals on his single Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man, and recommended him to his managers, who signed up Frey and the Mushrooms. They recorded a Seger song, Such a Lovely Child, but it flopped.

Seger advised Frey that the key to a successful career was to write your own songs, and he took it to heart. He graduated from high school in June 1968, and headed for Los Angeles to pursue a musical career, partly motivated by the fact that a girlfriend, Joan Sliwin, had already headed west to try to become a singer. Joan’s sister Alexandra introduced him to her boyfriend JD Souther, another aspiring songwriter, and Frey and Souther formed a duo, Longbranch Pennywhistle (the Sliwin sisters became part of the girl group Honey Ltd., protegees of the producer Lee Hazlewood). The two men then shared an Echo Park flat above a basement which housed another songwriter, Jackson Browne. Frey recounted how listening to Browne painstakingly writing and reworking his songs at the piano downstairs drummed into him the importance of discipline and persistence. “I’m up there going ‘so that’s how you do it – elbow grease, time, thought, persistence’.”

Longbranch Pennywhistle released an eponymous, unsuccessful album in 1969, but then Frey found himself alongside Henley, who had been in a band called Shiloh, when they were hired as part of a backing group for Linda Ronstadt. They toured with Ronstadt in the summer of 1971, and also aboard were Meisner and – though only for one gig at Disneyland in Anaheim – the guitarist Bernie Leadon. This quartet subsquently became the first incarnation of the Eagles.

They came to the attention of David Geffen, who signed them to his new label, Asylum. Geffen arranged a month-long residency for the fledgling band in Aspen, Colorado, and after they had honed their songs he sent them to Britain to record their debut album with the producer Glyn Johns. The resulting harmony-drenched country-rock sound took the band into the Billboard Top 30, and generated the hit singles Take It Easy, Witchy Woman and Peaceful Easy Feeling.

The follow-up, the wild west-themed Desperado (again produced by Johns), was a feast of haunting ballads and country-tinged soft-rock, mostly written by Frey and Henley, but this time did not manage to crack the Top 40. Frey and Henley were now becoming the dominant forces and songwriters in the band, and at their instigation the album On the Border (1974) had a harder rock edge, thanks to a new guitarist, Don Felder, and a new producer, Bill Szymczyk. The Top 20 chart placing and their first No 1 single in Best of My Love confirmed that they were on the right track.

Further evolution was evident on One of These Nights (1975), with the title track a sleek exercise in soulful funkiness and Take It to the Limit a tearjerking heart-on-the-sleeve ballad. It was their first No 1 album, and laid the foundation for the crowning glory of Hotel California. Leadon now quit, and was replaced by Joe Walsh, who formed a scorching lead guitar double-act with Felder (most notably on the title track) and brought some flamboyant showmanship to their often staid live shows.

However, success had imposed severe stresses on the band members. Frey, in particular, had developed a violent antipathy to Felder. It was three years before they released The Long Run, by which time the band travelled individually to gigs and could barely stand to be in the same room together. When they were preparing the Eagles Live album in 1980, the last under their record contract, Frey refused to speak to his bandmates or come to the studio to record overdubs.

It was Frey who enjoyed the most immediate post-Eagles solo success. He scored a string of 80s hits, including The Heat Is On (from the Eddie Murphy film Beverly Hills Cop) and You Belong to the City, both of these reaching No 2. Both the latter and Smuggler’s Blues, a Top 20 hit for Frey, were from the soundtrack to the TV series Miami Vice, and Frey made a guest appearance in the episode also called Smuggler’s Blues. His most successful solo album was The Allnighter, which reached No 22 in 1984. In 1993, TV stardom appeared to beckon when Frey was cast in the lead role in a detective series, South of Sunset, but only the pilot episode was shown. In 1996 he appeared in the Cameron Crowe film Jerry Maguire.

The Eagles were persuaded to appear in a video for a cover version of Take It Easy by the country artist Travis Tritt for the 1993 album Common Thread (a collection of Eagles songs by various country performers), and the following year the band returned with the album Hell Freezes Over. They found audiences keen and toured for nearly six years. Delays in the schedule were sometimes occasioned by Frey being treated for rheumatoid arthritis.

They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and won six Grammy awards between 1975 and 2009. In 2007, the Eagles, minus Felder, who had fallen out irrevocably with Henley and Frey, released Long Road Out of Eden, the band’s first album of new material since The Long Run. In 2013, the documentary History of the Eagles told the band’s story in absorbing detail. In 2012 Frey released the solo album After Hours, a collection of vintage pop standards.

Obituary from the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/jan/19/glenn-frey

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