The three bands that inspired Eagles to combine country and rock
In the early 20th century, music genres were relatively straightforward. Major realms were classical, jazz, the blues, folk and country. When rock ‘n’ roll arrived in the 1950s, to the jumpy rhythm of Elvis Presley’s shaking knees, it engendered a nonconformist attitude. This rebellious genre would later proliferate and consume the globe, but it had already married R&B, country, jazz and boogie-woogie. When the Eagles emerged in the early 1970s, they pandered to the countryside of the rock spectrum.
Presley’s early rock ‘n’ roll package was heavily influenced by gospel, country and the blues, but clean-cut country rock wasn’t fully established until the late 1960s. By this point, The Beatles and the Stones had had their fun in the British invasion, and the Americans sought to reclaim the rock baton with a homely country infusion.
The line between folk and country is very fine, and consequently, artists of the singer-songwriter wave, such as Joni Mitchell and Neil Young, often dipped into both bags. Such artists brought instrumental and lyrical nuances that helped tip the scales in the early country rock wave.
Fleetwood Mac, one of the most successful acts considered a party to the 1970s country-rock movement, set out as a blues-rock group in London led by Peter Green’s masterful guitar stylings. However, with Green’s exit and the induction of Americans Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, flecks of country music began to appear in the mix.
Hundreds of artists influenced Nicks and Buckingham, from classic rock bands to Bob Dylan. However, one band seemed to rise above the madding crowd at the crucial moment. “The Eagles were very inspirational to both Lindsey and I because we loved their singing,” Nicks once remembered. “And we loved their ability to bridge country and rock and roll so beautifully.”
Indeed, the Eagles had a knack for blending country traditions with a soft rock sound that resonated with the radio. As they soared up the charts, the Eagles became synonymous with the genre blend, but they certainly weren’t pioneers in the field.
As their signature song might betray, the Eagles are a Californian band, but none of its founding members were born there. Of the band’s core alumni, only Timothy B. Schmit was born in the Golden State. Founding and enduring member Don Henley moved to Los Angeles from Texas in 1970 under the correct assumption that the city would nurture his musical aspirations.
Speaking to Uncut in 2017, Henley remembered three crucial bands that inspired his move to California and his plan to blend country and rock. “In our small town in Texas, we’d read about The Flying Burrito Brothers, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and Poco and bought their albums,” he remembered.
As a Texan, Henley had listened to country all his life. With his early band, Shiloh, he performed soul-infused cover sets “all over Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana”. By the end of the 1960s, Henley and his Shiloh bandmates decided to combine country and rock like their favourite bands. “We thought, ‘Why not combine the two like these guys?’” Henley added.
Listen to ‘White Line Fever’ by The Flying Burrito Brothers below.