‘History of the Eagles’ Reveals Why So Many Have Hated The Band For So Long

They may have sold as many records as The Beatles, and shagged as many groupies as Led Zeppelin, and done as many drugs as The Stones, but the Eagles just can’t get no respect. Since 1972, when renowned rock critic Robert Christgau proclaimed “I hate them” in a review of their first album, they’ve inspired scorn and mockery and certainly cried about it all the way to the bank. Country rock Godfather Gram Parsons reportedly called their music a “plastic dry fuck.” Their suckitude was one of the running gags in the Coen Brothers 1998 cult favorite The Big Lebowski. Hell, founding member Glenn Frey DIED last January, and people wrote articles about how much they hated them and what an asshole he was; so much for “speak no ill of the dead.”

Maybe it’s because they were too successful, too talented and too good looking. Maybe it’s because they were too polished sounding and all too comfortably, and confidently, played the music business game. Or maybe it’s because they were kind of dicks. At least that’s what I came away with, after sitting through the marathon 3 hour and 7 minute 2013 documentary History of the Eagles, which is currently available for streaming on Netflix. To be fair, they don’t all seem like dicks. But Glenn Frey? Kind of a dick. And by the end of it, Don Henley seems like a dick, too.

According to History of the Eagles, the story of the band is the story of Glenn Frey and Don Henley. Ironically, that’s also what ultimately broke up the band. While there’s no doubt that the pair sang and co-wrote the majority of the band’s material (along with being instrumental in guiding their career), their insistence on being first among equals alienated one successive member after another. Frey was a motor-mouthed guitarist from the Motor City of Detroit, while drummer Henley was a thoughtful —though no-less driven— Texan. They chased their rock n’ roll dreams to Southern California, landing smack-dab in the middle of the late ‘60s country rock boom.

Frey and Henley first teamed up as members of Linda Ronstadt’s backing group, but bonded over a shared desire to start their own band. They pinched bassist Randy Meisner from local also-rans Poco, and on Ronstadt’s recommendation recruited guitarist Bernie Leadon, formerly of country rock pioneers The Flying Burrito Brothers. Everyone in the band could sing, and each had a distinct voice – the smoky and soulful Henley, the strident Frey, and Meisner able to hit the high notes. And when they sang together in four-part harmony the clouds parted, angels rained down on Earth and sorority girls got weak in the knees.

Things moved fast for the Eagles. Thanks to friend Jackson Browne, they hooked up with David Geffen’s Asylum Records, and nabbed British super producer Glyn Johns to helm the recording of their first album. Their self-titled debut featured three Top 40 singles, including their signature song “Take It Easy,” and smoothed out country rock’s rough edges. It was the right sound at the right time; laid-back and melodic music for baby boomers trying to put the tumult of the ’60s behind them, as they entered the ’70s as young adults.

Though big things were expected of their follow-up, the Western outlaw concept album Desperado; it failed to match the success of the debut. This began to sour relations with Johns and, to a lesser extent, Leadon. The Eagles wanted to rock and felt constrained by Johns’ production and Leadon’s country guitar stylings. It’s almost cute to hear the band talk about how they wanted to move in a heavier direction, as few bands are as synonymous with the term “soft rock” as the Eagles. Enter fleet-fingered lead guitarist Don Felder, and manager Irving Azoff, who brought with him Bill Szymczyk, the band’s producer through the end of the decade. Everything coalesced by the time of 1975’s One of These Nights, their first number one album.

This set the stage for 1976’s landmark Hotel California album. Azoff also managed hard rocking guitar hero Joe Walsh, so when Leadon quit the Eagles – famously pouring a beer over Glenn Frey’s head – Walsh replaced him. It almost seemed like a corporate merger, adding a genuine solo star with a portfolio of hits and actual hard rock credibility. Walsh, however, was a wild card, having been mentored in the fine art of hotel destruction by legendary Who drummer Keith Moon; initially, this was also seen as a plus, giving the band a rock n’ roll bad boy edge.

The band was already successful, but Hotel California put them in another league. It was their second number one album in a row, generating three Top 20 singles, including the epic title track, and eventually sold nearly 50 million copies worldwide. However, it also sealed the group’s fate. By now Frey and Henley were resolute in their position as the band’s executive committee, but success emboldened the other members who saw their contributions shortchanged for whatever Frey and Henley deemed was “good for the Eagles.” The stakes were high and so was the band. In one of the movies’ most cringe-inducing scenes, Frey brags about bullying the soft-spoken Meisner backstage after he refused to sing his hit song “Take It To The Limit,” out of fear his voice would crack. The bassist would quit before the recording of the band’s final original album, 1979’s The Long Run. He was replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, who oddly had replaced Meisner in Poco. Likewise, the band’s final show almost ended in a fistfight between Frey and Felder, again, Frey bragging about verbally abusing his band-mate and threatening him onstage.

Fortunately for everyone’s bank account, classic rock radio kept the band’s music alive. The ’80s were initially pretty kind to both Frey and Henley, who both had solo hits. Walsh? He got a little whacked out. Fortunately, the band’s 1994 reunion precipitated him getting sober, as in, “get sober or you’re not going on this reunion tour that’s going to make a lot of money.” Thankfully for Walsh, it stuck.

Frey says at one point, “In talking with Irving about putting the Eagles back together in 1994, I said, ‘Irving I’m not going to do it unless Don (Henley) and I make more money than the other guys’.” Frey justifies this by saying that his and Henley’s solo careers are what kept the Eagles legend alive, but by the early ’90s, no one was really interested in the new Glenn Frey or Don Henley solo album. Unsurprisingly, not everyone was happy with arrangement, particularly Don Felder, who Frey dismisses as “The only asshole in the Eagles.” I guarantee you, no one watching the documentary is thinking Felder is the asshole in that moment. Felder was later fired and subsequently sued the band.

The History of the Eagles is well done and brave in how unflinching it is, showing the ugly side of the band and their mercenary take on the music business. And you do have to respect Frey and Henley being so forthright about what dicks they are, even if their staged interviews seem scripted to back up their contention that it was their band all along. With that in mind, it’s interesting to consider how many of their biggest hits were co-written with others, be it “Take It Easy” (Jackson Browne), “Hotel California” (music by Don Felder), “Take It To The Limit” (sung and co-written by Randy Meisner), “Witchy Woman” (music by Leadon) or “Life In The Fast Lane” (based on a Joe Walsh guitar riff). If you didn’t like the Eagles before, watching History of the Eagles won’t make you a fan. And I’m sure the guys in the band are fine with that. Like I said, they can cry about it all the way to the bank. Except for Glenn Frey. He’s dead.

[Stream History Of The Eagles on Netflix]

Benjamin H. Smith is a New York based writer, producer and musician and while he’s rather indifferent about the Eagles, he’s really quite fond of Joe Walsh. Follow him on Twitter:@BHSmithNYC.

Stream 'History Of The Eagles' on Netflix