The other story, visible to anyone who cared to ‘notice, was that of a group of musicians, who by their choice of careers, also become outcasts from society. “Desperado” also marked the last time the group was easily classifiable as a country‐rock band, dealing as it did on one level With the story of the Doolin Dalton gang, who robbed banks in Kansas in the 19th century. In it, they introduced a new image that has also become part of ‘their musical vocabulary -the rock musician as outlaw-and in the title track, a classic song, that has, since been recorded by several other artists. Their second album, “Desperado,” was in many ways their most ambitious, and the one most overtly tied to a song‐cycle format. In the ensuing years, as their popularity has grown, so has the carping about this particular point, odd not because it isn't sometimes, but not always true, but because misogyny in one form or another is a staple of rock music and goes unremarked even when it is infinitely more offensive than any thing the Eagles have been able to muster. of another constant in their professional lives-critical complaint for the song's “sexist content” in its reference to “s&ien women on my mind.” In the context of the song, the attitude seems more adolescent fantasy than adult. “Take It Easy” was also the first indication. It also served as introduction to their debut album, “Eagles,” which produced two more hit singles and also introduced the beginnings of a cluster of images-notably that of cars and highways-that have recurred in increasingly sophisticated and varied ways through the rest of their work. Now considered a rock classic, that song, a blithely exuberant ode to the open road written by Frey and Jackson Browne, became a substantial hit. Their first group effort, a single released in 1972, was “Take It Easy,” an auspicious debut any way you look at it. Henley had been drummer and lead singer in a band in his native Texas. Souther, who continues to this day to hover like the ghost of Christmas future, linked to the Eagles by his co‐author credits on several songs. Frey had done a little work with Bob Seger in Dettoit and had beerione half of a duo with J. the early days of Poco, while Leadon, the most country‐music oriented, had been part of the Flying Burrito Bros., a group that was mourned more in passing than it was celebrated during its existence. Meisner and Leadon had the most impressive credits. Each had gone through at least ore experience with a group that had failed to make any commercial or artistic impact. The four original members-Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner-had all met through Linda Ronstadt, for whom each had worked as back‐up musician at one time or another. They have also along the way gone from their original designation of a “country‐rock” band to one more closely aligned to mainstream rock, California style, smoother than its eastern or English counterparts and highlighted by elegantly polished high harmony singing. Whatever the drawbacks, they are writing about a place that has struck a responsive chord in a lot of people for many different reasons and, in so doing, they have become one of the most commercially successful American rock bands now working, with each of their albums (including “Their Greatest Hits”) selling over a million copies and holding concerts in arenas to accommodate their audiences. In that time, their vision of the world they chose (like so much of the state's population, none of the five men currently in the band is a native) has darkened considerably, becoming progressively tougher, more cynical, and still in many ways irresistible, They have been showing a world where everything is ostensibly possible and permissible, and which is still a world where mundane problems remain. If the American population is inevitably heading south and west, as statistics indicate, the Eagles, in five albums over five years, have been sending out reports of the fantasies and realities that will be found there. It is almost impossible to talk about the Eagles without mentioning California-dream and reality-not just because the state figures in the title of their newest album, “Hotel California,” but because, more than any other group since the early Beach Boys, they ere so firmly rooted in that territory, exploring its myths, way of life, pleasures and perils. All rights reserved.Somewhere out there is Southern California, as far away as anyone can get in this country from the northeast, both in miles and mores.
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