Eagles & Glenn Frey: Beyond Cool, A Band for All Time

Looks so innocent but is probably about to say something totally incendiary

First of all, I have to say it’s simply crass to use a band member’s untimely demise as a platform to attack a band as Gersh Kuntzman does in this vitriolic diatribe for the New York Daily News, in which he calls the Eagles a horrific band. Why he is then astonished by the strong reactions of already grieving fans amazes me. It seems that the New York Times agrees, recently publishing an article on how to speak of the dead, partly as a reaction to these anti-Eagles tirades, the gist of which is summed up by this comment: 'Hey, it’s ok to not like the Eagles. It’s also ok to shut up about it for a few days when one of them dies.' Try to remember some of us are heart-broken.

Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner, Don Henley, Glenn Frey

I’ve already written a blog riposte (‘Kick ’em When They’re Up'), to a similar wave of ‘cooler-than-thou’ journalism, which extended across most of the British broadsheets and in this, there’s a link to the idiotic article that inspired it (trashing Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles and any band who dared to have longevity as if their still being around was an affront to the world).

They invariably act like these bands were always dinosaurs and should be extinct by now. But to longtime fans, part of the appeal is their endurance and the fact that the songs, which were fresh and exciting when you first heard them and immediately memorable are now like old friends who you don't see that often but always get on well with when you do. They're as familiar and comfortable as the flannel shirts Don and Glenn wear onstage.

Heartfelt thanks to those, like Bob Lefsetz, who wrote moving tributes to Glenn. It's a shame that for every positive, there's a negative, like the aforementioned Kuntzman and a venomous piece from the Houston Chronicle that I can no longer access.

Jeff Bridges, The Dude in The Big Lebowski

Kuntzman's is the typical hipster's response; it runs along these lines: ‘The Coen brothers are cool, therefore their films are cool, their characters are cool, therefore the Dude must be cool (and Jeff Bridges of course), and the Dude doesn’t like the Eagles therefore the Eagles can't be cool, therefore, in order to be cool, I have to dislike the Eagles’. Do we care what these people think? Probably not as it’s their loss but it’s still incredibly aggravating when someone is ignorant enough to dismiss a band’s entire oeuvre. For more on my dislike of the Coen Brothers, see Inside Llewyn Davis.

With Don Felder

The Eagles don't need to be rehabilitated for the modern age or regarded from an ironic distance like people have a tendency to do with Abba (which is always so condescending). This sometimes happens when bands are inordinately successful. They exclude themselves from the cult of cool. Or cool of cult. There's always more cultural cachet to be had from supporting a little-known or even vaguely obscure artist and believe me, I'm crazy about a number of artists who fit the latter category, from Benedict Benjamin to XC-NN. I can see the cult in cultural. There aren't many people who want to believe that their taste is run of the mill and mainstream and there's an understanding that once you attain this universal popularity, you are somehow no longer worthy of it. You know the build 'em up to knock 'em down approach.

So, to rebut some of his assertions. Don't get me wrong, I know he has a right to his point of view, as much as I have a right to disagree. 

1 The Eagles were a lousy band (or 'horrific' as he puts in the title)

This is a statement designed purely to provoke attention and response. Surely no one who's heard Hotel California can really think this? Even if you think you don't know it, you know it.

2 The Eagles produced 'pop pap'.

To label One of These Nights, a song that could set my heart racing, it was so exciting, so atmospheric, 'pop pap' just beggars belief. It's possible that GK's childhood was a lot less mundane than mine. Either that or he has no imagination. Has he ever heard Outlaw Man (listen to that banjo), No More Walks in the Wood, Waiting in the Weeds, Doolin' Dalton? Pop pap would be Calvin Harris and his ilk.

3 The Eagles have too many songs with 'easy' in the titles.

Well, this does seem to be his point. Delve a bit deeper. There are plenty that don't.

Jackson Browne

4 Jackson Browne’s version of Take It Easy is sexier than the Eagles' one.

This is plain crazy. Only a man could have written this. Ok, I know that JB was a ladies man in his day but sexier than Glenn, who simply oozed pheromones? I don't think so. I always thought of Jackson Browne as sensitive and thoughtful while Glenn was master of the snap retort, every hair toss replete with unabashed sex appeal. More on this in Glenn Frey, Cowboy Casanova and in this appreciation of Timothy B. Schmit. Plus only Glenn could have delivered these immortal lines: 'It's a girl, my Lord/In a flatbed Ford/Slowing down to take a look at me'. Or have the humour and self-awareness to sing in Already Gone:* 'Well, I heard some people talkin' just the other day/And they said you were gonna put me on a shelf/But let me tell ya/I got some news for you/And you'll soon find out it's true/And then you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself'. 
* Already Gone was written by Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund but the lyrics seem to be quintessentially Glenn.

5 You can't like the Clash if you appreciate the Eagles.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure that I bought a Clash album and an Eagles album on the same day. They're not mutually exclusive. Although the Adverts are my favourite band from the punk era. Yes, and that was a totally gratuitous nod to the One Chord Wonders, simply because I could and more people should.

Bernie Leadon

6 There's an implicit assumption that, if it weren't for the Eagles, people who the author deems more deserving (because they have a smaller following or because they're less marketable) like Gram Parsons and Gene Clark would have been more successful. This is a fallacious argument. I would propose the opposite. For many, the Eagles were a ‘gateway’ band into obscurer terrain. Bernie Leadon’s My Man was in fact a tribute to Gram Parsons. If it hadn't been for the Eagles, I might never have listened to Poco or Gene Clark. It doesn't really matter who came first or who was more successful. And I expect there are those who believe that with the Eagles, it's all about the money. I appreciate their honesty - even when they were young, they admitted they wanted to make a lot of money. Because of this and because of funny items like this spoof of band members talking: 'Henley: Uh, I think what Glenn was trying to say was that sure, the album came out just fine, but do you not remember the torture it took us to make it? How Azoff had to ply us with $100 bills in a trail from our houses to the studio?', people have assumed that the music is secondary. They don't seem to realise that these are jokes but even so, doesn't it somehow make them cooler? For instance, this from the same cruel but funny article: 'Schmit: I can’t afford Eagles concert tickets. Henley: Well, I can. And trust me. You’d stay in your seat the whole time. Every time you turn your head away from the stage, you’ve wasted approximately 27 dollars.'

Joe Walsh

7 'This diatribe has one caveat: Joe Walsh. The greatest of all Eagles always kept his soft-rock comrades at arm’s length'.

Another thing you’ll notice about these carping critics. They always make an exception for Joe Walsh because they think he’s a card-carrying rockstar (complete with drugged-up past) with street cred because of his previous cool (read 'bad') behaviour, and his skill on the guitar. All the hipsters think Joe is cool – partly because he used to smash things up. Sure, he adds something but he’s not the Eagles (no offence to Joe fans, who are legend and legion), neither is Timothy B. Schmit (much as I like him now). They’re the Johnny-Come-Latelys, the New Kids in Town. Although I do make an exception for Don Felder. Whatever people say now, he'll always be an Eagle to me.

There were some straightforward but perfectly crafted country rock songs, but country rock itself wasn't even a proper genre then and what there was had little purchase on the music scene until the Eagles arrived. There was (the) Buffalo Springfield then Poco, but their reach was limited. And that's not to mention the influence the Eagles have had: Fleet Foxes, Jayhawks, Golden Smog and so on, all building careers on the template of exquisite harmonies, contagious melodies and something to say. Protest songs are now sadly a thing of the past but I love it when a writer cares about a cause or a situation. although I focus on some of my favourites here, in a list that includes Jackson Browne's tour de force, For America.

And there's so much wit and so much self-awareness in the title of their comeback tour: Hell Freezes Over. They simultaneously don't take themselves seriously while being deadly serious and cashing in on their previous pledge.

The trouble is that the Eagles are too successful and this kind of unprecedented achievement leads people to carp and moan. Once, when I was younger and more arrogant, I used to like to say that I thought the Beatles were overrated, in order to provoke a reaction. Now I think it's sort of great that I like some of the same music as my Dad and can take him to see the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac.

Glenn Frey, RIP Outlaw Man

Yes, as Bob Lefsetz mentions, they lived the American Dream, but they also analysed, deconstructed and dismantled it in songs like Hotel California and The Last Resort, showing how quickly it could turn into a nightmare. Henley’s lyrics roll off the tongue because they sound so natural but they’re still clever, polemical, insightful (surely there isn’t anyone too soulless or too secure to identify with the sentiment in Wasted Time?), or incisive, dismissive, satirical (Get over It: 'Victim of this/Victim of that/Your Momma's too thin/And your Daddy's too fat'). They’re not glib. But compare them with the subject matter of chart songs today – see my blog on ‘Modern Music’ – they raise issues, are often poetic and thought-provoking. They’re not about having a party or waving your hands in the air or being sexy in the club. So, you might say music is changing but subject matter, melody, scope are all decreasing. No longer do we have pop songs about boys being molested on school trips. Name that tune.

I’m not saying that I love every Eagles song – there are some on each album that I consider Eagles by numbers but these very tracks are other fans’ favourites: Busy Being Fabulous, Chug All Night (well maybe not Chug All Night) and so on.

And I'd like to ask: When does the Dude lose his 'coolness'? And surely, if everybody thinks he's cool, he's now too mainstream to actually be so. But what I meant to say was that Eagles music is timeless and will hopefully move and entertain future generations. They're not this week's fancy or last year's trend. They are much more than this, they are beyond cool and, as Glenn said, 'a band for all time'.

Every time I start to listen to an Eagles song now, I get all choked up and I know I'll feel this way for some time. I really wish I didn't have to write this but

RIP Glenn Frey.

The thrill has gone.

Glenn Frey – Cowboy Casanova

‘I love the way he leans’

'He’s a good time cowboy Casanova/Leaning up against the record machine/Looks like a cool drink of water/But he’s candy-coated misery' ('Cowboy Casanova', Carrie Underwood)

I’ve got to admit that, before I was Schmitten, which was pretty recently (see my Schmitten blogs), Glenn Frey was my favourite Eagle and Don Henley was my sister’s. She bought Henley's solo material, I bought Glenn Frey's. This song sums up the Frey persona to me – a bad boy you’d do well to steer clear of (but don't want to), with tons of charisma and sex appeal.

‘You're struttin' into town like you're slingin' a gun/Just a small town dude with a big city attitude’ (‘Just Like Jesse James’, Cher)

Seeing pictures of him from the 70s on the EaglesOnline forum, I’m reminded of Angela’s (Claire Danes) comment about Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto) in my favourite teen TV drama My So-Called Life ‘I love the way he leans’. Glenn leans pretty well. Anyway, I’ve already covered the Frey sex appeal in another blog.

‘If you look at my vocal participation over the course of the 70s, I sang less and less. It was intentional. We had Don Henley.’ (Glenn Frey, HOTE)

Although this is true, although I love Don’s voice, it’s partly (perhaps mainly) the different vocalists (and particularly the blending of their vocals), their strengths and styles that create the diversity in the music and increase the band’s appeal. I’m crazy for Glenn’s voice. There's an edge to it. And he sounded great on this tour. Plus Glenn does much more than sing – he writes songs, figures out arrangements, decides who sings what and still finds time to exercise his inner Svengali and get people's backs up.

Glenn Frey: ‘It takes Henley for me to finish a song. And it takes me for Henley to finish a song.’

The creative dynamic between Glenn and Don was incredibly productive. We have a lot to thank Linda Ronstadt for.

Desperado – who leans best?

‘I like the way your sparkling earrings lay/Against your skin so brown/And I wanna sleep with you in the desert tonight/With a billion stars all around’ (or in plain English ‘Like your earrings/Fancy a shag?’ but so much more persuasive the way Glenn puts it) ('Peaceful Easy Feeling', Eagles)

It was always Glenn – the hair, the attitude, the confidence, the moustache, the jeans, the smouldering gaze … need I go on? He was the ultimate 'Outlaw Man' for me. All that swagger and charm as epitomised in the above lyric.

‘Well, I'm standing on a corner/in Winslow, Arizona/And such a fine sight to see/It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford/Slowin' down to take a look at me … We may lose and we may win/Though we will never be here again/So open up, I'm climbin' in/Take it easy’ ( 'Take It Easy', Eagles)

Jackson Browne asks him to finish a verse and that was all (s)he wrote. It all comes so naturally to him. When we holidayed in the States, we had to go to that corner. I’m sure many Eagles fans have made the same pilgrimage and there we were when a cool-looking guy in a flatbed Ford (is that the same as a pick-up?) stopped to ask us directions to the Probation Office. Or was it the Parole Office? Well, two English girls in summer dresses – I guess we must have looked like we would know. He recognised the would-be bad girls in us.

Used car salesman on vacation?

In some ways, Glenn is the most altered (though still good-looking and wearing well) – possibly because he was the epitome of careless youth while Don always seemed more mature. The others simply look like older/rounder/balder/greyer/skinnier versions of what they were but Glenn now resembles a used car salesman on vacation except that he has managed to retain that slightly disreputable air and that ‘big city attitude’ in his persona.

'Outlaw Man'

'We gave Glenn a nickname, The Lone Arranger. He had a vision about how our voices could blend and how to arrange the vocals and, in many cases, the tracks. He also had a knack for remembering and choosing good songs.' (Don Henley)

So if Don is the main singer and writer, the soul of the band – the angst, bitterness, anger, world-weariness; Glenn’s the pumping heart, the motor that keeps it all going, the somewhat schizophrenic, one-minute romantic dupe (‘What Do I Do with My Heart?’ rivals the tortured love songs usually reserved for TBS), the next ranting paranoid with villainous past ('Somebody') – my favourite Glenn incarnation:
'There's a jack-o-lantern moon in the midnight sky/Somebody gonna live, somebody gonna die/But down in the graveyard on that old tombstone/There's a big black crow and it's callin' you home' ('Somebody', Eagles)
Unfortunately for us all, 'Somebody' is not available as a link anywhere.

Or:

'When you said goodbye, you were on the run/Tryin' to get away from the things you've done' ('You Belong to the City', Glenn Frey) 

I love the seedy side of Glenn: the romance of the illicit in 'You Belong to the City'. Always one step ahead of the law, restless, dangerous. That sultry atmospheric sax intro; Glenn's intimate vocal on the verse before the chorus kicks in and he steps it up.

Happy days

'Somebody's gonna hurt someone/Before the night is through/Somebody's gonna come undone/There's nothin' we can do' (‘Heartache Tonight’, Eagles)

Don Felder on The Long Run:

‘We realized that Glenn had nothing to sing on the record except …  "Teenage Jail" … we just had nothing in his genre. So we called Bob Seger, and Bob had started about 60 or 70 percent of "Heartache Tonight", which was perfect for Glenn … .We couldn’t put out a record without Glenn singing a hit on it.’

This relates to the 'Glenn singing less and less' syndrome (something I really really don't understand). The general feeling is that Don is trying to put Glenn down here. It didn't come across like this to me to begin with but I sort of get it now, as it sounds as if he and the the others had to find a way to help Glenn out.  But he’s right about one thing: this song is entirely within Glenn’s vibe. (I wouldn’t say Glenn has a genre though, that he can't step out of – he’s perfectly capable of singing anything but this is something he excels at – uptempo, rocky, a song with a bite for a Saturday night): an obvious single and a sure-fire hit.

Glenn rocks 70s fashion like no one else

Bernie: This is a song that I used to hear a lot of on the radio last summer. Right around Halloween.

Glenn: Yeah round Halloween. That ain’t the summer.

This 1973 exchange between Glenn and Bernie at the beginning of ‘Witchy Woman’ sums up their relationship. Backbiting. You have to hear the tone of his voice as he delivers this line. How much he enjoys it. So quick. He ain’t going to be a diplomat any time soon. By the end of the song though, it’s the playing that counts and I’m glad they were able to get back to that for the latest tour.

Glenn Frey: ‘There's a lot of compromise involved in a rock band and trying to make people happy and feel a part of everything that you're doing. It demands a lot of sacrifice and a lot of compromise and a lot of patience and diplomacy.’

Patience and diplomacy were perhaps not Glenn’s strong suit. This may be why Bernie ended up pouring a beer over his head.

‘A rock band is not a perfect democracy. It’s more like a sports team. No one can do anything without the other guys, but everybody doesn’t get to touch the ball all the time.’ (Glenn Frey, HOTE)

Glenn’s attitude has undergone a bit of a sea-change. Love the way he expresses this, with a touch of venom. You can almost hear him adding ‘So get over it’.

Hair looking extra cool

Glenn's never been given to wordy avoidance or justifications (the sort that Don’s so good at). Witness this from HOTE:

Don: In the context of the times and the profession, the way we behaved wasn’t all that remarkable.

Glenn: It was the 70s. There were drugs everywhere.

Leave it to Glenn to tell it like it is and there's little doubt that his blunt attitude led to much of the creative tension. Ok he can be objectionable but I love that about him, that he doesn’t attempt to excuse or rationalise. Sometimes I feel like I’m surrounded by people who hedge their bets and are afraid to have an opinion.

Everyone talks about how funny Joe is (and he has some classic moments in HOTE), such as:

 ‘The first thing that happens is that you get some kind of label, and you gotta live up to it, and you just get caught up in that, and I forget what the second thing is’

but with Joe I always get the feeling that he sometimes only realises he’s said something funny halfway through or just after he’s said it whereas Glenn is much more self-aware and just as entertaining and his throwaway lines in the HOTE  film are classics. He’s always been the master of the soundbite, hence ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, ‘Lyin’ Eyes’. Here are a couple of classic Glenn lines:

Did I mention the hair?

'These songs are so old that when they were written, the Dead Sea was only sick.'

‘Detroit, where mother is only half a word’ or ‘Detroit, the city that gave us Ted Nugent … and won't take him back’

There’s a reason Glenn gets to tell the jokes at the gigs, albeit the same ones night after night. He delivers them way better than Don could. My favourites are the Detroit ones above.

‘I own a lot of guitars. And the reason is, I'm looking for one I can play.’ (From glennfreyonline)

Never afraid to be self-deprecating, Glenn happy to participate in a joke guitar duel with Joe Walsh every night of the tour, in which he gets to showcase what he can do but never really win.

Glenn wins the battle of the moustaches

Not quite finished but it seems appropriate to post this today. Well, it's the 6th in the USA but the 7th here. Happy birthday, Glenn!

Some quotes and images lifted from GlennFreyOnline. Thanks, guys!

Schmitten Part One: 'The flow of energy was so fine'*

AAhh

* A line from Keep On Tryin' by Poco.

So – a diversion from Opinion8 and the Kinks. Let’s go on the road, tune into FM radio …Links in the song titles as usual.

Watching History of the Eagles documentaries on BBC2 has made me rethink some of my previous opinions.

[These are practically the only programmes I’ve watched on the BBC this year, with the exception of the Scandinavian strand on BBC4. So really I’m paying my licence fee to ensure that the already overpaid BBC staffers can recommend that they all get exorbitant severance packages, over and above those specified in their contracts, because they weren’t chosen for promotion or they made a complete hash of the promotion they were given. £60 million in payouts. ‘It’s been a long time coming but a change is gonna come.’ Scrap the licence fee.]

Don’t get me wrong. I’ve always loved the Eagles and nothing’s changed there. I know they don’t use the definite article but I always have and it doesn’t seem right not to. Whatever other stage I’ve gone through in my life musically (and there’ve been some embarrassing ones), they’ve remained the one constant. I could at any time suddenly experience a resurgence of interest and dig out the old vinyl albums to play. They captured the 70s for me, that laidback West Coast vibe that was a thousand miles from my life in 80s London suburbia. In my imagination, I was there. Like Lloyd Cole, I was crazy for Americana, had read Kerouac and Kinsey and thought the US was impossibly romantic

I can recognise most of these songs from the first couple of notes and seeing Joe Walsh sing Pretty Maids had me in tears. That was unexpected. And it was a great programme – might review it later. I love Don Henley’s quote: ‘We set out to become a band for our time but sometimes if you do a good enough job, you become a band for all time’.

The original and I used to think the best

However, I lamented the departure of founding members Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner and never rated Timothy B. Schmit. I thought him a poor substitute. I’ll leave Don Felder out for the time being – the news that the Eagles are intending to tour again and that an ex-member is planning to return is tantalising. I would love it to be any of these three. Just discovered it’s Bernie. Until now, Bernie was always my favourite Eagle but that’s because I had never appreciated TBS, never given him the time. Still, wouldn't it be brilliant if they played My Man? I live for that.

I didn’t think (then) that TBS added anything to what the band had, dismissed his songs as sappy and sentimental and his voice as weak and insipid. I thought he was a feather-weight thrown in with heavy-weights and there was likely to be a smackdown. Surely the other Eagles would eat him for breakfast? Something sweet they could spread on their toast. But I was wrong. Not too proud to admit it. I don't know why I didn’t see it before, that what he contributes is … ineffable, a quality of calm – all wholesome goodness, a purity of tone, all sweetness and light. Something sensitive and touching and beautiful. And still. It’s like the whole band whirls around him and he’s this gentle, peaceful presence in the midst of the vortex. He doesn’t seem to get rattled, the closest he gets is looking a little fed up in the studio, like a child who’s been told he has to eat his greens.

He looks so happy!

First thing I learned was that he was with the Eagles before they broke up in 1980, for three years. And he looked really cute. I’d previously assumed that he’d only been in the 1994 reunion line-up. 1994 would have been the first chance I had to go see the Eagles but I decided it was too expensive (£40 a ticket). You’re laughing, right? Now it’s at least £100!

Prompted to re-explore Poco who were around three years before the Eagles formed. I used to think of Poco as Eagles-lite, pleasant enough but without the punch of the real thing, without the edge, a soft-focus, diluted version but now I see them differently. There’s a clarity and a feel-good atmosphere to most Poco songs. It’s obvious from the clips on YouTube – wish I’d had this when I was young – then I might have known, albeit after he left them, how incredibly pretty young Timothy was. And I would have had a way of listening to more of their material because what Poco had/maybe still have, or what they communicate, is a palpable joy. It’s evident in the way they play together. That Eagles ‘In Concert’ from 1973 is similar. Makes me wish/yearn that I could go back to that time and be the right age to go to a Poco show. Where’s the Hot Tub Time Machine when you need it?

Assumed the name meant something in Native American but learn that they originally chose Pogo, after some cartoon character and had to change it because someone objected. Well, I’ll stick with my romanticised version.

Totally gratuitous Tim pic

Ok, they weren’t roaring, they were purring. But how lovely. Hearing them, you never doubt that they mean what they’re singing.

Now I see that he’s the perfect addition. He has that high, delicate, pure voice, he plays bass, he writes. Ironic and a little sad that as soon as he joins, he gets to contribute a song, have it chosen as a single and sing the lead himself. So much for feather-weight. Poor Don Felder must have been spitting blood.

Obviously not an alpha male (unlike Frey, Henley and Walsh), not even obviously a male (flowing locks, softly spoken, that girlish, apologetic-sounding talking voice), I suppose his charm and his unassuming humility meant he wasn’t viewed as a threat. And in he came to steal the first hit.

Although people have made fun of his laidback, easy-going manner, he was asked to join this notoriously difficult band without playing a note with them so how’s that for respect?

His voice doesn’t sound as strong as it sounded with Poco (although he’s always had access to that sublime upper register), it’s as if he’s realised that he needs to cover different ground in the Eagles.

A quick word on a couple of tracks Timothy’s been on, not necessarily composer or lead singer but which benefit from all the above-mentioned qualities.

I Can't Tell You Why

This video with Tim in big headphones I now love. All that beautiful hair, that earnestness: he’s adorable. The song I thought was tepid, trivial, unworthy of the band, I find myself singing. He’s right – the song has space to breathe, develop; simple, unalloyed and his voice fits it perfectly. And then there’s Don Felder’s solo … what more need I say?

Rose of Cimarron

I remember a certain song very well – Rose of Cimarron, from hearing it on pirate radio, must have been reasonably catchy. Written by Rusty Young. But this song that I thought of as slender, slight, insubstantial even, is so much more. Heavenly harmonies, a perfect blend of voices, a lovely melody. And TBS’s voice has a heartbreaking sweetness and purity that takes it to another plane.

Keep on Tryin’

In this video, they look and sound a little like they’re underwater.

More spot-on harmonies, another amazingly contagious, uplifting tune. Real tenderness. Just the ohs at the beginning make my heart flutter and when the words come in, it’s incredibly beautiful. Not so much a wall of sound as a lace net curtain of sound. Their voices are delicately interwoven into something fine and intricate, that lets the light through to cast filigree shadow patterns on the wall.

Wow!

I will write more later on other outstanding Poco tracks, such as their magnificent version of Magnolia and on some TBS solo songs, lightweight but lovely confections, such as Something Sad.

Please forgive the devotion and zeal of the newly converted.I've taken photos from all over so please let me know if you want a credit. Thanks to: http://eaglesonlinecentral.com.

Bashful Badger was inspired  to write a poem about TBS; you can read it here.

Part Two of this blog is here.