With its sweet harmonies and deftly twinned guitars, Eagles Live plays like a peaceful easy feeling. But the album, released on Nov. 7, 1980, actually tells the more complex story of the Eagles‘ relentless attention to detail and ugly initial split.
Everything had collapsed in a heap just a few months before during a disastrous California appearance that would be the last until a stunning early-’90s reunion. They’d needed 18 months and five different studios to complete 1979’s The Long Run. Tensions continued to mount until Glenn Frey and Don Felder almost came to blows on July 31, 1980, in Long Beach. Unfortunately, they still owed their label another album. The result was Eagles Live, a live document pieced together by quarreling bandmates who flew tapes back and forth from separate coasts during the editing and mixing process.
The whole thing became too careful, with a clear aim at preserving some lost legend through endless overdubs rather than finding anything new in the moment. (Original vinyl pressings had text engraved in the run-out groove on Side 2 that said, “Hello, Federal? … Ship it!”) They only really break out of this self-conscious chrysalis during tough runs throughs of a pair of Joe Walsh solo songs, though their inclusion is otherwise superfluous.
READ MORE: Ranking Every Eagles Live Album
Asylum had hoped to tack on a couple of new songs to Eagles Live, as an enticement to diehards who were overly familiar with their hits-laden set lists. They even dangled a $2 million pay day. The offer was denied. In the end, the only previously unreleased song was a gorgeous cover of Steve Young’s “Seven Bridges Road.” Fans who’d waited so long for The Long Run raced out to buy Eagles Live, a seven-times-platinum smash that soared to No. 6. (“Seven Bridges Road” almost crept into the Top 20, too.) Despite its title, however, the Eagles were quite obviously dead. They’d had to stitch together shows and stitch together the band.
Songs recorded during the 1980 tour, including stops at the Forum in Los Angeles and the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, were paired with five 1976 performances. That was not only a different time but also a different lineup, since Timothy B. Schmit hadn’t joined yet. The head-scratching inclusion of Walsh material like “All Night Long” – actually recorded during that crash-landing show in Long Beach – meant there wasn’t room for Don Henley-sung mid-’70s gems like “The Best of My Love” and “One of These Nights.”
Or maybe they just couldn’t agree on which take to include. Or on the last-second overdubs. Or maybe they got lost in the mail. Either way, it was over. The liner notes told the tale: Five different lawyers were thanked. As Eagles Live concluded, they said: “Thank you and good night” – and, for a very long time, they meant it.
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Gallery Credit: Dave Lifton
Listen to Don Felder on the ‘UCR Podcast’
