Tuesday 19 January 2016

Glenn Frey: 6th November, 1948 - 18th January, 2016

You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye
You were too fast to live, too young to die, bye-bye
Bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye, bye 


The lyrics don't fit the life and death of Glenn Frey completely, but there is plenty of resonance all the same. Sharing songwriting duties with Jackson Browne, JD Souther and Don Henley on James Dean, this was one of many fine Eagles songs Frey helped to write. At 67 he was certainly too young to die, and as part of the rock excess immortalised by the Eagles as a band and in the documentary History of the Eagles, Frey will have been too fast for many things.


Indeed, in that documentary Frey rues the fact the Eagles were never a 'rock' band, but he and the others definitely lived the life of one. I have always been a stalwart fan, loving the west coast harmony for which they are famous, and there are plenty of rock elements to their songs over the decades. My favourite album of theirs is Desperado [reviewed on this blog here], their second but my first purchase. I listened to it all the time in my little cottage, blaring away through the night in the countryside. Memorable late nights, and now this one for an obvious mixture of reasons.


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