The long run

CEBU, Philippines - Bill Simmons is a sports columnist for www.espn.com.  His column is just below the headlines, so most of the time, I miss it. Simmons is a good writer except that his column is too long, maybe about 9,000 words in all. I mean, what can you say in 9,000 words that you can't say in 500?

But his column last week made me sit up,and since I don't like to read 9,000 or so words in one sitting, I highlighted the column and pressed, "start speaking", and listened.The title of the column was, "The Eagles' Greatest Hit", and it wasn't about Michael Vick and the Philadelphia Eagles, it was about (as far as I'm concerned) the Eagles of Don Henley and Glen Frey.

I was and still am a big fan of the Eagles after I heard "New Kid in Town" from a jukebox at a bus terminal in my early teens. I bet you didn't know that it was Frey who sang almost every first hit from every Eagles album and that all of their album covers has a "death" theme, although I know now it wasn't deliberate.

Simmons's column was his reaction to the film documentary of the Eagles by Allison Ellwood called, "History of the Eagles". There are two parts of the documentary, the first ending after they disbanded after Hotel California and part 2 starting with their solo careers up to the present.

One interesting thing I learned from the documentary was that Frey learned to write songs from his boarder, Jackson Browne, another great poet/songwriter from that era, who lived one floor under him and Henley, just by listening to Browne writing his own tunes. So when Browne, who initially wrote, "Take it Easy", got stuck after the first line of the second stanza, Frey finish it with "…such a fine sight to see, It's a girl my Lord…" and the rest is a classic!

The film shows how Henley went to Kenny Rogers, the singer, and asked him to watch them play and Rogers signing them up for a recording contract. Then the story runs it course, like most rock and roll bands do- from nobody's to overnight success to the excesses of fame, the women (they called this as the 3rd encore, or the "spread eagle"),the addiction to drugs, the jealousies and the fights, the disbandment and finally the reunion.

The Eagles started as a 5-man group with Henley, Frey, Don Felder, Randy Meisner and Bernie Leadon. Leadon, lead guitar, was the first to go, when he felt that the band was abandoning its country roots. Joe Walsh was more than a capable replacement, giving the band an edgier and rockier sound starting with Hotel California. Then bassist Randy Meisner developed cold feet, scared that he might miss the notes of, "Take it to the Limit" and resigned. He was replaced by Tim Schmit of Poco and became the cool counterpoint of the band. Finally, Felder was fired for personal and financial reasons, wasn't replaced although there is a new guy named Steuart Smith who took over his role.

If you were a child of the 70's and the 80's, then this film is a must see. It's almost four long and the file size is a huge 16G, but it's worth it. Simmons confessed to watching it five times, I'm working on my third.

The Eagles are older now, but their music is still is as fresh and as relevant as ever. (FREEMAN)