The Eagles' 'Hotel California': Everything You Didn't Know

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Too Much Information is a production of iHeartRadio. Hello everyone,
and welcome to Too Much Information, a show that brings
you the secret histories and little known fascinating facts and
figures behind your favorite music, movies, TV shows, and more.
We are your steely Knives of Scintilla, your two Tiffany

(00:22):
Twisted minds of Minusha prisoners here of our own device.
I'm Alex Heigl and I'm Jordan Runtog, and I have
to say I had no idea they were saying Tiffany
twisted in that song. I don't even know what that means.
I imagine you'll tell me later. Re listening to all this,
I've actually discovered that the thing I like best about
this song of the lyrics shocking. That makes sense. I

(00:43):
can see that. And as our keen eared listeners may
have gleaned from that intro, Jordan, today we are gathering
at our master's chambers for a feast of facts voices,
waking you up in the middle of the night or
whenever you might listen to this, to talk about the
Eagles Hotel, California. Yea, love him or hate him? And
as I've learned from our reviews on Apple Podcasts, my

(01:05):
feelings about boomer music icons are not frequently appreciated, wildly
dislikable boomer music icons, I need to say true risk
of getting more of those? Yeah, you know, I don't
Yeah whatever. Don Henley's quotes speak for himself. Yeah, the

(01:26):
Eagles are just one of the biggest bands period and
Hotel California is their biggest song, So good for them.
I just want to add that discussing the Eagles right
now is if listeners can probably tell making you physically ill. Yeah,
I'm I'm a little sick of Don henley s. Yeah.

(01:49):
I don't know, man, you have a bit more of
a partlar fascination with the iconography and everything around them.
I just really love Joe Walsh. Yeah, I mean, what's
not to love? You know, we have numerous Joe Walsh
corner moments in here, so yeah, thank god. Yeah, you know,
my festination with the Eagles extends way beyond the music.

(02:09):
The tumultuous interpersonal dynamics and the interband drama. For me,
put them neck and neck with Fleetwood Mac in terms
of just being the most entertaining and grossing rock and
roll soap opera. In a previous podcast, I co hosted
about rock rivalries. The Eagle story spiraled into an epic trilogy,
so it's Titanic levels in the DMI universe. I mean, yeah,

(02:33):
I don't know, dude, is it like, don't I want
to get one of those T shirts of like Detroit
versus everybody that's like Don Henley versus everybody, or like
all my homies hate Don Henley. I mean another good one.
But you know, I mean despite our strongly held feelings.
I know people, people I consider friends who have equally
strong feelings for the Eagles in the opposite way they

(02:53):
love the Eagles. I mean the gargantuan sales figures speak
for themselves. Numbers don't lie, you know. Yeah. In the
United States, the Eagles have the first and third highest
selling albums ever. Their greatest hits album is number one.
He'll Talk California is number three, forming a sandwich with
Michael Jackson's Thriller at number two. That's a sandwich. I

(03:15):
don't like the Eagles as the bread, Michael Jackson as
the meat. Michael Jackson and meat should never be in
the same sentence together. Yeah, I don't know, man, you
know what it is to me? I think they really
crystallized with doing the research and having to read that
these guys talk a bunch is they have sore winner energy.
You know, they made more money making music than probably

(03:37):
anyone will again like just purely from music, because you know,
I was thinking about it. I was like, I wonder
how rich these guys are. And the reason that they
probably aren't as rich as Michael Jackson or your Taylor
Swift or whatever is because, to their credit, they didn't
do endorsements, they didn't do commercials, they didn't license their stuff,
but they have the first and third best selling records

(03:57):
of all time, like so you were you you won guys,
And all they can do is keep like relitigating the
same petty grievances and like the same relitigating in a
literal sense, very Austin by the way. Yeah, And it's
it's like it's one thing to be a sore winner
if you're like funny and engaging, but it's another thing
to be like a cantankerous old man. It's a bad look.

(04:21):
It's just a bit they like they're just personally unlikable people,
except for sweet Joe Walsh oh yes, yes, yes yes,
and Randy Meisner. Oh god, yeah, I didn't know that
about Randy Meiser. That was that was a surprise read.
It's not, you know. I mean, as the honorary boomer
in our little duo, I know better than to criticize

(04:43):
these golden boys of the me decade too much. So
allow me to quote the self proclaimed dean of rock critics,
Robert Chris Gau in nineteen seventy two, he writes, another
thing that interests me about the Eagles is that I
hate them. One of the best pieces of rock criticism
of all time. Yes, you know, this is just one
of the many ways that I am like the dude
from The Big Lebowski. My intense antipathy towards the Eagles,

(05:07):
despite what I really believe to be their sizeable degree
of musical talent. It's really something that fascinates me. How
I can dislike them so much but admit that they
are very good at what they do. Yeah, I know
that's not mutually exclusive, but that's interesting to me. And
you know, sometimes late at night, when I can't sleep,
I try to examine my feelings and figure out why
I feel this way about the Eagles, and I think,

(05:29):
like you just mentioned, there's self serious alpha dogness mixed
with their seemingly unholy passion for lawsuits, makes their whole peaceful,
easy feeling, take it easy eight track classics ring a
little hollow. Yeah, it's so disingenuous, Like you're the least
easy taking it people of all time. Yeah, I mean,
I'm hard pressed the name a group who better exemplifies

(05:52):
the curdling of the sixties hippie dream, which, ironically, Joe
Walsh was a student at Ohio's Kent State University in
nineteen seven, an when the National Guard opened fire on
a peaceful anti war protest, killing for students, which is
an incident that historically has been viewed alongside the murder
at the Rolling Stones concert on Altamont as the death
knell of the sixties. So there's that, But there's also

(06:16):
something just so much more, something unexplainable, that inspires such
strong negative feelings against the group who makes music that
is really, by any metric, pretty inoffensive. So to me,
like I keep saying, that is just what makes the
Eagles so interesting, And I know I'm not alone in
feeling that way. Following the death of Eagles co Benevolent

(06:36):
Dictator Glen Fry. In twenty sixteen, Billboard published a piece
written by Chris Willman called Why are the Eagles So Hated?
An explainer on the immensely popular yet divisive rock band.
That headline is questionable timing, considering it was written while
glen Frye's body was probably still warm, but the New
York Daily News did one better, publishing a piece with
the headline Glen Fry's death is sad, but the Eagles

(06:59):
were a horrific But Chris Willman is a little more
even handed in his Billboard piece as he tries to
break down the hatred for the Eagles in less emotional
and more intellectual terms, and he cites several reasons why
everyone seemingly hates the Eagles. One reason is that the
band evokes the schism between East Coast and West Coast

(07:20):
music rivalries, less with the bands themselves, but mostly with
the critics. The New York based critics historically hated the
Eagles for the same reason that New Yorkers generally hate
la They think they're soft. The rest of Robert Chris
gals quote and Robert Christgaus in New Yorker reads the
Eagles are the ultimate in California dreaming, a fantasy of
fulfillment that has been made real only in the hip,

(07:42):
upper middle class suburbs of Barynne County and the Los
Angeles Canyons. What do you think about that? Yeah? I
think that tracks. I mean, despite all of their high
flutinous about this song being like the death of the
California Dream, I mean, at their heart, every other one
of their songs is about how great the California life style,
taking it easy and tequila sunrise this, and how great

(08:05):
taking it to the limit is is it? No? No? Well,
let me ask you. You are a a longtime New
Yorker who recently moved out. Oh people out here are soft? Okay, yeah, okay,
yeah I know I yeah, for sure New Yorkers are
needlessly hard two or false? Uh you know what? You
know what's actually really interesting reading about this band and

(08:26):
knowing how none of them were actually from California. But
it's funny to me because they epitomize they're not the
Midwest mentality of being like genuinely nice, they're the California.
They're the Los Angeles mentality of being outwardly nice and
secretly huge dicks. Whereas New Yorkers I've found are gruff
or whatever, like hey are walking into here, but like yeah,

(08:48):
but like we'll go out of their way to help you.
I never felt like a New Yorker rudeness, I mean
surface rudeness, but like I've always I've always held that
about New York. So well, I'm from Boston. Who are
in Mino? So well, we're not talking about Boston. What
does Boston even have? Drop Kate Murphy's a couple of colleges. Well.

(09:09):
According to this Billboard piece, another reason for scorn against
the Eagles is their supposed inoffensiveness. He previously mentioned Daily
News hatchet job. You know the Eagles were a horrific band.
Describe them as quote easy listening, even too soft for
an elevator. The music your mom and dad would play
in the living room high five while you went upstairs
and listened to the clash after dinner. Yeah, there's you know,

(09:33):
an easy shot. But as much as like, when I
think about like the harmony, this the kind of polished
Laurel Canyon stuff, Like they really were polished within an
inch of their life. What if you think about like
the other three and five part harmony guys of the era.
They are tremendous harmony singers. I mean it's really yea,
but yeah, it's just so polished. I mean they talk

(09:55):
about when Joe Walsh joined the band, they were like
John Henley was like, you can't move on stage, like
none of that rock starship. It's supposed to be about
the music man. Let Joe Walsh move on stage, dude.
Don Henley said that because I thought when they hired
Joe Walsh they were interested in getting more rocky and
it was like sonically but yeah, the quote that I
read was he was like, they were like I think

(10:16):
it might have been a minute Mark Elliott book. They
were basically said, we don't do the like hold your
hand up to your ear while you're playing the guitar solo,
or like play play between your knees or like all
that stuff. Like you know, we just were about the
music man. I'm like, well, that's why you have bad problems,
Don Henley, is because you got to stick up your ass,
oh boy, and commercial and perhaps the most compelling reason

(10:41):
for all the Eagles hatred is that we've simply been
taught to do it after years of social and cultural conditioning.
In his book I Wear the Black Hat Grappling with
Villains real and imagined, critic Chuck Klausterman wrote about the Eagles,
nodding to Robert Chriscau's famous line by calling his chapter
another thing that interests me about the Eagles that I
am contractually obligated to hate them, And in the section,

(11:04):
Chuck Lusterman rights, after spending the first twenty five years
of my life believing that they were merely boring, I
suddenly decided that the Eagles were the worst band that
had ever existed or could ever exist. I saw the
Big Lebowski and decided the main character should become the
role model for all human thoughts. Electronica was on MTV.
Even Grandma's were temporary. Postmodernists, Aspire and urban outfitter employees

(11:25):
were excited about technology and really into Neutramilk Hotel. It
was the logical time to believe Glenfry was Paul Pott
and elsewhere on the piece, Chuck Lasterman describes the Eagles
as quote the most unpopular super popular entity ever created
by California, not counting Ronald Reagan. They effortlessly represented what
people do not like about Malibu, which is true. I

(11:47):
mean he had that famous thing about Coldplay too, right.
Coldplay is like British Eagles, really good harmonies, really hard
on your sleeve, jibber jabber, really inoffensive and boring. That's again,
I don't like hate it. I'm like, this is all
really well executed. These guys are pros like, but you
do hate it. You just admit that it's well done. Yeah, okay,
that's true. No, but at the end of the piece,

(12:09):
Chuck Lusterman reevaluates his feelings for the Eagles and he
comes to see them as quote, just an old rock
band who made music that was significant and relaxing and inevitable.
And he also admitted that only an idiot would argue
that Take It Easy is poorly written or badly executed, which,
like we just said, that's the correct take. I feel
like inevitable is really interesting because it's it's it's really

(12:31):
funny to think about where they were situated in terms
of the country rock stuff. Like you know, when they
had a what's his name Bernie Leadon, yeah, who he
was in the Flying Burrito Brothers, Right, yeah, yeah, so
you have like a direct lineage to like country the
original the original country rock, right, and then they progressively

(12:51):
winnowed all of those elements out and created like, you know,
easy listening arena rock, and which is essentially the template
for like the commercial music of the eighties. You know,
like it's inevitable is a tremendous word to apply to
this band's arc, you know, you know, each of these
scholars have neglected to mention one of the biggest reasons

(13:13):
why I find the Eagles detestable. It's the inconsistent use
of an article in the band's name. Is it the
Eagles or is it Eagles? I've heard both ways. Yeah,
if it's Eagles, that's inexcusable. I'm sorry. It's the same
with talking Heads. I can't I'm sorry, it's the talking Heads.
I can't like Eagles. It's Eagles. No article on Spotify,

(13:34):
it's I hate that. I hate that so much. And
yet their header says the Eagles are one of the
most iconic bands in the history of music. Like, yeah,
it's it's not great. It's not great. What do you
think about Pixies? I can live with that. I can't
even live with Heads. They're weird enough. But yeah, yes
that you know what that's exactly what it is. You

(13:55):
are weird enough to be precious about how I refer
to your bands. But no, the Eagles, No, you were
the Eagles. I'm sorry. Well from the songs cringe Worth,
the original title to the Steely Dan song that inspired
a key lyric to the theories about whether or not
it was a real place. Here's everything you didn't know

(14:15):
about Hotel California. In the mid seventies, the Eagles were
on top of the damn world, where Don Henley had
believed he would rightfully end up since he was born
perming iron in hand in Gilmur, Texas, the birthplace of
Johnny Mathis. Is he permed or natural hair? He said

(14:38):
it was natural? But I mean, yeah, what a cloud?
You don't you get it? You don't get an afro
that doesn't have a dad from the Brady Bunch. Did
I guess that's true? Let's see Buckingham famous white guy
afros over the seventies tombler dot com. Yeah, the band's
previous album nineteen seventy fives. One of these nights, Bawn

(15:00):
the three top ten singles and the greatest hits album
that we talked about wound up forcing the ri double
Aid to invent the designation of platinum. Did you know that?
I didn't. I thought platinum was earlier in the seventies.
I thought, but Beach Boys compilation Endless Summer went like
quadruple platinumer double Platinum or something in seventy three. I
didn't realize it was that late. You'd love it to

(15:22):
be the Beach Boys, wouldn't you. I would. Yeah, No
ice Cream's shirt wearing Son of a Bitch. We were
under the microscope, Glenn Fry said. At the time, everybody
was going to look at the next record we made
and pass judgment. Don Henley and I were going, Man,
this better be good. This was not long after Don

(15:43):
Fingers Felder had joined the band in nineteen seventy four,
just one day after being called in to add slide
guitar on the tracks Good Day in Hell and Already Gone.
Assuming he was being brought on board as a full member,
he was wrong, realizing that the unholy alliance between Don
Henley and and Fry ran the band as a quote
benevolent dictatorship. Per Felder's scathingly petty tell all book Heaven

(16:07):
and Hell, Fry could be a bully and Henley a
controlling perfectionists, about whom Glenn Fry himself once said, no
one can suck the fun out of a room like
Don Henley. That's great. I like that. This is your
best friend and creative partner. Saying that about you and
Henley stands was that no band could function as a democracy.
They compared the dynamic to a sports team, saying if

(16:29):
people play their positions and play their strengths, everything turns
out well. The whole is greater than some of the parts.
We always understood that some of the other people didn't
understand that. They disliked Felder asserting himself and asking for
things like songwriting credits, with Henley saying at one point,
think of how much could be accomplished if no one
cared about credit. Ooh, and in the History of the

(16:54):
Eagles documentary, Don Felder was never ever satisfied, never ever happy.
I really see both sides of this. This is tricky
because on one hand, if you're as talented as Don
Felder as he might expect to be treated with, I
don't know, a certain amount of respect, get a little
thing like songwriting credit. Maybe hey, maybe Glenn Fry was
jealous of his musical abilities. To a certain extent, he's

(17:15):
a fingers Felder is a way better guitarist than Glenn Frye.
But on the other hand, in bands, seniority obviously matters,
and no one wants the new guy coming in and
throwing their weight around. But as Don Felder tells it,
he was being disrespected on a daily basis. That sows
the seeds for the end of this episode, shall I say,

(17:36):
In addition to fingers Felder's unhappiness bassist and sweet Cinnamon
Bun too pure for this world, Randy Meisner was also
feeling on the outs. He told the band's biographer Mark Elliott.
We were all real close, more or less up until
the year of Hotel California. I just didn't feel like
I was part of the group at that point. Success
changed everything. When we first started, we were really close,

(17:57):
like brothers. We'd sit around, smoke a dube together, drink
beer and have a good time. By nineteen seventy six,
it just wasn't the same. We couldn't sit down like
the guys anymore. It was all business. The friendships were
all gone by that point. Randy Meisner, He's got that
the beautiful falsetto voice that you can hear on take
it to the limit. Great bass player, sweet Sweet, the

(18:22):
goodest boy Randy Meisner, the most likable member of the
Eagle Well No Sorry, second the Joe Walsh, speaking of
the breaking of which another key lineup change was the
swapping in of Joe the Midwest Madman Walsh, a nickname
I just made up for Bernie lead Lips lead In,
same founding member. Lenin had firmly been a member of

(18:44):
The Bling Burrito Brothers and was way more into the
country side of the country rock sound. The Beatles are
credited with popularizing. The breaking point in his relationship with
the band supposedly came when one night, as for I
was intensely talking about the direction the band should head
in next Ledden interrupted him by pouring a beer over
his head and saying, you need to chill out, man
who among us? Apparently he later regretted this, saying that

(19:07):
it wasn't his proudest moment and it was really disrespectful,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But it sounds pretty funny.
It sounds hilarious. Oh can you imagine how mad he got? Well,
I mean yeah, I mean he kind of came out
on top. He left the Eagles, presumably got a ton
of money from his time in the Eagles, and he

(19:29):
got one over on Glenn Fry and then he rejoined.
I think things are relatively good between them. I think recently,
relatively recently, in the two thousands at least, he rejoined
the Eagles for I think it was called just the
History of the Eagles Tour. I think around the same
time that that documentary History of the Eagles two parter
came out in I think twenty thirteen. And for anyone

(19:51):
who hasn't seen that documentary, it's like, for me, it's
up there with the Beatles Anthology in terms of just
a truly great rock doc epic. It's so funny, it's
so petty, it's so nasty, It's filled with so many
great rock cliches, usually involving mountains and being on top
of them. What is the one I'm trying to think

(20:12):
of the Joe Walsh quote on the process of getting famous.
The first thing that happens is you give a label
and you got to live up in it, and then
you get just get caught up in that. And I
forget what the second thing is. You gotta live up
in it. Apparently this is the this is just I
haven't seen this, but this is from a Grant Land

(20:32):
feature on when that came out, and his quote on
their breakup is so much stuff just happened. Oh my god.
You know, there's a philosopher who says, as you live
your life, it appears to be anarchy and chaos and
random events, non related events smashing into each other and

(20:52):
causing this situation or that situation. And then this happens,
and it's overwhelming, and it just looks like what in
the world's going on? And later, when you look back
at it, it looks like a finely crafted novel, but
at the time it don't. I have to give Bill
Simmons credit. This is an incredible line in this piece. First,
Joe Walsh never names the philosopher, and as far as

(21:13):
we know, that philosopher was some dude named Clyde who
gave Walsh incredible coke on a Thursday night in like
nineteen seventy eight. Second, there's a twenty percent he stole
that entire thing from Charles Dickens and just doesn't remember. Third,
that's an amazing quote. I mean, Joe Walsh is like
the Yogi bearra of rock and roll. Joe Walsh was
born in Kansas, raised in Ohio, New York, and New Jersey,

(21:35):
but then moved back to Ohio to get his went
to Kent State, as you mentioned, to get his music
career on the road. His first two bands were basically
like Ohio bar groups, but Joe is the star. And
in between doing Forrest Gump type like selling Jimmy Page,
his iconic gibson Les Paul and learning slide guitar from
Dwayne Allman made he made a name for himself. James

(21:59):
Gang Whips Funk forty nine's incredible. They were never commercially famous.
They were really kind of only a hit in in
and around Ohio in the Midwest, but they're such a
great power trio. I actually found this really great quote
from Joe Walsh talking about it. Oh blah bla Lula whoa, Yeah,

(22:25):
that's the intro to the song Meadows. This is what
I'm saying, like like like Don Henley would never start
a song like that for Joe walshy was it was Tuesday.
Jordan Tea is up some of the some of the
best Joe Walsh stories. Yes, I have so many great
Joe Walsh stories. He's amazing. I think I talked about
this on a Revolver episode. But Joe Walsh worshiped the

(22:48):
Beatles and he wanted to be one so bad. And
in the mid sixties he was in an early group
called the Measles, and he set about trying to obsessively
learn the guitar part to the Beatles track and Your
Bird Can Sing from the nineteenth sixty six album Revolver.
And he spent weeks and weeks, maybe even months, trying
to work the guitar part out by ear, not realizing
that it was actually two guitars playing the part, and

(23:10):
they became famous around town for being able to play
the whole part on one guitar, and he would proudly say,
not even George could do that. And then now, of
course he is Ringo Star's brother in law. He's married
to Ringo's wife's sister, Lily Tomlin. Yeah, and he's also
the owner of Klaus Foreman's original cover artwork for Revolver.

(23:31):
So Joe Walsh came out on top there. I love
a fellow Beatle obsess of getting what he wants. After
leaving James Gang and recording some records under the named Barnstorm,
Walsh was invited to join the Eagles by their manager,
notorious music industry heavy Irving A's Off, and he did
join the man in nineteen seventy five, largely against Don
Henley's wishes. As we mentioned earlier, Don Henley thought Joe

(23:54):
was too wild for the band. He was not wrong.
Was the famous quote about Joe Walsh from Glenn Fry.
Joe was an interesting bunch of guys. The guys in
the Eagles gave Joe walshy chainsaw for her birthday once
as a joke. Probably got a lot of use. Joe
was the American champion of hotel room trashing after being

(24:17):
trained by his British counterpart, Keith Moon. Joe Walsh had
in the History of the Eagles documentary, one of the
most terrifying things that ever happened to me was that
Keith Moon decided he liked me. That's an incredible quote.
He's guy's a quote machine. So, as a result of
Joe's penchant for destroying hotel rooms, there was a long

(24:38):
list of hotels in which the Eagles were not welcome.
My favorite story from this era, if you'll indulge me
once more in my Joe Walsh stories, is when Joe
Walsh was at the Astor Towers in Chicago with John Belushi,
WHI yeah, yeah. They were not allowed into the fancy
dining room because they were both wearing jeans, and you know,

(24:59):
they had a dress code at places like this. Instead
of just you know, going back to the room and
putting on slacks, John Belushi and Joe Walsh went into
an alleyway and spray painted their jeans black. Unfortunately, they
were hungry and didn't wait for the paint to dry,
so when they sat down on these antique Queen Anne chairs,
the paint came off. This caused a problem when they

(25:20):
stood up and the whole backside of their pants were
blue again. I guess they were so pissed off by
this whole frustrating experience that they went back to Joe's
room and caused twenty eight thousand dollars worth of damage
in a single night. And amazingly, Joe was still up
to these tricks years later when he was in Ringo

(25:42):
Stars All Star Band in the late eighties and early nineties,
I interviewed Ringo's drum tech a few years back, and
he told me one night when the band bread he
ritched Carlton, Joe glued the furniture in his suite to
the ceiling. The drum tech told me Joe carried a
hot glue gun and glued the table to the ceiling,
and the lamp plugged in, turned on, and the ashtray

(26:03):
with a lit cigarette in it, and then he took
a bunch of polaroids and the stunt came with a
four thousand dollar price tach And when Joe came in
the next day for a sound check, the drum tech
asked him, Hey, Joe, have a fun time last night,
and Joe said it was worth every penny good for him.
I know stuff like that would normally offend me, but
for some reason, with Joe Walsh it doesn't. He was

(26:25):
in the band's orbit as a solo artist. He was
managed by the Eagles manager A's Off, and he used
an Eagles pound, Bill Simsick as his record producer. But
we mentioned earlier how he's entry in the band kind
of sheered away the last remaining vestiges of any country
influences in the band, except for maybe the harmonies and
the occasional pedal steel. You can just put pedal steel

(26:46):
and anything. Did you know that little seat, little music
industry secrets for you. Walsh's big contribution to the Hotel
California record, other than the dueling lead part in the
title song, was the guitar line to Life in the
Fast Lane. Yeah, it was like a coordination exercise. He
described it as like patting your head and rubbing your

(27:07):
stomach at the same time. It was like a string
skipping exercise, kind of like gum. Yeah, there's a listical there,
like top ten riffs that came out of exercises. There's
probably a lot of them. Fry told Cameron Crowe. I
was riding in a car with a drug dealer, a
guy we used to call the count because his count
was never very good. We were driving out to an

(27:28):
Eagles poker game. I was in the passenger seat. He
moved over to the left lane and started driving seventy
five to eighty miles per hour. I said, hey man,
slow down. He goes, hey man, it's Life in the
fast Lane. Frey hung onto the title and Walsh just
threw down the riff. One day as the band was
warming up, caught both Henley and fryes Ears. Fry said
it made a statement Joe Walsh was officially in the band.

(27:51):
You know, I think it says a lot about Glen Fries.
He's the kind of guy that thinks that the phrase
life in the fast Land's cool is bad. As also,
seventy five miles an hour on the interstate like not
that fast. I know, I was trying. I mean, unless
they're like going through like Sunset Boulevard or something. Yeah, yeah,
I had that thought too. Is it worth doing a

(28:12):
brief rundown of seventies rock stars who were a little
too open about crediting their dealers for their big blockbuster hits.
Fleetwood mac We're gonna credit their coke dealer on rumors
until he, according to Mcfleetwood got snuffed, as he said
charmingly described it. And then wasn't there a Black Sabbath
one too? Yeah? And when they made Volume four, during

(28:32):
which they had cocaine smuggled in and speaker cabinets, they
the liner notes, Thank the great Coke Cola. It was
so open in the seventies, dude, I mean, like I've
read about like the history of drugs in this country,
and you know doctors used to just do cocaine, like, oh,
it's good for you, insane. I love how Glen Fry

(28:54):
was scandalized not only by the speed that this guy
was driving, but also just the nature of the song itself,
he laid. I said, I could hardly listen to Life
in the fast Land when we were recording it, because
I was getting high a lot at the time and
the song made me ill. This is him talking a
rolling stone in nineteen seventy nine. We were trying to
paint a picture that cocaine wasn't great. It turns on you.
It messed up my back muscles, messed up my nerves,

(29:15):
it messed up my stomach and made me paranoid. The
title track was the first one track for the record,
but it had dated back too long before that. Dawn
Franzia Felder nicknames. Everybody gets a nickname. Yeah, you get Anna,
and you get a nickname. He'd rendered a beach house
in Malibu before the band started on the follow up

(29:38):
to One of These Nights, and he told Guitar World
in twenty thirteen, I remember sitting in the living room
on a spectacular July day with the doors wide open.
I had a bathing suit on and was sitting on
this couch, soaking wet, thinking the world was a wonderful
place to be. This is why people hate Californians. I
had this acoustic twelve string and started tinkling around with it,
and those Hotel California chords just kind of oozed out.

(29:59):
He can did a demo of the tune to his
TAC four track tape recorder, playing bass himself and using
a drum machine. He told Gibson dot Com in twenty ten,
I knew it was unique, but I didn't know if
it was appropriate for the Eagles. It was a kind
of reggae, almost an abstract guitar part for what was
on the radio back then. Did you added these? No?

(30:22):
You did. I must have done it in a fuke state.
Don Head Honcho Henley and Glenn super Freak Fry took
something of a dim view of Felder's demos that he
contributed to the session. Aside from what would become Hotel California,
he brought them over a dozen other songs, all of
which they rejected. Fry would later say ninety five percent

(30:44):
of them were cluttered with guitar licks, and we'd listen
to one and go, well, where do you sing? He's
got some such sticks. I love it. But Henley did
hear something he liked in that Beach demo. He told
Rolling Stone Felder had submitted a cassette tape containing about
a half dozen different pieces of music. None of them
moved me until I got to that one. It was
a simple demo, a progression of our pageted guitar chords

(31:07):
along with some hornlike sustained note lines all over a
simple four four drum machine pattern. There may have been
some Latin style percussion in there too. I think I
was driving down Benedict Kenyon Drive at night, or maybe
even North Crescent Drive. Why what a name dropper? The
first time I heard the piece, and I remember thinking
this has potential. I think we can make something interesting

(31:27):
out of this. I love about Don Henley and Glenn
Fry make it seem like they plucked this raw diamond
out of a messy pile of crap. Fry, in a
ninety ninety two episode of In the Studio with Redbeard
were called, we said, this is electric Mexican reggae. Wow,
what a nice synthesis of styles as a horrifying sentence,
and so Mexican Reggae became the song's working title during

(31:51):
their early sessions before the lyrics were finalized, Jesus Christ
I can't. Another big point of contention between Felder and
the hair Wins was the partially complete album cut Victim
of Love, which Felder had thought he was going to
sing himself. Takes were done with Felder singing lead, but
Messrs Fry and Henley weren't having it. There was no
space for Filler and don Felder, for all of his

(32:13):
talents as a guitar player, was not a singer. Fries
adding the history of the Eagles, with Henley adding the
incredible incredible, He says, we let mister Felder sing it
dozens of times over the space of a week, over
and over. It simply did not come up to band standards.
So they arrived at an incredible solution. They had irving

(32:37):
A's off their manager, take Felder out to dinner and
tell him, Hey, you're not going to be singing that song.
While Henley was back in the studio recording over his
vocal takes. Chef's Kiss of dickishness. That's up there with
Fleetwood mac axing Stevie Nick's Silver Springs from rumors and
then making mc fleetwood take her out to the parking

(32:59):
lot to bay basically shoot her in the head and
tell her that her most cherished song was getting cut
from the album written as a gift for her mother. Yes,
and then Stevie ended up dating Don Henley for a
while in the seventies two. So everybody's terrible. Everybody's terrible.
It was a truly awful scene. I have to think,
like Tom Petty was the only guy who was cool

(33:19):
out of that Laurel Canyon thing because he came from Florida.
He came from Janesville, you know. Yeah, everyone else in
this such a ponderous who's cool in that scene? Linda
Ronstat Yeah, there you go. Yeah, Yeah, like all the
all time assole of rock and roll came out of
Laurel Canyon. Yeah, Crosby Stills, Nashing Young, the Eagles, Warren Zevon,

(33:44):
like good Lord Zappa, Zappa difficult, not dickish, maybe, yeah,
I think, yeah, yeah, I wouldn't put him in there. Yeah,
I wouldn't put him in the Henley category. But getting
back to Victim of Love, Don and Glenn predictively got

(34:07):
pretty nasty about it. Don Felder later said it was
a bit of a bitter pill with Swallow not to
sing on it. I felt Don Henley was taking that
song from me because I've been promised a song on
this album, and Don Henley disagreed. He said in the
History of the Eagles documentary, I have no recollection of
anybody being promised anything. And he claims that when Felder

(34:28):
brought him the song, it was just wasn't even a song.
It was a chord progression, no title, no lyrics, and
no melody. Henley added, Felder demanding to sing that song
as the equivalent of me demanding to play lead guitar
on Hotel California. It just didn't make sense. And I mean,
Glen Fry sort of defending this power dynamic they'd set up.

(34:50):
He admitted that, you know, he and Don kind of
carved up the vocal duties between them in the early
part of the band's career, but as the seventies wore
on and the band became bigger and bigger, he let
Dawn sing more songs because that's kind of what the
people wanted, and it was kind of obvious that Don
Henley was the better singer of the two. This was
Glenn's own way of saying that the band's interests outweighed

(35:12):
individual interests. As Joe Walsh put it, this is the
best thing for the Eagles, and Don Felder never forgot
that we were all alpha's and all very assertive and
powerful in our own way. In his own defense, Don
Felder would admit, there's no comparing my vocal to Don
Henley's vocal. There's no comparing anybody's vocal to Don Henley.

(35:33):
But he never forgot or forgave the slight and you
must have been particularly galling for him that every other
member of the Eagles had a solo vocal spot on
Hotel California, the album named for his own musical baby
except Himself. But on a nicer note, Owners of the
old vinyl edition of Hotel California will notice the phrase

(35:53):
vol is a five piece live inscribed on the album's
run out groove. That's the little smooth part of the record, right,
you know, right outside of the label in the center.
This was a little inside joke. It's signaled that victim
of love was recorded live by the Five Eagles with
no overdubs. This was etched in there by the band's producer,

(36:14):
Bill Simsick, which basically was mad as a big as
a big middle finger to critics who accused the Eagles
of being too clinical and soulless in the studio and
just overdubbing things within an inch of their life and
not having that authentic in the room band sound that said.
I think he also said they were like thirty three
edits on Hotel California. That sounds right. Yeah, So Bill

(36:35):
Simpson was not in a single vowel on that guy's name.
Trying to think of a nickname for him, Bill stuttering
Simpson is sick vowel movement. He came into their band's
orbit by Joe Walsh. He'd produced not just The James Gang,
but Walsh's solo records, and the Eagles ditched Glynn John's

(36:59):
in favor of Simzeck after hearing his work on those
records and wanting to move in a more rock and direction.
Simsic has a great sound on sound Feature where he
talks about recording the song, and he said in there
his initial meeting with Henley, he said how many mics
I'd use on a set of drums, and I told
him eight or nine. Glenn Johns was known for using three.

(37:19):
Then when Glenn Fry wanted to know how long he
could work on his guitar solos, I told him as
long as it takes. They wanted to rock, and that's
what I did. So it was a good marriage and
drum set. He really don't need that many mikes and
drum set. Control. It's all about control. These guys are

(37:40):
all about control. Yeah. Both one of those nights in
Hotel California were recorded half at the Record Plane in
La as a concession to the band, and half at
Criteria in Miami, where Simzeck lived after being scared out
of California by an earthquake. Really have you any earthquakes? Oh? Yeah, bunch,
But I was ever. He was like shaken out of

(38:02):
bed in the middle of the night, if I recall correctly,
And then he was like this, which is I understand understandable.
He told sound on sound every time we were at Criteria.
The guys were actually quite happy to be out of
LA and away from all of the partying and the
hangars on Hotel California took nine months to make, and
throughout that time we'd go back and forth between LA
and Miami. We do a month in LA and take

(38:23):
three or four weeks off, and then a month in Miami.
We do a month in LA and take three or
four weeks off, and then a month in Miami and
take three or four weeks off because we'd record tracks
and then they'd have to go away and write the words.
What an incredibly relaxed schedule. How lovely for them. Very
seldom they would write a full song all in one go.
Somebody would have a lick, somebody would have a riff,
and then we developed at the studio more than anything else.

(38:45):
All that said, Criteria was not exactly a sober living facility.
Next door, we're Black Sabbath working on their technical Ecstasy
album and simultaneously undercutting the Eagles by playing too loud,
which is just another reason to love Black Sabbath. Tony Eaomi,
Sabbath guitarists told Uncut in twenty fourteen, the Eagles were
recording next door, but we were too loud for them.

(39:06):
It kept coming through the wall into their sessions. Hotel
California's delicate closing ballad. The last resort had to be
rerecorded multiple times due to noise leakage, but the Eagles
held their own in volume of cocaine consumed. Sabbath bassist
Keezer Butler were called venturing into a studio recently vacated
by the band. Before we could start recording, we had

(39:27):
to scrape all the cocaine out of the mixing board.
I think they'd left about a pound of cocaine in
the board. Given the length of the recording process. One
of the stumbling blocks to getting Hotel California on tape
was Felder remembering what he'd played on the demo. He
told Music Radar in twenty twelve, Joe and I started
jamming and Don said, no, non stop, it's not right.
I said, what do you mean, it's not right and

(39:49):
he said no, no, You've got to play it just
like the demo. Only problem was I did that demo
a year earlier. I couldn't even remember what was on it.
They settled this with a cross country call. I had
to call my housekeeper in Malibu, who took the cassette,
put it in a blaster a boombox and played it
with the phone held up to the blaster. It was
close enough to the demo to make Don happy inconveniencing

(40:12):
a housekeeper to please Don Henley just seems about right.
As you meditate on that, we'll be right back with
more too much information. After these messages, the first two

(40:37):
versions of Hotel California were recorded in LA. The third
and final one was cut in Miami, which is perfect
for a song about a bunch of not Californian's writing
about the California Mythos Simsic told Sound Out Sound the
first version we recorded was just a riff. However, once
Don Henley began to write the lyrics, it turned out
to be the wrong key. Felder elaborated to music Radar.

(40:59):
Don went out and start singing on it, and it
sounded like Barry Gibb in this high voice. I went, wait, wait,
that just doesn't work. So I went out to the
studio with a guitar, sat down with him and said, okay,
let's drop it down to D minor. But that was
still too high. C minor still too high. How about
A minor that was too low? So we wound up
having to play in the key of B minor, which
is not a particularly guitar friendly key, but it was

(41:21):
perfect for his voice. B minor is a very guitar
friendly key. What the hell are you talking about? Got
all the open strings in there? It's the relative minor
of D major. Have your open chords? And that wait,
talking about Franzy of Felder, It's kind of been better
f word, I can slide it. There was that Franzier,
was that sim Sick? That's Felder? I was Feller, half

(41:45):
of Hotel California's legacies. It's cryptic, ominous lyrics, which I
again I love, I actually do love the lyrics to
this song. And did it walk such a great line
between like very specific imagery and vague turns of phrase
that have gone on to just enter the life xicon
great writing and Frogman Felder frog mouth for freck frickin

(42:09):
frack Felder, What do I just keep riffing? Felder described
the writing of the words to Howard Stern in two
thousand and eight, Don Henley and Glenn wrote most of
the words. All of us kind of drove into La
at night. Nobody was from California, And if you drive
into LA at night, you can just see this glow
on the horizon of lights and the images that start
running through your head of Hollywood and all the dreams

(42:29):
that you have, and so it was kind of about that.
They also said that it was about the myth making
of Southern California and also the myth making of the
American dream in general, because as Don Henley sagely observes,
it's a fine line between the American dream and the
American nightmare. Yeah. I mean he was an English major,
right they I didn't know that that's what that, Bill

(42:52):
Simmons Pece said. Henley told author Mark Elliott Into the Limit,
the Untold Story of the Eagles. The concept had to
do with taking a look at all the band had
gone through personally and professionally. While it was still happening
to them. We were getting an extensive education in life,
in love, in business. Beverly Hills was still a mythical
place to us. In that sense, it became something of
a symbol, and the hotel the locus of all that

(43:15):
HeLa had come to mean for us. In a sentence,
I'd sum it up as the end of innocence Round one.
Even worse, that took a page from the Boto playbook,
calling the song quote a journey from innocence to experience.
Henley and I were listening to the Hotel California demo
tape together on an airplane, and we were talking about

(43:35):
what we would write and how we wanted to be
more cinematic. I told Cameron Crowe, we wanted this song
to open like an episode of the Twilight Zone, just
one shot after another. That's kind of cool. I like, yeah,
I actually like what he says here, And he added
that they wanted the song's narrator to be like a
character in John Fowl's novel The Magus, where every time
he walks through a door, there's a new version of reality.

(43:57):
We wanted to write a song just like it was
a movie. The guys having across the desert. He's tired,
he's smoking, comes up over a hill, sees some lights,
pulls in. First thing he sees is a really strange
guy at the front door, welcoming him come on in,
walks in. Then it becomes Felini esque strange women, effeminate men,
shadowy corridors, disembodied voices, debauchery, illusion, weirdness. So we thought,

(44:20):
let's really take some chances. Let's try to write in
a way that we've never written before. And then Don
Henley comes in with just a home run of pretension
two camera Crow. I've always been interested in architecture and
the language of architecture, and at that time I was
particularly keen on the mission style of early California. I

(44:42):
thought there was a certain mystery in romance about it.
I don't know why I'm doing my time? Is that
Tom Ford? That's the voice I thought it was, mister
hands could be yeah, yeah, he continued huffing his own farts.
Then there are all the great movies and plays in
which hotels figure prominently, not only as a structure but
as a dramatic device, films such as Grand Hotel, The

(45:04):
Night Porter, and even Psycho Motel's Count two. There are
plays like Neil Simon's Plaza Suite and California Suite, which
Glenn and I went to see while writing the song.
But there are also less lofty concerns at play in
the song's lyrics. The line they stab it with their
steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast was,

(45:25):
in Fry's words to Crow, a little post it back
to Steely Dan. Apparently, Walter Becker's girlfriend loved the Eagles
and she played them all the time. I think it
drove him nuts. Yeah, sure. So the story goes that
they were having a fight one day and that was
the genesis of the line turn up the Eagles. The
neighbors are listening in Everything You Did from Steely Dan's
The Royal Scam album. During the writing of Hotel California,

(45:48):
we decided to volley. We just wanted to allude to
Steely Dan rather than mentioning them outright, So Dan got
changed to knives, which is still you know, a penile metaphor, stabbing, thrusting, etc. Well,
Steely Dan, the band name is famously named after the
dildo from William burrows Naked Lunch. So yeah, he's right,
I gotta give it to him. A penile metaphor. The

(46:11):
man knows a penile metaphor, you gotta hand it to him.
As for kalitas, the word is the diminutive feminine plural
of the Spanish word cola or tail. Fry has said
that it's slaying for the very tip top of a
marijuana bud, where all the sap I guess kengeals, making
it the most potent part to smoke, according to the
site The Straight Dope, which is a famous weekly column

(46:32):
in the pages of the all weekly The Chicago Reader,
written by a journalist named Cecil Adams. I guess he
wrote an email to Irving as Off in nineteen ninety
seven asking about that word, and Irving a'sof to his credit,
wrote him back, said, in response to your recent memo,
in nineteen seventy six, during the writing of the song
Hotel California by Messrs Henley and Fry, the word Kalidas

(46:55):
was translated for them by their Mexican American road manager
as little Buds. You have obvious already done the necessary extrapolation.
Thank you for your inquiry. Incredible. The line her mind
is Tiffany twisted, she got the Mercedes Bends, she got
a lot of pretty boys that she call friends. Is

(47:16):
about Henley's relationship with actress Laurie Rodkin. Tiffany Twisted, I
have to assume, is a reference to Tiffany. The brand
and Mercedes Benz is actually quite clever because it's wordplay
like alluding to like, you know, the car, but it's
also referring to the you know, a derangement that you
get if you surface too fast from being underwater. They

(47:37):
call that the Bends, which is the Radiohead album's famously
named after that. That's a clever line. I gotta give
him that. It's no pinot. I'm out of form, but okay, begrudgingly,
I have to give it to them. But Henley told
Mark Elliott, I wouldn't be crowing if I were miss Rodkin.
As far as I'm concerned, She's the Norma Desmond of

(47:58):
her generation. Oh he's a mean man. Henley was famously
one of the great swinging dick bachelors of the seventies
in la leaving a behind a trail of x's that
included Rodkin, who he would call to get back together with,
only to find out that she'd reconciled with her ex
before him, Elton John's lyricist Bernie Taupin, and also, as

(48:21):
you mentioned before, Stevie Nicks. A lot of the best
lines in Hotel California are quite specifically about Don's relationship
with Lorie, someone close to both of them told Elliott
for the book. In an interview with the Dutch magazine
Zigzag shortly before Hotel California's release, Don Henley said this
is a concept album. There's no way to hide it.
But it's not set in the Old West, the cowboy thing,

(48:44):
you know, it's more urban this time. It's our bi centennia,
the year, you know, the country is two hundred years old.
So we figured, since we are the Eagles, and the
Eagles our national symbol, that we were obliged to make
some kind of a little bi centennial statement us in California,
as the micro calls them, of the whole United States
or the whole world, if you will, and try to
wake people up and say, we've been okay so far

(49:05):
for two hundred years, but we're going to have to
change if we're going to continue to be around. We
were obliged to make some kind of statement. Oh, Henley,
this is this is where we've finally reached. The native
of Henley quotes that I dug up. I'm so glad
you found us. He was asked in two thousand and

(49:26):
nine by The Plain Dealer music critic John Satyr about
the line, So I called up the captain, please bring
me my wine, he said. We haven't had that spirit
here since nineteen sixty nine. Satyr pointed out to him
that wines are fermented while spirits are distilled. Henley's response
is breathtaking. Thanks for the tutorial, and no, you're not
the first person to bring this to my attention, and

(49:48):
you're not the first to completely misinterpret the lyric and
miss the metaphor. Believe me, I've consumed enough alcoholic beverages
of my time to know how they are made and
what the proper nomenclature is. But that line in the
song has little nothing to do with alcoholic beverages. It's
a socio political statement. My only regret in writing about
writing it would be having to explain it in detail
to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary

(50:10):
devices and songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly
and irrelevant argument about chemical processes. In his defense, that
line has always seemed very obvious to be as word play,
so that it was a boner question. But wow, thanks
for the tutorial. Yeah, that's that's really But with lyrics

(50:31):
these scrutinized, it's no wonder that three people were charged
in July twenty twenty two after allegedly conspiring to steal
Henley's handwritten lyrics to the song, as well as two
others from this album. One of them is a high
ranking curator from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
who I actually met a few months before his arrest.

(50:52):
He looks shifty a little bit. Yeah. I don't think
they were trying to steal it. I think they were
trying to sell it. I think it was like part
of the rock Hall archives. I forgot, I don't. I
didn't follow the case that closely, but yeah, I think
it was like something even weirder. Prosecutors from the Manhattan
District Attorney's Office claim the lyrics were improperly obtained and

(51:12):
could be worth over one million dollars at auction. The
three men pleaded not guilty and were released without bail
pending trial. Eagles manager Irving Azoffs had the case exposed
the truth about music memorabilia, sales of highly personal stolen
items hidden behind a facade of legitimacy. Okay, man, I

(51:32):
will recite this header because I was proud of it,
to the tune of Benny and the Jets, Fingers and
the Walsh Don Don Don Don but Smithsmismismiz Bill Smith.
Producer Bill Smiths told Sound on Sound that the recording

(51:53):
of the extended Felder Walsh twin guitar coda that concludes
Hotel California was quote one of the most amazing times
I've had as a producer. Don and Joe were with
me in the control room and we ran their mic
chords out to amps in the studio so they could
hear exactly what was happening. Don Felder was on one
side of me, Joe Walsh was on the other, and
I'm stuck in the middle with you. No needing that

(52:14):
we were punching in all these incredible guitar parts which
had not been written before we started to do it.
So we were doing a lot of what we called
search and destroy. Well let's try this, and let's try that.
If I did that, then the harmony would be this.
Just overdubbing all these leads was a basic two day process,
and man, what a ball that was. They're both great,
great players, and the two of them were on fire.
I have a question to you, as somebody who's recorded

(52:36):
in professional recording studios two days to nale solo, it's
seventies for sure. But yeah, actually, you know what, I
have the perfect I have the perfect analog for this.
When during the making of Wheezer's blue album Rivers, Cuomo
fired the guy who was playing guitar with the other

(52:56):
guitarists in the band, the guy who actually wrote that
fingerpicking intro to My Name is Jonas. He fired that
guy and then rerecorded all of that guy's guitar parts
himself in one day. Yes, that's right. So the seventies
versus the nineties versus now when they would be like, Ah,

(53:17):
you don't get to do that, sorry, or actually you'd
probably do it by yourself in your bedroom crying. Felder
told Music Radar in twenty twelve of the parts, I
had a fifty nine Less Paul Sunburst and I plugged
into a fifties Tweed Deluxe, a narrow paneled model. It
was probably a fifty five or fifty six. That's he's

(53:37):
describing like ten thousand dollars worth of gear in that sentence.
Joe played a telecaster, but I'm not sure what amp
he was using, and I think I had an echo plex,
which is a delay unit in the loop at the time.
But that was about it. Ranked by Guitar World readers
as the fifth greatest guitar soul of all time in
twenty twenty one. Those leads were not planned out, as

(53:58):
Walsh echoed an interview with The mag he said, Don
Felder and I sat down and we worked out all
the descending lines. After the basic track was done and
Don Henley had sung, it was our turn. We agreed
on who was going to play when at the end,
at the big solo, and we tried to compliment each
other and build up to the very last part. So
the solos were not planned. They were spontaneous playing off

(54:18):
of each other. We were really good at that, and
the rest of the song was kind of planned out.
We put these descending lines on that because that was
the first set of overdubs. And one interesting thing about
the song's composition is that the chord progression, which is
a fairly common flamenco chord progression in the shrugian mood,
is that what it is? Yeah? Oh, I didn't know that. Yeah,
it's something that's not often heard in rock music. So

(54:41):
when Jethro Tall multi instrumentalist An Anderson heard it, his
ears perked up because he thought it was weirdly similar
to his own composition, a song called We Used to
Know from Jethro Talls nineteen sixty nine. Sophomore albums stand up.
So that's a little suspicious. We might have a little
bit of a led Zeppelin obspirit our bands spirit. Thank

(55:06):
you that led Zeppelins. Randy California. How can you forget
Randy California? Dude. Yes, another great bass player named Randy.
It's maybe the most bass player name it is. Yeah.
The fact that the Eagles and Jethro Tall toured together
in nineteen seventy two was certainly an argument in Jethro
Tall's favor. Ian Anderson of Jethro Tall said maybe it

(55:29):
was just something that kind of picked up. But Ian
Anderson took a very gracious view of all this. He's
quoted as saying, maybe it was just something that the
band just kind of picked up on subconsciously and introduced
that chord sequence into their famous song Hotel California sometime later.
This is Ian Anderson talking tosongfax dot Com. But in

(55:50):
the Eagles defense, this tour with Jethro Tall took place
some two years before Don Felder, Hotel California's primary composer,
officially joined the band in nineteen seventy four, though he
was a friend of founding guitarist Bernie laden at the time.
So maybe he went to one of the shows where
the Eagles were opening for Jethro Tall and heard the

(56:11):
song and just subconsciously filed it away. Who knows. Don
Felder himself later denied having ever heard the song. We
used to know at the time. He wrote Hotel California,
and he said he knew next to nothing about Jethro
Tall other than the fact that they used a flutist.
Maybe I'll punch in that song now and you can
listen for yourself. Whenever a thing either way. Ian Anderson

(56:49):
of Jethro Tall didn't take it further than just musing
on it in the press. He said, it's just the
same chord sequence, it's in a different time signature, different key,
different context, and it's a very very very fine song
they wrote. So I can't feel anything other than a
sense of happiness for their sake. There's certainly no bitterness
or any sense of plagiarism attached to my view on it,
although I do sometimes allude in a joking way to

(57:11):
accepting it as a kind of tribute. Yeah, I mean,
you can't copyright chord progressions. It's like just basic you know,
music facts. Have you heard the song is Jethro Tulsa. Yeah,
no have you? Yeah. I have a hard time seeing
how it would relate. Yeah. I mean, there's probably not

(57:32):
a more polar opposite of the Eagles than Jethro tull Like, Yeah,
dance around the may Pole, a giant long flute solo
versus immaculate five part harmonies, and about California. Another fun fact,
Hotel California also contains a bassline and a drum part.

(57:57):
It's a little bit of a joke because I find
those parts underwhelming. Oh the base though, well, I mean
it's just bad white boy reggae. I guess Mexican reggae, please,
electric Mexican reggae please. Once mixing was complete, Don Felder
told Ultimate Classic Rock in twenty seventeen, we had a
playback party for the record company. After Hotel California played,

(58:19):
Henley turned around and said, that's gonna be our single.
In those days, AM radio would only play something that
was under three minutes and thirty seconds long, and it
had to be a rock track, or danceable track or
ballad of some kind. Hotel California was none of those.
It was the absolute wrong format for radio. So I
said to Don, I think that's an FM cut. It's
something that'll play on FM radio, not AM radio. Don said, Nope,

(58:42):
this is going to be our single. We all went
with it, and I've never been so happy to have
been so wrong. For the single release of Hotel California,
the bands went with a version of the album's cover
art for the sleeve. The Hotel California album art was
the work of British art director Cosh aka Josh Hash,
the man responsible for the Beatles Abbey Road album cover,

(59:03):
the Who's Whose Next Album cover, the Rolling Stones Get
Your Yah Yahs Out album cover, and many others. The
guys a real legend, Cosh recalled in a two thousand
and seven interview with Rock and Roll Report, Don Henley
wanted me to find and portray Hotel California and portray
it with a slightly sinister edge. So Cash scouted locations
with photographer David Alexander, and they arrived at the Beverly

(59:25):
Hills Hotel on Sunset Boulevard. But even after finding this location,
achieving the requisite air of menace was a little challenging.
Cosh said, to get the perfect picture, David and I
perched nervously atop a sixty foot cherry picker dangling over
Sunset Boulevard and rush Hour shooting blindly into the sun.

(59:47):
Both of us but our Nikon cameras up in the
basket and we took turns shooting, ducking, and reloading. We
used high speed etchechrome film as the light began to fade,
and this film gave us the remarkable graininess of the
final shot, and the chosen shot captured at Golden Hour
just before Sunset, became iconic. Though its subject was initially displeased,

(01:00:09):
Caush is quoted as saying, as the sales of Hotel
California went through the roof, lawyers for the Beverly Hills
Hotel threatened me with a cease and desist action, and
then it was gently pointed out by my attorney that
the hotel's requests for bookings had tripled since the release
of the Eagles album, so it was quietly dropped. Meanwhile,

(01:00:29):
the rear of the album cover was shot in the
lobby of the Lido Hotel in Hollywood, which I'm gonna
see if that's still around Lido. Oh oh, Is that
it's an apartment building? Yeah, of course it is the
only thing more la would be if it was like
a Starbucks or some shot coffee bean. Yeah it's a

(01:00:52):
fine album cover. Yeah, I don't mind. Cash also designed
the Hotel California logo, initially as a neon sign, but
it proved difficult to bend real neon tubings into the
desired shape of the script, so they ended up airbrushing it.
Rumors have persisted for ages about the sinister double meaning
of the lyrics and in turn the title. There is

(01:01:15):
actually a literal Hotel California in total CentOS, a town
on Mexicans Baja California peninsula, but none of the Eagles
ever stayed there. The two most persistent theories about the
song's title are that it's a reference to the nickname
of the Camaro State Hospital, a state run psychiatric hospital
near Los Angeles, which housed thousands of patients across its
sixty year history before it closed nine ninety seven. And

(01:01:37):
then it's about Satan. Satan. Is that is that a
metalocalypse reference? No, it's it's Church O Church Lady, There's
there's a Great Metalocalypse A bit with the Church of say,
where the preacher had just keeps saying it in this
He's just like, hold on Satin. It's so funny. The

(01:01:59):
Satanic panic, I think this dated back to the It
started like right away, right because people were just had
the lyrics and were immediately scrutinizing it because it's a
long song and it's a lot of going on in it.
But I think it kind of they were caught up
in the Satanic panic of the eighties and the whole
backmasking thing that ensnared like Judas Priest and led Zeppelin everybody.

(01:02:20):
But you know, there was some stuff that there was
ample fodder for this theory. There's the line trying to
kill the beast's popularly you know, the name of Satan
and not having that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine,
Like it's a like a whole possession of witchcraft thing. Nice,
But also is that the air that the Church of
Satan was founded? I thought it was older than that.

(01:02:42):
Anton LaVey was, I know, he was in a nineteen
sixty seven documentary like Mondo movie called Mondo Hollywood. Ah
found in sixty six, Okay, so that, yeah, that doesn't
hold up. The inner gatefold of the record is has
like a shadowy figure on the balcony, and people were like, Oh,
that's supposed to be Anton LaVey, the founder of the
Church of Satan. The other various rumors that Snopes collected

(01:03:05):
included that the song is a tribute to the place
where the Satanic Bible was written, that of devil worshippers
bought an old church and christened it the Hotel California,
some or all of the Eagles were heavily involved with
the occult or were disciples of Lavay. The album photographs
were taken in and around a building that used to
be LaVey's headquarters for the Church of Satan. And then

(01:03:26):
the fun and false fact that in California, the Church
of Satan is registered under the name Hotel California. So
that's all fun, that's just harmless. Nobody's getting hurt there.
When I wish John Henley had talked about that, he
would probably quote in Milton or Dante. The writing of
Hotel California placed us in a lineage of those describing

(01:03:48):
Satanism and Hell. Like John Milton, I thought of myself
as Dante, and Fingers Felder thought of himself as John Milton.
Clearly Joe Walsh was Thomas aquinas, No, I'm just in
all the fact that your voice in that voice sounds
less congested and sick than your actual voice, which is

(01:04:11):
I have a part of me. He's like, just do
that the rest of it out. Maybe. The song Hotel
California entered the Billboard Hot one hundred chart on February
twenty six, seventy seven, topped the Hot one hundred Singles
chart for one week, and by May peaked at number
ten on the Easy Listening chart. In April, and three
months after it was first release certified gold by the
riable A representing one million copies shipped. The band won

(01:04:34):
the Grammy for Record of the Year for Hotel California
at the twentieth Grammy Awards in nineteen seventy eight, a
ceremony that manager Irving Azoff told the Recording Academy they
wouldn't attend unless they were guaranteed to win, so they
watched it live from their rehearsal room. Short an amazing story. Yeah,
the Recording Academy wanted the Eagles to perform, and that's

(01:04:54):
I guess what's set this whole thing off, And Irvasoff said,
not only will we not perform without some sort of
guarantee that we're winners, but we won't even show up,
and azof one so far as to suggest that the
band hide in a secret dressing room at the auditorium
where the Grammys were taking place, where they would emerge
only if and when their name was called for Record

(01:05:15):
of the Year winner. They're Hubris man Se Cocaine's a
hell of a drug. Yeah, this idea was rejected on
the grounds that it was completely insane. They also toyed
with the idea of having one of their artist friends
except the award for them, maybe Jackson Brown or Lynda Ronstadt.
This seemed like a better idea, but for whatever reason,
they decided against it. So when the Eagles ultimately did

(01:05:38):
win their Grammy, host Andy Williams just stood there expectantly
waiting for someone to come forward. Not the band cared
much about their image, but manager Irving Azoff tried to
do damage control the next day by putting out a
press release saying that the band were in Miami working
on the new album, and he ended this statement with
a dismissive that's the future. This is the past, So

(01:06:02):
piss on your Grammy. If they were disappointed that they
were there to accept the award in person, they didn't
show it. Don Henley told the La Times the whole
idea of a contest to see who is best just
doesn't appeal to us, except for as the way I've
lived my entire life. Yes, poor Eddy Williams. This was
like a year or two after Stevie Wonder one the Grammy,

(01:06:25):
and he wasn't there to accept it, so he had
to like be beamed in via satellite and and yeah,
he said, can you see us? Steovie? Yeah, put his
foot in his mouth by asking Stevie Wonder if he
could see them. I just watched, um whatever happened to
baby Jane for like the first time in like two decades.
And did you ever hear about the oscar thing with that? No,

(01:06:48):
the feud with um. Yeah, it's Joan Crawford and Betty Davis. Yeah,
And so Betty Davis was nominated and a Bancroft won
in sixties the Miracle Worker. Yeah, and Joan Crawford accepted
Anne Bancroft's Oscar as like a few to her, as
few to Betty Davis. And Betty Davis was furious about it. Yeah,

(01:07:12):
she never forgave her for that Back to Hotel California.
Rolling Stone has permanently placed it somewhere on there ever
changing five hundred Greatest Songs of All Time list. It's
been named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of
Fame's five hundred Songs That Shaped rock and Roll. The
album has been certified twenty six times platinum in the
US has sold over thirty two million copies worldwide, not

(01:07:35):
even their best selling record. Again, that would be the
Greatest Hits, good Lord, that will always just be the
most random choice for a best selling album of all
time in the United States. Eagles Greatest Hits seventy one
to seventy five. All you know what, It's just every
song on it. It's a Hotel California is an epic song. Yeah,

(01:07:58):
Thriller is an epic song. All the songs on their
Greatest Hits are just like taken individually. I'm just kind
of like, ah, I guess it's just it was easy
and accessible, and I just, yeah, I don't understand how
they had that kind of juice to be the best
selling album in the United States history. People people love

(01:08:21):
taking it easy. Yeah, but oh man, I thought I
was listening to Joe Walsh earlier and I forgot my
all time favorite lyric of his from a Life's Been
Good to Me, where he says, they say I'm lazy,
but it takes up all my time. Ah. Despite all
of these plottits surrounding Hotel California, the album failed to

(01:08:44):
earn them critical cred from the rock bible of the era,
Rolling Stone. The Eagles were a favorite target for the publication.
One review of a nineteen seventy seven show read, in part,
the Eagles flaunt no athletic grace, if anything, they loiter
on stage. But critic Charles M. Young went too far,

(01:09:04):
and the Rolling Stone issue dated September eighth, nineteen seventy seven,
he included the small, seemingly innocuous line in the random
notes section of the magazine criticizing the amateur softball team
made up of the Eagles and their organization, the Eagles
you have to understand we're big fans of softball because
they felt it helped them relieve their tensions. Glen Fryes
said at the time, if we can yell at each

(01:09:26):
other on the baseball field, we don't yell at each
other in the studio. This probably was not true. And
my guess is this goes a long way and explaining
why music journalists had an inherent disliked the Eagles. It
goes back to the old geeks versus jocks thing. Everything
goes back to high school anyway. After referencing Joe Walsh's

(01:09:46):
new solo album, Rolling Stone journalist Charles M. Young wrote
in his Little Random Notes column, the Eagles, on their
first vacation in three years, seymore interested in finding a
softball team they can beat, having lost in recent weeks
the teams by Andrew Gold aka the guy who sang
the Golden Girls theme. Thank you for being a friend,
Jimmy Buffett, employees of several San Francisco radio stations, and

(01:10:10):
their own road crew. Glen Fry, you know you can.
You can insult Glen Fry's stage presence, you can insult
Glen Fry's songs, you can insult a lot about Glen Fry,
but you cannot insult Glen Fry's softball skills. So he
took this criticism personally, and he wrote a furious letter
to the editors of Rolling Stone, clarifying, what you have

(01:10:32):
failed to mention is that the Eagles won two out
of three games against Jimmy Buffett. Anytime you pencil pushing
desk jockeys want to put on your spikes, we'll kick
your ass too. Oh shut up, God, it's so petty.
It's a fighting baseball game. Dude. You're like you sold
thirty two million albums. You were red asked about Rolling

(01:10:55):
Stone saying that you were more interested in softball and
crowing about and then and then crowing about beating Joe
Jimmy Buffett is some kind of a trump card of that,
not like you know, uh yeah, well I fished, fought.
I don't know Jackie Wilson, who is like a boxer.
You beat Jimmy Buffett in softball. That doesn't make you

(01:11:16):
like an alpha male, and getting red asked about it
makes you so much more beta. Oh, not to speak
ill of the dead. Well Glen Fry challenged the staff
at Rolling Stone to a softball match, and the staff
at Rolling Stone accepted the challenge. The showdown took place
the following May in nineteen seventy eight at Dodoux Field

(01:11:38):
on the campus at the University of Southern California, and
the stakes were that the loser would pay five thousand
dollars to UNI staff, so Lisa was all for a
good cause. The Eagles team had the band themselves with
Don Henley as the pitcher naturally, and their roadies and
various members of their tour crew, and the Rolling Stone team,
who were called the Gonzos appropriately enough, had writers like

(01:11:59):
Cameron Crowe and Fong Torres and Charles M. Young the
guy who set off the whole rivalry in the first place.
Jan Winner, the Rolling Stone editor and owner, flew in
his staff all the way from New York to la
and Eagles, of course had the hometown advantage. The bleachers
were packed with fans like Chevy Chase, Joni Mitchell, and
California Governor Jerry Brown, who apparently had nothing better to

(01:12:21):
do that day. The Rolling Stone riders thought, you know,
he's a politician. Jerry Brown's going to be neutral about this,
but since the Eagles defined California so strongly, Jerry Brown
was very blatantly on the band's side in this game.
And Charles M. Young said, I felt like I was
walking into the Roman Colisseum and was about to be

(01:12:42):
eaten by lions when I walked onto the field. My
favorite part about all this is that. Before the game started,
a voice came over the loudspeaker and said, ladies and gentlemen,
please stand for the national anthem, and then they played
life in the fast Land. The Eagles, as you can
probably believe, were predictably cutthroat for this game. They wore
metal cleats, which riled up the Rolling Stone team to

(01:13:04):
no end. Yon Winner yelled to Irving Asof the Eagles
manager Somewhay might get hurt. Irving Asof replied, how exciting.
He also wore a jersey that read Yon Winner is
tragically hip, which barely counts as trash talk. But okay,
I don't even really know what that means. Is is

(01:13:26):
that where the Banning got their name? No? I think
that was an expression. Okay, I'm pretty sure. Yeah. The
Eagles crushed the Gonzos fifteen to eight. Yeah. Wow, that's
pretty bad. And as Don Henley and Glenfry wrote in
a letter to the magazine a few weeks after the game,
in the end, it was the errors that cost Rolling
Stone the game. Their first error was to call the

(01:13:47):
Eagles sissies in the random notes section, which they didn't do.
He just said they cared more about softball than making
a record or something like that, which, honestly, this whole
event bears that out. Yeah exactly, Oh my god, what
tremendous asshole. Well, the Eagles won the game because their

(01:14:08):
organization was a well oiled machine. They are no strangers
to physical prowess, especially on the road, and this is
partially because Don Henley ensured that the roadies were toned
by forcing them to lug his mattress around from tour
stop to tour stop. This is one of my favorite
Eagles anecdotes ever. The Eagles had Electrician, a guy by

(01:14:29):
the name of Joe Barry told author Mark Elliott in
his book To the Limit, The Untold Story of the Eagles.
Don Henley insisted on having a kingsize bed and mattress
available at all times, which the crew had to drag
around everywhere. The tour seemstress made a special cover for
it with handles to make it easier to pack in
the truck. Every night it was Don's bed. It went everywhere,

(01:14:51):
and Don Henley defended himself in later years by saying
that this was crucial for his drumming, which, given what's
going on with Phil Collins these days, I guess seems fair.
Drummers have notoriously temperamental backs. Don Henley explained to Modern Drummer,
I used to have to hold my body in such
a position that my spine got out of alignment between
playing the drums and keeping my mouth in front of

(01:15:11):
the microphone. It really twisted my whole body. I got
to a point in the seventies where I literally could
not sleep, he added to Mark Elliott. Hotel mattresses are awful,
the worst damn thing in the room. Bitch, bitch. Levon
Helm had been cancer and he got back behind the kit.
The best part of all of this, According to the

(01:15:32):
tours electrician Joe Berry, the mattress quote never once got
used because no hotel would allow us to bring it in.
I'm guessing I don't know how bedbugs concerned. I mean,
I'm not sure which of the many reasons they chose
not to allow this mattress in. In addition to this expenditure,
Glenn Fry also supposedly brought along his tennis coach on

(01:15:53):
this tour, and there were also times when Don Henley
would squire his girlfriend Stevie Nicks around a lerid jet.
The expression at the time among the alpha males of
the Eagles was love Them and Lirium, which I hate.
Don Felder, Poor Don Felder resented all of this because
apparently all these expenses were paid for evenly by the group.

(01:16:15):
Oh that's so bad again, the guy being like, you know,
oh we've been We've got a lot more daunt if
people didn't care about credit. But also the entire bander
is responsible for my bed that will be carted with us,
that I will never use. That's pretty good. We're gonna

(01:16:39):
take a quick break, but we'll be right back with more.
Too much information in just a moment. Hotel California's popularity
even caught the eyes of Hollywood, notably the eyes belonging

(01:17:00):
to Julia Phillips, the first female producer to win an
Oscar in nineteen seventy seven. She was coming off of
hits like The Sting and Taxi Driver, with her latest project,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind, poised to continue the streak.
Phillips died in two thousand and two, but she wrote
in a nineteen ninety one memoir called You'll Never Eat
Lunch in this Town Again, and she explained that she
had this project kicking around called the third Man through

(01:17:24):
the Door. I was unable to find anything else about
this other than in her book. The third Man through
the Door is a something Sam Peckinpass said about Westerns
where he said, that's the character. There's the bad guy
or the hero, and then the sidekick or the b guy,
and then the third guy through the door is the
guy who holds the door and usually dies, and he

(01:17:45):
doesn't have a name. And he said, I wanted to
make films about the third man through the door. And
so this thing Phillips was envisioning was this crazy like
meta meta narrative about like the movie industry and itself
and myth making blah blah blah. And she got in
touch with Irving A's Off for a preliminator meeting and

(01:18:05):
explained this to him, and she wrote in her book
that he said, I don't have the vaguest idea of
what you have in mind, but you seem like a
crazy creative person. Let me put this together. The seventies, Phillips,
like some of the band, it must be pointed out,
had a prodigious cocaine habit, and she recalled the meeting
with the band at her Beverly Hills home, and she

(01:18:28):
said she brought out a big pile of coke. She said,
everyone but Irving partakes throughout. I do my riff. John
Henley seems bright and responsive. I get kind of hung
up on his ears, though, which stick out. I love
that he probably read that and seethed for days afterwards.
A recalcitrant Glenn Fry does a lot of blow and
seems angry about it. The seventies they seem sparked by

(01:18:52):
the idea, but then everyone except Irving is pretty lit
by the blow. They agreed to think about it. In
the Mark Elliot Eagles book recalled his version of the
same meeting. Both Glenn and I remember that day quite vividly.
We had gone to her house reluctantly. We'd already had
some bad experiences with movie people. They always thought we
should be excited or flattered because they wanted to make

(01:19:12):
movies out of our songs. In fact, we really didn't
want anything to do with it. We were pretty sure
they'd take our songs and ruin them. We knew enough
about the film business to know that you'd have to
relinquish all control, and that it's somebody else's vision just
like rock videos are today. Okay, Coke, Henley continued, was
at the peak of its popularity in Hollywood, and Phillips
was in the process of flaming out her career on it.

(01:19:34):
We sat there, polite, but not terribly friendly. We were
too wary to be friendly. In an effort to loosen
us up, she dragged out this huge ashtray filled with
amount of coke. She offered us some and we said no.
We didn't know her that well and it was a
business meeting. Afterwards, Azof gave her the brush off, and
in short order she was fired from close encounters and
wound up living with her drug dealer, in her words,

(01:19:56):
to cut out the middleman. But the project was probably
ill fated from the art. As someone close to the
band told Elliott for the book, the band didn't really
want to see Hotel California made into a movie. They
were suspicious of the film business, after all, that was
what Hotel California was about. To that end, the band
has infrequently allowed their music to appear in TV shows
or movies, and consequently, one of the best known covers

(01:20:18):
of the song is their version of the song that
appears in The Big Lebowski, which is a Gypsy king's
flamenco rendition, which is hilarious because that film obviously gives
us the iconic line I've had a rough night and
I hate the Eagles. Other notable covers came from the
British electronic duo The Orb, whose version charted at number

(01:20:39):
sixty two in the UK in nineteen ninety Great Band
Name Love a band just called the Orb a Hawaiian
artist named Mike Piranha who wrote a parody called Hotel Honolulu,
satirizing the over development, crime and other issues in Oahu.
The song became a local hit in Hawaiian nineteen ninety eight,
and one of the most famous ones is Frank Ocean

(01:21:01):
released a song that samples the entire instrumental track of
Hotel California, which must be said is a pretty lazy
way of sampling stuff on his seminal mixtape Nostalgia Ultra
in twenty eleven, so I was called American Wedding and
Don Henley, who hates sampling and rap, threatened Ocean with
a lawsuit for copyright refringement. I found out what he

(01:21:22):
said about Frank Ocean. Oh will you say? I thought
he was a talentless little prick ah anymore. I mean
the thought seems to imply, but nope again, like I
get it. It's a pretty egregious sample. He said, you
can't rewrite the lyrics to somebody else's songs, record it
and put it on the internet. Some of these young

(01:21:42):
kids have grown up in a world that doesn't understand
or respect copyright material or intellectual property. They look at
songs as interactive playthings. Okay, sure, I would have accepted
the explanation had he not used such soulless terms like
intellectual copyright and yeah, like songs are my children like
like that kind of description, I would be like, okay, fine, Yeah,

(01:22:05):
I mean, songs are playthings. It's the folk music dude,
like jazz jazz like well, the best thing or the
worst thing to make up, you know, choices. Yours about
the song Hotel California is that it basically spelled the
end of the Eagles. Bassist and founding member Randy Meisner

(01:22:25):
quit the band formally in nineteen seventy seven, citing exhaustion.
In truth, he was just really not cut out for
life with Henley and Fry. Simply put, he wasn't as
Joe Walsh put it, and Alpha. There's this heartbreaking vintage
interview with him back in the seventies in the History
of the Eagles documentary. He says, all they want to
see is five guys happy playing together. Narrator voice, that

(01:22:48):
was not going to happen in the Eagles. To use
the Godfather law of interpersonal dynamics. I always saw Randy
as the freighto to Glenn's Sonny. You know, he's loud,
quick tempered, the nominal leader, not afraid to look like
a jerk. And Don Henley's Michael just the cold fury.
It's a great side by side image is Alpacino as

(01:23:08):
Michael Corleone had Andy's punchable little face. But Randy Meisner,
he just wasn't cut out for this. Confrontations were really
hard for him, and he felt that as soon as
the band started all taking separate limos, the camaraderie was lost.
In addition to the strain of living out of a
suitcase ran he was also coping with the collapse of

(01:23:29):
his marriage, which he did by partying, and his major
discomfort about touring with the Eagles. Really concerned the song
Take It to the Limit, which features his soaring falsetto
It's Really Beautiful. The song became an instant staple in
the Eagles set and served as their concert encore. And
this moment in the spotlight just didn't sit well with Randy.

(01:23:50):
He wasn't cut out for it. He was just fundamentally
a shy, humble guy, and the pressure of having him
do the solo spot really wore on him, and he
just dreaded it. He was always terrified that he wasn't
gonna be able to hit that high note and let
everyone down. And you've heard that high note, it's pretty screaming.
That's a very real concern. So all this anxiety came

(01:24:10):
to a head at a gig in Knoxville in June
nineteen seventy seven, after eleven straight months on the road.
They were a little fried. Yeah, there are differing accounts
as to what happened exactly. According to Glenn Fry and
Don Henley, Randy but out with some ladies in a
bottle of vodka the night before and his voice was
pretty shot by the time they were ready to perform.

(01:24:31):
According to Randy, his ulcer was acting up and he
had a bad case of the flu. Either way. Right
before the show, Randy told the tour manager that he
wasn't well enough to do his big spotlight moment and
WO would take it to the limit. Removed from the
set list. Glenn Fry learns of this, and he's unhappy,
to say the least, I feel like he's fundamentally unhappy.

(01:24:52):
He wants Randy to provide that big encore moment. He
tells him, you know, there's people in the audience who've
been waiting something, you know, for years, to see you
do this song. This is our big moment, it's our
big encore. We can't let them down. Randy doesn't want
to do it. This all results in a backstage scuffle,
with Randy throwing Glen up against the wall, which is
kind of nuts considering he's this mild manner again. It's

(01:25:15):
like Fredo and the Godfather fighting Sonny. It's sorry to imagine.
Security starts to swarm, but Don Henley warns them off
by screaming, stay out of this. This is personal and private,
real private, amazing a white man yelling at the police
stay out of this, like talk about what a what

(01:25:36):
a perfect image. It's private, real fucking private. From that point, on. Yeah,
who do you think is worse kimono and big curly
perm era Lindsey Buckingham Or it's definitely Henley, Just definitely Henley. Okay, yeah,

(01:25:56):
I mean he who would win in a fight? Oh,
great question? Probably Henley. He would want it more Lindsay
Bucky at least, see his credit was like genuinely interested
in like innovating and being weird like tusk you know
they like eagles would never make tusk um. I'd like
to think Lindsay could throw some hands. But yeah, Henley,

(01:26:17):
he's too much. He would and he would. He would
fight like Sonny too. He would. He would smash you.
He would bite the garments can he would? He's a biter.
I see that in his eyes. Wait did Sonny bite?
I don't remember, Sonny. When the guy's like, when the
guy's like holding his hands on the on the rail,
he like leans down in his fury and like bites

(01:26:40):
in his hands to get him to stop. Oh yeah,
I like this metaphor. I like this metaphor. Is the
Eagles is guys for the Godfathers. But poor Randy from
that point on, he was basically iced out and at
the end of the tour, he quit. He later said
those last days on the road were the worst. Nobody
was talking to me or would hang out after shows
or do anything. I was made an outcast of the band.

(01:27:02):
I'd help start. He later added, this was the end.
I really felt like I was just a member of
the group and not a part of it. And the
band ultimately replaced him with bassist Timothy B. Schmidt, who
oddly enough, had replaced Meisner in the country rock band
Poco seven years earlier, and his second Bird related contribution
to Rock and Roll. As we covered, he also coined

(01:27:23):
the term parrot heads for Jimmy Buffett fans. Oh that's right, Yes,
that's right, Timothy B. Schmidt, friend of the Birds. Yes,
Poco have any members of the Birds in it? Oh?
I don't think so. I was Buffalo Springfield, never mind,
would have been amazing, a lot of layers. No, I
thought it seems I thought of someone in lall Kenny
who probably didn't suck as Jackson Brown. Oh yeah, no,

(01:27:45):
he seems awesome. Yeah. Randy Meiser's later years are pretty gothic.
He joined the Eagles at the Rock and Roll Hall
of Fame induction in nineteen ninety eight, but his attempt
to join the band on stage when the two thousand
and eight tour came through LA were rebuffed. He said,
I didn't get much response. I thought it would be
nice to sit with Timothy bie Schmidt and saying take

(01:28:06):
it to the limit, but they pretty much gave me
a no. In a roundabout way. I can't blame them.
They have to keep their band the way it is,
and his story, it just gets bad. He founded the band,
they have to keep the band. This makes me so sad. Sorry, well,
it gets even sadder. In twenty thirteen, I guess they

(01:28:26):
finally did reach out to him to join their History
of the Eagles tour alongside prior Eagles member Bernie Leaden,
but Randy Meister had a serious health scare that prohibited
him from going out on tour after thirty six years
of waiting. He missed his chance to rejoin the band
that he helped found. And I guess somehow this health
scare involved him losing consciousness after a piece of food

(01:28:49):
obstructed his breathing, and he was in a coma for
a time. And he also dealt with alcoholism and mental
health issues, including bipolar disorder. And in twenty fifteen I
read it he threatened to kill his wife with an
AK forty seven during an episode of what I assumed
to be his bipolar disorder, and on another occasion he
threatened to take all of his medication at once. And

(01:29:13):
I think he was placed in a conservative ship for
a time, but then his wife ended up getting killed
what a rifle she was handling accidentally discharged in some
freak accident. So all in all, Randy Meiser's later years
have been pretty bleak. So prayers up for him. And
you know, I feel compelled to back up my soft spoken,
gentle bass playing brethren. And I think there was a

(01:29:36):
time our friend of the real life friend of the Pot,
Andrew Bank, told me about this wild story about how
somebody went out and toured under Randy Meiser's name for
many years just impersonated him. Yeah, a weird story there.
There's a lot there. And to continue on the gradual,
slow dissolution of the Eagles, we got to talk about

(01:29:59):
Dawn Finger Felder, which is a schism we've been foreshadowing
this entire episode now, as with Fleetwood Mac with rumors
the Eagles struggled to follow Hotel California and its huge
success and sessions for the album that would become their
follow up. The Long Run stretched on for a punishing
eighteen months, just torturous sessions, and by this point no

(01:30:20):
one in the Eagles liked each other. But Don Felder
was especially aggrieved. He was increasingly at odds with Don
Henley and Glen Fry, who he derissively referred to as
the gods, hanging out in the back of their private
plane and discussing the future of the bands while everyone
else was left out in the cold. There are stories
about Don Felder being bullied on the road for wearing
the quote wrong colored shoes and being told where to stand,

(01:30:44):
lots of foot criticism. Once Glenn Fry mimicked his walk
on stage and Don Felder kind of understandably flipped out
and shoved Glenn against the wall. So resentment boiling for many,
many years, And this resentment boiled over on July thirty first,
nineteen eighty, the night the Eagles played a benefit concert
for California Senator Alan Cranston at Long Beach Arena. This

(01:31:07):
is a truly historic moment in Eagles lore. Don Felder
was pretty a political so he was frustrated about having
to go along with Don Hanley and Glenn Fries wishes
to make a grand statement, And then when the Senator
went around thanking each musician individually at a pre show
meet and greet, Don Felder replied to his thank you
with a very Kurt, you're welcome, Senator. I guess Glenn

(01:31:32):
Fry was outraged by his surliness and let Felder have
it as soon as the Senator left. Felder said in
his two thousand and eight memoir Heaven and Hell, My
Life and the Eagles, Glenn found me in the dressing
room and started yelling at me. I don't know if
it was the drugs so the fact that we've been
on tour for so long, but he just blew up.
Just before we stepped on stage. I turned to him
and said, you know, Glenn, you know what she did

(01:31:54):
back there. You're a real ass for doing that. Glenn replied,
that's an honor coming from you. The threats continued on
Mike in the middle of the night's performance. Glenn Fry recalled,
now we're on stage, and Felder looks back at me
and says, only three more songs to like, kick your ass.
Pal and I'm saying great, I can't wait. We're out

(01:32:16):
there singing best of my love and inside we're both thinking,
as soon as this is over, I'm going to kill him.
And there is audio of this that's you can hear
in the History of the Eagles documentary, and what was
said on the mic was you're a real pro gun.
Yeah you are too. The way you hand I've been
paying you for seven years. Sound technicians, who feared that

(01:32:48):
the crowd might overhear these taunts, worked overtime to make
sure that Glenfryes mike was turned down, but Don Felder
said after each song, Glenn would come over and approach
me to quote rant rave curse and let me know
how many songs remains before our fight? Three more songs,
asked I'm gonna kill you. I can't wait. That's my favorite.

(01:33:10):
Counting down the songs you have left on stage before
you want to get a fight with your co band member. Incredible. Oh,
that story goes out to our friend of the pod, Dora.
I know she loves that one. I'd rather than assault
Glen Fry. Don Felder asked a roadie after the show
to hand over his acoustic guitar, which he then smashed
against the concrete column backstage, an old trick he learned

(01:33:32):
from bandmate Joe Walsh, feller out in his memoir. By
the time I was finished, it was kindling on the floor.
I turned and saw the Cranstons the Senator standing right
behind me, their mouths and gape. A few feet away
stood a stony faced Glenn Fry. This had little or
nothing to do with the Cranstons, but Glenn thought I
did that right in front of them to drive it
up as but typical of you to break your cheapest guitar,

(01:33:54):
Glenn told me. After the Cranstons hurried off to their car,
afraid of what I might do if I opened my
mouth to respond, I jumped into my limo and sped off.
And as master of understatement Joe Walsh would later say,
when that kind of stuff is on stage and you're
in front of people, you got problems. Yes, Don Henley
kicked a fan out of a show in twenty fifteen,

(01:34:17):
fore yelling Don Felder's name, Wow, What did he say?
I mean? I feel like you need to give an
experiences introducing. He was introducing the band and as he
was introducing them. Someone in the crowd goes Don Felder
and the guy continues, which is a curious assertion. Don
Felder taught Tom Petty how to play guitar that I knew. Yeah, well,

(01:34:39):
that pissed on him. Don Henley off. He said he
had a security escort the guy out. He's a scary dude.
I found out he just suited. One of his lawsuits
was for the clothing company or Duluth Trading Co. For
using they had an ad for their Henley's which is
a you know, a style of and the ad read

(01:35:02):
don Or Henley and take it easy. And he sued
them over that. Oh okay, I mean that's okay. I
would annoy me too. I guess I thought he was
like trying to claim ownership of the term Henley No,
which is only a matter of time. So all right,
Randy Miser's out of the picture. Fingers Fell, there's living
on borrowed time and the Eagles. Even the seemingly indestructible

(01:35:24):
partnership between Don Henley and Glenn Frye is starting to
splinter by nineteen eighty, and this partially had to do
with their very different personalities. Don Henley's generally been portrayed
as the more likable of the two, more personable, gregarious,
and magnetic, whereas Glenn Frye was basically seen as edgy,
attention seeking and generally less afraid of being seen as

(01:35:45):
an asshole and making them popular calls. Don meanwhile, could
just sit back and be liked. Someone who knew them
both has said that quote, Don Henley has extraordinary charisma
and Glenn Frye has charisma, which is a great Yeah. Yeah,
I guess they used to live together in the early
years and they had kind of an odd couple situation going,

(01:36:07):
with Don Henley being kind of a neat freak and
Glenn fry as the slab. So I just love imagining
them as Felix and Oscar and the odd couple. Again,
they were very different people, and then initially they were
bonded more out of a mutual ambition than any sense
of genuine friendship. And when they kind of achieved that
goal of you know, having the best, biggest selling album

(01:36:29):
of all time, that common ground was gone, and what
little camaraderie they did enjoy it was eroded by the
constant pressure of having to bang out songs and lead
the band. Glenn Frye would say, we had to worry
about doing this or living up to that. We could
talk about girls or football for a while, but it
wouldn't be long before we remember we had to make
a decision about this, or that we had to get

(01:36:49):
another song written for the next album. And Don Henley
felt similarly, one saying every minute I'm awake and even
when I'm asleep, I'm worried about the next album and
what's going to be written on it, how it's going
to do, and how it's going to be accepted, and
how my peers are going to react, and how it's
going to be better than the last one, and how
the record companies on our case about hurry up, we
didn't get an album for you in nineteen seventy eight,

(01:37:10):
and it's not going to look good on our stock
report and what about the profit sharing plan? But yeah,
for Glenn and Don, the tension that had kind of
been president in their relationships since day one was exacerbated
by years of pressure, and instead of discussing their feelings,
they'd simply storm out and nothing would ever get resolved.
Throw a bunch of cocaine into the mix, and these
feelings are heightened, and the pattern is repeated for years

(01:37:32):
and years and years. Something's got to give. The Long
Beach incident, though with Don Felder, was really the end
of the band, though, But unfortunately the Eagles owed their
label another album, so they decided to release a double
album of live tracks. But it required a little sweetening,
and as producer Bill Simsk later admitted, Glenn fries refusal

(01:37:54):
to join them for overdubs or even speak to his
former bandmates meant that they had to take a piecemeal approach.
He's quoted as saying, I had my assistant in Los
Angeles with Glenn, and I had the rest of the
band fot in Miami. We were fixing three part harmonies
courtesy of Federal Express, and the Eagles just were so
done with being the Eagles that they refused to record

(01:38:16):
new songs for this live album, even after being offered
two million dollars just for two songs. But yeah, they
were done. As Glenn Fry would later say, we had
come to a point where we were running out of gas. Artistically.
We had gone from being a band that could make
an album in three weeks to a band that couldn't
finish an album in three years, and Don Henley would

(01:38:36):
later come to agree one of the few things they
could agree on at this time. I'm very proud of
what we did. We put everything we had into it,
at the expense of our health, friendships and everything else.
But Glenn was right, it was time for it to end.
This was nineteen eighty and that was basically how the
Eagles story ended until nineteen ninety four, when they reconvened
for the Health Freeze's overtour, an album and an MTV special.

(01:38:58):
But that is another story. I just found out they
sued the actual Hotel California. Where is there an actual
Hotel California in Mexico? Oh wow, twist Yeah yeah, founded
in nineteen fifty but changed the name multiple times in
the Canadian couple bought it in two thousand and one

(01:39:19):
and changed the name back to Hotel California and started
using you know, obviously playing up on it. And they
sued them, And that feels like a perfect place to
end episode on the Eagle Sudes Up California. Yeah, this
song casts a long shadow and pop culture, and I'm
sure Don Henley is sad that he can't sue every

(01:39:41):
person who uses the phrase you can check out any
time you like, but you can never leave. Because that's
been used, it's passed into economics, which is really interesting
to me. It refers to how the appeal of an
attractive host country to ford investors maybe countered by the
cost of exit on leaving the country. So you can

(01:40:01):
check out in time length, but you can't leave because
you've sunk too much money into the country. They talk
about with foreign investors in China. It's called the Hotel
California effect. It's also used to talk about the negative
effects of financial regulations on investment and problems with leaving
like a service and Internet service provider, or social network

(01:40:21):
or cloud computing. People have even applied it to bregsit
and hell, there was even a clandestine operation named after
the song by the CIA and special Forces in Iraqi,
Kurdistan in the lead up to the Iraq War. So
presumably the one entity that John Henley could not sue.
But my head grows heavy and my psycros dim. So

(01:40:44):
we're going to stop for the night. Thanks for listening everyone.
I'm Alex Sigel, and this has been too much information
where we remain just prisoners here of our own device
and I'm Jordan run Tag. We'll catch you next time.
Too Much Information was a production of iHeartRadio. The show's

(01:41:07):
executive producers are Noel Brown and Jordan Runtalk. The show's
supervising producer is Michael Alder June. The show was researched, written,
and hosted by Jordan Runtalg and Alex Heigel, with original
music by Seth Applebaum. I'm a Ghost Funk Orchestra. If
you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave us
a review. For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Eagles' 'Hotel California': Everything You Didn't Know