New Appreciation

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New Appreciation

Postby Denbo » Sun Feb 05, 2017 5:54 pm

It is still hard for me to comprehend the passing of Glenn Frey, which was just over a year ago now. Way to young!

It has caused me to go back and re-listen to the music of The Eagles. As Poconuts, we have all probably "hated on" the group for stealing Poco's thunder. But in retrospect, The Eagles put out some damn good music.

Their harmonies and musicianship, Poco's trademark, are at a while different level. You can hear the heart and soul they put in to their songs, and the superior songwriting of Frey and Don Henley cannot be emphasized enough. They have songs that cover most genres. So many good songs beyond the so-called hits. When Richie left Poco, why couldn't Poco land someone like Don Felder or Joe Walsh. Their contributions to The Eagles is often overlooked. But what you had were all talented musicians who could sing lead, and harmonize like no others. I felt Poco was hindered by not having enough strong voices to make their sound even better.

Besides their early work, The Eagles last studio album, Road Out of Eden, is very strong. And here is an example of each member writing meaningful lyrics, getting a chance to sing their songs, with such strong harmonies and backing vocals. Apparently Frye was as much if not more obsessed with the harmonies. With that in mind, you can hear it in their music, done oh so well.

According to Felder, The Eagles are (were) a machine worth "billions" if you listen to his 2008 interview with Howard Stern. There are also some good documentaries on Youtube worth watching. Frey did an interview with Bob Costas which was excellent. Glenn noted that Rolling Stone was critical of Hotel California. Costas read the review which was quite negative, and Frey, fully tongue-in-cheek said "we showed them, didn't we Bob. I guess selling fifteen million copies does show them.

Anyway, I have a new appreciation of The Eagles, and it is sad knowing they will all never be together again.
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Re: New Appreciation

Postby Palestra Jon » Mon Feb 06, 2017 8:58 am

I've posted similar thoughts here in the past....in part. I strenuously disagree about the vocals and harmonies. No one put them down as smoothly or sweetly than POCO, with the possible exception of Stills' Manassas band (which essentially was Stills with the Burritos). POCO harmonies had far greater range than those of the Eagles. I give the Eagles credit for being consummately professional, as they were at everything, but the POCO harmonies and vocals (at least through the departure of TBS) were superior.

It's impossible to disagree, however, about the songwriting. Not only did the Eagles have one of the top pop songwriters of the generation in Don Henley, but they had the input of JD Souther, another great songwriter, any time they were stuck on a song (and, of course, they covered about a dozen of his songs, including "Best of My Love", "New Kid in Town", "Heartache Tonight", "You Never Cry Like a Lover" and "How Long", among others) and Jackson Browne, who of course wrote "Take it Easy" (Frey changed one phrase and took a writing credit, which was typical of the Eagles), and co-wrote 3 or 4 songs on "Desperado", including "Doolin' Dalton" and "James Dean" (he and JD Souther are lying dead on the back cover). Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner also wrote some very good songs. Glenn Frey would probably have been the best songwriter if he were in POCO.

So that's the real difference, having an entire stable of top writers. Remember, Leadon brought the Burritos and Meisner brought the POCO sound---the Eagles clearly were derivative, but they did it very well.
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Poco - four or five members

Postby Jiff » Mon Feb 06, 2017 5:26 pm

Re, " When Richie left Poco, why couldn't Poco land someone like Don Felder or Joe Walsh"

I figure because they already had two good instrumentalists as a foursome. Neither Henley or Frey are/were. Becoming a fivesome in 1978, I guess Poco added a keyboardist since Cotton and Young had the strings covered.

Finally saw the History Of The Eagles as part of my free month of Netflix in Dec. Excellent, but why so many documentaries of a select few groups? Saw a lot on Netflix: The Wrecking Crew, Muscle Shoals, Keith Richards, Janis Joplin, Big Star, Duff McKagan, Bob Marley, Bob Weir, Tom Petty, Glen Campbell, Freda Kelly Twisted Sister.
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Re: New Appreciation

Postby JaneElizabethHames » Wed Feb 08, 2017 10:17 pm

POCO & EAGLES have been two of my favorite BANDS since 1975; I listen to both BANDS frequently and I ALWAYS get a new appreciation of different Song Lyrics every time I listen to an ALBUM!
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Re: New Appreciation

Postby Kim » Fri Feb 10, 2017 8:52 am

I love the Eagles. I also love Poco. A lot of Poco fans like both bands. My favourite Eagles songs are not always Henley and Frey compositions. A favourite Eagles song of mine is 'Too Many Hands' written by Randy Meisner and Don Felder.
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