The Eagles are one of the best bands of all time.

Don Henley is the force majeur of that greatness. All of the other players and rotating cast that surrounded he and Glenn Frey over the years contributed a lot, but Henley was the lead vocal and drummer of the group.

To contribute as much, Frey would have had to to have played lead guitar with his hands and bass guitar with his feet.

Rarely through rock and roll have we seen the drummer lead sing. There have been plenty of lead singers who could drum (see Phil Collins), however, they usually emerged from the back to the front instead of spending their entire time behind the kit.

Could you imagine Steven Tyler on the drums? Mick Jagger? Come on. That just wasn't (and still isn't, really) the way things were done. And then here come the Eagles, in the midst of a time that was all about the spark plug frontman, with their lead guy behind the drums.

They focused on songs with story and narrative in a time when most music was message based. They turned the whole idea of pop music upside down. And they turned it back toward bluegrass, country, roots and old timey sounds.

Generational genre bending art, music, and pop culture often comes from an artist or person that just adopts a throwback. They look back to something that was cool, and take inspiration from it.

It's the reason mustaches, from the waxed handlebar to the gnarly 70's version, are really in right now. They are a throwback.

The Eagles picked the perfect throwback for their time and place. In a time filled with hippies, they went country and western. Then, they were great enough musicians to be able to back up their pop timing. The rest is very interesting history.

So, if you want to get excited about our Don Henley flyaway, watch this Eagles documentary. It is definitely the best one out there, so even if you have to rent it, do so, because it's got footage from their entire career, and long form interviews and answers to questions that people have been asking for a long time. Like, why did they bicker, melt down and break up?

I challenge you to watch it and not like the Eagles more afterward.

 

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