Farewell To Glenn Frey – A Desperado, An Eagle That Soared. 1948-2016

From Doug Draper, NAL

Posted January 19^th, 2016 on Niagara At Large

“Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses? Come down from your fences, open the gate. It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you. You better let somebody love you, before it’s too late.” – From the song Desperado by Don Henley and Glenn Frey

Poetry in music. Pure magic.

And those harmonies? They could heal. They could fill you with joy. On a heartbreaker of a song, they could move you to tears and could sometimes leave your spine tingling.

Glenn Frey in his earlier years with The Eagles

And right up there was the co-founder and co-creator of it all – Glenn Frey, whose voice could sound so perfectly silky and raspy at the same time, and who died Monday, January 18^th, 2016 at age 67.

Together, he and his equally accomplished musically mate Don Henley backed up one of pop music’s greatest female vocalists, Linda Ronstadt, who made one of thee first songs they wrote together, ‘Desperado’, a huge hit in 1973 before they made it one of the first in a long string of hits that would see them soaring to superstardom in a band called The Eagles.

Glenn Frey reportedly died of complications from a number of illnesses he had been battling in recent years – illnesses that were visibly wearing on him two years ago when he spoke words of tribute to his old friend Linda Ronstadt who he had the honour of inducting into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“I’m not sure I believe in fate,” said Don Henley in a statement he released following his former bandmate’s death, “but I know that crossing paths with Glenn Lewis Frey in 1970 changed my life forever, and it eventually had an impact on the lives of millions of other people all over the planet,” he added. “It will be very strange going forward in a world without him in it. But, I will be grateful, every day, that he was in my life.”

Glenn Frey inducting singer Linda Ronstadt into Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.

This new year of 2016 is not yet three weeks old and it is already proving to be too busy a one for those who write obituaries on pop music legends.

It began with the news that singer Natalie Cole died at age 65 in the final hours of 2015 or the first hours of 2016, depending on which time zone you live in on the planet. Then on January 10^th, David Bowie died following an 18-month battle with cancer and just t two days after his 67^th birthday and the release of his 25^th studio album, Blackstar, which has already sold mega millions.

And a week later, there is the news of Glenn Frey’s whose work with The Eagles includes such songs (just to name a few) as ‘Take It Easy’, Lyin’ Eyes’, ‘Take It to the Limit’, ‘Peaceful, Easy Feeling’ ‘Already Gone’, ‘Tequila Sunrise’ and ‘Hotel California’ which features one of the most quoted lyrics in the past 40 years of pop music – “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

Glenn Frey may have checked out but he has left us a treasure trove of songs that, as someone who briefly eulogized him has observed, people will keep playing and singing to on the porches of their homes as long as there are guitars and porches to play them on.

You can also check out a post on Glenn Frey’s death from Rolling Stone Magazine by clicking on –http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/don-henley-on-glenn-frey-he-changed-my-life-forever-20160118 .

Glenn Frey’s moving  words for Linda Ronstadt at the 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies say as much about his generosity of heart as they do about the great music career of his friend. Click here for the text – http://ultimateclassicrock.com/glenn-frey-linda-ronstadt-hall-of-fame-speech/ .

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