The Eagles album Glenn Frey refused to show up for: “Fixing through Federal Express”
Making a classic album takes more than a couple of great tunes. Everyone needs to end up putting in 110% every time they strap on their instruments and get the tape rolling, and no matter how much tension there is, it’s always better to channel that emotion into the recording rather than out on each other. But by the 1980s, The Eagles were in shambles, and their live album became the only project Glenn Frey refused to join the party for.
Then again, live albums are a tricky beast on their own. Even though it should be easy enough to record just the right performance and put it out there, the Eagles aren’t a band that can fill a soundstage the same way other live album veterans like Led Zeppelin could. They had to go over their music with a fine-toothed comb, and it’s not like Eagles Live doesn’t live up to their standards.
Listening back to the record, every part of their sound remains intact, even if they wanted to kill each other behind the scenes. The harmonies on tunes like ‘Take it Easy’ are still as strong as ever, and when they launch into the live version of ‘Hotel California’, it’s enough to make the hairs on the arm stand on end.
There are even a few surprises left in the mix, thanks to Joe Walsh. Considering the rest of the band were pretty mellow by comparison, Walsh is the one giving the group a kick in the ass every time he tears through a song, either throwing in some extra licks on ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ or running through one of his own tracks like ‘All Night Long’.
And since it was never released in any capacity on a studio album, this was the first time people heard a studio version of ‘Seven Bridges Road’. It might just be a cover song, but given how well their harmonies overlap in the intro, you’d swear that the tune must have been a lost B-side from the Desperado sessions.
But since the group had disbanded following a massive war of words onstage, there was no way Frey was going to be seen in the same room with them. When talking about mixing the project, producer Bill Szymczyck talked about having to ship different pieces of the mix to different studios to get what he wanted, saying, “I had my assistant in Los Angeles with Glenn, and I had the rest of the band fly to Miami. We were fixing three-part harmonies courtesy of Federal Express.”
While it’s clear that something’s off listening to a handful of tracks, they did at least learn from their mistakes a little bit. Looking at what they did with Hell Freezes Over, many of those renditions have the same attention to detail as this album, but perhaps with a bit more depth than before on ballads like ‘Tequila Sunrise’ and ‘Desperado.’
Since their breakup had just unfolded, Frey didn’t necessarily have to have warm feelings about his bandmates, but Eagles Live marks the moment where the pettiness got a bit too on the nose. The group were able to soar far higher than any rock act before them, and yet this album is proof that no one held a grudge quite like Frey.
