The one Eagles song Glenn Frey never gets tired of: “Love singing it”
No artist can claim to have the same love for their songs as they did in their prime. For all of the blood, sweat and tears that go into crafting a piece from scratch, there’s always a challenge of having that same kind of enthusiasm when playing it for what has to be the millionth time in some nowhere town during a stop-gap between tour dates. Glenn Frey admitted that he could have easily soured on a track like ‘Take it Easy’, but ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ never really lost its lustre over the years.
Then again, it helps that Frey himself didn’t actually write the tune. While the lion’s share of every Eagles project was the brainchild of Frey and Don Henley, ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ was penned by their collaborator Jack Tempchin, who had been working as a struggling writer on the Los Angeles rock scene.
In fact, there are a lot more rough edges on the Eagles’ debut that don’t really fall in line with that core sound that they were known for. Even though ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘Witchy Woman’ are decent frontrunners for what they would eventually sound like, it’s clear they hadn’t worked out the bugs from being a part of Linda Ronstadt’s backing band down to using one of their frequent cover songs, ‘Nightingale’ to finish out the track listing.
But there’s something about ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ that captured the feeling of the group in a way that Frey and Henley couldn’t quite grasp yet. From the moment the song starts, it’s like you can feel the wind blowing through your hair as your car rolls down a desolate highway. The road ahead might be unknown, but it doesn’t matter as long as there’s someone beside you.
Despite the song dating back to the band’s very beginnings, Frey knew that there was no way of topping that track live, telling Cameron Crowe, “Compared to the original recording, it’s evolved through live performances to where it’s a bit of a different animal now. ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ had a happy, country-rock quality but a bittersweet irony about it that I thought was really great. I still love that song. Love singing it.”
It’s one thing to love singing a handful of tunes that are close to the chest, but not every band member was at that same stage as a performer. In fact, the entire reason why Randy Meisner ended up quitting was his refusal to sing the song ‘Take It to the Limit’, usually backing out of singing the track out of fear that he couldn’t hit the crazy high notes at the end of the tune.
Even Henley said that he would have a few challenges trying to get into a certain headspace when singing, telling History of the Eagles, “It’s so second nature that you’re just doing it, but at the same time, you have to put a lot more emotion into it.” It’s not like he’s wrong. I mean, if any fan was seeing the Eagles, would they really want to see a bunch of musicians with blank expressions on their faces singing ‘One of These Nights’?
Although ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ is far from the most peppy live song that the Eagles ever made, it still holds up based on the vibe it creates throughout its four minutes. Regardless of how much California has changed, this is still the optimal view of how most outsiders see the Sunshine State.
