“Astonishing”: The song that convinced Glyn Johns to work with the Eagles
Production staff are far too often overlooked when it comes to the history of modern music. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how good of a performer or songwriter you are; if you do not have the production staff to properly translate that onto a recording, you might as well forget the whole thing. A good producer can make or break a band, so it is vitally important to find one who gels well with your sound as an artist. So, when the Eagles came across celebrated English producer and sound engineer Glyn Johns, it was clear that they had struck gold.
Today, it is difficult to imagine a time during which the Eagles were not a hugely successful cornerstone of American rock music. One of the greatest-selling artists in musical history, with legions of adoring fans and a discography chocked full of utterly iconic rock tunes, the Eagles are one of those groups who seem to have been around forever. It is easy to forget that they were once a relatively unknown outfit attempting to carve out a name for themselves within the incredibly oversaturated landscape of 1970s rock music.
Their journey from those early days to the titans that the Eagles eventually became is down to the influence of countless individuals, perhaps none more so than producer Glyn Johns. Although the songwriting of Glenn Frey and, later, Don Henley played no small role in the success of the band, it was Johns who managed to give the Eagles their distinctive sound, producing the band’s first three albums.
Johns already had a wealth of experience in sound engineering and production by the time he crossed paths with the Eagles. In fact, he had worked with such legendary British artists as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and The Small Faces among many others. During the early 1970s, he began to work more closely with American artists like the Steve Miller Band, which eventually led him to encounter the Eagles.
Speaking to Uncut, Johns recalled the moment that he first met the band. “I was approached by David Geffen and went to see the band in a little club in the middle of nowhere,” he shared. Surprisingly, Johns was not initially bowled over by what he heard, “Frankly, I wasn’t impressed. They were trying to be a rock ’n’ roll band, but they couldn’t play it to save their lives. I didn’t get it, but Geffen kept going on and on, so eventually, I agreed to see them rehearse.”
Reportedly, that rehearsal didn’t do much to improve Johns’ view of the band. Admittedly, it must be quite hard to impress a man who got to witness the recording of Let It Be, Led Zeppelin I, and The Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction’ firsthand. “Their set was okay,” Johns continued, “But as we were about to take a break somebody said, ‘Hold on, why don’t we play that ballad Randy [Meisner] has written?’”
This was the moment that the sound of the Eagles clicked into place for Johns. “They picked up acoustic guitars,” he said, “Stood around the piano and played ‘Take The Devil’, with the four of them singing. And that was it. Astonishing. So I tried to introduce more of that acoustic sound and concentrate on vocal blend and arrangements.”
From that initially unimpressive rehearsal, Johns helped to establish the sound of the Eagles that we all know today. He managed to take the acoustic-led sound he had heard on ‘Take The Devil’ and expertly capture it within the band’s first three records, leading them on a path to rock stardom.
