Glenn Frey was probably my third favorite Eagle after Don
Henley and Joe Walsh, but his death still brought an unwelcome and uncomfortable
recognition that an important part of my youth has vanished. His death isn’t necessarily a personal loss,
but more of a reminder that I, too, am getting older. Music was a refuge for me back then. It served as an escape and a point of
connection with others. Most
importantly, it served as a dependable familiarity, even as everything and
everybody else, including myself, was changing.
I appreciated the songs from the first Greatest Hits album,
separately, from the clock radio on my bedside table, on stations as pop as
WMEE and as hard as WXKE in my hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. These songs were 10-15 years old before they
had any real impact on me, though. When
I graduated from high school in 1986, my boyfriend had that album along with a
much better-worn collection of Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Pink Floyd. The boyfriend would make me mix tapes of
those bands, but when I made my own, I chose “Take It Easy,” “Already Gone” and
“Peaceful, Easy Feeling.”
Don Henley once called that last song vapid, which
stung. Sure, it lacks the ambition (or
pretentiousness) of his early solo work, but I didn’t listen to the Eagles
to be preached at or to analyze the lyrics.
The Eagles’ music represented escape.
It was a world of sun, lust, freedom and possibility, even in the midst
of personal (“Desperado”) and existential (“Lying Eyes”) darkness. That world appealed to me—basking in the joy
of light while acknowledging and appreciating the shadows.
30 years after I first connected to the band, I cue up the
Greatest Hits as I drive down 195 toward a heavy meeting or long day https://youtu.be/IKpay8gumw0:
I
was standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona
Such
a fine sight to see
A
girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford
Slowin’
down to take a look at me
Also on my iPhone, a different message. “Hole in the World” https://vimeo.com/33989886 was written as
a response to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
The song calls for listeners to be our best selves in the face of
enormous tragedy, made all the sweeter by the four-part harmonies.
There's a hole in the world
tonight.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.
Oh they tell me there's a place over yonder,
Cool water running through the burning sand,
Until we learn to love one another
We will never reach the promise land.
There's a Cloud of fear and sorrow.
There's a hole in the world tonight.
Don't let there be a hole in the world tomorrow.
Oh they tell me there's a place over yonder,
Cool water running through the burning sand,
Until we learn to love one another
We will never reach the promise land.
In this case, the Eagles found the magic of how words and
voices can offer emotional succor and simple wisdom.
Rest in peace, Glenn Frey.
