“Witchy Woman” was the the first Eagles song I ever heard. Four minutes of pure magic – Bernie Leadon’s riff that has since burned a groove in my memory, Don Henley’s haunting voice, those incredibly perfect Eagles’ trademark harmonies…. and, my God, those lyrics – “Raven hair and ruby lips/ Sparks fly from her finger tips” ! Two lines that paint an irresistible picture of an irresistible woman – words that I may or may not have borrowed and used to great effect at some stage🙃 🙃 ! I was instantly and irretrievably hooked – love at first listen, you might say, exactly like the first time I ever heard Dire Straits. Eagles quickly became my second favourite band, and four decades later, are still firmly in that slot. Don Henley wrote “Witchy Woman” while suffering from the flu and a high fever, with visions of Zelda Fitzgerald (the “It Girl” wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald) and assorted women, swirling in a fever dream in his head. You can see them in the lyrics, cant you? This became the Eagles first Top 10 hit – just the second single they ever released, off their debut album !! That’s how good they were ! The listening public clearly shares my discerning taste for music 😎

The Eagles have epitomised California / Country Rock for fifty years – despite none of them being from California! Don Henley came to California from small-town Texas with his band Shiloh, after a chance encounter with Kenny Rogers (yup, that one) led to Kenny agreeing to produce his band. Glenn Frey, on the other hand, came from Detroit, Michigan (where he was Bob Seeger’s mentee) to find his rock music destiny in LA. Enter, Linda Ronstadt – a very big deal at this point, searching for a back-up band to go on tour with her. Having heard Glenn and Don separately a few times around LA, and liking their voices and musical chops, she hires them both – strangers to each other – to join her band. (All together now….”Thank You Linda Ronstadt” 😁❤️!) As costs are high, the traveling crew share rooms, and Glenn Frey and Don Henley end up as roomies, hanging out and playing on stage together every day. They quickly realise they really liked each other’s company, enjoy the same music and have the same musical ambitions – and were going to becoming friends for life (reminds me of how Sethi, Sahai and I randomly ended up in C-Bot at WH in Joka – I bet you have similar stories of how you met your best friends!) . That, below, is an image of Glenn and Don backing up Linda Ronstadt in 1971, just before they formed the Eagles!

Linda wanted to make her backing band permanent, but Glenn and Don decided they would rather have their own band. To her credit (and to the everlasting gratitude of millions of fans worldwide 😄), Linda actually supported their plans – she even suggested that should pick Bernie Leadon, another member of her band, who stood just a few feet away from them on stage! Frey suggested one of his friends, Randy Meisner as well. And Eagles Mark 1 was born – Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner! Signed to Asylum records, and ballsy as they were, they wanted Glyn Johns to be their producer – yes, the man who produced The Who, Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin! Amazingly, rhe label got Glyn to fly out from London to see them, and promptly turned them down…..till, just on the fly, they played him a ballad they had been working on – garnished with their incredible harmonies! Ding, Ding, Ding ⚡️ !! Glyn Johns signed up on the spot to produce their debut album, “Eagles”.

 “Take It Easy” is the second big single from their debut album. Absolutely love this song. I think I first heard it around the time I returned from my student days trip to the US, where I stayed with the amazing Stickley clan in rural Ohio, as an exchange student. This song reminded me then, as it does now, of small town Urbana, Ohio and the 1000-acre farm I had stayed at –  empty roads, flatbed Fords…..sigh!! Interesting story about the song. Singer/songwriter Jackson Browne, started writing the song when he lived just below Glenn Frey’s apartment in LA. Having got as far as the line “I’m standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona”, he was stuck on to complete the second verse. Frustrated, he played what he had, to his upstairs neighbour Frey, who immediately blurted out the immortal line “It’s a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me”. Job done!! Glenn then took it to the Eagles, where Don and he finished it. The Eagles recorded it as the the first song on their first album – and their first Top 20 hit!! The sing has became so famous that the town of Winslow, Arizona now has an official “Standin’ On The Corner Park” , complete with a replica of a girl in a flatbed Ford 🙃🙃

Here’s another live version of Take It Easy – with the four original Eagles with Jackson Brown and Linda Ronstadt singing back-up vocals!

“Peaceful Easy Feeling” was the third hit single from the 1972 Eagles debut album and the video above also has the four original Eagles. This is, for me at least, the epitome of Country Rock – laid-back and totally chilled. I so remember listening to this for the first time as it wafted over the airwaves on “A Date With You”. Entranced, I put down the book I was reading and just let this song wash over me. I didn’t know the context or the back story of the song till much later, but It’s a song that, even today, literally melts my stress away – I must have played it for myself a million times over the years. The story goes that Jack Tempchin, a friend of Jackson Browne’s (Glenn Frey’s downstairs neighbour) was playing a small club in San Diego one night, and wanted to hook up with one of the waitresses. She ignored him completely and left, leaving him to sleep, alone, on the club floor. Next morning, sitting at one of the tables there, he wrote the lyrics to song (the rough draft from that day is in the Grammys museum!). Later, while visiting his friend Jackson in LA, he played it, raw as it was, for Jackson’s upstairs neighbour, Glenn Frey. Glenn drank it in and next day, came back with a demo of an Eagles version! Blown away by what they had done with his song, Tempchin handed the song to the Eagles. (All together now – “Thank You Jack!” 😁). The song has a zen to it that I’ve felt only a few times in life – at random fleeting moments too! One instance I remember was with Sethi in my car in Delhi (for some reason I think I may have picked him up from the airport). We were approaching a traffic light that would definitely have turned red by the time we got there. Instead of gunning the engine and going for it, like I normally would, I slowed down, put the car in neutral and we cruised to a stop. Eagles were playing on the car stereo, and I turned to Sethi and said “peaceful easy feeling” and he smiled his usual serene smile back at me! (Its really nuts, the things I remember – I bet Sethi doesn’t remember that incident) 😇

“Tequila Sunrise” was from the next Eagles album, Desperado, and the second song that the song writing team of Henley/Frey ever wrote together.. I heard it on the Best of Eagles album and to be honest, never really liked song very much – till the late 80s, when that particular tequila shot finally hit me! Back then in ’88 I was this cool(?), young bachelor in Bombay, and one night was hanging out with sundry friends and acquaintances at a bar. Someone said let’s do a Tequila Sunrise – plan being to drink Tequila shots till the morning. Of course, I was in. We all got into taxis and went to some girl’s flat at Worli Seaface. At some point, someone played this song on the stereo. And finally, I got the song, especially the part about “take another shot of courage”. Consequently, I finally had a very interesting conversation with one of the young ladies there that night 😛. The other song that Henley/Frey wrote together in that first week as a team was Desperado – it was on the B-side of the “Eagles Greatest Hits” cassette and not one of my Eagles’ favourites. But, what do I know – Rolling Stone magazine ranks it in ‘The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ 🤦🏽‍♂️

Today, July 16 2021 – is exactly one year since I started writing this blog. A special shout-out to Nidhi, Asha, Naresh, Deepa, Nandan, Preeti & Kunal !! You guys have been the inspiration for this – without you this would have never gone beyond random Whatsapp messages ❤️ ! Thanks for encouraging me to capture these random musings as a blog. And, a huge thank you to all of you, my dear friends, that take the time to read, comment and like my blog – thanks for being so supportive – much love to you guys ! Take It Easy everyone!!