Glenn Frey, one of the founding members of the Eagles, a band that is widely credited with inventing "California country music"--although I would give that honor to Creedence Clearwater Revival, a San Francisco band that debuted several years earlier with songs like "Suzie Q" and "Proud Mary" that are still tremendously popular.
My wife and I were lucky to see the band in concert a few months ago in Baltimore. It was an extravaganza with several other musicians to create a fuller sound and giant screens showing scenes that were related to the subjects of the songs.
Actually, I had seen the Eagles once before, before they were the Eagles. Although they came from many different parts of the USA, they eventually joined up in Los Angeles. Linda Ronstadt (who grew up in Tucson, Arizona, at the same time I was there, and our fathers knew each other although I never met her) had relocated to L.A. because at that time Hollywood was the center of the music industry. With her country-music sound, she and the Eagles quickly became friends and began playing together for fun. I saw her in concert many times, and in 1971 she stopped to introduce her band, and it was three of the guys who would become the Eagles! She let them sing "Chug All Night" and she sang their song "Nightingale."
The Eagles have had members come and go over the years, so we're all hoping that they'll manage to continue to compose, record and perform without Frey.
"Take It Easy" has a line about a fellow "standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona," and a beautiful woman stops to give him a ride in her flatbed Ford truck. The city of Winslow recently built a new park and named it "Standing on a Corner."
They, too, created songs that are still immensely popular. "Hotel California" is one of the most beloved songs in the USA. I remember escaping from Arizona in order to go to college. I was on a train instead of a "dark desert highway," but when the train made its final stop in Los Angeles and I walked out of the car, it was like the scene in "The Wizard of Oz" when the world turns from black-and-white into Technicolor.
I was very happy to be able to live in the Hotel California, although that song wouldn't be written for 16 years.
"You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave." Yes, although my body has been living in Maryland for 13 years, deep down inside, I never left California.