History of the Eagles Part One Page #3

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"My God, there's David Crosby. "

Zoom, and we went right by.

And in a week or two

if you make the charts

The girls'll tear you apart...

And the first person I met

was John David Souther.

We wanted to get high and play music.

There were two of us with guitars.

We were listening to a lot of

that sort of interface between

rock 'n' roll and country

and western music that was

happening in Southern California

at the time with the Byrds

and Dillard & Clark and the

Burrito Brothers and Poco.

When I last saw you

I couldn't find a reason why

I felt kind of blue...

There was a lot of great music

of that sort going around then.

Longbranch Pennywhistle here.

I suppose you wonder what that

name meant, and John David and I -

It was a well-kept spring back funky women.

The songs weren't very good.

I don't think Glenn and I were very

far along as songwriters then.

Run, boy, run

You gotta move...

We were a funny little

group, but we got gigs.

We, you know, managed to play in

some of the folk clubs around LA -

the Golden Bear and the Ash Grove.

Yeah, yeah, oh, yeah

What condition my condition was in...

We had a chance meeting with Kenny

Rogers in Dallas, Texas, one day.

He was coming through town

with the First Edition.

They were very hot at the time.

I tripped on a cloud and

fell-a eight miles high...

I remember this like it was yesterday.

This little kid came up and

said, "Mr Rogers," he said,

"I'm Don Henley, and I'm with

a group called Felicity,

and we're doing a show tonight, and

we'd love to have you come see us. "

And I said, "You know, I'm really

sorry, but I don't do that.

I don't just go to clubs and watch groups. "

He said, "I really think you'd like us. "

And I thought, "Well, that's

pretty cool," so I did.

From the minute that I met you, baby

You were hanging your chains on me

And I loved you so

I nearly lost my mind...

Kenny is a Texas boy, and he was

looking for groups to produce.

So, I brought them to LA,

and they literally lived at my

house for about four months.

We changed their name to Shiloh.

It was so much fun to take

them into the studio.

Well, thank you Mr Big

Time Music Business Man

For taking time to listen to my song...

With Shiloh, we made one album,

and it had a single called

"Simple Little Down Home Rock

and Roll Love Song for Rosie. "

Not exactly a short title!

Just a simple little down home

Rock and roll love song for Rosie...

We didn't know much about

the business at that point.

We were pretty naive.

Going down to the swamp

river country some day...

We kicked around in the

LA clubs for a while,

played the Whisky, played some of the

clubs down in the South Bay area,

and nothing really happened for us.

JD and I were looking

for any place to play.

We had heard about this guy Jackson Browne.

He'd been playing the same clubs we had,

but we never had seen him perform.

- This is California. Mr Jackson Browne.

- Ah, thank you, thank you.

'Then there were a bunch of gigs that

they had and some gigs that I had'

that they would show up at my gigs

and me at their gigs, and we

became really good friends.

And we'd start talking about, "Where

do you live, and what's going on?"

And Jackson said, "You know, you

should come down to Echo Park.

Rent's real cheap. "

Glenn got the apartment

next to my apartment,

and this apartment cost like 125

or something a month, you know.

And I needed to economize,

so I moved into the basement

underneath Glenn's place, which I

could get into for 35 a month.

It only had one door. It was really

just kind of an illegal place,

just a cubby-hole, and

that's where Jackson lived,

with JD and I above. You know, that was it.

There was a stereo, a piano, a

bed, a guitar, you know, a teapot.

KETTLE WHISTLES:

We slept late in those days, except

around 9 o'clock in the morning,

I'd hear Jackson Browne's teapot going off,

this whistle in the distance.

And then I'd hear him playing piano.

I didn't really know how to write songs.

I knew I wanted to write songs,

but I didn't know exactly -

you just wait around for

inspiration, what was the deal?

Well, I learned through Jackson's ceiling

and my floor exactly how to write

songs cos Jackson would get up,

and he'd play the first

verse and first chorus,

and he'd play it 20 times until

he had it just the way he wanted.

And then there'd be silence.

And then I'd hear the teapot go off again.

Then it'd be quiet for 10 or 20 minutes.

Then I'd hear him start to play again,

and there was the second verse.

So, then he'd work on the second

verse, and he'd play it 20 times.

And then he'd go back

to the top of the song,

and he'd play the first verse, the

first chorus and the second verse

another 20 times until he was

really comfortable with it and,

you know, change a word here or

there, and I'm up there going,

"So, that's how you do it" -

elbow grease, you know,

time, thought, persistence.

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years

And the slow parade of fears

Without crying...

I wanted to kill him sometimes.

Jackson would play the same phrase

from Doctor, My Eyes for six weeks.

The same thing with The Pretender.

I just wanted to murder him.

Doctor, my eyes...

And it was during that period

of time that I met Glenn Frey

because we were on the same

label, called Amos Records.

Some of the things that struck me

when I first met Glenn were

things we had in common.

Both of our dads made a living

in the automotive industry.

Glenn and I loved old cars,

especially cars from the '50s.

He had a '55 Chevy that he named Gladys.

And we drove around Los Angeles in Gladys.

- RADIO:

- Check out the new talent.

There's no better place in town

to catch those new singers

and songwriters than down at

the Monday night Hoot Night,

Doug Weston's world-famous

Troubadour, happening tonight.

'The Troubadour club was the

centre of the musical universe.

It was a very seminal place. It

was the place to see and be seen.

Every Monday night they had an open stage.

It was called Hoot Night.

The Troubadour was the place

to go if you were young

and happening and trying to get

involved in the music scene.

It was happening there.

California

Oh, California

I'm coming home

Oh, make me feel good Rock'n'roll band

I'm your biggest fan

California, I'm coming home.

I saw a lot of great

acts at the Troubadour.

So far away

Doesn't anybody stay

in one place any more?

It would be so fine to see your face...

I witnessed Elton John's American

debut performance in 1970.

And it's good old country

comfort in my bones

Just the sweetest sound my

ears have ever known...

Everybody who was anybody at the

time played at the Troubadour.

Of course, Linda,

she still has one of my favourite

voices in the business, ever.

Feeling better now we're through

Feeling better cos I'm over you...

The Troubadour is really responsible

for the entire music scene.

I mean, everything I got, really,

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