I watched it over the past two nights with the vast majority of it last night/this morning (part of my sluggishness today). Anyway, I thought it was quite good. I never really thought much about Frye before and from he public persona had a relatively negative opinion of Mr. Henley. Henley came off as far better in this doc. Frye seems like a raging douche. The way he told stories, with that tough guy "act" and fuck you to anyone other than Henley attitude (at it's core) was really repugnant. The dismissal of Felder and his contributions to the band by Frye was really lame. Songs are music and lyrics, so taking more credit because you helped develop a melody and then wrote words (and some of those lyrics are far from masterful) is lame. Comparing the success of his solo output to Henley's was a joke. Dismissing some of the great stuff Walsh released following the initial disbanding is downright insulting. Joe released some really great stuff, even if it wasn't as popular. And what was that crap about getting Walsh and thinking their vocals took a hit, but it was okay because he brought the rock edge they wanted. Joe's a great singer, he's just got a very unique voice...one that is as expressive as Henley's and much more so than Frye's ever was. Yeah, Frye rubbed me the wrong way. Geffen is the only guy that's even more repulsive.
That said, I grew up listening to them band and like a select few other artists they are ingrained in my musical DNA. I've only ever learned a handful of their tunes and barely remember how to play those anymore, but everything from The Eagles to The Long Run albums is etched in my mind. The Beatles from HELP on and the Police are among the SUPER small group of other artists that I say that about. So, I love their music. It was shocking to her that Desperado was a flop, because barring the title track that album kicks all sorts of ass. I had no idea about the crap with Geffen and Johns. Azoff is like the dream manager...with someone like that fighting for them they'd probably still been quite successful with a 1/3 or maybe even 1/4 of the talent they had.
Timothy has a cartoonish speaking voice, but the emeffer can certainly sing. But more than that, he's a KILLER bass player. It's more subdued in the studio stuff, but in all of those live clips, he's absolutely kicking ass on the bass. I don't think of Henley's voice as being so much better than any of the other guys, regardless of what they think. It's perfect in the context of the songs he sang in the Eagles, but it's no better than Frye's, Randy's, Schmidt's, or Walsh's in that same context. It's crazy the amount of vocal options they had though. So many textures and tonalities.
Bernie and Randy got OLD...Bernie's not even recognizable and Randy looks like his own 75-80 year-old father. Steuart is a lucky man to fall into that position AND get the opportunity to be part of the creative force of the band. Sweet gig. Makes wish I'd seen them during the Hell Freezes Over tour, when their ridiculously overpriced tickets were on some level manageable AND it was mainly the five-piece with someone for the keys and a drummer to free up Henley from time to time. I literally couldn't stop watching it...even though Frye made me want to about a dozen times.
