My favourite band has always been Eagles. And when I mentioned this at my first job interview, the interviewer asked, “What’s your favourite song? And you’re not allowed to say ‘Hotel California’.” The answer came easily. It’s ‘Tequila Sunrise’.
Co-written with Don Henley and sung by Glenn Frey, the first single from the band’s 1973 album Desperado has a heartbreaking quality to it. Frey’s smooth vocals, backed by Henley, convey the pathos of lost dreams and the hope that each new sunrise — signalling the end of a night fuelled by tequila, or not — brings. And as the song goes, news of his passing has left his fans wondering why the right words never come. Especially now, when we need them to express how much of an impact the man’s voice and the lyrics he wrote, had on our adolescence.
A statement on the band’s website reads, “Glenn fought a courageous battle for the past several weeks, but sadly, succumbed to complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia… Words can neither describe our sorrow, nor our love and respect for all that he has given to us, his family, the music community and millions of fans worldwide.”
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Frey, one of the founding members of the rock band, was a brilliant singer-songwriter who gave us hits such as ‘After the Thrill is Gone’, ‘New Kid in Town’ and ‘Heartache Tonight’, apart from co-writing their iconic ‘Hotel California’ with Henley and Don Felder. He could go from poignant, in a song like ‘Lyin’ Eyes’, to the country twang that follows the familiar riff of ‘Take it Easy’. It's the comforting voice I turn on in unfamiliar settings. And strangely enough, I glean wisdom from the many layers of meaning in the lyrics he has written.
Along with Henley, Frey was the constant in the band, which started with Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner, and in its final avatar, featured Timothy B. Schmit and Joe Walsh, instead. If there was a soundtrack to the 70s and 80s, it would surely feature some of their hits. And I can’t think of many or any other band that can claim, as Frey did in their reunion live album (amusingly called Hell Freezes Over ), “We never broke up, we just took a 14-year vacation.”
Love them or hate them, you could never ignore Eagles. Keep in mind that they’re just Eagles, never The Eagles. This was a pet peeve of Frey, and one that actor Steve Martin shared on Twitter in remembrance of his friend. Several singers and celebrities, from Carole King, Justin Timberlake and Brad Paisley to Niall Horan, Sheryl Crow and Tim McGraw shared their tributes on social media.
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But, perhaps, the most moving was Don Henley’s. “I’m not sure I believe in fate, but I know that crossing paths with Glenn Lewis Frey in 1970 changed my life forever, and it eventually had an impact on the lives of millions of other people all over the planet. It will be very strange going forward in a world without him in it. But, I will be grateful, every day that he was in my life.” And so are we.