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893
01:00:45,587 --> 01:00:50,169
#..For having learned how
not to cry... #
894
01:00:50,204 --> 01:00:54,717
Geffen's close relationship
with his acts
895
01:00:54,752 --> 01:01:00,552
led Asylum to to sign some of the
most talented, established
and interesting songwriters in LA.
896
01:01:02,232 --> 01:01:06,872
But just a year after its birth, its
solo artists would produce a band
897
01:01:06,907 --> 01:01:11,512
that would become one of the most
successful acts in music history.
898
01:01:28,072 --> 01:01:30,952
For any musician serious about
making the big time,
899
01:01:30,987 --> 01:01:33,198
LA was the only place to be,
900
01:01:33,233 --> 01:01:39,273
and by 1970, an new wave of artists
had followed the heroes
of the counterculture west.
901
01:01:39,308 --> 01:01:41,830
Among them were Glenn Frey,
902
01:01:41,865 --> 01:01:44,318
a guitar player from Detroit,
903
01:01:44,353 --> 01:01:48,353
and JD Souther,
a songwriter from Texas.
904
01:01:51,633 --> 01:01:54,118
Befriended by local hero
Jackson Browne,
905
01:01:54,153 --> 01:02:00,432
the three young troubadours found
cheap digs in a Mexican
neighbourhood near downtown LA,
906
01:02:00,467 --> 01:02:04,158
the unlikely setting for
another songwriting collective
907
01:02:04,193 --> 01:02:08,673
that would, once again, transform
the city's musical identity.
908
01:02:08,708 --> 01:02:14,033
# Like a bluebird with
its heart removed
909
01:02:14,068 --> 01:02:16,558
# Lonely as a train
910
01:02:16,593 --> 01:02:20,673
# I've run just as far
as I can run... #
911
01:02:20,708 --> 01:02:23,158
I moved to Echo Park
912
01:02:23,193 --> 01:02:27,273
and was instantly surrounded
by people coming up through this...
913
01:02:27,308 --> 01:02:30,990
beautiful cloud,
this merger of literature and music
914
01:02:31,025 --> 01:02:34,673
that seemed to take place around
acoustic guitars.
915
01:02:35,873 --> 01:02:40,552
#..You tell me how long, how long
916
01:02:40,587 --> 01:02:43,072
# Woman, will you weep...? #
917
01:02:43,673 --> 01:02:48,552
Glenn Frey and I roomed together
for a while, Jackson moved out,
I moved downstairs,
918
01:02:48,587 --> 01:02:52,998
Glenn moved out, Jackson and I
both got houses on Camrose Court,
919
01:02:53,033 --> 01:02:58,233
all writing in different
combinations with each other.
It was growing all the time.
920
01:02:58,268 --> 01:03:01,593
That was the little ball of dust
that became a tornado.
921
01:03:01,628 --> 01:03:04,158
# Oh, goodbye-bye, baby
922
01:03:04,193 --> 01:03:10,553
# Rock yourself to slee-ee-eep... #
923
01:03:14,433 --> 01:03:20,758
The Echo Park posse would provide
the songwriting basis for the
biggest band in LA's history.
924
01:03:20,793 --> 01:03:26,113
Their musical inspiration would
come from a raucous music club half
a mile west of the Sunset Strip.
925
01:03:31,353 --> 01:03:35,833
I mean, it was a heart of a scene
that encompassed James Taylor,
926
01:03:35,868 --> 01:03:40,552
Ry Cooder, Randy Newman, Little Feat,
927
01:03:40,587 --> 01:03:41,718
John David Souther...
928
01:03:41,753 --> 01:03:45,572
There was 20 or 30 people
that all became very good friends
929
01:03:45,607 --> 01:03:49,357
and would, on any given night,
go to the Troubadour bar
930
01:03:49,392 --> 01:03:54,877
and then drive a short distance
up into the canyons to party
at one or the other's houses
931
01:03:54,912 --> 01:04:00,632
and germinations of songs and love
affairs, and terminations
of love affairs, and deals were made
932
01:04:00,667 --> 01:04:03,553
within two or three miles of
the Sunset Strip.
933
01:04:06,032 --> 01:04:11,277
LA's singer-songwriters had emerged
from the folk tradition.
934
01:04:11,312 --> 01:04:16,553
At the Troubadour, they absorbed
another form or reassuringly
authentic American music.
935
01:04:21,352 --> 01:04:23,958
As the idealism of the '60s faded,
936
01:04:23,993 --> 01:04:29,393
country music would offer LA's
troubadours a new sense of identity.
937
01:04:29,428 --> 01:04:32,570
# You made me
938
01:04:32,605 --> 01:04:35,677
# Sweet and nice
939
01:04:35,712 --> 01:04:41,712
# But that won't keep you warm
at night
940
01:04:41,747 --> 01:04:44,317
# Cos I'm the one... #
941
01:04:44,352 --> 01:04:50,312
At the centre of LA's country
revival was a charismatic cowboy
called Gram Parsons.
942
01:04:50,347 --> 01:04:53,150
#..You're doing now
943
01:04:53,185 --> 01:04:55,918
# He may feel... #
944
01:04:55,953 --> 01:04:58,477
Country music was so horrible
945
01:04:58,512 --> 01:05:02,252
and you didn't even imagine
that you would dare listen to it,
946
01:05:02,287 --> 01:05:05,958
but he sat me down in his room,
took out his little record player
947
01:05:05,993 --> 01:05:12,193
and forced us to listen to
George Jones, Waylon Jennings,
Merle Haggard, and made us get it.
948
01:05:12,228 --> 01:05:17,430
#..I was right beside you then... #
949
01:05:17,465 --> 01:05:22,597
During a brief stint in the Byrds,
950
01:05:22,632 --> 01:05:27,592
and as a driving force
in the Flying Burrito Brothers,
951
01:05:27,627 --> 01:05:30,558
Parsons was just one of
a large pool of players
952
01:05:30,593 --> 01:05:32,833
infatuated with the
music and mythology of the West.
953
01:05:32,868 --> 01:05:35,112
Chris Hillman,
in the Burritos and the Byrds,
954
01:05:35,147 --> 01:05:37,433
he'd been a bluegrass
mandolin player,
955
01:05:37,468 --> 01:05:39,918
I'd been a bluegrass banjo player,
956
01:05:39,953 --> 01:05:42,478
Jerry Garcia had been
a bluegrass banjo player,
957
01:05:42,513 --> 01:05:45,753
so they were people who became
influential musicians
958
01:05:45,788 --> 01:05:47,958
in the late '60s, early '70s,
959
01:05:47,993 --> 01:05:51,833
who started out in folk but had been
off into the bluegrass thing as well.
960
01:05:57,753 --> 01:06:04,072
One of the most influential figures,
and the undisputed queen
of the Troubadour scene,
961
01:06:04,272 --> 01:06:06,513
was yet another exile in LA.
962
01:06:07,872 --> 01:06:10,318
I'm going to do a truck-driver's song
now.
963
01:06:10,353 --> 01:06:15,993
I live with a bunch of people I knew
from Tucson, on the beach, and we
started hanging round the Troubadour.
964
01:06:16,028 --> 01:06:19,597
It's responsible for the
entire music scene.
965
01:06:19,632 --> 01:06:24,672
This song was written by my friend
Lowell George from Little Feat,
and it's called Willin'.
966
01:06:26,113 --> 01:06:29,713
Of all the people responsible for
the country-rock revolution,
967
01:06:29,748 --> 01:06:33,313
maybe Linda Ronstadt is the one
that's overlooked the most,
968
01:06:33,348 --> 01:06:36,153
because she's a woman
and considered a pop artist.
969
01:06:37,872 --> 01:06:40,473
# I've been warped by the rain
970
01:06:40,508 --> 01:06:42,110
# Driven by the snow
971
01:06:42,145 --> 01:06:43,678
# I'm drunk and dirty
972
01:06:43,713 --> 01:06:47,352
# Don't you know that I'm still
973
01:06:48,672 --> 01:06:51,558
# Willin'... #
974
01:06:51,593 --> 01:06:54,598
Linda, in many respects, was
the glue that held this together,
975
01:06:54,633 --> 01:07:00,633
because she never was a
singer-songwriter - she has barely
written a song in her life -
976
01:07:00,668 --> 01:07:04,713
but Linda picked singers,
and songwriters in particular,
brilliantly.
977
01:07:04,748 --> 01:07:09,273
#..And I've been from Tucson
to Tucumcari
978
01:07:09,308 --> 01:07:14,078
# Tehachapi to Tonopah
979
01:07:14,113 --> 01:07:17,953
# Driven every kind of rig that's
ever been made... #
980
01:07:17,988 --> 01:07:20,512
She was the vehicle for JD Souther,
981
01:07:20,547 --> 01:07:22,237
for Warren Zevon,
982
01:07:22,272 --> 01:07:26,952
Karla Bonoff, Eric Kaz.
She introduced me to Willin',
by Lowell George.
983
01:07:26,987 --> 01:07:30,072
# And if you give me
984
01:07:31,912 --> 01:07:34,073
# Weed
985
01:07:35,272 --> 01:07:42,233
# Whites and wine... #
986
01:07:42,268 --> 01:07:44,077
In June 1971,
987
01:07:44,112 --> 01:07:46,957
Linda Ronstadt's boyfriend,
JD Souther,
988
01:07:46,992 --> 01:07:50,513
and his friend Glenn Frey
were in a country duo.
989
01:07:54,113 --> 01:07:57,278
But when JD decided to pursue
a solo career,
990
01:07:57,313 --> 01:08:02,312
it seemed that Frey, despite
being assigned to
David Geffen's Asylum Records,
991
01:08:02,347 --> 01:08:05,073
was out on a limb.
992
01:08:05,192 --> 01:08:06,637
By the end of the year,
993
01:08:06,672 --> 01:08:10,592
he was fronting what would become
LA's biggest band.
994
01:08:14,472 --> 01:08:17,812
Originally I told Glenn and JD
995
01:08:17,847 --> 01:08:21,117
that Glenn should form a band,
996
01:08:21,152 --> 01:08:24,432
that he wasn't strong enough as a
solo artist to go by himself.
997
01:08:24,467 --> 01:08:26,993
Glenn wanted a bigger thing,
more sound,
998
01:08:27,028 --> 01:08:28,438
and I wanted less,
999
01:08:28,473 --> 01:08:31,512
I wanted to be like Jackson
and just go play by myself.
1000
01:08:31,547 --> 01:08:33,672
I had left the Flying Burrito
Brothers.
1001
01:08:33,707 --> 01:08:35,357
I'd hang out at the Troubadour,
1002
01:08:35,392 --> 01:08:39,478
and I'd run into Glenn Frey
and Don Henley.
1003
01:08:39,513 --> 01:08:43,473
I found Don from this band, Shiloh.
I heard them at the Troubadour.
1004
01:08:43,508 --> 01:08:47,037
Linda Ronstadt's producer,
John Boylan, was helping them.
1005
01:08:47,072 --> 01:08:50,432
He told them to get Randy Meisner
on bass, they thought that was
a good idea.
1006
01:08:53,232 --> 01:08:55,037
They were missing a guitar player.
1007
01:08:55,072 --> 01:08:57,312
We told them they should
get Bernie Leadon.
1008
01:08:57,347 --> 01:08:59,552
So I called Boylan
and he said, "Yeah."
1009
01:09:01,073 --> 01:09:03,598
So the original Eagles
were four people,
1010
01:09:03,633 --> 01:09:06,792
Glenn Frey, Don Henley,
myself and Randy Meisner.
1011
01:09:07,793 --> 01:09:08,793
It's serious!
1012
01:09:11,873 --> 01:09:14,073
I never doubted that they'd be big.
1013
01:09:15,112 --> 01:09:17,433
We wanted him to get us
on Atlantic Records,
1014
01:09:17,468 --> 01:09:19,597
he said, "Well,
I can probably do that
1015
01:09:19,632 --> 01:09:23,237
"or you can be the first band
on my new label, Asylum."
1016
01:09:23,272 --> 01:09:27,633
Then he was going to be our manager
AND our record company president -
1017
01:09:27,668 --> 01:09:29,677
obviously, there's a
conflict of interest there,
1018
01:09:29,712 --> 01:09:33,473
but we did it because we were sure
that David was going to succeed.
1019
01:09:39,513 --> 01:09:43,512
The Eagles, an unashamedly ambitious
band of country rockers,
1020
01:09:43,547 --> 01:09:45,238
seemed an incongruous addition
1021
01:09:45,273 --> 01:09:49,598
to Asylum's roster of earnest
singer-songwriters.
1022
01:09:49,633 --> 01:09:53,273
But after a brief apprenticeship as
Linda Ronstadt's backing band,
1023
01:09:53,308 --> 01:09:55,597
they made their first
public appearance
1024
01:09:55,632 --> 01:09:59,073
in a tiny art gallery
in Venice, California.
1025
01:09:59,108 --> 01:10:01,997
MUSIC: "Witchy Woman"
by the Eagles
1026
01:10:02,032 --> 01:10:07,233
The first time The Eagles played was
at an art opening for Boyd Elder,
1027
01:10:07,268 --> 01:10:08,513
our friend from Texas.
1028
01:10:11,352 --> 01:10:15,112
Joni Mitchell and Mama Cass
and David Geffen was there,
1029
01:10:15,147 --> 01:10:18,072
Ned Doheny there was, you know,
the whole gang.
1030
01:10:20,873 --> 01:10:24,932
Everybody was dancing on this wet
concrete floor with beer all over it,
1031
01:10:24,967 --> 01:10:28,992
and the Eagles were there playing
Witchy Woman over and over again.
1032
01:10:29,027 --> 01:10:33,597
# Woo-hoo, witchy woman
1033
01:10:33,632 --> 01:10:36,792
# See how high she flies... #
1034
01:10:36,827 --> 01:10:39,918
We only knew seven songs,
1035
01:10:39,953 --> 01:10:42,353
so we played the same
seven songs over and over.
1036
01:10:43,553 --> 01:10:46,632
#..She got the moon in her eye... #
1037
01:10:46,667 --> 01:10:48,753
It was fun. Joni was dancing.
1038
01:11:04,112 --> 01:11:06,992
They were the apex of
the California sound.
1039
01:11:07,027 --> 01:11:09,873
It expressed the sunshine
and the warmth,
1040
01:11:09,908 --> 01:11:11,473
they were the core of it.
1041
01:11:13,272 --> 01:11:18,153
A magical combination of people who
could create their material,
1042
01:11:18,188 --> 01:11:21,038
who could pick the best of
other people's material,
1043
01:11:21,073 --> 01:11:25,632
and roll it up again in one of those
very dusted musical packages.
1044
01:11:28,712 --> 01:11:30,672
# Well, I'm a-running down the road
1045
01:11:30,707 --> 01:11:32,597
# Trying to loosen my load... #
1046
01:11:32,632 --> 01:11:35,397
Helped by JD Souther
and Jackson Browne,
1047
01:11:35,432 --> 01:11:39,872
the Eagles wrote songs that would
become emblematic of '70s LA.
1048
01:11:41,273 --> 01:11:46,032
But not everybody was thrilled by
their carefully crafted brand of
country rock.
1049
01:11:46,067 --> 01:11:50,038
#..Take it easy... #
1050
01:11:50,073 --> 01:11:52,117
Their take on how to do it
1051
01:11:52,152 --> 01:11:55,233
is to reproduce the record
every time perfectly, note for note,
1052
01:11:55,268 --> 01:11:58,998
and it works for them, you know,
1053
01:11:59,033 --> 01:12:03,073
it makes a good show for the crowd,
but to me it's...
1054
01:12:05,032 --> 01:12:06,198
..boring.
1055
01:12:06,233 --> 01:12:11,077
#..Take it easy... #
1056
01:12:11,112 --> 01:12:13,518
They take no chances. Ever.
1057
01:12:13,553 --> 01:12:16,357
#..Well, I was standing on
a corner... #
1058
01:12:16,392 --> 01:12:19,992
The Eagles' reward for leaving
nothing to chance
1059
01:12:20,027 --> 01:12:23,592
was a hit album
and three number-one singles.
1060
01:12:23,627 --> 01:12:24,277
It started in the '60s.
1061
01:12:24,312 --> 01:12:26,993
We had a problem
with the word "commercial",
1062
01:12:27,028 --> 01:12:28,438
and everybody said,
1063
01:12:28,473 --> 01:12:31,597
"We don't want to be commercial."
1064
01:12:31,632 --> 01:12:34,512
Commercial was like the Monkees,
it's like the Turtles,
1065
01:12:34,547 --> 01:12:37,637
and commercial meant success.
1066
01:12:37,672 --> 01:12:41,393
For the sake of the audience,
you're the Monkees.
1067
01:12:41,428 --> 01:12:44,878
#..We may lose and we may win... #
1068
01:12:44,913 --> 01:12:48,118
When we got together,
we stated the intention -
1069
01:12:48,153 --> 01:12:53,433
this band is about doing really well,
becoming famous
and making a lot of money.
1070
01:12:53,468 --> 01:12:55,530
That was our goal.
1071
01:12:55,565 --> 01:12:57,558
#..Hey, yeah... #
1072
01:12:57,593 --> 01:13:01,913
It was a goal that they achieved
with their debut album,
1073
01:13:01,948 --> 01:13:06,233
confirming the denim-clad,
long-haired Western troubadour
1074
01:13:06,268 --> 01:13:11,072
as the new image of mainstream
commercial success.
1075
01:13:13,272 --> 01:13:17,232
The Eagles' next record was
once again was written and conceived
1076
01:13:17,267 --> 01:13:20,993
with the help of Jackson Browne
and JD Souther.
1077
01:13:25,673 --> 01:13:29,233
When Jackson turned 21, I gave him
The Album Of Gunfighters.
1078
01:13:29,268 --> 01:13:33,330
There were the bodies of
slain outlaws in it,
1079
01:13:33,365 --> 01:13:37,357
John Wesley Hardin's
shotgun-riddled body...
1080
01:13:37,392 --> 01:13:41,197
Underneath, you could read about
how all this happened,
1081
01:13:41,232 --> 01:13:46,993
and, in a way, it sort of became the
template for that Desperado record.
1082
01:13:48,633 --> 01:13:51,312
# They were Doolin
1083
01:13:51,347 --> 01:13:54,210
# Doolin-Dalton
1084
01:13:54,245 --> 01:13:57,038
# High or low
1085
01:13:57,073 --> 01:13:59,638
# It was the same... #
1086
01:13:59,673 --> 01:14:04,593
The notion of cowboys, you know,
those wild, taciturn heroes,
1087
01:14:04,628 --> 01:14:07,117
stepping into a saloon
1088
01:14:07,152 --> 01:14:10,233
and changing everyone's lives for
ever with a single shot or comment.
1089
01:14:10,268 --> 01:14:13,798
It's a mythological moment
that caught on.
1090
01:14:13,833 --> 01:14:17,673
On Desperado, the Eagles invented
a collective identity
1091
01:14:17,708 --> 01:14:20,992
directly inspired by
their country roots...
1092
01:14:21,027 --> 01:14:25,158
and by the ultimate
American fantasy.
1093
01:14:25,193 --> 01:14:29,438
As young guys 100 years ago,
rather than being
rock'n'roll guitar players,
1094
01:14:29,473 --> 01:14:36,673
they might well have been rock'n'roll
gunslingers - they would have been
carrying guns instead of guitars -
1095
01:14:36,708 --> 01:14:40,552
so we decided to do this
Western motif shoot
way out in the Malibu Hills.
1096
01:14:44,273 --> 01:14:47,038
It was almost like a time-warp
1097
01:14:47,073 --> 01:14:50,773
because it really did feel like we
were back in the 1800s.
1098
01:14:50,808 --> 01:14:54,440
It was so real. The guys would come
running down the street
1099
01:14:54,475 --> 01:14:58,073
with their guns blazing, and
the Eagles, and it was very heroic!
1100
01:15:02,993 --> 01:15:09,593
In the '60s, LA's singer-songwriters
had portrayed themselves as
heroes of the counterculture.
1101
01:15:12,153 --> 01:15:15,118
The Eagles had re-cast themselves
as fictional outlaws,
1102
01:15:15,153 --> 01:15:20,073
an escapism that marked a
timely disengagement from the
political world around them.
1103
01:15:21,632 --> 01:15:23,678
# I am an outlaw
1104
01:15:23,713 --> 01:15:25,757
# I was born an outlaw's son... #
1105
01:15:25,792 --> 01:15:30,353
There can be no whitewash...
at the Whitehouse.
1106
01:15:30,388 --> 01:15:32,833
'Richard Nixon as the President,'
1107
01:15:32,868 --> 01:15:35,610
valiums were on the rise.
1108
01:15:35,645 --> 01:15:38,317
People were taking downers
1109
01:15:38,352 --> 01:15:43,873
just to anaesthetise themselves
against the reality
of this rightist regime
1110
01:15:43,908 --> 01:15:49,050
that was going from
Vietnam to Cambodia with napalm.
1111
01:15:49,085 --> 01:15:54,192
#..A life upon the road
is the life of an outlaw... #
1112
01:15:54,227 --> 01:15:56,557
What that did to music
1113
01:15:56,592 --> 01:16:01,232
was, I think, for any person who
wanted to be a player and continue,
1114
01:16:01,267 --> 01:16:03,353
was to stop bitching.
1115
01:16:05,232 --> 01:16:06,958
To shut up.
1116
01:16:06,993 --> 01:16:11,072
What's in now is songs of
consolation that can be marketed
1117
01:16:11,107 --> 01:16:13,837
in the greater reality of
a Republican regime.
1118
01:16:13,872 --> 01:16:19,153
The songs were more handsome,
and a mile wide and an inch deep.
1119
01:16:19,188 --> 01:16:22,838
MUSIC: "Desperado" by the Eagles
1120
01:16:22,873 --> 01:16:27,012
But the Eagles' Western escapade
was a commercial flop.
1121
01:16:27,047 --> 01:16:31,152
They would be forced to rethink
their country roots
1122
01:16:31,187 --> 01:16:33,517
and re-invent their cowboy image.
1123
01:16:33,552 --> 01:16:36,753
And there was more bad news from
their record company.
1124
01:16:39,353 --> 01:16:43,113
Steve Ross, who ran Warners
in those days, came to me
1125
01:16:43,148 --> 01:16:45,637
and said that he wanted to buy it
1126
01:16:45,672 --> 01:16:49,398
and, uh, he offered me
$7 million for it,
1127
01:16:49,433 --> 01:16:53,558
which, at the time, seemed like
a staggering amount of money,
1128
01:16:53,593 --> 01:16:58,632
and I had watched Sonny and Cher
go from the biggest act
in the world to nothing,
1129
01:16:58,667 --> 01:17:01,157
and Otis Redding die
in a plane crash,
1130
01:17:01,192 --> 01:17:05,513
and I thought, "Jeez! $7 million!"
It was such a huge number.
1131
01:17:05,548 --> 01:17:07,393
It ended up being worth...
1132
01:17:09,992 --> 01:17:12,593
..so much more money than I
sold it for
1133
01:17:12,628 --> 01:17:14,558
but, you know, I'm doing OK!
1134
01:17:14,593 --> 01:17:17,512
Geffen and Roberts' management,
our management,
1135
01:17:17,547 --> 01:17:19,558
comes to us...and our record company,
1136
01:17:19,593 --> 01:17:23,717
and they say to us, "We've sold
Asylum Records to Warner Brothers,
1137
01:17:23,752 --> 01:17:30,113
"we're splitting up the management
company, you have to find new
management." We're, like, "What?!"
1138
01:17:31,313 --> 01:17:36,032
Geffen continued to manage
Asylum Records,
now owned by Warner Brothers,
1139
01:17:36,067 --> 01:17:40,632
but he would be forced to hand over
the Eagles' personal management
1140
01:17:40,667 --> 01:17:44,638
to another formidable hustler,
Irving Azoff.
1141
01:17:44,673 --> 01:17:48,873
The first thing I think Irving did
was turn around and sue Geffen
1142
01:17:48,908 --> 01:17:53,490
to get the Eagles' publishing
back from Warner Brothers Music.
1143
01:17:53,525 --> 01:17:58,073
You know, in success, people
feel like they're entitled to more,
1144
01:17:58,108 --> 01:18:00,837
forgetting that,
when they made these deals,
1145
01:18:00,872 --> 01:18:05,112
they had nothing
and nobody was interested in them.
1146
01:18:07,632 --> 01:18:12,598
When Warner Brothers merged Asylum
with Elektra Records,
1147
01:18:12,633 --> 01:18:15,412
another independent label
it had purchased two years earlier,
1148
01:18:15,447 --> 01:18:18,192
it signalled a shift in the tone of
LA's record business.
1149
01:18:19,793 --> 01:18:24,593
The change was that more and more
managers were coming to the party.
1150
01:18:24,628 --> 01:18:27,277
The lawyers were getting involved.
1151
01:18:27,312 --> 01:18:32,793
When it became more business
and less music...I left.
1152
01:18:34,312 --> 01:18:36,673
What's happening in the process,
1153
01:18:36,708 --> 01:18:39,078
which I served gladly,
1154
01:18:39,113 --> 01:18:41,078
is the corporatisation of rock.
1155
01:18:41,113 --> 01:18:44,453
I mean, the music died
around the middle '70s.
1156
01:18:44,488 --> 01:18:47,793
At least in terms of
everything that defined LA
1157
01:18:47,828 --> 01:18:49,797
a decade earlier.
1158
01:18:49,832 --> 01:18:52,913
If you go back to the Strip
in the late '60s,
1159
01:18:52,948 --> 01:18:55,877
there was a kind of
Utopian dimension,
1160
01:18:55,912 --> 01:19:01,153
and I guess we were so carried away
by that spirit
1161
01:19:01,188 --> 01:19:03,877
that people failed to see
how much of it
1162
01:19:03,912 --> 01:19:08,633
was also about carrying people
forward into Tower Records
1163
01:19:08,668 --> 01:19:11,950
or into a whole brave, new world
of consumption
1164
01:19:11,985 --> 01:19:15,233
in which rock'n'roll
was simply the soundtrack.
1165
01:19:15,268 --> 01:19:18,030
In an increasingly corporate
climate,
1166
01:19:18,065 --> 01:19:20,889
the social scene was also moving -
1167
01:19:20,924 --> 01:19:23,678
away from bars like the Troubadour
1168
01:19:23,713 --> 01:19:28,197
to a more exclusive class
of nightclub.
1169
01:19:28,232 --> 01:19:33,272
Among the clients that we had
was a guy named David Blue -
a friend of ours, Joni's, etc -
1170
01:19:33,307 --> 01:19:38,312
and we had booked all of our
biggest acts into the Troubadour
and I called Doug Weston
1171
01:19:38,347 --> 01:19:43,158
and asked him to put David Blue
in there, and he wouldn't do it.
1172
01:19:43,193 --> 01:19:47,393
I said, "I've given you Crosby,
Stills, Nash And Young, the Eagles,
Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell,
1173
01:19:47,428 --> 01:19:50,553
"Linda Ronstadt, etc.
I want you to play David Blue."
1174
01:19:50,588 --> 01:19:53,038
He said, "I'm not
going to play David Blue."
1175
01:19:53,073 --> 01:19:56,993
I said, "If you don't
play David Blue, I'll start a club."
1176
01:19:57,028 --> 01:19:59,478
And he said,
"You think you can start a club?"
1177
01:19:59,513 --> 01:20:05,352
I said, "Yeah, I think I can start a
club, and if you don't put David Blue
in the Troubadour, I will."
1178
01:20:05,387 --> 01:20:07,833
And he said, "Fuck you, do it."
1179
01:20:07,868 --> 01:20:09,713
So we did.
1180
01:20:14,113 --> 01:20:18,678
The Roxy represented a new kind of
Sunset Strip venue
1181
01:20:18,713 --> 01:20:24,833
in which the Eagles and their
entourage found themselves
at the centre of an exclusive elite.
1182
01:20:24,868 --> 01:20:26,797
'All of a sudden,'
1183
01:20:26,832 --> 01:20:29,433
there was an awful lot of money,
1184
01:20:29,468 --> 01:20:32,557
a lot of celebrity,
1185
01:20:32,592 --> 01:20:35,752
a lot of, "You can come in here,
you can't."
1186
01:20:35,787 --> 01:20:37,917
# Eager for action
1187
01:20:37,952 --> 01:20:40,357
# Hot for the game... #
1188
01:20:40,392 --> 01:20:45,953
In their songwriting, the Eagles
had begun to chronicle the
mid-'70s hedonistic lifestyle
1189
01:20:45,988 --> 01:20:48,517
of which they were the
prime players.
1190
01:20:48,552 --> 01:20:50,877
The summer after the fourth album,
I left.
1191
01:20:50,912 --> 01:20:54,078
For a long time,
I felt I couldn't talk about it,
1192
01:20:54,113 --> 01:20:58,273
partly because it had to do with
my own personal drug use,
1193
01:20:58,308 --> 01:21:00,517
too much partying,
1194
01:21:00,552 --> 01:21:02,273
and I needed to get away from it.
1195
01:21:02,308 --> 01:21:03,958
And when I left,
1196
01:21:03,993 --> 01:21:09,432
the whole acoustic, bluegrass, folk,
acoustic guitar thing
1197
01:21:09,467 --> 01:21:10,957
went away.
1198
01:21:10,992 --> 01:21:13,518
#..Life in the fast lane
1199
01:21:13,553 --> 01:21:16,213
# Surely make you lose your mind
1200
01:21:16,248 --> 01:21:18,838
# Life in the fast lane... #
1201
01:21:18,873 --> 01:21:22,312
Bernie Leadon was replaced by
guitar hero Joe Walsh,
1202
01:21:22,347 --> 01:21:26,117
as the Eagles ditched their
acoustic roots,
1203
01:21:26,152 --> 01:21:29,392
and followed the musical drift
towards stadium rock.
1204
01:21:29,427 --> 01:21:32,598
Was there a point in the '70s
at which you realised
1205
01:21:32,633 --> 01:21:37,553
that many of your contemporaries
had become self-satisfied and smug
about their own positions?
1206
01:21:37,588 --> 01:21:42,472
I realised that about myself
but I didn't make any judgments
on the rest of 'em.
1207
01:21:44,152 --> 01:21:49,558
In 1974, Crosby, Stills, Nash
And Young embarked on a world tour,
1208
01:21:49,593 --> 01:21:55,152
the extravagance of which
clashed wildly with
the morality of their songs.
1209
01:21:55,187 --> 01:21:58,552
# You...who are on the road... #
1210
01:22:00,313 --> 01:22:02,232
#..Must have a code
1211
01:22:03,912 --> 01:22:06,353
# That you can live by... #
1212
01:22:07,793 --> 01:22:10,753
We had 85 people in the crew,
1213
01:22:10,788 --> 01:22:13,678
we had helicopters, jets,
1214
01:22:13,713 --> 01:22:16,793
limousines sat in front of the hotel
24 hours a day...
1215
01:22:16,828 --> 01:22:19,873
It was just an exercise in excess.
1216
01:22:20,872 --> 01:22:25,113
# Teach the children well
1217
01:22:26,152 --> 01:22:29,252
# Their father's hell
1218
01:22:29,287 --> 01:22:32,318
# Did slowly go by... #
1219
01:22:32,353 --> 01:22:35,412
You're top of
the charts, everybody loves you,
1220
01:22:35,447 --> 01:22:38,437
you've got enough women
to satisfy you for years,
1221
01:22:38,472 --> 01:22:42,312
you have enough money and
the ability to buy the best drugs,
1222
01:22:42,347 --> 01:22:44,392
and, you know, it takes over,
1223
01:22:44,427 --> 01:22:46,757
and it took over.
1224
01:22:46,792 --> 01:22:49,318
#..Don't you ever... #
1225
01:22:49,353 --> 01:22:55,113
From my perspective, these were
the guys that were talking
about freedom, about justice,
1226
01:22:55,148 --> 01:22:59,592
about respect for Mother Earth,
about getting back to the Garden.
1227
01:22:59,627 --> 01:23:02,712
It was very hard
to make sense of it all.
1228
01:23:02,747 --> 01:23:05,512
#..And know they love you... #
1229
01:23:06,713 --> 01:23:12,072
All of them represent, to me,
the liberal Hollywood concepts.
1230
01:23:12,107 --> 01:23:13,837
They favoured money
1231
01:23:13,872 --> 01:23:17,712
and they'd just forget that
sometimes,
1232
01:23:17,747 --> 01:23:21,117
that it walks this thin line.
1233
01:23:21,152 --> 01:23:25,492
But, ultimately, it was about
being successful.
1234
01:23:25,527 --> 01:23:29,832
By 1975, LA's once
politically conscious musicians
1235
01:23:29,867 --> 01:23:32,238
were consumed by cynicism,
1236
01:23:32,273 --> 01:23:37,113
a mood fuelled by a substance that
had replaced marijuana and acid
1237
01:23:37,148 --> 01:23:38,677
as Hollywood's drug of choice.
1238
01:23:38,712 --> 01:23:44,552
One of its earliest advocates and
biggest casualties was David Crosby.
1239
01:23:44,587 --> 01:23:50,638
David had bowls of it,
big wooden bowls of cocaine,
1240
01:23:50,673 --> 01:23:53,832
and he walked around stark naked,
with his pudgy little belly,
1241
01:23:53,867 --> 01:23:56,838
and it was different. It felt OK.
1242
01:23:56,873 --> 01:24:00,973
It felt all right in, like,
'69, '70.
1243
01:24:01,008 --> 01:24:05,073
It just...
slowly got pretty awful.
1244
01:24:05,108 --> 01:24:07,630
# You take Sally
1245
01:24:07,665 --> 01:24:10,117
# And I'll take Sue
1246
01:24:10,152 --> 01:24:13,153
# There ain't no difference
between the two
1247
01:24:13,188 --> 01:24:14,753
# Cocaine
1248
01:24:15,912 --> 01:24:18,152
# Running all round my brain... #
1249
01:24:19,473 --> 01:24:23,913
When we started doing cocaine
and heroin and speed,
1250
01:24:23,948 --> 01:24:25,512
as a generation...
1251
01:24:28,552 --> 01:24:34,512
..that essentially degraded
the original spirit that we had
1252
01:24:34,547 --> 01:24:37,593
in that group of people,
in California,
1253
01:24:37,628 --> 01:24:40,450
to a very low level...
1254
01:24:40,485 --> 01:24:43,237
# Mama, come here quick
1255
01:24:43,272 --> 01:24:47,793
# That old cocaine's 'bout to
make me sick
1256
01:24:47,828 --> 01:24:49,637
# Cocaine... #
1257
01:24:49,672 --> 01:24:53,953
..and the shift from one to
the other was a palpable thing.
1258
01:24:53,988 --> 01:24:56,112
You could feel it.
1259
01:24:57,432 --> 01:25:00,873
More greed, more anger,
more craziness,
1260
01:25:00,908 --> 01:25:02,352
more...
1261
01:25:03,633 --> 01:25:06,037
..darkness.
1262
01:25:06,072 --> 01:25:09,072
MUSIC: "Hotel California"
by the Eagles
1263
01:25:17,073 --> 01:25:19,278
In less than a decade,
1264
01:25:19,313 --> 01:25:24,672
collective optimism had given way to
a ruthlessly self-centred culture
1265
01:25:24,707 --> 01:25:29,633
and, in 1976, with an honesty
typical of LA's singer-songwriters,
1266
01:25:29,668 --> 01:25:33,238
the Eagles captured the mood with
an acerbic tribute
1267
01:25:33,273 --> 01:25:38,873
to a city whose appeal had proved
seductive long before the '70s.
1268
01:25:40,793 --> 01:25:43,813
The whole vision of
Hotel California -
1269
01:25:43,848 --> 01:25:46,798
finally,
the Pilgrims come to Paradise,
1270
01:25:46,833 --> 01:25:50,632
only to find a seedy broken-down
hotel on a boring ocean,
1271
01:25:50,667 --> 01:25:54,312
where people are all
thinking about suicide -
1272
01:25:54,347 --> 01:25:57,273
this is a fairly consistent vision.
1273
01:25:57,308 --> 01:26:00,512
# On a dark desert highway
1274
01:26:01,713 --> 01:26:03,652
# Cool wind in my hair... #
1275
01:26:03,687 --> 01:26:05,557
Remember, in the 1940s,
1276
01:26:05,592 --> 01:26:11,193
all the great stars, and half of
Bloomsbury, were in Los Angeles,
1277
01:26:11,228 --> 01:26:15,198
along with a whole generation of
American writers,
1278
01:26:15,233 --> 01:26:18,273
and they ended up rehearsing
every possible form of despair
and alienation,
1279
01:26:18,308 --> 01:26:20,570
every kind of delight and euphoria.
1280
01:26:20,605 --> 01:26:22,798
#..I had to stop for the night... #
1281
01:26:22,833 --> 01:26:26,393
Everybody can find
some part of Los Angeles
1282
01:26:26,428 --> 01:26:29,953
that can be the bearer
either of their dreams
1283
01:26:29,988 --> 01:26:31,518
or their nightmares.
1284
01:26:31,553 --> 01:26:33,277
#..I was thinking to myself
1285
01:26:33,312 --> 01:26:36,598
# This could be heaven
or this could be hell... #
1286
01:26:36,633 --> 01:26:41,232
So, in a way, the emotional landscape
that the rock generation lived in
1287
01:26:41,267 --> 01:26:46,638
was repeating what the writers
had gone through in the 1920s,
1288
01:26:46,673 --> 01:26:49,833
veering back and forth
between the land of sunshine
and the land de noir.
1289
01:26:49,868 --> 01:26:53,677
#..Welcome to the
Hotel California... #
1290
01:26:53,712 --> 01:26:58,272
The Eagles had evolved from
a generation of artists
1291
01:26:58,307 --> 01:27:02,797
whose determination to succeed
had brought them to LA,
1292
01:27:02,832 --> 01:27:10,193
and in the same year as
Hotel California, that ambition
reached its ultimate peak
1293
01:27:10,228 --> 01:27:12,277
when the Eagles released
another record
1294
01:27:12,312 --> 01:27:17,152
that marked the commercial climax
of a ten-year journey.
1295
01:27:18,073 --> 01:27:23,112
People always put out the
greatest hits albums
when the bands are in decline.
1296
01:27:23,147 --> 01:27:26,593
I wanted to put it out when they
were at their absolute peak.
1297
01:27:26,628 --> 01:27:30,078
That album is the
biggest-selling album of all time.
1298
01:27:30,113 --> 01:27:35,672
The sales of the Eagles'
greatest hits prompted the
invention of the platinum record.
1299
01:27:35,707 --> 01:27:40,312
It was the first in a long line
of multi-million-selling albums
1300
01:27:40,347 --> 01:27:43,758
commercially and musically inspired
by Los Angeles.
1301
01:27:43,793 --> 01:27:48,192
And it marked the end of a journey
in which the collective ambition
1302
01:27:48,227 --> 01:27:50,877
of a tight-knit
community of troubadours
1303
01:27:50,912 --> 01:27:56,153
had turned LA into the corporate
capital of the music world.
1304
01:27:57,352 --> 01:27:59,553
Don't miss it. Don't miss it.
1305
01:28:18,432 --> 01:28:21,873
# The King is gone
but he's not forgotten
1306
01:28:25,072 --> 01:28:29,192
# This is the story of
a Johnny Rotten
1307
01:28:33,072 --> 01:28:36,752
# It's better to burn out
1308
01:28:36,787 --> 01:28:39,113
# Than it is to rust
1309
01:28:41,152 --> 01:28:44,632
# He is gone
but he's not forgotten... #
1310
01:28:44,667 --> 01:28:48,113
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd - 2007
1311
01:28:49,305 --> 01:28:55,799
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