Glenn Frey
2016 is off to a terrible start for musicians. In the last 30 days, we have seen the passing of Lemmy, David Bowie, Natalie Cole, and now Glenn Frey.
Yet, this one hit me like a ton of bricks. This was the music I would listen to with my father; The Eagles were our driving music.
My dad would often take me driving in his silver Acura Integra. With the Eagles as our background music, we would take me around Long Island—or "driving nowhere," as he would call it. We’d talk about sports, music, school, life, and pretty much anything you can think of. (And as a middle schooler going through puberty, there was plenty to discuss.) His go-to albums on these drives were the aforementioned "Hotel California" and "Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975," as well as their reunion "Hell Freezes Over" album. Sometimes, he would sing along to the songs, often trying to coax me to sing along with him ("Take it Easy" was a favorite); other times, we’d just let the music do the talking.
When Dad passed away of lung cancer in 2003 when I was fifteen years old, it took me a long time to hear the Eagles again. I always associated them with him and the memories I had with him in that car.
I’m kind of feeling the same way again today.
Glenn Frey’s passing has me looking back on those times I spent with my father with great fondness; though he passed away sixteen years ago, those times could have been just yesterday… Glenn Frey played a huge part in them.
Before we start hearing about the negative side of Frey (and trust me, he had plenty; just ask Don Felder), we need to remember the role his music played in our lives. I know as a definitive fact that I am not the only one with stories like that.
James Taylor once said that Frey and Henley were the American answer to Lennon and McCartney, and there's some truth in that; they played their part in writing and recording some of the most successful and beloved songs of any American artist, ever. Two of their albums, "Hotel California" and "Their Greatest Hits, 1971-1975," are amongst the best-selling albums of all time; they make up a collective 74 million claimed sales. (Expect that number to rise a bit in the coming days, by the way.) His music has been a staple of radio for nearly five decades; whether with the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, or as a solo artist, Frey’s music a seminal part in the lives of countless people over the past nearly fifty years.
But just like the other musicians who have recently passed, we have their music to remember them with… and the memories that go with them.
