For what it's worth, the Eagles, one of my favourite bands of the '70's, have just released a new, 20 song, double-disk CD, Long Road Out of Eden.
The album is the Eagles' first studio release since 1979.
Rolling Stone gives the project a good, if not wholly enthusiastic, review:
"Long Road Out of Eden," the ten-minute centerpiece of this two-CD, twenty-song album, epitomizes everything that is familiar, surprising, overstretched and, in many ways, right about the entire set. The song echoes the title hit of 1976's Hotel California, the Eagles' defining monument to mirage, money and no escape. But this time the desert is overseas and oil is the new champagne. When drummer Don Henley sings, "Now we're driving dazed and drunk" in a grainy, plaintive voice, it is an entire nation at the wheel, "bloated with entitlement, loaded on propaganda."
The Eagles are now sans long-time lead guitarist Don Felder, whose 2001 firing from the band sparked the wrongful dismissal lawsuit to end all wrongful dismissal lawsuits.
In two California legal actions, Felder claimed $50,000,000 in damages from Eagles Ltd., the corporate entity controlled by band leaders Don Henley and Glenn Frey. Felder also sued Frey and Henley personally. The lawsuits were settled in May 2007 on an undisclosed basis, presumably paving the way for the new album's release.
Felder's tell-all autobiography, Heaven and Hell: My Life as an Eagle (1974-2001), was released contemporaneous with the album, last week in Britain. The book's North American launch has apparently been delayed by continuing legal wrangling.
And while this is speculation only, the "coincidental" timing of the album and book arrivals seems to have the "magic settlement wand" of a very skilled mediator written all over it, I note.
The Toronto Star had a fascinating interview with Felder last week about the book and his turbulent Eagles career:
In his memoir, Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles, 1974-2001, and during our conversation, Felder goes into detail about life on the road. Drugs, he says, helped the band at first, "taking down a lot of personal defences and walls between each other." But later, he says, cocaine-fuelled paranoia soured relationships and caused the music to become "inhumanly flawless" and sterile.
Heaven and Hell is the first time a member of the Eagles has given such a raw and detailed account of life with the band.
There is one additional sidebar here that is worth mentioning. The Eagles, no longer with any major label, have inked an exclusive retail distribution deal with Wal-Mart for the new album. Henley commented in February about this decision:
We've gotten a lot of flack for it," Henley admits. "On the other hand, people keep on saying we need a new business model, we need a new paradigm, we need somebody to do something, so we stepped up and did something. Wal-Mart is getting their environmental and labor act together. We did our homework, and they are putting some innovative programs in place ecology-wise. They can't be any more evil than a major record label, that's the way I look at it. We'll see what happens.Wal-Mart Canada issued its own press release last week. It echos Henley in its unexpected, and perhaps forced, environmentalist messaging:
"Long Road Out of Eden" reflects the band and Wal-Mart's shared commitment to environmental sustainability. The album packaging features Domtar EarthChoice(R) papers. To ensure paper is sourced from well-managed forests, EarthChoice papers are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), publicly endorsed by the Rainforest Alliance and supported by World Wildlife Fund and Forest Ethics. This unique CD package contains 30%post-consumer recycled fiber, and virgin fiber from FSC Certified forests or other controlled sources. Using paper products from well-managed forests has a great global impact in conserving biodiversity and improving livelihoods in local communities.An ironic twist, indeed, for a band known best for its harmonic sneers on the inescapable evils of corporate culture and greed.
Audio samples from the Eagles' Long Road to Eden are available at this Wal-Mart link.
- Garry J. Wise, Toronto
Hi Garry,
ReplyDeleteWhat a GREAT article on what has to be the most exciting album launch in a decade (at least to me - a lifelong Eagles fan)
Particularly interesting to me were the references to the litigation, mediation, and the timing of the book release and the album, and I'd have to agree with your assessment on the obvious marketing tactics employed.
I don't mind either that they've decided to go with Walmart in the release of the album, because as a consumer I'm looking at a savings of probably $10 or more!
Thanks for the info. I'm glad I found your blog :-)
Mistrtim
http://marketingsearchnews.com
Very good objective article. I am an old-school Eagles with Felder fan and also I'm involved with US copyright law. I can shed a little more light on the situation anyone could verify with the copyright office
ReplyDeleteIn Canada there is what is known as a compulsury license that in the US is called Section 115. Such a license is used on HC.You could imagine the problems that would arise in Feb 2001 when the parties responcable for the underlying music of HC came forward in copyright records. For what it's worth it's brought us some new music that I already love and a new book that I've enjoyed reading. Today musicians
are proud when a progression or lick is incorperated
into something new.
Back in the day it would kinda look like infringement to the general public,although completely legal. Judging from the book I would say that the original composition came from Palm Springs, and the details surrounding omission from the book a problem with US publication. It has been said that Waiting In the Weeds is about this situation as well as HC. None of this has tainted my love of the Eagles, and I kinda feel sorry for Don Felder too...
I received thisa comment today by email, and am posting it on its writer's behalf:
ReplyDeleteGarry J. Wise
-----------------------------------
Garry-
Being on a CdMA (mobile-phone tower based) internet system here in Thailand, the response-to-blog function didn't seem to want to work so I'm sending this to you directly.
Re: Felder vs Eagles/Henley/Frey, great commentary from your side, and refreshingly lucid responses by Mr. Tim and Anonymous.
Many times blogs like this and the responses to them (particularly in the "fast car" postings) are so primitive in spelling/grammatical structure and content that it feels like the Primate Wing at the local zoo was tapped for literary talent.
Do you know of (or have you heard reliable whispers regarding) the nature of the settlement ?
I am a long-time Eagles fan, with a lot of respect for ALL the band members. I heard them "live"
when I lived in Tempe, Arizona when the "Hell Freezes Over" tour took place in 1995, I think it was.
They played in Sun Devil Stadium, the 9th Wonder of the World, an architectural marvel built right into the large redrock buttes on the outskirts of town.
They must have had some SERIOUS equipment in place, because although in a straight line I lived about a mile away, I could still hear them from my house!
Two ironies I see in the Felder vs Eagles/Henley/Frey conflict shed light on how convoluted and complicated the issues must have been.
First, it was Felder's Hotel California, supposedly initially dismissed by Henley and Frey as "Mexican reggae" when first presented to them by Felder as an instrumental, that became their biggest hit ever and the song the group is generally most closely associated with.
That said, it is Felder who got ousted whereas Walsh and Schmidt, both also with the group for 25+ years at the time the war started and 30+ years now, are still Eagles. It makes it difficult to discern who the Good Guys and Bad Guys might be within the Conflict of the Titan(ic) Egos.
Thanks again.
Chris Fisher
Phuket, Thailand