Yesterday, I received the DVD that I told my wife - who’s in Manila – to get me. I was looking for this at Virgin but it wasn’t available. This was the Farewell Tour 1 album of the Eagles’ live concert recorded in Melbourne, Australia last year. I thought it was original but a short note from her told me that it was one of those pirated versions which she found in (of all places!) the bangketa in Sta Ana when she went marketing. Though quite skeptical about the quality, I put it on the Sony DVD player and whaddya know – it didn’t disappoint! The images were crisp and the sound came out cleanly so that when I turned the volume to the max and let it rip, I thought I was right there at the Rod Laver stadium. Not bad for something that costs 70 Pesos! Not bad at all.

I had always been a big fan of the Eagles ever since I heard their “Greatest Hits” album when I was in high school. I remember to this very day the time when I took home the slightly-scratched vinyl bought in Raon with money saved from a month’s school allowance. We had this portable turntable that my sisters kept under lock and key in their room for they didn’t want me damaging the needle again after wearing it out with Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven”, Eric Clapton’s “Layla” and the Allman Brothers’ “Whipping Post”. Besides, they didn’t like my music. So I had to pick the lock to their door, since they weren’t home yet, in order to get my hands on the music box. That done, I entered a realm of music that had a refreshing bite coupled with harmonious vocals and great lyrics. And surprisingly, to my initial chagrin, my sisters liked it, too. But that was okay since they gave me money to buy “Hotel California” when it came out in ’76.

You could say that the Eagles’ music became the soundtrack of my life. I could empathize with desperation (“Desperado”), hope (“Take It Easy”), redemption (“Peaceful Easy Feeling”), hedonism (“Life in the fast Lane”) and getting stuck in a certain mindset (“Hotel California”) just to name a few. When I met and fell hard for the girl who was to become my future wife – ahem! – their last album in ’79 had just come out and I had this line from one of the songs constantly buzzing in my head - “I know we can make it, we’ll find out in the long run” - since she kept me hanging on for quite some time. Sort of. Plus that other memorable line “There’s gonna be a heartache tonight, a heartache tonight I know!” every time I dropped her off at her house and said goodnight after a date.

Well, the band broke up in ‘82 but still, I got the 2-volume tape of “Eagles Live” to keep me good company. Newly-married now, I played it on our small cassette player – one of our  most precious possessions during those struggling early days – whenever or wherever we went out of town on a whim. Gladys loved those songs too although this was one of the very few bands from my extensive catalogue that she liked. As far as she was concerned, the rest were just plain noise. Music for drug addicts and good-for-nothing hippies, as she put it! She was, of course, referring to my old hard rock collection and punk which I was into during the early ‘80s.

The first time I worked overseas in the middle of nowhere in Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia I kept track of Glen Frey’s and Don Henley’s solo albums which had some polished gems such as “The Boys of Summer”, “You Belong To The City” and “Dirty Laundry”. I also came across, through some American friends, Joe Walsh’s old work with the James Gang – “Rocky Mountain Way” and “Walk Away“. I knew he was good but this was great! And then came

Henley’s Grammy-winning album “The End Of The Innocence” which opened a new dimension to understanding the band members’ sweeping musical genius

Fast forward to December 1994. We – my son, the wife and I - traveled by car to Bahrain from Kuwait and back. Over a thousand kilometers back and forth. Along the way, we played and sang along to the Eagles’ new acoustic reunion album “Hell Freezes Over” as we drove over the desert highway close to midnight under a full moon. What better song to play than the one with the lines…”On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair / Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air / Up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light / My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim / I had to stop for the night”. Well, there was no smell of colitas but there were shimmering lights alright – those made by the oil refineries!

I got a VHS tape of that concert pronto and it was the first time that I saw the band play. Boy, it was pretty awesome watching them in action! Of course, former original bassist and high-octave vocalist Randy Meisner was no longer in the line-up but his replacement Timothy B. Schmidt was no slouch either, judging from the way he performed one of the best songs in that album, “Love Will Keep Us Alive”. And so the guys were back as one unit. But, surprisingly, they never made another album again in the next 10 years. Until now.

Old but gold Southern California rockers

This “Live Farewell 1Tour”, well, is all killer and no filler. From the opening song “The Long Run”, they launch into their trademark sound in full battle gear with everyone in great vocal shape. They play as tight as ever and Henley and Frey hit the falsettos with gusto as they did way back in their early albums. Marble-mouth Joe Walsh in his down-to-earth  black sweatshirt and colored pajamas had his smoking guitar chops right on target. I loved his take on “Funk #49”. This guy could still definitely teach these young, upstart guitar honchos a lesson or two. The haunting trumpet intro to “Hotel California” was simply spine-tingling. However, I wished Don Felder was still around (he was fired in 2001) to duel with Walsh on the lead. His replacement, Steuart Smith, though an accomplished guitarist – was a bit of a letdown and didn’t seem to gel with the other four. I liked, though, the added 4-piece horn section that fleshed out most of the songs and added a nice punch to the rhythm.

The album sets a high standard for live concerts in terms of length, pacing, and sound. It definitely is long (loved it!) – 2hrs. and 40 mins – and mixes old and new material in a seamless way that never flags.

Get a-hold of it if you can. It won’t disappoint – The Eagles have taken flight and they soar once again!