It’s the ultimate rock star story—booze, blowouts, and enough band drama to make a soap opera blush.
It’s a reminder that sometimes the only thing harder than making it big is staying there without losing your damn mind.
“History of the Eagles” is a serious candidate for my top 10 “Best Music Documentaries” (when I finally get to writing it!).
Thanks to Bill Simmons (who commented on how the doc captured the Eagles’ creative process (see below), Tim Hendricks and Jenny Cooley — they all reminded me to write this review). Thx, folks!
Enjoy!
Trailer for “History of the Eagles”
Watch “History of the Eagles”
You can watch “History of the Eagles” on
- Apple TV at https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/eagles—history-of-the-eagles/umc.cmc.1ls8kaz1b8c00s82mt3y2zpbp
- Vimeo (this appears to be the first 2 hours of the documentary) at https://vimeo.com/301251301
- Amazon Prime Video (for $4.19 last I checked) at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00K5XLRSG/
- DVD (for $30) at https://www.amazon.com/History-Eagles/dp/B00BSBUZPK
Ratings:
- My Rating: 95/100
- IMDB Rating: 8.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 92/100 (Users); na/100 (Critics)
Release Date: January 19, 2013 (at Sundance)
My Review of “History of the Eagles”
Feathers, feuds, and enough cocaine to dust the Rockies – welcome to the wild ride that is “History of the Eagles.”
Don Henley and Glenn Frey, the band’s power couple, strut through this three-hour doc as the rock heroes they once were and likely will always be.
They’re here to set the record straight (though apparently that means throwing some bandmates under the tour bus).
Poor Randy Meisner probably still has tire tracks on his bell-bottoms.
The film plows through the Eagles’ rise faster than Don Henley can growl “in a New York minute.”
One moment they’re fresh-faced kids harmonizing in a California bar, the next they’re snorting lines off gold records.
Bill Simmons reminded me that there’s some great footage of the Eagles’ creative process:
“There’s a scene where Glen Frey lives underneath Jackson Brown and Jackson is playing the same 45 seconds over and over again. Glen Frey is annoyed at first but then realizes ‘this is how you make a song’ “
Bill Simmons on this episode of his podcast
But for all its chest-puffing and selective memory, “History of the Eagles” is as addictive as the band’s harmonies.
Thanks for reading!
Rob Kelly, Chief Maniac, Daily Doc