If you can sing in thin air, you can sing anywhere

Every night I'm lying in bed
Holding you close in my dreams
Thinking about all the things that we said
And coming apart at the seams
We try to talk it over
But the words come out too rough

I know you were trying
To give me the best of your love

 __ Don Henley, Glenn Frey and J.D. Souther.

Eagles play first concerts in Colorado

When the iconic L.A.-based California band of the 1970s, the Eagles — lamented their own, and others excesses in tunes like Life in the Fast Lane, Hotel California, and Take it to the Limit — they may have also have been recalling some early activities right here in Colorado. 

The band first played at a long-gone club known as the Gallery at the base of Little Nell, in Aspen.

Original band members played their first extended appearance as The Eagles at the Gallery in 1971. Founding member Glenn Frey recalled the time for the late Stewart Oksenhorn in a Sept. 3, 2010, article in The Aspen Times.

“I remember the first night, there were 40 people for the first set, then 80 people for the second set,” Frey told Oksenhorn. “By the fourth show of the night, it was packed. The word spread pretty quickly.”

Frey’s recollection was that they played several shows in October 1971 and then returned to Aspen the next month, according to the Aspen Times.

Longtime Colorado writer and music historian G. Brown, of Colorado Music Experience, recalls the bands's Colorado ascent this way.

"In the summer of 1970, Linda Ronstadt’s manager had an idea for a supergroup to back up his star singer, coming up with the combination of Glenn Frey (a guitarist and singer from Detroit), Don Henley (a singer and drummer from Texas), Bernie Leadon (a multi-instrumentalist previously in the Flying Burrito Brothers and Dillard & Clark) and Randy Meisner (formerly the bassist in Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band)," says Brown, who spent years covering the music scene in Colorado with articles in Denver Post and others, and was  an online personality for several radio stations.

"They eventually left Ronstadt and took shape as the original Eagles. In 1971, David Geffen (the head of Asylum Records, home of Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell) got involved as manager. He provided expense money for the guys to leave Hollywood and get their act together so that they could come back and blow minds rather than develop in front of everyone’s eyes.

"They went to Colorado and got gigs in local bars. In Aspen, “Eagle” played two stints at the Gallery (four sets a night, legend had it) and the whole town got behind them. Eagle was then scheduled to perform December 11-15 at Tulagi, the nationally famed 3.2 beer nightclub on Boulder’s University Hill. It was finals week at the University of Colorado, limiting attendance to 15 to 50 people a night. The band got paid $500 for the five nights."

"Yet Henley and Frey sat at the bar drinking pitchers of 3.2, confident to the point of insisting that they were going to be huge stars. “Oh, yeah, we were cocky little bastards,” Henley said. “Those gigs were sort of our coming-out party,” wrote Brown.

Frey said they were matter-of-fact over the inevitability of success. 

“We had it all planned. We’d watched landmark country-rock bands like Poco and the Flying Burrito Brothers lose their initial momentum. We were determined not to make the same mistakes. This was going to be our best shot. Everybody had to look good, sing good, play good and write good. We wanted it all. Peer respect. AM and FM success. No. 1 singles and albums. Great music. And a lot of money,” says Brown.

The members dressed in the fashion of the time, ripped jeans with paisley patches. One particularly cold night, the heat went out at Tulagi and Leadon played with gloves on. The gigs drew small but voluble crowds. A beered-up patron kept screaming, “Play some Burritos, ma-a-a-an!” “We’re a new group with our own songs,” Frey earnestly explained from the stage.

Those songs served as an audition for British producer Glyn Johns, whose work with the Beatles, the Rolling Stone and other music giants had made him a legend. “He was this superstar producer who none of us had ever met,” Henley noted. “He agreed to fly over from England and listen to us when we played Tulagi. I got designated to drive to the airport to pick him up.

“It was a horrible, cold, snowy night, and nobody was at the concert. We were nervous and not very good, and Glyn passed. Later, he came to Los Angeles on a more casual scale when we weren’t so keyed up about performing. He listened to us rehearse, singing harmonies with acoustic guitars, and that’s what got him.”

Within weeks, Eagle became the Eagles. The band went to London to record its first album, produced by Johns. Eagles, released in 1972, was a huge success, helped by the hit singles “Take It Easy” and “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” The Eagles went on to become the most successful American music act of the 1970s with sales of more than 50 million albums worldwide.

David Geffen, who was introduced to Frey by Jackson Browne bought out Frey's and Henley's contracts with Amos Records, and sent the four to Aspen, Colorado, to develop as a band. Having not settled on a band name yet, they performed their first show in October 1971 under the name of Teen King and the Emergencies at a club called The Gallery in Aspen, 

According an article written shortly after Frey's death in 2016 in Aspen Times, by Scott Condon, news of his passing hit those who knew him hard.

"Frey and his original band mates played their first extended appearance as The Eagles at the Gallery in 1971."

“It was all because of Irving Azoff,” said Tim Mooney, who got to know the members of the Eagles while bartending at the Hotel Jerome.

Azoff, also the manager for Jimmy Buffett, knew the scene in Aspen and brought the Eagles in to develop their live show, said Condon in the Times article.

“They basically rehearsed a lot of songs when they got together here,” Mooney said. “They were as green as the audience was.”

Tim Mononey told Condon how he got to know the band members when they started coming to the Hotel Jerome hoping to meet Hunter S. Thompson. A few years later, Buffett hired Mooney as a roadie. Buffett opened for the Eagles, who were on their way to super stardom.

“We started partying and hanging out with those guys,” Mooney said.

Bobby Mason, the dean of the Aspen music scene, also met Frey when the Eagles first played the Gallery. Mason was a regular player there with the group Black Pearl. He had a chance to sit in once with the Eagles, he said.

The Eagles had a fast rise and then an implosion. Squabbling among the band members led to a breakup in 1980, but Frey, a guitarist, singer and songwriter for the group, retained ties to Aspen, as did drummer, songwriter and singer Don Henley, says Condon.

"Henley purchased a home in Woody Creek and got immersed for a time in local politics. Frey purchased a home on Snowmass Creek Road next to his buddy Buffett. Buffett made a reference to his neighbor in the 1985 song 'Gypsies in the Palace' about caretakers who throw legendary parties."

Frey was a frequent visitor to Aspen in the 1970s and 1980s and part of the party scene.

“Everybody was into Bordeux red wine and blow back then,” Mooney told Condon.

Frey confirmed to Oksenhorn, in the earlier Time piece, that his 1982 song “Partytown” was partially inspired by Aspen.

Frey also got involved in the local golf scene. Tim Cottrell, the former proprietor of the Smuggler Land Office restaurant and bar, said the joint was the headquarters for celebrities in Ed Podolak’s High Country Shoot-out golf tournament and fundraiser. Buffett was initially the big-name star in the event. Frey later took over, Cottrell said. He recalled ribbing both Buffett and Frey at some of the tournaments for being on the wrong side of the ball, as they were lefthanders.

Buffett and Frey also met competitors on the softball diamond, sort of. Buffett sponsored a team in the Aspen recreational league called the Downvalley Doughboys. Their logo resembled the Pillsbury Doughboy.

Frey was more competitive. He sponsored the “Werewolves” in Aspen’s A League, Mooney recalled.

“They played to win,” according to Oksenhorn's 2010 article.

Frey eventually purchased Buffett’s house on Snowmass Creek Road, but as the years went on, he spent less time in Old Snowmass. Both properties are listed for sale through Aspen Realtor Craig Morris.

Frey played with Joe Walsh, who joined the Eagles well after their earlier appearances in Aspen, in a 2010 show at the Jazz Aspen Labor Day Festival. Oksenhorn had an excellent interview with Frey before that show.

Mooney was shocked to hear of Frey’s death.

“He was a sweetheart. He was really kind and really happy. He knew he had a gift,” Mooney said. “He knew they were destined to be the biggest rock band on the planet.”

Mason said Frey’s death is yet another reminder to live every day like it’s your last. 

“I’m sorry to lose a friend,” he said.

Henley maintained a residence in Woody Creek, near Aspen, for decades. “I fell in love with the place. Colorado was great back then, but it’s changed a lot now. It’s getting a little glitzy up there.”

Frey continued to live in Aspen until his passing in 2016. “After the shows at the Gallery, I swore if I ever made a dime in the music business, I wanted to have a house there. It’s a good place to practice. If you can sing in Aspen’s thin air, you can sing anywhere.”