Unlike David Bowie, whom I only came around on later in life long after my teacher tried to convince me of his excellence in Grade 6, I was fully aware of Glenn Frey early on and was completely in on him, but maybe not for the reason you think.
I didn’t have any clue that Frey was a founding member of The Eagles because I didn’t have a clue about The Eagles because my parents had mostly horrible musical tastes. Instead, my introduction to Frey came through the Beverley Hills Cop original motion picture soundtrack, where his song, “The Heat is On,” was one of several strong offerings, along with “Neutron Dance” by the Pointer Sisters and “Axel F,” a synthesizer jam that my brother can still play to this day. We wore that tape out.
A year later, Frey dropped the sax-heavy “You Belong to the City” on the Miami Vice OST and you best believe we had that bad boy too because why wouldn’t we? Crockett and Tubbs on the cover in their killer South Beach suits was perfection and the album was strong too, with “In The Air Tonight” also featured.
As has been a theme in my musical adventure through life, I later found out that Frey was a foundering member of The Eagles with the mopey older guy that sang “The Heart of the Matter” (that would be Don Henley, who is also far better than younger me knew) and was responsible for some of the band’s biggest hits, like “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Take It Easy.” I didn’t go so far as to go all-in on The Eagles when they got back together for the Hell Freezes Over album and tour like some people I went to high school with absolutely did, but there are about a dozen of their songs that I’m turning up whenever they come on the radio, that’s for sure.
Sidenote: check out the terrific two-part documentary on The Eagles, The History of The Eagles, on Netflix if you haven’t already.
When Frey went and turned up as Dennis, the penny-pinching general manager of the Arizona Cardinals that wanted undersized locker room pain-in-the-ass Rod Tidwell to play out his existing contract in Jerry Maguire, it was awesome. Even knowing how things play out over the course of the season (and the movie), I have to say, I wouldn’t have paid him either; he hadn’t put up those Andre Reed-type numbers so he didn’t merit that Andre Reed-type money.
Rest in peace, Mr. Frey.
