Is writing death notices all I ever do anymore?

So, Glenn Frey, guitarist for California cocaine cowboys The Eagles, died today of complications following intestinal surgery.  Don’t expect any flowery sermons like I delivered for David Bowie and Ornette Coleman, though.  My thoughts on The Eagles were formulated long before Joel and Ethan Coen put them into words.

Still, despite the fact that I’m not the world’s biggest Eagles fan, since news of his death broke a lot of the easy, breezy Cali-country melodies he wrote have come floating through my head.  He cemented the sound of what country-rock meant in the late 1970s, a feat that would stand until the Nineties when rock, country, and alternative music were brought together in familiar yet exciting ways.  Anyone who grew up in those Nineties, though (anyone who grew up listening to classic rock radio, anyway) knew and sang along to all of those Frey-written songs:  “Peaceful Easy Feeling“, “Take It Easy“, “New Kid In Town“, “Lyin Eyes“, “Heartache Tonight“, “Tequila Sunrise“.  All good tunes, despite my feelings on the band as a whole.

Just to hijack this for one more dead Boomer-era musician, we also say goodnight to Dale Griffin (1948-2016) who was most famous as the drummer for Mott The Hoople, a glam band from the earlyish 1970s most famous for the David Bowie-penned “All The Young Dudes“.