Eagles fly, fans soar (Fresno Bee)

The legendary band with the legendary squabbles pulls diverse music fans together.

By Mike Osegueda
The Fresno Bee

Brad Rogers used to sit around studying Eagles songs, learning them note for note.

It wasn't to cover the songs. It was to borrow from them.

"I've stolen a lot from the Eagles," the Fresno musician says with a laugh. "I'm sure they're going to sue me."

Maybe "borrow" is the better word. Like the way Justin Timberlake borrowed from Michael Jackson or Britney Spears borrowed from Madonna.

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When it comes to a band that gets borrowed from, the Eagles are like an ATM -- always there to draw from. The scope of the Eagles' influence is wide, hitting people young and old, inspiring musicians and regular folk.

"They're an accessible band that still has good quality," Rogers says. "Just about anybody can like an Eagles song. But they still have great integrity."

Sunday, the band flies into Fresno for a date at the Save Mart Center. Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit will revive the catalog of songs that have sold more than 120 million albums.

The four make up the main components of the band. Guitarist Don Felder was ousted in 2001. Afterward, he sued the band for more than $200 million, and Frey and Henley countersued.

But the Eagles' influence has continued better than the band itself. With break-ups and makeups, reunion tours, farewell tours and return albums, calling the Eagles' journey a tumultuous one is like saying "Hotel California" was a tad popular.

As it did for many other people, that song got Chris Carey digging the Eagles.

The band broke up right around the time the 22-year-old was born, so he wasn't exactly around for its heyday. But "Hotel California" piqued his interested and led him to explore the rest of the band's catalog.

Carey plays in the local rock band Chris Plays Guitar and says he's toyed with the idea of starting an Eagles cover band. Though nothing is in the works, he loves the idea.

Partially, because the band is palatable.

"I've never heard anybody say 'I hate them' when you start talking about them," Carey says.

The magic of the Eagles lies in the group's ability to bring together fans from different genres. Like The Byrds, the Eagles soared by fusing country, rock and folk into one easily digestible mix. Their music pleased rock fans and country fans.

It was enough to make them wildly successful. The band has three albums that have each sold more than 10 million copies and at one point had two of the 10 top-selling albums of all time.

Four times in the past 10 years, Eagles tours have ranked in the top 10 in gross sales.

The way that happens is multigenerational appeal.

People such as Rogers, who remembers the Eagles coming out when he was in high school, have followed the Eagles over the years, while youngsters like Carey have discovered them later on.

Jerry Archer, who sings and plays guitar in the band Deacon Kind, is another younger Eagles fan.

Archer, 26, had an older cousin who turned him onto the Eagles and Led Zeppelin back in 1994 when he was learning to play guitar.

"They didn't confine themselves to just one style," Archer says. "That's what really drew me to them. I wanted to implement that into my music."

He has. Deacon Kind plays a mixture of blues, swing, jazz, punk, metal and rockabilly that would do genre-hoppers like the Eagles proud.

Archer has a videotape of "Hell Freezes Over," the band's reunion tour, that he says he's nearly worn out from playing it so much, both to study the music and to enjoy it.

David James has the same videotape, and he's put some wear and tear on his, too.

James manages local music Web site www.planetgig.com and plays in four different cover bands, so he needs to have to some working knowledge of the Eagles' music.

"You definitely have to have some Eagles if you're a classic rock cover band," James says. "The songs are just well written and likable by a wide range of people."

Wicked Dreams, the classic-rock cover band that he's in, has two Eagles songs in its repertoire, "Hotel California" and "Victim of Love."

"It's pretty much guaranteed people are going to like it when you play some Eagles," James says.