Evaluating somebody to the Beatles isn’t thrown round calmly. Regardless of one’s non-public reviews at the foursome, nobody can deny they had been (and proceed to be) a mammoth pressure in rock tune. That makes Billy Joel’s statement that the Eagles had been the ‘American Beatles’ a majorly gushing observation.
There are simple connections to be made between the Eagles and the Beatles. In the beginning, there’s a prolific songwriting duo on the middle of either one of those bands. Don Henley and Glenn Frey within the former. John Lennon and Paul McCartney within the latter.
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Additionally, there’s something to be mentioned in regards to the skill of each and every member of either one of those bands. Just like the Beatles, the Eagles had a stacked roster stuffed with similarly as spectacular musicians as their two “frontmen.”
It’s simple sufficient to look the place Joel would get a hold of that descriptor. However, don’t simply take it from us. Right here’s what Joel needed to say in regards to the West Coast rockers: “It’s essential to argue that they had been the American Beatles, with that twin songwriting group of Frey and Henley and all the ones cutting-edge hit information.”
Joel isn’t the one particular person to ever dub the Eagles one thing very similar to the ‘American Beatles.’ We don’t assume any Eagles participants would have an issue with the descriptor both–in particular Don Henley.
“I admired John Lennon greater than anyone within the tune business,” Henley as soon as mentioned. “I beloved his voice, I beloved his humorousness — his dry wit. I beloved the songs he wrote, the lyrics he wrote. I beloved what he stood for, what he believed in, the whole lot about him, actually. He used to be an ideal affect on me.”
What do you assume? Do the Eagles convey up reminiscences of the Fab 4? Or is Joel manner off base?
(Photograph through Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Pictures)
