A Tribute To These “Lyin’ Eyes…”
As the music world mourns the loss of founding Eagles member Glenn Frey, great stories are emerging about some of the songs he wrote.
My friend Alison Martino shared one of the best: a classic Eagles song written on a restaurant napkin!
” You Can’t Hide Those Lyin’ Eyes”!
“Lyin’ Eyes” was written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey – the two wrote most of the Eagles songs, and this is one of their best.
Glenn Frey talked about the origin of the song many times, and how the piercing lyrics were due to a scene they witnessed in a bar!
Frey and Henley hung out at Dan Tana’s, located in West Hollywood near the Troubadour club. As Frey tells the story, Dan Tana’s is where the most beautiful women in Hollywood hung out. What they saw one night inspired them to write the song lyrics right there!
Here is a classic live performance by the Eagles from 1977, with Frey on lead vocals:
Frey and Henley saw a couple meet at the bar and as they watched them, they imagined an illicit rendezvous, resulting in one of the Eagles’ greatest songs….
The Classic “One Of These Nights!”
“Lyin’ Eyes” was the second single from “One of These Nights” – and reached #2 on the Billboard charts…
Here is some additional trivia: the song was kept off the top spot by Elton John’s single “Island Girl”!
“One Of These Nights” was the band’s second #1 album in a row, and cemented their superstar status…
Frey and the band won a Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance by a Group for the album…and next up would be what is considered the band’s masterpiece:
Vintage Los Angeles!
“Hotel California” includes the iconic shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel on the album cover. My friend Alison Martino covers legendary Hollywood on her website “Vintage Los Angeles”. She posted this story about “Lyin’ Eyes” last night:
“Dan Tana’s Restaurant employee, Arturo Saucedo spoke about his memories of Glenn Frey on ABC and KTLA this evening. (I bet the news saw our post about “LYIN’ EYES” being written on a napkin at table 4 earlier today!)
Arturo has been working at Dan Tana’s for 23 years and waited on Glen and his family numerous times. “He was always polite and smiling. He favorite dish was the New York Steak with Chianti. I will really miss him!”
Alison has great stories about classic Hollywood – follow Alison on her “VLA” website here:
RIP Glenn Frey.
The documentary “History Of The Eagles” shows how driven he was – hungry for success, but also shows the creativity and passion for music he had…
Here is a look at that remarkable documentary:
https://johnrieber.com/2012/10/04/eagles-no-peaceful-easy-feeling-here-just-heartache-tonight/
I saw the “History Of The Eagles” concert tour in 2013, and the band never sounded better:
Here is a portion of “Hotel California” that the band performed that night – as you can hear, they were flawless:
Here is my review of that concert, along with some clips of the concert:
https://johnrieber.com/2013/09/21/history-of-the-eagles-amazing-concert-old-friends-return/
And Don Henley has just released a brilliant solo album as well!
See the beautiful music video for “Take A Picture Of This” here:
RIP Glenn Frey!
Categories: 70's Music, Art, Awards, Books / Media, Classic Rock, Hollywood, Los Angeles, Memoirs, Music, Talent/Celebrities, Uncategorized
johnrieber 
Awesome piece about how Don and Glenn came up with “Lyin Eyes”, John. It remains one of my favorite Eagles tunes. It tells a great story, and the Eagles’ harmonies on the chorus are unbelievable!
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Thanks so much, it’s always interesting to go by the restaurant and remember they sat there one night!
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My favorite song, it could have been written about me! It all happened back in the year 2001 & I’m not ashamed, its made me what I am today – human, I know others too that can agree that sometimes things happen for a reason and in the long run you’re better off
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the EAGLES are one of the best band…….don henleys voice is perfect……love them all …very sad of Glenns passing….there’s a hole in the world tonight……missing Glenn……..
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agree, he died much too soon….
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Great piece, John!
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Thanks for your note…my friend Allison had that great anecdote and it is such a great song!
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A lot of bands were/are great for a lot of different reasons. But for me, The Eagles were the band you did things with. You pined for a girl, you got high with the boys, you lost the girl, you hitch-hiked to the beach, you cried at reunions. It seemed they were always right alongside you, going through the same shit. And they never judged you.
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Agree! Thanks for the comment!
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