The Eagles started out as Linda Ronstadt's band and became a huge arena and large stadium packing band.
Hotel California was probably their biggest and most successful song and album.
The little backup band by 1980 was huge. Many guitars and Joe Walsh were added along with Timothy B. Schmidt from Poco.
My blog last week was about the Eagles of 1975 and here is the 1980 lineup. It has less banjo and more electric guitars.
This little band from California had now become one of the biggest bands ever. I think that they were the biggest band around until Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham came along.
On November 27, 1971, I photographed Joe Walsh and the James Gang at the Milwaukee Arena. John Mayall and his Bluesbreakers also played that night and I think they were the opening act. The James Gang was very popular at that time with their songs "Funk #49" and "Walk Away" being very sucessful records.
The James Gang was just a 3 piece band with Joe Walsh accompanied by Jim Fox on drums and Dale Peters on bass. This was the ultimate power trio of musicians and many bands tried to do the same thing. Joe Walsh left the band shorthly after these photos were taken to do a solo career and the James Gang was never successful without him.
The classic lineup came together a few more times after that. They reunited for an election rally for Bill Clinton in Cleveland, Ohio which is where the band actually originated. In 1996 and then again in 2006, they toured the United States with a keyboardist and backing vocalists.