Not all rock ’n’ roll stars are created equal. The recent deaths of two of rock music’s biggest names, David Bowie and Glenn Frey, drove that point home.
Bowie was one of the most talented performers in popular music in the past 50 years and a true musical pioneer. Frey wrote some good songs and sold lots of records as one of the founding members of the Eagles. But he was no pioneer.
Frey, 67, died Monday in New York of complications from rheumatoid arthritis, acute ulcerative colitis and pneumonia.
“No disrespect to Glenn Frey — whose death this week is a cause for genuine mourning,” Gersh Kuntzman wrote in the New York Daily News, “but the Eagles were, quite simply, the worst rock and roll band.”
I wouldn’t go that far, but most of what the Eagles did wasn’t rock, it was country-infused easy listening. Most of the band’s hit songs were mellow numbers like “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “Desperado,” “One of These Nights” and “Best of My Love.”
These were songs that 1970s teenagers could listen to with their parents. Which is not what rock music is about.
The Eagles occasionally rocked out, and this shift away from easy listening was reportedly a source of friction among band members. My favorite Eagles’ albums were “Hotel California” and “The Long Run,” the group’s final records before its 1980 breakup.
The Eagles rocked harder than previously on those two records. Not coincidentally, both albums were recorded after guitar legend Joe Walsh joined the band.
Frey was an excellent songwriter and musician. He was reportedly the driving force behind the Eagles’ commercial success. Their 1976 compilation, “Their Greatest Hits 1971-75,” has sold nearly 30 million copies. At one time it was the best-selling album in U.S. history.
Frey also enjoyed considerable success, musically and financially, as a solo artist. Of course, he rejoined the band when it reunited in 1994. Who’s going to turn down that kind of money?
But for all their success, the Eagles never broke any new ground musically. They were largely content to remain in their West Coast, mellow groove, churning out elevator music.
Bowie, 68, died of liver cancer Jan. 10 in Los Angeles. He had been ill for 18 months but never publicly announced that he was sick. He released his final album, “Blackstar,” just two days before he died.
Bowie was a musical chameleon, changing his stage persona and music constantly during his 47-year musical career.
In the early 1970s, Bowie caught public attention with his gender-bending character Ziggy Stardust. It was during this phase that I saw him perform in a dress on “The Midnight Special.” Neither NBC nor I were quite ready for that, but it made an impression.
After that came his “plastic soul” phase, followed by the Thin White Duke. Bowie kept changing until the day he died, mixing musical styles and genres.
He was also a supremely talented songwriter and musician. Not content to just play guitar and keyboards, he often played saxophone, especially on his early releases.
Through all of his changes, none of Bowie’s songs could ever be called mellow.
Bowie was also an actor, who’s best know for “The Man Who Fell to Earth.” The 1976 science-fiction film is considered one of the weirdest movies every released by a major studio. In fact, the studio that produced it, Paramount, refused to pay for or release it. The film’s producers had to sue to get it into theaters.
Contributing to the weirdness was the fact that Bowie was heavily abusing cocaine at the time.
“I’m so pleased I made that (film), but I didn’t really know what was being made at all,” Bowie said in 1983.
Like other rock stars who have qualified for Social Security, the careers of Bowie and Frey had slowed down. Bowie kept making albums, but he hadn’t toured in a decade. Frey had released just three albums since 1992, and two of those were with the Eagles.
Baby boomers have lost two of their musical idols. Both knew how to write and sell their music. But only one — Bowie — was a legend.
• Contact Charles Corder at 581-7241 or ccorder@gwcommonwealth.com.
