Favorite Friday - 'Hell Freezes Over' by Eagles

New things happening here on the Electric Medicine Blog, my friends, and it seemed right to kick off Favorite Friday with a little tip of the cap to the recently passed Glenn Frey.

Frey was one of the greatest singer-songwriters in American history and together with his band cemented one of the most memorable musical legacies in all of rock 'n' roll.

In November of 1994, the Eagles released one of the greatest live performance albums of all time. Hell Freezes Over (so named because it was the precise time when an Eagles reunion was predicted after a backstage brawl between members split the band apart in 1980) marked the return to prominence of a '70s classic rock band in the midst of the grunge revolution. A group of old guys got together on MTV and showed all the wipper snappers how it was actually done.

This album has meant a lot to me for a lot of years. It introduced me to the music of the Eagles and, consequently, created a lifelong fan. It's probably as close to a perfect live record as you're ever going to get (and it features a handful of new studio recordings, as well), and masterfully demonstrates the power of magnificent songwriting mixed with mature and deliberate instrumentation. If you're at all in the dark about the media hoopla surrounding the death of Glenn Frey last week, give one listen to this record and it will all make sense.