Customer Reviews

Long Run

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This book is nice light read on one of the more popular bands from the 1970's. It neatly discusses each members bio and what abilities they brought to the table. You really get a good feel for each members personality.

However, there are a few errors in this brief summary. In the first few pages, there was an incident over playing at a benefit for Senator Cranston. One sentence says it was between Glenn Frey and Don Felder. However, the next sentence says it was Henley. Whereas the subsequent sentences seem to indicate that the argument was between Frey and Felder, it shows that the editing was pretty careless.

Also, Mr. Shapiro states in the intro that he was only able to interview Randy Meisner directly for this book. As you read on, there are plenty of comments from the other members. It seems as if Mr. Shapiro derived his comments from alot of second hand sources. Several of these sources could very well have been taken out of context especially since Mr. Shapiro casually acknowledges these references at the beginning.

Finally, Mr. Shapiro glosses over Glenn Frey's solo career too quickly. Whereas Glenn's solo work was not as strong as Don Henley's, he did have a few top selling singles such as The Heat Is On, You Belong To The City, and Smugglers Blues. What about his acting roles in Miami Vice? This is hardly mentioned.

None the less the discussion about the antimosity within the band and the sluggish pace of the recording sessions were presented very well. One can really get a feel that it is not easy being in a rock n roll band. In general, this book does its job.

Told largely from the perspective of former bassist Randy Meisner, and supported by interviews by the band and their families and friends over their career, the Long Run takes the fan on a journey through Eagles history. It begins with individual bios, follows them from the formation of the band, through the revolving door of band members and culminates in a short segment on the reunion. Also included is information on each members work as a solo artist.

The book is full of excellent insight into the inner workings of the band. The ego battles and squabbles within the group, targeting Frey and particularly Henley, who are pictured as unsympathetic egocentric control freaks are detailed, as well as the drug abuse that ran rampant during this time.

All in all a quick and easy read, with 20 pages of photo's.

Being an avid Eagles fan I have over the years picked up just about everything available that allows me to learn a little more of the guys whose music I cherish. When I purchase a book I would expect it to be well researched and perhaps contain information gleaned from the Horse`s mouth. This book seems to have been written after the author watched Hell Freezes Over as he quotes liberally from a video which and correct me if I`m mistaken, virtually every Eagles fan has seen multiple times!?! Other quotes, stories and ditties are common knowledge to Eagles fans, or available by reading web sites, articles, etc. Therefore whilst mildly enjoyable, the nature of the material renders this publication superfluous unless you are only mildly interested in the Eagles. I believe a better read is the Marc Eliot, "To the Limit" slightly more sensational and some people say inaccurate, but better than The Long Run by some.

The book is balanced between the early and later years of the band's career, unless other written about bands (like Nicholas Schaffner's A Saucerful Of Secrets, for example, that deal more with early Pink Floyd) yet contains some silly mistakes.

One is the already mentioned about a quarrel in a 1980 gig. In a sentence of the book says it was between frey and Felder but in the next seems to involve Frey and Henley. Another flaw is quotting Don Felder appearing on the Eagles' maiden debut album, when everybody knows he didn't become a member until their third. Next mistake (though apparently unnoticed by most readers of the book) is on the back cover. Marc Shapiro declares the band reunited in 1994 to tour 'the stadiums of the USA'. Petty nationalism or what? THe HFO tour also went overseas so his quote is wrong.

Besides that, the book is enjoyable and well documented, in my humble opinion, though it quottes a lot of the HFO documental. I still find strange that those still in this come-and-go group didn't bother collaborating with Dhapiro and only those who by then were ex members(Meisner and Leadon) did. The central section of the book feature a few pages full of photos of the band mostly in concert that will delight every Eagles fan.

In a nutshell - an interesting but imperfect chornicle of the Eagles' career. I know nobody's perfect but the three mistakes listed above would have been so easy to correct since they're so obvious.

4/5.