Eagles

Hell Freezes Over

The album that proved they'll be there forever.

Review Score:

(10/10)
I became an Eagles fan when I was barely a teenager; and re-replaying their studio albums countless times on my cheap little turntable, how would I have wished to be able to see them in concert. But I was living in Germany and they were far away in California; and their tours didn't always include Europe, let alone my little corner of it. What was worse, my mother, horrified by TV pictures of fans being trampled to death at rock concerts, had imposed a strict ban on any such undertaking. When the ban was finally lifted, the Eagles had split. I was dead certain I'd missed the chance to see them live forever.

Then came 1994, the year that Hell Froze Over. To say that I was thrilled is an understatement. I snatched up their new live album the instant I had heard about it. (Oh my God! A new album, and live, too!) Ok, so it only had four new tracks recorded in the studio. But that was understandable; they were going on tour and put more emphasis on rehearsal than on the recording of new songs. And what killers those new songs were - right up there with the best of their work. In addition, the album had almost all my favorite Eagles tunes ... or almost all those of my favorites that I knew they'd done live before, anyway. "Hotel California" in particular blew me away. This had always been the quintessential Eagles song to me; the song that got me hooked on their music in the first place and that best expressed all that they stood for. And now I was to have yet another version of that song, as great as the one on the "Eagles Live" album and as the original studio version; acoustic this time, with a beautiful new intro. But not only "Hotel California" - every song sounded as great on this album as any of their studio releases and the 1980 "Live" compilation ... or greater, if that was possible, not only because of the crystal clear quality of the recording but also because greater maturity, if anything, had even added to their live performance. No need to prove anything any longer; they had created something that people would always love, and they knew it. (Glenn Frey later wrote, in the booklet accompanying the Eagles' 2000 "Selected Works" collection, that they extended the "Hell Freezes Over" tour to a full two years not only because they had so much fun playing together but also because they themselves realized that they sounded better than they ever had in the 1970s.) Especially Don Henley's rendition of "The Last Resort" stands out in my mind to this day: it was as emotional as he'll ever get - and this was not the twenty-something who had written the song years ago; this was the guy who, in the years since then, had founded the Walden Woods Project and set out on a little crusade of his own to save the land once walked by Henry David Thoreau. If you can't hear it in his voice, watch the video and you'll understand.

It took me some time to be able to acknowledge the humor in Henley's opening remark that they had "never split; [we] just took a fourteen year vacation..." (What exactly is that supposed to mean, buddy, I thought - I have been grieving for fourteen years, for crying out loud!) But eventually I decided that if they can make light of it, who am I to complain. The main thing was that they were back together ... finally. I had to wait another two years to be able to realize my dream of seeing them live, but the memory of that rather chilly summer night will be impressed in my memory forever. Listening to "Hell Freezes Over" always brings back that particular evening in Berlin, although I have since seen both the Eagles and Don Henley solo in concert a number of times (it of course also helps tremendously to have moved to a place better situated geographically to make that possible).

"Got back together with my friends the Eagles," Don Henley joked during his performance of "Funky New Year" at the Millennium Concert ... "did a few shows, broke up, got back together, broke up, got back together, broke up, got back together..." And Glenn Frey wrote, in the booklet accompanying the "Selected Works" compilation which contains the Millennium Concert CD, that while at the end of the "Hell Freezes Over" tour they thought that "[t]he Eagles saga would now have a happy ending" and "the final chapter written, [we] could all move on," he wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen next: "The stars could be doing a number again right now and, as always, I'd be the last one to know. ... We had the last part of a millennium to get our act down, and a whole new thousand years just opened up. You never know how things can go ... I'll just keep my eyes on the stars ..."

Well, Glenn, I guess Hell did Freeze Over for good, and the stars did do another number. You guys are touring again as I write this (ironically in Europe, now that I'm living in California); not quite in the formation that once got me hooked on your music, but you're still there. And while "Hell Freezes Over" will always have a special place in my heart, I'm sure I'll see you live again some day, and maybe there will even be another Eagles album. With this band, I will never rule out anything - ever again.

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