The Eagles Pt. 1: International Drug Smuggling, Endless Cocaine, and California Excess
DISGRACELAND
Exactly Right and iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 13.4K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2022
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From games of chicken on private planes to one member surviving a private plane crash, the Eagles as a group very narrowly survived themselves. During their early days, they dosed out on Peyote and reimagined and reconfigured a new FM sound for the ages that would result in unimaginable success and excess. When their debut record was released on Geffen Records in 1972, America couldn’t have been more ready for their breezy, countrified Southern California sound. Yet something else came with their that heady, golden age of California in the 1970s, that era of endless cocaine, groupies, money, and excess beyond anyone’s wildest dreams. As the Eagles would soon learn, that “peaceful easy feeling” they were peddling wasn’t built to last.
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This episode was originally published on March 8, 2022.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Disgrace Land is a production of Double Elvis. |
| 0:05.6 | Just a quick note to my beloved music nerd listeners out there. |
| 0:09.3 | I'm quite aware of the fact that the name of the Eagles isn't the Eagles, |
| 0:13.3 | and that it is officially just Eagles, no the. |
| 0:17.1 | But you know what? I can't do it. |
| 0:18.8 | I can't go an entire episode referring to the band I and everyone else, |
| 0:22.2 | Jeff Lubowski, included have slash has forever referred to as the Eagles. |
| 0:27.4 | It just sounds too fucking weird to just constantly refer to them as Eagles. |
| 0:32.2 | So, even though it's wrong, because it just feels right. |
| 0:35.5 | For me, Don Henley, Glenn-Fry and company are forever |
| 0:38.6 | The Eagles. Melotron. The stories about the Eagles are insane. Upon their assent, the band narrowly avoided arrest from smuggling |
| 0:59.2 | drugs. One member, on the eve of the band's breakup, skirted potentially devastating legal |
| 1:05.0 | ramifications from the discovery of an overdosed, underage sex worker in his home. During their early days, the Eagles dosed out on peyote and reimagined and reconfigured a new FM sound for the ages |
| 1:17.6 | that would result in unimaginable success and excess. |
| 1:21.6 | Private Plains, games of chicken on private planes, and one member surviving a private plane crash. The Eagles as a group |
| 1:28.9 | very narrowly survived themselves. Decades after the 70s superstardom, the band's status as one |
| 1:35.9 | of the best-selling artists of all time, remains untouchable with 200 million global record sales. |
| 1:42.4 | And the Eagles are untouchable because the Eagles made great music. |
| 1:47.3 | Unlike that music, I played for you at the top of the show. That wasn't great music. That was a |
| 1:52.5 | preset loop from my Melotron called Chuck Wagon Chowdown, MK2. I played you that loop because I can't |
| 1:59.8 | afford the rights to Oh Girl by the Shylights. And why would I played you that loop because I can't afford the rights to Oh Girl by the Shylights. |
| 2:03.2 | And why would I play you that specific slice of right on time cheese could I afford it? |
... |
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