His contributions increased with each album culminating in the Eagles 1974 album; listen to his fuzzed out slide guitar leading the heartbreaking procession that is the sweet high school ballad Is It True. Or listen to his little funky blues lick at the end of the title track or his distortion drenched slide parts at the end of Midnight Flyer bringing an original edge to the bluegrass tune much like the kettle boiling slide guitar hero added to Earlybird he was a creative rhythm guitarist and a team player also.
The chugging rocker Good Day in Hell, he mixes his countrified soul voice with some funky rock n roll guitars but slowing it down and elongating it to the max like he is on Valium. Then there is the lead off single Already Gone where Frey takes the mid tempo pacing of Take it Easy but eschews the gliding acoustics for pinging guitars and rock n roll stutters. Already Gone is a pretty vacuous tune lacking much feeling until the sensitive middle eight where Glenn's voice audibly softens, as does his sentiment, seemingly maturing from the disposable almost bratty delivery to a deeper, hushed tone as he stumbles upon a revelation; that 'heaven knows' he could take some of the blame for the breakup. This mix of gritty southern rasp and softened truths would make Already Gone a twin with later hit, Heartache Tonight, another song about prescient warnings, mixing bar band rock and Outlaw Country. Also of note is how in both songs Frey snarls a little tossed off remark at the end in a Southern growl; 'alright nighty night!' in Already Gone and 'break my heart!' In Heartache Tonight.
But I 'm going to look at the song I admit to hating originally;James Dean. The forced chorus is incredibly unmelodic in this revved up raver of a 50s novelty tune. It starts almost bizarrely with a very modern hard rock opening with a rolling Prog pop rhythm similar to the Who made up series of strung together, ascending RnB notes.It's a widescreen opening indicative of Frey' arrangement abilities, the chugging spirit of the song is introduced, building in aggression as Glenn wails over the top of it in a pentatonic based mini solo with some Jimmy Page like shredding. We soon devolve into a circular overdriven guitar pattern similar offers Already Gone' verses.
The lyrics are referential and reverential in the song's unabashed adulation but are still impeccably worded including cultural touchstones like the line "Sock hop, soda pop, basketball and auto shop". The revved up guitars and menacing electric blues guitar is Frey's signature as similar guitars can be heard in Chug All Night, Out of Control, Take the Devil etc.
Frey's strident downhome vocals call and respond with the band' lacklustre group vocals. There is harmonised rockabilly solos in the middle and the end that would keep the energy pent up. The layers of overdriven blues and rock n roll guitars chugging and wailing in time keep the song heavy but a little cluttered in favour of more devastating single or dual guitar line.
There is an excellent reprieve where now to the beat of just a single guitar pounding away Frey adapts the 'Along Came a Spider' poem to great effect;
Little James Dean up on the screen
Wonderin' who he might be.
Along came a spyder, picked up a rider
Took him down the road to eternity
The best is the bridge when the intro scale returns, slowing the song down and creating quite the contrast, stirring up a slow boiling tension. The group repeats the songs' central mantra "you were too young to live, too young to die", Frey now takes the lead singing in a quietly dramatic tone 'bye bye..bye bye' over and over again before screaming out one last 'bye bye' as the sound effect of a car engine revving joins and the song is brought to a climax. The dual guitar solos play out the coda with the twin rhythm guitars roaring to the very end like a motor sputtering out.
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