Book Review: "To the Limit: The Untold Story of the Eagles" by Marc Eliot (2005)

This is a half-decent rock bio that chronicles the rise and fall of the Eagles through the 70s and concludes with their "Hell Freezes Over" tour in the mid-90s. As to be expected, the book mostly focuses on the history of Glenn Frey and Don Henley, with other members of the band naturally making appearances throughout the story along with contemporaries such as Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt and industry heavyweights like David Geffen and Irving Azoff.

In terms of dirt, Glenn Frey did so much coke in the 70s that he had to have surgery twice to repair his nasal lining, and the second time, the doctors had to insert Teflon in its place. Henley also snorted and drank everything in sight, and had quite the appetite for women as well. In fact, it's suggested that the Fleetwood Mac song "Sara", as penned by Stevie Nicks, is about the pregnancy (later terminated), which resulted from her affair with him. All of the fame, ego and drugs got to such a point that Frey was threatening to beat up guitarist Don Felder in the middle of gigs and their "live" album was created while Henley and Frey weren’t even on the same coast, much less in the same room. In the Afterword, while the author is settling scores with Henley, there is also some allusion made to an incident involving an overdosing, underage prostitute which wasn't covered at length in the main text (see here for more details).

Unfortunately, there's not enough gossip or insight into the crafting of the Eagles' songs here - and frankly, the former is much more memorable than the latter, which is why I don't have a lot to say about it - to make up for the tedious legal wrangling that the author retells at far too much length concerning record companies and the like. And as far as it goes, while it's no "Hammer of the Gods" or "Life on Planet Rock", "To the Limit" is still worth picking up if you're into this kind of thing.

Overall rating: 6.75/10