Already Gone

Hey there Zoo Freaks, this is the Zoo Crew spinning another deep cut for you all out there on the open road and in the living rooms, and right now we've got the Eagles cranking through the speakers with Already Gone from their 1974 album On the Border. That opening riff just hits different, doesn't it? Like the whole band decided it was time to kick the doors open and let some real rock and roll loose after those first couple of records. Glenn Frey is out front on the vocals, and you can hear the fire in his delivery as he tells that story of a guy who got the news his girl was walking, but he's already checked out and feeling strong enough to sing that victory song. Woo hoo hoo, indeed.

The tale behind this one is pure rock and roll serendipity, the kind that makes you smile when you're flipping through the vinyl stacks. It wasn't written by any of the band members, which is rare for the Eagles. Instead, it came from Jack Tempchin and his buddy Robb Strandlund. Tempchin has told the story in interviews over the years, including on the Songfacts podcast and in chats with American Songwriter. He was running the Back Door coffeehouse at San Diego State back around 1968 or so, booking folk acts and playing there himself. One night before a set with Strandlund, they ducked into the kitchen and found a jug of hard cider in the big refrigerator. Tempchin says he'd never had any alcohol or anything before that point. They started drinking from the jug, got feeling pretty good, and decided to write a country song. In about twenty minutes it poured out, complete with that chorus because he just felt so damn good all of a sudden. They played it once that night and kind of forgot about it.

A couple of years later, Glenn Frey called him up. Tempchin and Frey had already connected through Peaceful Easy Feeling, and they were friends from the San Diego scene. Frey told him he knew that country song and thought it could make a great rock record. Then he held the phone up to the studio speakers so Tempchin could hear what the Eagles had worked up. In another interview, Frey recalled getting a tape of the song in his mailbox at that house on La Fontaine Court in Coldwater Canyon where he lived for years. The place had history, once owned by James Cagney's brother, and Frey said a lot of music happened there. Already Gone was one of the first tracks they cut after ditching the London sessions with Glyn Johns and switching to Bill Szymczyk back in Los Angeles. Frey has said the strained relationship with Johns made him hold back, but with the new producer he felt freer, and Already Gone was him being happier and letting go. Don Felder, the newest guitarist at the time, laid down that signature solo on a Les Paul, trading licks with Frey at the end, and the whole thing became the lead single, peaking at number 32 but setting the tone for the harder edge that was coming.

That sense of breaking free fits the song perfectly, and it's no accident it opened the album. The band had been pushing against the country-rock box a bit, and this one proved they could rock with the best of them while keeping those tight harmonies. It's a classic about realizing you're already out the door before the other person even knows it, and Tempchin has said the line about eating lunch alone was just his polite way of saying buzz off back when you couldn't say the stronger stuff on the radio. Every hit is a miracle, he once noted, and this one sure feels that way when you hear it live or on the turntable.

Now, speaking of how things get started, the Eagles themselves came together in that classic California way, through a little help from a friend and a whole lot of ambition. Don Henley had come out from Texas with his band Shiloh, and Glenn Frey had left Detroit for the West Coast, forming Longbranch Pennywhistle with J.D. Souther. They crossed paths in the Los Angeles scene, and in 1971 Linda Ronstadt and her manager John Boylan brought them in as part of her backing band for a tour. Henley and Frey ended up rooming together, discovered they both could sing and write, and decided they wanted to form their own group. Frey called Henley his secret weapon. Ronstadt encouraged it, suggested Bernie Leadon on guitar, and Boylan pointed them toward Randy Meisner on bass. They rehearsed in her living room, working out those four-part harmonies on songs like Witchy Woman, and she knew right away they had something special. They played a few shows with her, including at Disneyland, and then signed with David Geffen's new Asylum Records. The name Eagles came out of a desert trip with some peyote and tequila involved, a nod to the Byrds connection through Leadon. From there it was off to England to cut the first album with Glyn Johns, but the real magic was already brewing back home.

That foundation of strong voices, sharp songs, and that extended pool of writers like Tempchin, Souther, and Jackson Browne is what carried them. By the time On the Border rolled around, they were ready to stretch out, and Already Gone was the perfect vehicle. You can still catch the band's story and the music on their official site at eagles.com, where they've got the vinyl and the history. They're also on Facebook and Instagram keeping the fans posted on the tours and the shows. There's a solid fan community over at the Eagles Forever group where people share the old stories and the new ones.

So Zoo Freaks, that's the long and short of it on this one. Already Gone still sounds like freedom every time the needle drops, and the way the Eagles got rolling reminds you that sometimes the best bands come from just hanging out, playing together, and deciding to make something of their own. Keep those requests coming, and we'll keep the rock and roll flowing here on THE ZOO. Catch you on the next spin.