Ah, shit -- why did Glenn Frey have to be the third?

They say that celebrity deaths come in threes. We just had David Bowie and Alan Rickman, so I guess that makes former Eagles guitar player Glenn Frey number three. I was kind of hoping that Grizzly Adams was going to fill the bill, but apparently not.

Glenn Frey, who co-wrote so many of the Eagles greatest songs, died Monday in New York City. He was 67, even younger than Bowie and Rickman, both of whom were 69 when they died last week.  Frey was less of an influence on music as a solo act than he was as a member of the Eagles, but the Eagles were a huge influence on music in the 1970s, and Frey was a driving member of that band.

I said previously that no band I was ever in covered a David Bowie song because we couldn't do it justice. Well, we covered Eagles songs, including ones that Frey co-wrote. The Eagles in general and Frey in particular were much easier to deal with, musically, because the only real obstacle was harmonies. I was in bands that could do harmonies, so we did. It enabled us to cover some of the great Eagles songs, such as "Already Gone" and "Take It Easy." We did others, sometimes on the fly, but Frey was definitely an influence for me and many others.

I have always felt a personal connection to that song because I have actually stood on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, hitchhiking. No such luck with a girl in a flatbed Ford, I have to admit. I never did more than sing harmony on this one, but it was always fun to perform:

He was not my favorite Eagle, but I mourn his passing. Rest in peace, Glenn.