Eagles Say Hello to Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Farewell to Stage

In what may have been their final performance together, the Eagles sang their first hit, 1972’s “Take It Easy,” and their most celebrated hit, 1977’s “Hotel California,” during the closing moments of the 13th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremonies here Monday night.

Inducting the best-selling band ever to come out of Southern California, singer and longtime friend Jimmy Buffett said the Eagles created their own style, blending “banjos and electric guitars, harmonies from the heartland and cutting-edge words from the fault line.”

The ceremony was the first time all seven of the musicians who have been in various Eagles lineups were together on stage. Formed in 1971, the group went through various lineup changes before being torn apart by internal tensions in 1980. The Eagles reformed as a quintet in 1994 for an enormously successful reunion tour and live album that collectively grossed an estimated $400 million.

Following Monday’s formal induction, Don Henley and Glenn Frey, the only members in all incarnations of the band, moved to center stage for what both musicians have said could be the Eagles’ final appearance. They were joined in the 10-minute set by co-founders Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner as well Don Felder, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit, the trio of musicians who joined Henley and Frey in the late-’70s edition of the band and on the reunion tour.

The Hall of Fame induction was a moment of triumph for the band because it had been widely dismissed by much of the East Coast music establishment in the ‘70s for its laid-back Southern California country-rock style.

But the group’s music eventually took on a harder edge and its lyrics explored a generation’s struggles to balance the innocence and idealism of the ‘60s against the creeping disillusionment of the ‘70s with a biting, literary edge.

In a moment of camaraderie, Frey downplayed the highly publicized feuds that have surrounded the Eagles during the late-’70s and parts of the reunion tour: “You cannot play music with people for very long if you don’t genuinely like them, and I guarantee you that over the nine years the Eagles were together during the ‘70s and the three years we were together during our reunion, the best of times ranked in the 95 percentile and the worst of times ranked a very small percentile.”

The other California acts inducted Monday before a black-tie audience in the grand ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel were Fleetwood Mac, a ‘70s contemporary of the Eagles that recently finished its own successful reunion tour; the Mamas & the Papas, whose ‘60s hits, including “California Dreamin’ ,” helped define the decade’s “flower power” image; and Santana, the Latin-flavored outfit started in San Francisco in the late-’60s by guitarist Carlos Santana.

Lloyd Price, an R&B; singer best known for the 1958 single “Stagger Lee,” and the late Gene Vincent, whose “Be-Bop-a-Lula” was one of the most famous rock hits of the ‘50s, were also inducted.