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Eagles · S4 E4
Already Gone
Glenn Frey on lead vocals, guitars cranked up, and a song that announces the new direction before anyone is ready
Record Plant, Los Angeles, spring 1974. Glenn Frey steps up to the microphone with an electric guitar strapped on instead of an acoustic, and the opening riff of "Already Gone" tears through the studio like a declaration of war on everything Eagles used to be.
Eagles, Already Gone (1974). The first single from On the Border and the loudest thing Eagles had ever released. Frey's vocal has a swagger it never had on the first two records.
Already Gone, Eagles (1974)
Listen for the double-tracked electric guitars that open the song. This is Szymczyk's fingerprint: instead of clean, separated acoustic tones, the guitars are layered and slightly overdriven, creating a wall of sound that would have been unthinkable on Desperado. Frey's vocal sits right in the pocket of the groove, not above it the way Henley's vocals floated on the earlier records.
TAP TO REVEAL: Why was Glenn Frey furious about the "Already Gone" single release?
Already Gone: The Numbers
Is It True?, Eagles (On the Border, 1974)
While "Already Gone" gets all the attention, this Bernie Leadon track shows the tension still simmering inside the band. Leadon's gentle vocal and country arrangement sit on the same album as Frey's rock anthems, a reminder that not everyone in Eagles agreed on which direction was right.
Who wrote "Already Gone"?
The rock direction is working, but the biggest hit on the album will not be a rocker at all. Next: "Best of My Love," Eagles' first number one single, and proof that a band can reinvent itself and still win with a ballad.
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