Credit: Far Out / Asylum Records
Sun 2 August 2026 22:30, UK
There aren’t many locations on the planet that are as storied and mythologised through art as the state of California.
Most obviously, it’s served as the home of modern cinema, with Hollywood being the beacon of fame where silver screen dreams come true. Of course, all of this mythology that exists in the Los Angeles valley, beneath the sign that titles it the promised land, is indeed romantic and part of the overall mystique.
But dig a little deeper, beyond the sandy ground that this purpose-built city exists upon, and you might realise that all along, it’s the music that has given California its real identity. In the 1960s, it served as the central state of the counterculture movement, from the vibrancy of San Francisco and Haight Street, down to the dense hills of Laurel Canyon, where a new generation of folk rock icons were writing some of the most influential songs of all time.
But always, at the very heart of that signature style was the harmony. Whether it was Brian Wilson layering endless harmonic melodies with The Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills & Nash striking on transatlantic gold with their three-part harmonies or the Eagles, who fought through intra-band conflict to find common musical ground, with their shared vocals that pioneered a popular brand of soft-rock.
While all three bands were the figureheads of this new Californian sound, it was arguably the latter who typified it so strongly. From their harmonies, their free-flowing look and lyrical storytelling that was both celebratory and cautionary, they seemed to represent the romance and danger of this storied state. They were the definitive Californian band with arguably the greatest vocal lineup of the lot.
But despite what many of their critics would label as mountainous egos, the band members of the Eagles themselves didn’t buy into the hype. They were driven to be the best, but they never believed they got there because of one other band that stood in their way.
“Poco was the band that impressed me most,” Glenn Frey once admitted, “Their vocals were pristine and perfect. They were the band I wanted to model us after. We loved all the singing bands, The Byrds and The Beach Boys, but to be honest, right then I had my eye on Poco…and I wanted to go beyond them too.”
Further reading: From The Vault
Frey’s desire to match the band’s vocals manifested itself in the Eagles’ 1972 song ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’. It was a song written initially by Jack Tempchin, a songwriter who would hang out at LA’s famous venue, The Troubadour, with Frey, Jackson Browne, JD Souther and various other up-and-comers in the West Coast music scene.
But Frey took it and made it into something for his own band, because of its potential to act as a gateway to his heroes. He said, “It reminded me so much of Poco,” when remembering the song, before reeling off his undying love for the band once more. It wasn’t just their songs they were going to replicate, but their band too, for once the Eagles got going, they recruited Poco band members Randy Meisner and Timothy B Schmit, and thus became the definitive Californian band.
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