Someone must have made this comparison before, but I haven’t seen it: Glenn Frey is the McCartney of the Eagles, and Don Henley is the Lennon.
About Roderick T. Long
The Empirical Me
I’m Roderick T. Long, Professor of Philosophy at Auburn University. I’m an Aristotelean/Wittgensteinian in philosophy and a left-libertarian market anarchist in social theory. (More about me here.) This blog, Austro-Athenian Empire, is a continuation of my earlier blog, archived here.
Upcoming Events
Frey told a Rolling Stone interviewer last year that were it not for Henley, the Eagles would have been Air Supply. I think you and he are saying the same thing.
Hi Roderick. So long as we’re on this light topic, I want to do a little hijacking.
I sent an email a few weeks ago but you haven’t come back. Don’t know if it didn’t land in the right box, or if you just didn’t want to reply, or didn’t have time, bla bla bla.
I’ve read some Lysander Spooner and your own works in the Libertarian Nation, on the subject of natural law, and the objections to it. I’m also a regular of Arthur Silber’s blog. He mentions quite a few times the right to your own body. Does that follow from natural law ? Or, does this principle derive from his objectivist past ?
I’m also interested in your opinion on the subject of the French state outlawing religious signs, and the muslim veil, inside public ‘secular’ schools. I personally derive the right to dress from the right to your body. That’s why I want to know if this right is part of natural law, since Spooner explained every order against natural law is illegal. Does this sound, uhh, sound to you ?
I don’t recall your email, but (as usual) I’m behind on my mail.
He mentions quite a few times the right to your own body. Does that follow from natural law ?
I think so. People sometimes worry about the idea of owning one’s body implying some sort of dualism, but I don’t see that it does. Owning X just means having the right to decide what happens to X; that doesn’t imply any dualism between oneself and X.
While I wouldn’t word everything today precisely as I did here, I still accept the general idea, including the obligation not to forcibly subordinate others to one’s ends — which seems to imply an obligation not to interfere with others’ peaceful uses of their own bodies.
I’m also interested in your opinion on the subject of the French state outlawing religious signs, and the muslim veil, inside public ’secular’ schools. I personally derive the right to dress from the right to your body.
Sounds right to me.
Thanks.
See also this.
A great comparison, Roderick.
Sheldon: I wonder if Frey is being at least a little too self-deprecating.
Look man, I’ve had a long day and I hate the fuckin’ Eagles! (Twenty Mississippi fun bucks to whoever gets the reference.)
Dennis:
“The Big Lebowski”, I think?
Roderick:
I think that’s a pretty apt comparison, and even though the Eagles are my favorite music artist, I had never thought of Frey and Henley that way before. Even though Don Henley wrote and sang more of the band’s biggest hits than anyone, something just makes me like Glenn Frey as a singer, performer, and front man more. Similarly, even though Lennon was generally considered the creative leader and front man of the band, almost all of my favorite Beatles songs are Paul’s songs.
One difference, I think, is that Henley’s songwriting abilities surpass those of Frey more than Lennon’s abilities surpassed McCartney’s; actually, I’d say Paul was a better poet than John Lennon (“Yesterday”, “Hey Jude”, “Maybe I’m Amazed”, “Here, There, and Everywhere”, Let It Be”…).
Dennis: got the reference. But I’d be curious to know if you know what the Coens’ own views are. “Peaceful, Easy Feelin’” plays in the background during the film, and The Dude is notably said to be “takin’ it easy for all us sinners.” So The Dude’s own attitudes don’t seem to represent the filmmakers’. Or do they?
I’ll have to investigate my copy of “I’m a Lebowski, You’re a Lebowski” to see.