On May 23, 2010 I saw the Eagles in concert for the first time ever.

I have commented in these pages before, when I first bought The Long Road Out of Eden.

The Last Resort used to be my favorite Eagles song when I was a young man in 1977.

Now it is It’s Your World Now.

The Eagles played neither of these songs during the concert.

We had just sat down in the Cricket Auditorium (an outdoor venue) close to the border of Mexico. The sun was going down. Without a warmup band, without fanfare, the Eagles walked on stage: Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Timothy B. Schmit. Along with their backup band of another six or so musicians, they played for almost three hours, with one intermission. The Eagles are somewhat unique in that each of the members serves as lead singer.  Their characteristic sound – uniquely Eagles – is as recognizable today as it was almost forty years ago when they started. Don Henley’s voice is unmistakable. Even if you heard one of their new songs for the first time, you would immediately recognize it as vintage Eagles. The Long Road Out of Eden is a testimony to that. And the concert cemented that for me.

The Eagles, one of the few great bands still playing together today, is a timeless group of absolute masters at their game. Go catch one of their concerts, if you can. If you are old enough to have grown up in the Seventies, you will simply sit there in reveries and dream of days gone by, and rejoice in life going on. Look around, and you will see your own parents and grandparents filling the rows around you. Then you will realize that it’s not your parents and grandparents, it’s you and your peers, the generation that invented Rock ‘n Roll, who are there to celebrate now, and you will know, absolutely know, that if the Eagles still play when they are 80 years old, you will come.