Eagles At The Forum, 1976

The Eagles played four sold-out concerts at the Inglewood Forum on October 19-22nd, 1976. Initially billed as two nights, ticket demand forced promoters to add two additional nights. The shows, with J.D. Souther as the opening act, marked the Eagles’ first Los Angeles appearance since Joe Walsh joined the band. The concerts were recorded, with three selections initially released as part of the album, Eagles Live! in 1980. These concerts were also a sort of homecoming for the band who had always considered L.A. their adopted home. Below, you will find audio from three of the four nights, including three separate versions of “Take It To The Limit.” Plus, the full concert from the last night at the Forum, featuring Randy’s performance of “Midnight Flyer.”

_{Full-page ad from the Los Angeles Times, September 12th, 1976 (before the last two dates were added.)}

By October 1976, the Eagles were riding high. Bolstered not only by the success of One Of These Nights, but also Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975. The Eagles’ first “best of” album was released in February 1976, where it spent five weeks at number one. It would eventually become the best-selling album of all time.

The Eagles’ Fall 1976 tour was termed the “Hotel California tour,” even though Hotel California was still nearly two months from being released.¹ In fact, the band was still putting the finishing touches on the album at Criteria Studios in Miami, sometimes flying to Florida in between concert dates.² However, the Forum concerts would stand apart from every other date on this tour. The setlists, the stage, the production, were all in contrast to the shows just before and right after the Forum.

The Forum

The Forum (now known as the Kia Forum), opened in 1967 in Inglewood, CA, a suburb of Los Angeles. For nearly 30 years, the Forum was home to two Los Angeles sports teams: The LA Lakers (NBA) and the LA Kings (NHL). The Lakers’ play-by-play announcer, Chick Hearn, famously nicknamed it the “Fabulous Forum.”

The Eagles sold out all four nights of their Forum stand, playing to 18,000 each night, 72,000 total.

The Los Angeles Free Press joked that the Eagles should have done a full week at the Forum and then-Mayor, Tom Bradley, could denote the week as “Eagles Week.”

Tuesday, October 19th (opening night):

The Eagles opened each of the Forum shows with “Hotel California.” Up to 1976, the band had rarely opened a concert with a song other than their first hit, “Take It Easy,” including the concerts before and after The Forum on the 1976 tour.³ “Hotel California” was played against a backdrop of the upcoming album’s front cover, plus the title in neon lights. This backdrop, which had never been used, would later become a feature of the 1977 Hotel California tour. Since no one in the audience had ever seen the cover of Hotel California, the backdrop was perceived by some as nothing more than a nod to the concerts’ locale or their L.A. roots:

“With the backdrop of palm trees and a Spanish mission to set the California theme, the Eagles opened the show with ‘Hotel California,’ the title track off their soon-to-be-released sixth album.” –Kenneth Palke, Palos Verdes Peninsula News, October 24th, 1976.

“The quintet’s opening song was performed against a Southern California mural of palm trees and Spanish architecture.” -Robert Hilburn, Los Angeles Times, October 21, 1976

_{The Eagles performing “Hotel California” during their opening night at The Forum, October 19th, 1976}

There is a lot of misinformation floating around that the Forum concerts marked the live debut of “Hotel California.” This is incorrect. The song was played five nights earlier on October 14th in San Diego, the kickoff date of the Eagles’ Fall 1976 tour. It was played midway through the concert, not that the beginning. “Wasted Time” was also played that night. “New Kid In Town” had also been performed previously at the University Of Arizona on the 16th.

_{Eagles at the Forum, October 19th, 1976}

The Eagles performed 22 songs over the course of 2 1/2 hours. At least five selections were accompanied by an orchestra: “Desperado,” “Doolin-Dalton (Reprise II),” “Wasted Time,” “Wasted Time (Reprise) and “Take It To The Limit.”⁴

Randy’s performance of “Take It To The Limit” was a “vocal standout,” according to the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner. Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times said the Eagles “achieved an extraordinary sense of drama and tension in the arrangement–both vocally and instrumentally.”

_{Randy performing “Take It To The Limit,” October 19th, 1976. The orchestra can be seen in the background (look closely).
Photo ©JB Boyd.}

More Photos from October 19th

There is some debate about which of the available photos belong to which night. I believe these photos are from the first night.⁵

At the Forum, Randy played a Fender Jazz. This particular instrument was one he would play for much of his career.

_{Eagles performing “Seven Bridges Road,” October 19th, 1976.}

Reviews for October 19th

There was a private opening night celebration at the Forum Club after the show.

_{Original invite to the opening night festivities. The sheriff’s badge was your “ticket”:}

Wednesday, October 20th, 1976

Randy performing “Take It To The Limit” the second night. This version was recorded and released on Eagles Live! in 1980. Hear it in the audio section at the bottom.

I get asked occasionally what the box is on Randy’s mic stand. It was a volume knob for his monitor, which was on the floor in front of him. These monitors were how the musicians heard themselves. Nowadays, most musicians have in-ear monitors.

_{Eagles at the Forum, October 20th, 1976}

_{“Seven Bridges Road”:}

Reviews for October 20th

My favorite quote: “About the only disappointment was the stage choreography, which at its more frenetic moments, gave one the impression that the whole band desperately needed to go to the bathroom.” (CSU Pawprint, October 21, 1976)

Other Photos

The photos below are from either the third or fourth nights.

Note Glenn and Randy are wearing LA Kings jerseys. Glenn Frey is wearing #12 for his friend, Kings player Gene Carr. When Carr was looking for a manager, Glenn recommended Irving Azoff, who managed the Eagles. Carr became the first, and perhaps only, athlete Azoff ever managed.

_{All photos ©David Alexander}

J. D. Souther, second from left, joined the band for the song he co-wrote, “Best Of My Love,” which was performed as one of the encores.

Audio

Below are the recordings from The Forum that were included on Eagles Live!, Hotel California 40th Anniversary Expanded Edition, and an audience recording from the last night, October 22nd.

Eagles Live! (1980)

Five songs from the Forum were released on this live compilation album in 1980. Included was Randy’s performance of “Take It To The Limit” recorded on the second night, October 20th, 1976. Randy recorded overdubs for his vocal in 1980. Not sure which parts of the song were overdubbed.⁶

Hotel California 40th Anniversary Expanded Edition (2017)

Ten more songs were included on a special 40th anniversary edition of Hotel California, released in 2017. The versions of “Take It To The Limit” and “New Kid In Town” are different than the versions that were included on Eagles Live! No specific dates are given for the recordings, only that they were recorded between October 20-22, 1976. These same ten songs were re-released in 2021 on the Rhino Records, vinyl-only compilation, Eagles: Live At The Forum ’76. The song order is even the same.

Audience Recording, October 22nd, 1976

The following is an unofficial audience recording from the final Forum concert on October 22nd, 1976. The versions of “New Kid In Town” and “Wasted Time” also appear on Eagles Live! Randy’s performance of “Take It To The Limit” is different than the ones above. Some of the other tracks might appear on the Hotel California 40th anniversary edition. I have not compared every song. Included in this recording is Randy’s performance of “Midnight Flyer,” plus “Lyin’ Eyes,” “Outlaw Man,” “Tequila Sunrise” and the instrumental “Wasted Time Reprise” that do not appear in the other compilations. “Seven Bridges Road” is missing from this recording, although it likely would have been performed. On this final night at the Forum, as well as the three previous nights, the Eagles closed out their show with five encores, starting with “James Dean.”

The sound quality is not the best. Headphones or earbuds highly recommended.

The Eagles returned to the road following the Forum stand on November 1st, 1976, playing almost every night until the end of the tour on the 24th. The Forum concerts would be Randy’s final Los Angeles appearance as a member of the Eagles. His next live appearance in L.A. would be as a solo act when he played the Roxy in September 1978.

Notes

1. Billboard, October 2, 1976 ↩︎
2. On November 5th, 1976, two weeks after the Forum concerts, the Eagles were two hours late to a show in Baton Rouge because they were delayed returning from Miami where they were working on Hotel California. ↩︎
3. “Take It Easy” opened the shows directly before and directly after the Forum. See Arizona State University on October 15th and the Municipal Auditorium in Austin, TX on November 1st. The video recording of the Houston Summit concert on November 6th, which is not the full concert and clearly edited, shows “Hotel California” being played first but the concert reviews say “Take It Easy” was the first song played. ↩︎
4. This was not the first time the Eagles had orchestral accompaniment at a concert. See Good Vibrations at Central Park & The Eagles at Santa Monica Civic, both in 1973. They would use it again six months later for the four shows at Wembley Empire Pool in London. ↩︎
5. The photo below has been bandied around as having been taken at the Forum, but it was actually taken at Wembley Empire Pool in London on April 27th, 1977. The clue is Randy’s Rickenbacker bass, which he did not play at the Forum. This photo is also included in the packaging for the vinyl compilation Eagles: Live At The Forum ’76 (with Don Felder edited out). None of the photos included in that package were taken at the Forum–and none include Felder.
   ↩︎
6. BAM, November 7, 1980 ↩︎