THE EAGLES are the latest band to run into legal hurdles with their record company over making their music available for download free on the Internet.
The veteran rockers had made 12 tracks from their boxed set ‘The Eagles Selected Works 1972 – 1999’ available for free download from various sites, including www.barnesandnoble.com and [url=]www.borders.com.
But last week eight out of the12, including some cover versions, were pulled by Elektra Records after running into “unforeseen publishing licensing problems,” according to US site [url=]www.sonicnet.com.
According to a spokesperson for Elektra, the publishers of the eight songs had not given clearance for them to be used as downloads. But they added that they should be back online eventually.
They said: “We fully expect to have most, if not all, of the live disc available for download in the very near future once all the legalities get worked out.”
The tracks removed were ‘Victim of Love’, ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’, ‘Please Come Home For Christmas’ (the Eagles’ famed holiday cover tune, written by bluesman Charles Brown), ‘Ol’ 55′ (by Tom Waits), ‘Funk #49’ (Eagle Joe Walsh’s rocker from his days with the James Gang), ‘Best of My Love’ and the Don Henley solo hits ‘Dirty Laundry’ and ‘All She Wants to Do Is Dance’.
Still available for download, however, are ‘Hotel California’, ‘Take It To The Limit’, ‘Funky New Year’ and ‘Those Shoes’.
The 12 songs that the Eagles put online on November 6 are all from a live disc that’s part of the four-CD set ‘Selected Works 1972-1999’, which was released on November 14. The disc was recorded at the band’s Millennium Concert, at the Los Angeles Staples Center last New Year’s Eve.