The 'Lodge California' case: A trial over lyrics to an Eagles traditional

Within the mid-Seventies, the Eagles have been engaged on a spooky, cryptic new tune.

On a lined yellow pad, Don Henley, with enter from band co-founder Glenn Frey, jotted ideas about “a darkish desert freeway” and “a beautiful place” with an opulent floor and ominous undertones. And one thing on ice, maybe caviar or Taittinger — or pink Champagne?

The tune, “Lodge California,” turned one in every of rock’s most indelible singles. And practically a half-century later, these handwritten pages of lyrics-in-the-making have grow to be the middle of an uncommon prison trial.

Uncommon-book seller Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Corridor of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia vendor Edward Kosinski are charged with conspiring to personal and attempt to promote manuscripts of “Lodge California” and different Eagles hits with out the fitting to take action.

The three have pleaded not responsible, and their legal professionals have stated the boys dedicated no crime with the papers, which they acquired by way of a author who’d labored with the Eagles. However the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace says the defendants connived to obscure the paperwork’ disputed possession, regardless of figuring out that Henley stated the pages have been stolen.

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Clashes over worthwhile collectibles abound, however prison trials like this are uncommon. Many fights are resolved in personal, in lawsuits or with agreements to return the objects.

“When you can keep away from a prosecution by handing over the factor, most individuals simply hand it over,” stated Travis McDade, a College of Illinois regulation professor who research uncommon doc disputes.

In fact, the case of the Eagles manuscripts is distinctive in different methods, too.

The prosecutors’ star witness is certainly that: Henley is predicted to testify between Eagles tour stops. The non-jury trial may provide a peek into the band’s inventive course of and life within the quick lane of ’70s stardom.

At situation are over 80 pages of draft lyrics from the blockbuster 1976 “Lodge California” album, together with phrases to the chart-topping, Grammy-winning title reduce. It options one in every of traditional rock’s most recognizable riffs, best-known solos and most oft-quoted — arguably overquoted — strains: “You possibly can take a look at any time you want, however you possibly can by no means depart.”

The pages additionally embody lyrics from songs together with “Life within the Quick Lane” and “New Child in City.” Eagles supervisor Irving Azoff has referred to as the paperwork “irreplaceable items of musical historical past.”

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Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinki are charged with conspiracy to own stolen property and numerous different offenses.

They’re not charged with really stealing paperwork. Neither is anybody else, however prosecutors will nonetheless have to ascertain that the paperwork have been stolen. The protection maintains that is not true.

A lot activates the Eagles’ interactions with Ed Sanders, a author who additionally co-founded the Sixties counterculture rock band the Fugs. He labored within the late ‘70s and early ’80s on a licensed Eagles biography that was by no means printed.

Sanders isn’t charged within the case. However He bought the pages to Horowitz, who then bought them to Inciardi and Kosinski.

Horowitz has dealt with big uncommon ebook and archive offers, and he is been entangled in some possession spats earlier than. One concerned papers linked to “Gone With the Wind″ writer Margaret Mitchell. It was settled.

Henley informed a grand jury he by no means gave the biographer the lyrics, in accordance with courtroom filings from Kosinski’s legal professionals. However protection legal professionals have signaled that they plan to probe Henley’s reminiscence of the time.

Sanders informed Horowitz in 2005 that whereas engaged on the Eagles ebook, he was despatched no matter papers he wished from Henley’s residence in Malibu, California, in accordance with the indictment.

Then Kosinski’s enterprise provided some pages at public sale in 2012. Henley’s attorneys got here knocking. And Horowitz, Inciardi and Sanders, in various combos, started batting round alternate variations of the manuscripts’ provenance, the indictment says.

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In a single story, Sanders discovered the pages discarded in a backstage dressing room. In others, he bought them from a stage assistant or whereas amassing “a whole lot of materials associated to the Eagles from totally different folks.” In one more, he obtained them from Frey — an account that “would make this go away as soon as and for all,” Horowitz instructed in 2017. Frey had died the 12 months earlier than.

“He merely wants mild dealing with and reassurance that he is not going to the can,” Horowitz emailed Inciardi throughout a 2012 trade about getting Sanders’ “‘rationalization’ formed right into a communication” to auctioneers, the indictment says.

Sanders equipped or signed off on among the various explanations, in accordance with the indictment, and it’s unclear what he might have conveyed verbally. However he apparently rejected a minimum of the dressing-room story.

Kosinki forwarded one rationalization, authorised by Sanders, to Henley’s lawyer. Kosinski additionally assured Sotheby’s public sale home that the musician had “no declare” to the paperwork and requested to maintain potential bidders at the hours of darkness about Henley’s complaints, the indictment says.

Sotheby’s listed the “Lodge California” tune lyrics in a 2016 public sale however withdrew them after studying the possession was in query. Sotheby’s is not charged within the case and declined to remark.

Henley purchased some draft lyrics privately from Gotta Have It! for $8,500 in 2012, when he additionally started submitting police reviews, in accordance with courtroom filings.

Protection legal professionals declare Henley discovered starstruck prosecutors to take up his trigger as an alternative of pursuing a civil go well with himself.

The DA’s workplace labored intently with Henley’s authorized staff, and an investigator even yearned for backstage passes for an Eagles present — till a prosecutor stated the concept was “fully inappropriate,” Kosinki’s legal professionals stated in courtroom papers.

Prosecutors have rebuffed questions on their motivations as “a conspiracy principle moderately than a authorized protection.”

Final 12 months, they wrote in courtroom papers, “It’s the defendants, not the prosecutors, who’re on trial.”

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