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In the mid-1970s, the Eagles were working on new songs that were eerie and mysterious.
Taking advice from the band’s co-founder Glenn Frey, Don Henley created a yellow-lined pad with plush surfaces and eerie undertones, including “Dark Desert Highway” and “A Wonderful Place.” I wrote down my thoughts about “. And something on the ice, maybe caviar or Taittinger — or pink champagne?
The song “Hotel California” became one of the most memorable singles in rock history. Now, nearly half a century later, the handwritten pages containing lyrics in the making are at the center of an unusual criminal trial scheduled to begin Wednesday.
Rare bookseller Glenn Horowitz, former Rock and Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski conspired to steal the manuscripts of “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits without the rights. He is charged with possessing and attempting to sell.
The three men have maintained their innocence, and their lawyers said they committed no crime with the paper, which they obtained through a writer who had worked with the Eagles. However, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office argued that the defendants conspired to conceal ownership of the disputed documents, knowing that Henry had said the pages had been stolen.
There are many conflicts over valuable collectibles, but criminal trials like this one are rare. Many disputes are resolved privately through litigation or an agreement to return items.
“If you can avoid prosecution by handing over something, most people will just hand it over,” said Travis McDade, a University of Illinois law professor who studies rare document disputes.
Of course, the case of the Eagles manuscript is unique in other ways as well.
The prosecution’s star witness is just this: Henry is scheduled to testify during the Eagles’ tour stay. The non-jury trial may offer a glimpse into the band’s creative process and life in the fast lane of ’70s stardom.
At issue are more than 80 pages of draft lyrics for the 1976 hit album Hotel California, including lyrics to the chart-topping, Grammy-winning title track. The song features one of his most famous riffs in classic rock, his most famous solo, and his most frequently quoted (and perhaps over-quoted) line. “You can check out whenever you want, but you can never leave.”
Henry said the song is about “the dark underbelly of the American dream.”
It remains streamed more than 220 million times and was played on radio 136,000 times in the U.S. alone last year, according to entertainment data company Luminate. Over the years, the “Hotel California” album has sold 26 million copies in the United States, surpassed only by The Eagles’ Best Disc and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.”
The page also features lyrics for songs like “Life in the Fast Lane” and “New Kid in Town.” Eagles manager Irving Azoff called the document “an irreplaceable piece of music history.”
Horowitz, Inciardi and Kosinki are charged with conspiracy to possess stolen property and various other charges.
They were not charged with actually stealing the documents. Prosecutors still need to prove that the documents were stolen, although no one else has. The defense claims that’s not true.
Much attention has been focused on the interaction between the Eagles and author Ed Sanders, who was also the co-founder of the 1960s counterculture rock band The Fags. He spent his late ’70s and early ’80s working on an authorized Eagles biography that was never published.
Mr. Sanders has not been charged in this case. A phone message seeking comment was left for him.
He sold the page to Horowitz, who sold it to Inciardi and Kosinski.
Mr. Horowitz has made large deals in rare books and archives, and has been embroiled in ownership disputes in the past. One of his cases, which involved papers related to Margaret Mitchell, author of “Gone with the Wind,” was resolved.
Inchardi worked on a notable exhibition for the Cleveland-based Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Kosinski is the principal of “Gotta Have It!” Collectibles is known for auctioning off celebrities’ personal belongings. It was so personal that Madonna filed a lawsuit to stop sales that included latex briefs, but lost.
According to a court filing from Kosinski’s attorney, Henry told the grand jury that he never gave the lyrics to his biographer. However, defense attorneys have indicated they plan to examine Henry’s memories of the time.
“We believe that Mr. Henry voluntarily provided the lyrics to Mr. Sanders,” attorney Scott Edelman said in court last week.
According to the indictment, Sanders told Horowitz in 2005 that while he was writing a book about the Eagles, Henry sent him whatever documents he wanted from his home in Malibu, California.
Kosinski’s business then put some of the pages up for auction in 2012. Henry’s lawyer came knocking. Horowitz, Inciardi and Sanders, in various combinations, then launched attacks over alternative versions of the manuscript’s provenance, the indictment says.
In one article, Sanders found the page discarded in his dressing room backstage. In other productions, he obtained them from stage assistants or while collecting “a lot of material related to the Eagles from various people.” In yet another work he obtained them from Frey. ” Horowitz suggested in 2017, but Frey had died the year before.
“All he needs is a calm response and reassurance that he does not intend to put himself in any danger,” the indictment states in 2012 about conveying Mr. Sanders’ “explanation” to the auctioneer. In a 2018 exchange, Horowitz said he sent an email to Inchardi.
The indictment says Sanders provided or approved some of the various accounts, but it’s unclear what was communicated verbally. But he seems to have refused to talk about it, at least backstage.
Mr. Kosinki, with Mr. Saunders’ approval, sent an explanation to Mr. Henry’s attorney. According to the indictment, Kosinski also assured Sotheby’s auction house that the musicians had “no rights” to the documents and asked them to keep Henry’s complaints confidential from potential bidders. That’s what it means.
Sotheby’s put the lyrics to “Hotel California” up for auction in 2016, but withdrew the sale after learning that ownership was in question. Sotheby’s has not been charged in the case and declined to comment.
Henry personally purchased a rough draft of the lyrics from Gotta Have It! He was charged with $8,500 in 2012, when he also began filing a police report, according to court filings.
Defense attorneys argue that Henry has found a good prosecutor to take up his cause, rather than filing a civil suit himself.
The Crown Prosecution Service has been working closely with Henry’s legal team, and investigators once sought backstage passes to an Eagles performance, an idea prosecutors say is “completely inappropriate.” , Kosinki’s attorney said in court documents.
Prosecutors have rejected questions about motives, calling them “conspiracy theories rather than legal defenses.”
Last year, they wrote in court documents that “it is the defendant who is on trial, not the prosecutor.”
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