Potential Perfection: 10 Eagles songs that should have been hits
Not every album track is cut out as one of the best songs ever written. Everyone normally tries to put their best foot forward whenever putting a record together, but it only takes a few days in the studio for people to realise which tunes are bubbling up to the surface as the standout tracks. The Eagles always had a certain standard of perfection, though, and throughout their career, some of their best tunes ended up getting relegated to odds and ends of their catalogue.
That’s not to discount any of the great singles they released while still working. ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘Hotel California’ have earned their place in people’s hearts for a damn good reason, but whereas some of them have been a bit overplayed, there are still some undiscovered gems either tucked away at the back of their catalogues or heralded as a live cut once they took to the road.
And it’s not just the odds and ends from Don Henley and Glenn Frey, either. Sure, they are the co-captains of the group, but there are just as many great moments from Joe Walsh, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner that have helped birth the biggest pieces of their catalogue that no one ever really mentions.
Whether it’s talking about their humble beginnings, their tumultuous final years in the 1980s, or the reunion years, every piece of their history still has those occasional songs that slip through the cracks. That’s when the real fans come in, and even though the tunes are far from the most revered, they should hold a place in the heart of every single Eagles fan.
10 Eagles songs that should have been hits:
10. ‘Out of Control’ – Desperado
One of the biggest complaints surrounding the Eagles was that there were hardly any rock credentials to their name back in the day. They would soon trade up for rock icon Joe Walsh, but for the most part, was anyone looking at the same guys who played ‘Tequila Sunrise’ as their saviours of rock and roll? It’s no wonder that Glyn Johns never saw them as a rock band on par with Led Zeppelin, but ‘Out of Control’ was proof that they could kick out the jams when they wanted to.
Although this is nowhere near the level of Aerosmith or anything, hearing Frey holler about getting rowdy and drunk off his ass at a bar at least scans properly as a traditional rock and roll song. And considering their habit of playing it too close to country on their previous tunes, the guitar tone is actually fairly biting, almost enough to be mistaken for a Pete Townshend guitar if someone had the ability to squint their ears.
Since the tune is also meant to be keeping in the tradition of rock and roll outlaws, ‘Out of Control’ is a dopey piece of fun that fits right in. The rest of the album would never get this hectic, but considering how the ballads sunk without a trace on the charts, having this in to liven up the mood would have been the perfect substitute.
9. ‘Hollywood Waltz’ – One Of These Nights
Whenever someone mentions the Eagles, the first thing they should mention is their harmonies. The core of their sound has been those four voices coming together whenever they sing, and even if they were singing about how they committed tax fraud, they would still find ways to make it sound catchy. After a few years in the business, they made one of their most cynical tunes go down like fine wine on ‘The Hollywood Waltz’.
Often mocked by Henley as their ‘satanic’ period in interviews, One of These Nights already had a dark streak, but this is one of the only times they wag their finger on the album pretty directly. Whereas most of the singles are still fairly upbeat, having a song about how much the corporate side of Hollywood is corrupt is something you’d expect out of a Steely Dan record if it didn’t sound so heavenly with those harmonies.
And given the fact that their moment in the sun was right after this, the Eagles may have indirectly been writing about their own future in the industry and whether they still had a shot at being part of that other half in Hollywood. It’s not a comfortable listen by any stretch, but in terms of raw sound, sleaziness never sounded so sweet.
8. ‘Most of Us Are Sad’ – Eagles
It’s easy to hear the Eagles still working out the bugs of their sound on their first album. There are the makings of classics on here and more than a few bulletproof tunes that endure to this day, but it’s no surprise that tracks like ‘Take the Devil’ and ‘Earlybird’ were them testing out what they could do in the studio half the time. When they stripped everything away, though, ‘Most of Us Are Sad’ was one of the most open lyrics that Frey would ever pen in his entire career.
While he gave the song away as a vehicle for Randy Meisner, Frey’s lyrics about people being heartbroken and never letting it show was a really raw nerve in the 1970s. Since the US had just been through Vietnam and Watergate, this felt like the sad comedown from the Flower Generation, with Frey reminding everyone that that sadness is still there just underneath those fake smiles.
But all good country songs are meant to be a bit melancholy, and that meant this tune fits right in amongst the Linda Ronstadt’s of the world they were sharing a bill with. The Eagles may have been known for feel-good music, but Frey knew that the songs that stick with you are the ones that can make you cry if you aren’t careful.
7. ‘The Sad Cafe’ – The Long Run
By the time of The Long Run, none of the band members seemed to enjoy themselves anymore. There were still a lot of great tunes on the record, but their habit of chasing perfection while high off their faces on cocaine did them no favours trying to master the entire thing. If they had known that this would have been their last album, though, ‘The Sad Cafe’ would have been a great dose of reality for all of those still pining for the early days.
Because while out on the road, Henley realised that they had changed since those days working the bar scene in Los Angeles. As much as they loved those endless nights, they couldn’t go back there anymore, and ‘The Sad Cafe’ may as well have been a postscript for that era, where all they had to worry about was playing a decent set in between rounds of drinks all night.
Although it might have needed to be trimmed down for radio, ‘The Sad Cafe’ is the kind of tune that would have killed on the country stations had they been allowed to cross over. Because if you were to look at the kind of music that the 1990s were about to spit out on the country front, Henley might have accidentally written their entire playbook for how to do those syrupy ballads on this one track.
6. ‘I Don’t Want To Hear Anymore’ – Long Road Out of Eden
It’s about time someone said it: Timothy B Schmitt got a raw deal. While anyone would have been elated to be in one of the biggest acts in the world, the fact that he only got through one album and two halves of a tour with the band meant that he would never fully soar like all of the other band members. So when they reunited, they needed to do right by him, and ‘I Don’t Want To Hear Anymore’ is a tale of heartache that feels all too real.
Schmitt already proved himself as a great soulful singer on ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’, but this tune feels like the unintended sequel to that relationship gone sour. Whereas Schmitt wanted nothing more than to return to his other half, hearing her return to him after all these years is far too painful for him to revisit, especially in the chorus where the rest of the Eagles sound like they’re crying with him on the high notes.
Although this could have easily been a great tune in some forgotten Schmitt solo project, it’s only right that it was treated properly on an Eagles album. It was far from the most complex tune, but it’s probably the first tune to play to a modern music fan who wants to understand what a newer version of the band’s sound was like.
5. ‘Wasted Time’ – Hotel California
As much as the Eagles got the mantle of being a country-rock outfit, that label never fit them well. They could do many more things than just traditional rock and roll or country, and some of their best moments involve stepping out of their comfort zone to try on something else. And for every crash and burn experiment like ‘The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks’, there’s ‘Wasted Time’ that rips people’s hearts out.
Although some guitar is sprinkled in the mix on this tune, this is about as close to a soul ballad as the group ever dared. While they all had a healthy respect for soulful musicians like Teddy Pendergrass, Henley’s voice was the only one that could have ever done it justice, as he talks about parting ways with his girlfriend and trying his best to look back with fond memories of their time together.
That’s all well and good, but by the time the Eagles reunited, the whole song seemed to mean something entirely different. After going through hell trying to mend those burned bridges, ‘Wasted Time’ was the kind of tune that must have been cathartic to play month after month on tour. Because while it’s hard to forgive and forget, realising it wasn’t all just wasted time was everything they could have asked for.
4. ‘New York Minute’ (live) – Hell Freezes Over
What? Don’t look at me like that. ‘New York Minute’ was a Don Henley solo track, but its release on Hell Freezes Over qualifies it as an Eagles song. And for as modest a success as Henley’s track was back in the late 1980s, that version was missing something, and that something’s name is Timothy B Schmitt.
Listening back to the original, every part of it is coated in synths and strings that all but drown out some of the finer details. Now that everything is dialled back just a little bit for the live performance, that means Schmitt’s bass floats to the top, with lines that sound about as restless as those nights spent in Manhattan trying to find out what kind of person the narrator is going to become later in life.
And with the others adding backing vocals, Henley’s song went from being just another earnest heartland rock tune a la John Mellencamp and became one of the finest moments from the group’s reunion. ‘New York Minute’ was never meant to be the Eagles’ greatest hit by any stretch, but after those nippy nights in Hell, they turned this inner city cautionary tale into something on par with symphonic rock.
3. ‘My Man’ – On the Border
There’s no real guidebook in rock and roll when someone dies. There will always be people that fans wish could have stayed around longer, but there’s only so much time that anyone has on this Earth, so when they go, the world feels just a little less bright. Bernie Leadon certainly knew what that kind of pain was like, and when his former bandmate Gram Parsons passed away, he poured his heart into ‘My Man’.
While most of On the Border feels like a transitional record in between two halves of their career, ‘My Man’ needed to be gone over just right. The entire road for country and rock combining was due to Parsons’s influence on everyone from The Byrds to The Rolling Stones, and Leadon doesn’t leave one stone unturned, including namechecking his song ‘Hickory Wind’ in the verses.
But the most important part about the tune is that it feels like it’s coming from a real place. As much as the Eagles had a reputation for making slightly syrupy rock and roll, hearing Leadon talk about moving on and making sense of what life is now that one of his best friends is gone is far more sobering than just a little tribute track. The Eagles were always about looking towards the future of America, but it’s sometimes best to look to the past to realise where it all comes from.
2. ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ – Hotel California
Joe Walsh never claimed to be one of the best songwriters in the Eagles. While he was instrumental in turning them from a soft-rock outfit to a rock-and-roll juggernaut, he was much more comfortable playing lead to Henley and Frey’s than coming up with his own material. That was all set aside for his solo career, but ‘Pretty Maids All In a Row’ was proof that he could have made something absolutely beautiful when left to his own devices.
While Walsh had his fair share of ballads in the past, ‘Pretty Maids All In a Row’ touches on something more than just a traditional love song. Since Walsh had seen many of his friends start to lose themselves to drugs, this is an imaginary conversation he wishes he would have with all of his rock and roll troubadours, wondering whether they will all live to be the heroes that everyone celebrated them as.
Compared to all of the commentary on Hotel California, ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ fits right in as the best palette cleanser one could ask for by looking at the big picture rather than just the superficial side of Hollywood. But I’ll admit, it’s also pretty funny to see the man known to bring the edge into the Eagles step up to the microphone for the first time and break out one of the best ballads they’ve ever made on record.
1. ‘Learn to Be Still’ – Hell Freezes Over
One of the hurdles that many music fans have to jump over with the Eagles is how they can be just a little bit preachy. Although ‘The Last Resort’ is among their most brilliant epics, it’s totally understandable for some people to feel icky listening to Henley lecture the audience for the better part of seven minutes about how we have to save the environment. As relevant as his topics are, there’s a better way to approach those kinds of topics, and ‘Learn To Be Still’ gets down to the heart of something everyone goes through, not wasting life away.
By the time the group got around to making Hell Freezes Over, they had to be wondering how much they had left in the spotlight and also on this Earth. Henley’s portrait of someone who can never slow down is heartbreaking. It’s one thing for someone to be dialled in every time they try to beat the odds, but Henley knows all too well that the hunger to do one better than the last will never be satisfied, no matter how long someone runs for.
And despite sounding like it’s written about one person, the lyrics are so open that they could be about almost anything you can think of. Whether it’s someone focusing on getting the best job they can, trying to chase their vices, or just trying to do one better than anyone in their family, it’s no use if they can’t find a way to come to rest.
