The 1979 album Don Henley never wanted to make again: “It was long and difficult”
Everything that Don Henley ever made was going to require a lot of hard work.
Eagles were meant to be one of the biggest bands in the world when they first formed, so they weren’t going to settle for getting members of the band who were only serviceable at their instruments every single time they played. It all needed to sound perfect, but achieving perfection often came a lot easier when everyone had their heads screwed on.
And if you know anything about the rock and roll lifestyle, having one’s head screwed on is an afterthought half the time. Even though Henley was the one taking everything seriously whenever they performed, there was always going to be something holding a few of their old albums back a little bit. They were still kids figuring things out on their debut, so it was only a matter of time before they found out what they really needed to do whenever they got into a recording studio.
He and Glenn Frey were partners in crime whenever they made their signature songs, but when you look through their recording career, things didn’t really solidify until One of These Nights. They had some of the biggest singles of their career up until that point, and while their greatest hits album was right around the corner, Hotel California was what everything hinged upon. They were out to make a masterpiece for their generation, and when they succeeded, they were caught between a rock and a hard place.
It’s hard to think of a record like California being a bad thing, but when everyone came back to the studio, the idea of them working on new stuff was the last thing on their minds. They were absolutely fried from the last few years on the road, and when they did eventually get around to recording The Long Run, that title might have been a bit more prophetic than any of them really expected.
All of them weren’t taking care of themselves, and even if Timothy B Schmit did give them another major hit with ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’, you can feel the fatigue setting in. Henley could still sing to his heart’s content whenever he made tunes like ‘Those Shoes’, but when discussing the title track, the drummer wasn’t shy about saying how hard the record was to make every time they went into the studio.
No one was inspired like they used to be, and Henley felt that the whole thing wasn’t something he ever wanted to do again, saying, “It was a long and difficult album. Everything was catching up to us. Too much pressure, too much worry, too much travelling, too many controlled substances, too much paranoia and infighting. I missed having a normal life. Glenn and I were starting to grow distant. Everything was pulling apart – and we were writing about longevity.”
And given the fact that the band would end up breaking up within months of the album coming out, a lot of Henley’s lyrics about longevity are actually a bit tragic as well. He seemed to know that everything was falling apart, and by the time you listen to him sing about their old haunts on tunes like ‘The Sad Cafe’, it’s hard not to get emotional on their behalf, knowing that their dream was officially over.
But even if The Long Run became the most painful album for the band to make, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have some good moments on it either. ‘Heartache Tonight’ and the title track were great ways for them to keep the momentum going, but none of them were aware that their careers were going to hit a brick wall quite so quickly.
