The 1982 song that gave Don Henley a solo career: “Hit material”
By the time Eagles split, Don Henley was the one everyone had their eyes on.
He was by far the greatest singer in the band, and if anyone had what it took to spin the whole breakup into a solo career, it was him. But when looking at the first few years of every one of their solo careers, Henley seemed to be the one person who was the most reluctant about the idea of making an entirely new project without his old friends.
Those times with his fellow California crooners were certainly fun, but Henley didn’t feel like he needed to become one of the biggest stars in the world or anything. The beauty of being in any band is getting to share the credit or the blame for one of your records with the rest of your bandmates, and Henley wasn’t ready for that kind of judgment from the critics, but Glenn Frey at least gave him some incentive to kick things into high gear once he started hearing what he was doing with his solo career.
The fact that Frey already had an album in the can right after the band broke up was what set Henley’s career into motion, but it took a while before he felt like he had a firm basis to work off of. I Can’t Stand Still is a fine album for what it is, but when you listen to it in conjunction with the rest of his records, there’s something missing. Henley was still figuring out what his solo career was going to be, and if one thing was for sure, it was that ‘Johnny Can’t Read’ didn’t really have a shot at the big time.
Henley admitted to screwing that one up in retrospect, but ‘Dirty Laundry’ didn’t stand out as a song that would launch him to stardom or anything. If anything, this was the kind of album cut that could get more than a little bit vicious whenever he played it live, but it turned out there were a lot more people out there in the world who were ready to hear Henley talk about his issues with journalists.
He had already gone through the wringer after the band’s breakup, but Henley admitted that if it weren’t for that song, he may not have had a career at all, saying, “That first album was difficult. Then some program director or DJ – I can’t remember who – heard ‘Dirty Laundry,’ called [Eagles manager] Irving Azoff and said ‘That ‘kick ‘em when they’re up, kick ‘em when they’re down’ thing? That’s hit material. You should release that.’ So they did, and that was really the kickoff of my solo career.”
But becoming one of the biggest stars circa 1982 wasn’t really what Henley was looking for at the time. He wanted to continue making music just like he had always done, but if he was going to continue releasing new material, he was going to need to make some adjustments once MTV became a major part of his career.
Most artists of his generation weren’t going to be able to survive without doing a few videos, and Henley was willing to play along with whatever the network wanted. He had more than a few moments where he had to make meagre attempts at dancing, but looking back on that aspect of his career, Henley said numerous times that he would rather have done without having to make a fool of himself every time he got on MTV.
Given what those songs gave him, though, Henley knew that it was a small price to pay for becoming one of the biggest stars in the world. So in a way, ‘Dirty Laundry’ is one of the few Henley songs from his early years that didn’t have to cower to the pressures of what the rock press needed. MTV hadn’t come in yet, so he could stick to the one thing he knew how to do best: writing songs.
