The 2007 song Don Henley thought was simply too good for the radio: “One of my favourite songs I’ve ever written”
To pick a favourite song when you’ve written some of the biggest tracks the world has ever known must be a difficult task for people like Don Henley.
His star turn as part of Eagles and the wild success the band enjoyed means Henley has the opportunity to point his finger toward a plethora of songs and suggest they are his favourite, only to be met with an overwhelming audience reaction.
‘Desperado’, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and, of course, ‘Hotel California‘ are some of the most beloved tracks ever written. And there’s a good chance that they hold a special place in the heart of Don Henley. But when asked by Debbie Kruger in 2017 about some of his favourite songs from the group’s discography, he looked far away from the group’s 1970s heyday and instead focused on a number from 2007 as one of his most cherished creations.
That choice might seem surprising at first glance, but it reveals a lot about how artists tend to view their own work. While fans often gravitate towards the biggest hits and cultural touchstones, musicians are just as likely to favour the songs that feel more personal, more reflective of where they were at a particular moment in time.
In Henley’s case, looking to a later-era Eagles track suggests a deeper connection to the band’s evolution rather than just its peak. By the time Long Road Out of Eden arrived, the group had decades of history behind them, and that weight inevitably seeped into the songwriting. Choosing something from that period feels less like nostalgia and more like a recognition of everything they had been through to get there.
‘Waiting in the Weeds’ certainly isn’t the first song most people would think of when selecting one of Henley’s best for Eagles. A near eight-minute run time suggests that Henley very much enjoyed the writing and performing of the track, and during its release, he spoke to Billboard about the tune. “Here I am, just turned 60. I’m not complaining. I’m thrilled and delighted,” he explained in the interview. “None of us ever thought it would go on this long.”
It’s a fair remark, considering not only the comparatively short lives of bands and their bandmates. Add to this just how destructive the group were and you have a recipe for disaster. However, Henley suggested the group wouldn’t be dismayed too easily: “But we are a determined bunch of guys. We take our time. We are not afraid of the passage of time, necessarily, and we’ve been sitting one out for a long time. That is kind of what ‘Waiting In The Weeds’ implies.”
He continued: “Again, on the surface, that’s a love song, but it’s also about this band. We’ve just been sort of waiting for some of this bad music to die down, for certain trends to go away, so that we can get out there on the dance floor again. We are a band that knows how to bide its time, and how to wait”.
It’s perhaps why, when speaking with Kruger, Henley was clear about the tune: “That’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written, by the way.” But he had another note about the track, claiming that it wouldn’t find its way into the rotation of DJs because it was simply too good: “You’ll never hear it played on the radio. Cause they never play the good ones on the radio.”
While the sentiment may have some validity, we should probably stick up for all those radio DJs out there. Playing a nearly eight-minute track is a difficult sell anyway, but add in the themes of losing touch with a fast-paced world and the dithering nature of the track, no matter if it is one of Henley’s favourites, and you have a recipe for a tune never being played on the radio.
