The three artists who taught Don Henley how to write songs
The Eagles’ reputation of being some of the best songwriters in rock and roll wasn’t necessarily by accident. Glenn Frey and Don Henley had built themselves up to be one of the most extraordinary acts that the California rock scene had ever spat out, and that meant studying the greatest artists that came before them to see what made them interested in storytelling every time they picked up a guitar. Although The Beatles and The Rolling Stones played a big part in each of their lives, Don Henley thought that his mentors were a lot closer to home than most.
Even though Henley could sing almost anything and make it sound perfect, he was never primarily a writer. He had put together a handful of tunes when in his other group, Shiloh, but there wasn’t a point in fine-tuning his chops once he got the gig as the drummer for Linda Ronstadt.
Once he heard what Frey could do with just a handful of chords, he started to understand what he was listening to. This was about trying to take a piece of your heart and put it somewhere between the melody, and songwriters like Jackson Browne helped teach him the importance of earnestness.
Albums like Late for the Sky seemed to be written by someone wise beyond his years, talking about the meaning behind love and whether or not that kind of intimacy can continue in the modern age. While Henley does have a habit of becoming a little too serious in his tunes, hearing Frey collaborate with JD Souther gave him an education on how to make something people will remember.
As much as Souther could write classics, he wasn’t looking to be world-famous, and half of his best work tended to come from working with the Eagles. Aside from contributing lyrics to everything from ‘Victim of Love’ to ‘New Kid in Town’, the band thought enough of their friend’s material to eventually cover one of his tunes for their massive comeback on Long Road Out of Eden.
Whereas most artists fixated on their favourite bands as their inspiration, Henley knew that he wouldn’t be half the composer he is today without those three. He told Billboard, “My band, Shiloh, had done a few singles, but I was a terrible songwriter when I got in this band. I learned from Glenn and J.D. Souther and Jackson Browne.”
While Henley would also get help from Souther during his solo career with songs like ‘The Heart of the Matter’, his best material is about knowing how to toe that line between earnestness without sounding corny. A track like ‘The End of the Innocence’ is still a fine piece of musical art for what it is, but sometimes there needs to be a piece like ‘All She Wants To Do is Dance’ so everything isn’t so gloomy all the time.
More than anything, Henley seemed to learn the importance of authenticity whenever he was behind the microphone. Anyone can make a good pop hit work, but if you want to create something that lasts, it’s about hearing the person behind the track who takes the listener on a journey.
