“You’ll never hear it on the radio”: Don Henley on his favourite song he ever wrote
For anyone who has been writing songs for their entire lives, it gets a bit complicated trying to pick an absolute favourite. Even though there might be a few that pay the bills a bit better than others, there is still the odd tune that strikes a nerve with them, even if it garners nothing but polite applause from crowds that are looking for them to play the hits. If there’s one thing that someone like Don Henley had learned, though, it’s that sometimes the true masterpieces only come with age.
Because when Eagles were first starting out, none of them were expected to come up with a country-rock answer to ‘Hey Jude’. They still had some fine songwriters at their disposal to make tunes like ‘Take It Easy’, but once Henley started working properly with Glenn Frey, tunes like ‘Tequila Sunrise’ and ‘Desperado’ upped their game in terms of what to expect out of each other when collaborating.
But even in the context of the band, Henley and Frey were two different sides of the coin lyrically. Frey had always been used to writing songs that were pure slices of life, and while Henley was no stranger to those kinds of tunes, some of his best tracks could get more than a little bit heavy-handed, whether that was talking about the greater problems with the world on ‘The Last Resort’ or trying to take down big business during his solo career on tracks like ‘Dirty Laundry’.
While Henley had crafted his own solo persona as an adult contemporary artist, how would that kind of artist translate to the world of Eagles during their reunion? The song ‘Get Over It’ was a proof of concept that Henley and Frey could still write well together, but looking at Long Road Out of Eden, the drummer gave his audience a full range of what he was all about.
The title track was already a bit epic by the band’s standards, but Henley was the level head in the group looking at the greater problems still. Even though ‘Frail Grasp On The Big Picture’ does have a lot of lessons to take to heart, the album almost needs Joe Walsh to come in with lighthearted tunes like ‘Guilty of The Crime’ to alleviate everything. When Henley wasn’t on a soapbox, though, he did have a softer side on ‘Waiting In the Weeds’.
Even if the song doesn’t have the same knockout hook as something like ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ or ‘Take It Easy’, Henley still counted the tune as one of his finest moments years later, saying years later, “That’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written, by the way. [But] you’ll never hear it played on the radio. Cause they never play the good ones on the radio.”
He’s not necessarily wrong about radio stations not playing it because of its abnormal length, but if people are willing to sit with it, this is the epitome of a great country slow burn. The whole point behind the band’s greatest songs was about making you think, but while there are some clever turns of phrase, the best moments are listening to Henley paint a picture of someone who has been lost to time, whether that’s because of losing touch with his other half or trying his best to make it right with his family.
But that was what always made all Eagles songs so great. Henley might have had a habit of talking about the heavy subject matter a bit too much for most people’s tastes, but when he opened up his heart to the rest of the world, every single listener found a little piece of themselves inside his words.
