“All over the map”: Don Henley on the most eclectic Eagles album
For record executives, it’s much easier to put artists in a box once they score their first hit. Even if they have the potential to grow as artists and make music that no one had ever thought of, what’s the point when the cash cow version that first crashlanded on the debut works so well? The Eagles were a classic example of getting typecast into the role of ‘country rock’ but Don Henley thought that they truly showed every one of their influences on the album One of These Nights.
That’s not to say that Henley was ever ashamed of being associated with country music. He had the good fortune of having Kenny Rogers take a liking to him in his first band, Shiloh, but by the time he formed the Eagles, Desperado began to put them in a box as a group that was only reserved for the cowboy hat-wearing variety of rock and roll fans.
That’s all well and good, but On the Border was the first time they had a change of pace. Looking through the record, Glyn Johns’s softer touch behind the board is evident in many of the deep cuts, especially when they break out the rocker ‘James Dean’ or dip their toes into softer rock territory on the Gram Parsons tribute ‘My Man’.
Although Bernie Leadon remained the sole country guy on the bandwagon by One of These Nights, that kind of eclectic mix of influences actually works in the album’s favour. The title track saw them flirting with the same style of drumming that disco had become known for, ‘Journey of the Sorcerer’ was one of their first forays into writing a psychedelic-style instrumental, and there were still the softer ballads that everyone clamoured for on tunes like ‘Take It to the Limit’.
And despite Don Felder not being the greatest singer in the world, ‘Visions’ at least gave them another kind of style to work with. That nastier style of rock and roll wouldn’t really be refined until Joe Walsh came on board to replace Leadon, but it’s still a welcome sight to see them trying to change up their usual formula.
Even though Hotel California was their watershed moment just one album later, Henley had to admit that some of the best variety on any Eagles project came from One of These Nights, saying, “Stylistically, the One of These Nights album is all over the map, but somehow it worked as a coherent whole. In those days, you could do things like that – you could mix different styles on the same album. The Beatles had made it acceptable.”
Henley may have had the best variety on this album, but the greatest part of having it under your belt is that it freed the band from relying on country music. So when they were making records like The Long Run, it wasn’t out of the question to make a song driven by a talkbox on ‘Those Shoes’ or create their take on new wave on ‘The Greeks Don’t Want No Freaks’.
Because bands shouldn’t just be limited to the one shade of genre that they started out with. They are called artists for a reason, and that means sampling any kind of musical colour that they want to when it comes time for them to write a song.
