The Eagles album Don Henley wanted to turn into a movie: ‘I would love to write a screenplay’
No artist is going to be completely satisfied working in only one medium. If any idea is strong enough, artists are going to try to make the most out of it. That’s what calls people to make the Tommy musical, the outlandish musical biopic, and in the case of the Eagles, Don Henley had the idea of taking some projects to the silver screen.
And it’s not like Henley’s way with words doesn’t lend itself well to a screen adaptation, either. Both Glenn Frey and Henley always wanted to start their songs off in a specific time and place, and no matter what kind of predicament you find yourself in, it’s easy to picture running down that road with Frey singing along to ‘Take it Easy’ or in that lonesome saloon with Henley talking to a misguided cowboy on ‘Desperado’.
If anything, their second outing feels like it was most indebted ot getting the western treatment. Many of the songs are about kids learning to become outlaws, be it through music or through more nefarious ways, but since that went over about as well as a live pig slaughter in a vegan restaurant, it was clear that they weren’t exactly cut out for concept yet. They needed more experience, and once they made a few more classics, Hotel California was right around the corner.
Looking at the album from beginning to end, the best part is how well it flows from one song to the next. It’s hard to pick a definitive throughline between every piece of the album, but the connecting orchestral reprise of ‘Wasted Time’ is a nice touch starting the other side of the vinyl. According to Henley, the idea was on the table to take his idea all the way to Hollywood.
When woodshedding ideas in 1980, Henley said that he had an interest in making the band’s magnum opus into a movie, saying, “We were working with a screenplay writer, contributing ideas and changing the ideas, but we just didn’t have the time. I would love to sit down and write a screenplay, because God knows there aren’t that many good screenplay writers in Hollywood. Most of them are hacks.”
Then again, it would have been a bit of a stretch trying to get a movie through the door of Hollywood that was all about its flaws. There’s a reason why the album sold so well based on radio play, but if there were any executive with half a brain cell, they would have rightfully been pissed when they found outthey were being exposed for dropping talent like flies on ‘New Kid in Town’ or promoting the ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ style of living.
But given the content in front of us, it’s not like Henley is ill-equipped to make something of it. After all, the whole album ends on a great environmental message on ‘The Last Resort’, and listening to Henley wax poetic about the horrors of modern living, it’s almost like looking at a vast landscape being painted before your eyes half the time. While the band ultimately broke up before they could figure anything out, dropping it after the first try doesn’t make the most sense.
Because looking at the band’s career going forward, making a movie version of their most daring album would be a great way for them to shake up their normal routine of going on tour. No one’s asking for them to make a new album and do something without Frey’s involvement anymore, but if they decided to go the route of a movie musical, it would be the perfect celebration of how far they’ve come.
