The Eagles song Don Henley finds eerie to revisit: “It’s almost as if we knew this would be our last”
Not every song is meant to stand the test of time. For every great anthem of rock and roll that fits squarely into the cultural zeitgeist for years to come, there are just as many that leave people dumbfounded as to why they thought they were saying anything revolutionary back then. Although Don Henley had said all that he needed to say by the time the Eagles finished Long Road Out of Eden, he admitted that listening back to the song ‘It’s Your World Now’ is more than a little bit spooky in retrospect.
For a long time, though, it looked like Hell Freezes Over was the last batch of new material that the soft rockers would ever give us. It was practically a miracle that they had made it back from the brink since their disastrous breakup, so the fact that they could make a handful of tunes like ‘Get Over It’ was just an added bonus.
When 9/11 shook the world, hearing them come back with ‘Hole in the World’ at least reignited some hope that new music could be on the horizon. Just like any major comeback, there was a lot riding on any return to form, but their massive double album experience meant that it would be a little bit of a grab bag.
There were still some decent tunes sprinkled throughout both discs, but some seemed far better suited to the group’s individual solo careers than any joint effort. But if Henley’s tunes had a bit more weight to them, Glenn Frey would always be the one looking to give people something breezy to listen to.
He was always the good-time spirit of the group whenever they performed live, and even if he took it down a notch, songs like ‘What Do I Do With My Heart’ and ‘I Love To Watch a Woman Dance’ were mellow pieces of dad rock was all we could have hoped for from him. But ‘It’s Your World Now’ was something different, capping off the album by leaving it up to his wife and kids regarding how he would be remembered.
No one could have predicted that Frey would pass away so suddenly in 2016, but upon returning to the album, Henley did admit there was a certain energy coming from that song, telling Rolling Stone, “That album contains several songs of foreboding and farewell…the eerily prescient ‘It’s Your World Now,’ Glenn’s beautiful philosophical valediction to his wife and kids. It’s almost as if we knew that record would be our last.”
In the context of Frey’s relationship with his kids, though, it’s actually a sweet way to cap things off. He knew that he wouldn’t be around forever, and giving his world to the next generation was like a torch-passing moment to anyone willing to dream as big as he did in the 1970s.
And it’s not like his kids didn’t listen a little bit, given that Frey’s son, Deacon, would fill the shoes of his father on several dates of the Eagles’ farewell tours to sing tracks like ‘Take It Easy’. The personnel may have changed slightly, but that brilliance hadn’t gone anywhere as soon as the harmonies started.
