The Eagles song Don Henley considered to be underrated
When a band reaches the same level as the Eagles, it’s hard to think that any of their tracks are underrated. Throughout their short time together, the songwriting team of Glenn Frey and Don Henley gave the world some of the most celebrated American rock tunes, from the balladry of ‘Desperado’ to the etched-in-stone classic ‘Hotel California’. Out of their vast body of work, Henley still believes that a few of their songs are underrated by their fanbase.
In the first era of the band’s development, they were still finding their feet as songwriters. Even though the group could deliver tracks like ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’ and ‘Take It Easy’ magnificently whenever they played them live, Frey and Henley would gel into a creative team until the next album, writing their first piece together in the form of ‘Tequila Sunrise’.
Even though Henley was known for being meticulous in the studio, he had to admit that some of the songs they were starting with weren’t anything special. When working on their self-titled debut, Henley would call ‘Earlybird’ corny because of the different effects they decided to add to the mix towards the end of the track.
After making a conceptual album statement on Desperado, Henley wanted the band to be taken seriously as musicians, spending hours trying to craft the best lyrics to fit the mood of any particular song. While the album On the Border would be marred by a problematic relationship between the group and producer Glyn Johns, they started to gather their momentum again when crafting the tracks for One of These Nights.
Despite the creative tension with guitarist Bernie Leadon, the outfit had created some of the biggest hits of their career, featuring the massive soul sounds on the title track and Randy Meisner writing their first chart-topper, ‘Take It To the Limit’. Towards the album’s end, though, Henley thought they should get in touch with their bluesy side.
Modelled after the BB King blues staple ‘The Thrill is Gone’, Henley wrote a quasi-sequel called ‘After The Thrill is Gone’, where he reflects on what to do when emotion stagnates in a relationship. Even though the song doesn’t have the same dramatic lift as some of the group’s celebrated material, Henley thought the track was a major highlight for him.
When speaking in The Very Best of the Eagles, Henley considered the piece to be forgotten among their classics, saying, “‘After The Thrill Is Gone’ is something of an overlooked song that I think is very good. It’s me and Glenn working together. He did the verses with a little help from me. I did the bridge. As exciting as the whole Eagles thing was at times, some of the lustre was beginning to wear off. We were combining our personal and professional lives in song.”
While the duo’s creative partnership was beginning to fracture at this point, they were about to embark on their greatest sonic venture yet with Hotel California. Even though the album contained the best material that the band ever put out, it ended up being the sacrificial lamb for their catalogue, leading to them spending months trying to work up material for a follow-up.
By the time they put out the album The Long Run, the group had creatively disintegrated, leading to a blowup backstage at a benefit gig that broke up the group. While ‘After the Thrill is Gone’ was written years before their inevitable demise, it is hauntingly prophetic of the cost of such a great collaboration.
