The Eagles song Don Henley used to “keep the band together” but would rather forget
When the world was first introduced to the soft rock stylings of the Eagles back in 1972, with the debut single ‘Take It Easy’, they immediately found an audience for their distinctive Los Angeles sound.
It would become a key asset for their ascent to the top. The band didn’t just offer great new music; they offered a slice of West Coast living, which managed to appeal to the entire world. Much like The Beach Boys before them, the Eagles weren’t just selling songs; they were selling a lifestyle.
That first single was, of course, written by frontman Glenn Frey, but as the band progressed, it did not take long before an internal power struggle reared its ugly head. The cool sunshine vibes of their music were belied by their frosty tension behind the scenes. To say the Eagles were not particularly harmonious would be an understatement, but the internal rivalries were often at risk of overshadowing the music.
The band’s second single, ‘Witchy Woman,’ proved to be an even bigger hit than their debut, and as the only track on their debut album written by Don Henley, Frey was concerned about it. As the group progressed, recording Desperado, Henley became a much more integral part of the songwriting process, often joining forces with Frey. The idea of the pair sharing writing power caused a not insignificant amount of resentment between the pairs, which would eventually contribute towards the demise of the group.
In the midst of this struggle for power, it was easy to forget Bernie Leadon hanging around in the background. As Henley and Frey took on the bulk of songwriting responsibilities, Leadon had to fight tooth and nail to have his contributions heard, even though it was he who had co-written ‘Witchy Woman’ with Henley. Nevertheless, Leadon did manage to sneak through a few of his own compositions, though they often did not go down too well.
For their fourth album, One of These Nights, Leadon managed to get two of his tracks on the record – snuck in at the end of each side. Those songs, ‘Journey of the Sorcerer’ and ‘I Wish You Peace’, are certainly not the strongest tracks on the record, but the album is not strong enough in its own right for them to be that notable. The final track, ‘I Wish You Peace’, was co-written by Leadon and his girlfriend Patti Davis, the daughter of future President Ronald Reagan.
Unsurprisingly, Henley was not too keen on this contribution by Leadon, nor was the rest of the group. “Nobody else wanted it,” Henley once revealed in an interview, “we didn’t feel it was up to the band’s standards, but we put it on anyway as a gesture to keep the band together.”
It is clear, then, that the track had caused something of a rift within the already tumultuous relationship of the band members. Nobody particularly wanted to be the cause of the Eagles’ breakup, and so the song was kept in an effort to stop the increasingly ignored Leadon from leaving the group.
These kinds of moves are only ever plasters on gaping wounds, though. Eagles may have sold an idea of laidback energy and sunset cocktails, but the truth was far darker. The artists involved felt disconnected from one another, competitive with each other and spent most of their careers fighting their respective corners. Keeping songs like this on the album, even if bandmates hated them, was just a necessary adjustment to ensure the cash cow that was the Eagles didn’t implode.
Leadon admitted as much, saying, “I basically let it be known that if they didn’t record that song, that I was gonna break his arm, or something like that.” This attitude did seem to go against the message of “peace” espoused in the piece, but, in fairness to Leadon, it did work. The song was included on the album, much to the rest of the group’s annoyance, and Leadon left the group soon after the album’s release anyway. Henley’s efforts to keep the peace, therefore, were in vain.
Listen to the track below.
