Two Trick Ponies: The Eagles song Don Henley said “showed versatility”
On their six albums during the 1970s, the Eagles were best remembered for their folk and country-oriented soft rock and received enormous amounts of acclaim for the work they released during their brief yet fruitful initial run as a band. Given that they were at their finest when sticking to what they knew best, it was unusual to ever hear the band attempt to veer off from their tried and tested formulae when it came to songwriting, and while there was never anything revolutionary happening on their records, they were beloved for the way in which they could absolutely nail the handful of styles they had become synonymous with.
However, being pigeonholed as simply being a country rock band wasn’t something principal songwriters Glenn Frey and Don Henley were always thrilled about, and given how much innovation and musical variety there was going on around them, they felt a need after their first two records to try and shift their sound towards something harder, incorporating heavier guitar sounds than they had done in the past. This, coupled with the fact that their second album, Desperado, was a commercial failure at the time of its release, was what drove the band towards branching out for their third record, On The Border.
There are a number of moments across the record that do sound considerably meatier than previous offerings from the band, such as the title track, ‘James Dean’ and ‘Good Day in Hell’, but that doesn’t mean that they were completely shedding their propensity for soft rock, and the piano-led tracks such as ‘You Never Cry Like a Lover’ and their cover of Tom Waits’ ‘Ol’ 55’ see the band dish out harmony-laced ballads. The band were clearly looking to evolve, but they were doing it at their own pace rather than going for an outright 180 turn in one fell swoop.
One standout track from the record is ‘Midnight Flyer’, a song not written by the Eagles but perfectly suited to their style. Penned by Paul Craft, the bluegrass-inspired tune provided an ideal platform for Randy Meisner to take the lead. Bernie Leadon’s banjo playing and the tight vocal harmonies sung in thirds, a hallmark of country music, give the track its distinct character. While it exudes the classic Eagles sound, its placement on the otherwise non-country On the Border album highlights its unique contrast with the rest of the record.
Speaking several years later about the song in the liner notes for The Very Best of the Eagles, Henley expressed delight over the song, saying that it was one of his favourites of the band. “I was happy to do something in that vein because I was a big bluegrass fan,” he said. “The Dillards, in particular, had an enormous impact on me. Along with Doug Dillard and Herb Pedersen, Bernie Leadon was one of the top banjo players in the country, so I was proud to do a bluegrass tune.”
With a rip-roaring slide guitar solo from Glenn Frey towards the end of the song, it certainly showed that the band were having fun with the song, but it also showcased the two different sides of the group that were present on the album. Despite it not being a track penned by the band themselves, their musicianship is the real focus of ‘Midnight Flyer’, and all of the band are bringing their a-game throughout.
It was proof that the Eagles weren’t a one-trick pony – they had at least two tricks, if not more that they could flaunt on their records by this point in their career, and even though they were desperate to break free from the country rock label, it was what they did best. “I thought it lent a certain amount of authenticity and credibility to our band,” said Henley. “It showed versatility.”
