The one Eagles song that predicted their downfall: “What goes up must come down”
It’s impossible for any musician to call their shot in the music industry. They might have firm beliefs of being one of the biggest names in music, but there are hardly any cases where someone can talk a big game and actually measure up to it as well. But when someone’s that far up, they don’t have time to think about the aftermath, and Don Henley knew that even the greatest times he had with the Eagles were never meant to last forever.
Because let’s face it: no rock band should be designed to last until the end of time. Even The Beatles thought that they would be working on something else after five years into the group, but when someone writes songs that continue to resonate with people, it’s not impossible to think that they will stick around long after their time in the sun has faded. But for Henley, writing those songs was always about having a high standard for what made it on an Eagles project.
Hotel California may be their magnum opus, but that was only because they were slowly inching towards something bigger on everything before. In fact, the tragic tale of someone trying to make a name for themselves in Los Angeles and having to lose their innocence may as well be a more laser-focused version of what Henley and the band were trying to do when making Desperado.
Then again, it’s not like their second album is a trainwreck by any stretch. It’s a fantastic country-rock record dealing with the struggles of those who live their lives as outlaws, but for a band that had come into the world as a country-rock mainstay, seeing them shed that skin and make as pure a country record as they could muster was bound to ruffle a few feathers.
“If there was a moral to the story at all, it is that time and the law of averages catch up with everybody.”
Don Henley
But the most important piece of the puzzle was the lyrics, and listening back to the record, Henley felt that they were already growing more callous towards the idea of being rockstars, saying, “If there was a moral to the story at all, it is that time and the law of averages catch up with everybody. What goes up must come down. It was a commentary on our loss of innocence with regard to how the music business really worked. The harsh realities of ‘The Biz’ made us cynical.”
It’s not like Henley didn’t have good reason to be dumbfounded by his success. He wanted to be as successful as he could whenever he wrote songs, but the idea of him and his friends getting into the limelight also meant leaving a lot of people behind in the mix. And whether Henley knew it or not, this kind of record also showed him indirectly commenting on the Eagles’ downfall in the early 1980s.
He had already talked about the “law of averages”, but when someone lives a life of excess like they were at the time of Hotel California, it was only natural for them to experience a low immediately after on The Long Run, resulting in them dissolving the group. But the constant tension was only one side of the story when it came to Henley’s career.
There were moments where everything could have ended, but the fact that they made it into the limelight and managed to leave with their studio legacy intact is commendable, especially since no one had to die to give them a wake-up call. They were in the midst of one of the greatest runs any rock band had ever gone down, but even if it wasn’t meant to last forever, it was important to enjoy it while it lasted.
