How a fever inspired Eagles’ Don Henley to write one of their most popular songs
For most people, suffering from a feverous bout of the flu often means one thing and one thing only—rest and recuperation. This is mostly because the mere thought of being productive in any way feels exhausting. For Eagles‘ Don Henley, however, reading about one of the most influential writers and painters of all time during a moment of intense illness struck him with an inspiration he couldn’t ignore.
The early days of the Eagles played out like something of a fever dream—performing alongside Linda Ronstadt seemed both inspiring and uncertain as both tried to match their willingness to make it with their musical ability. It didn’t help that there were a lot of major players dominating the space at the time, either. As Ronstadt later recalled: “I had no idea what I was doing. It wasn’t until about 1980 that I really started to learn how to sing.”
Still, this collaboration yielded unspeakable magic, particularly when Henley and Glenn Frey realised they wanted to try it on their own. The pair will likely credit Ronstadt with providing them with the support and encouragement to go out and do it, but the singer maintains it was all them. “I had a hand in forming the Eagles, yes,” she said. “But it was their talent and their mutual interaction that really did it. I asked my friend John Boylan if he’d help me put a band together.”
Despite still figuring out how to establish a signature country-rock sound, Eagles’ self-titled debut album certainly caught the attention of critics and music fans, for better or worse. With time, it would become clearer that it would, in fact, be for the better, considering the handful of songs that did well to withstand the test of time.
One such track is the album’s second single, ‘Witchy Woman’, which was co-written by Henley and Bernie Leadon and inspired by a series of “charming and seductive” women who had left a lasting impact on them. The genesis of the song came from a riff Leadon began playing one day that Henley felt sounded like “a Hollywood movie version of Indian music.”
However, the lyrics came from a biography Henley was reading about Zelda Fitzgerald at the peak of his influenza. In his feverous, semi-delirious state, reading about Fitzgerald’s struggles with both her husband’s alcoholism and her own mental health battles sent him down a specific route of inspiration about the types of women he wanted to factor into the song. “I think that figured into the mix somehow – along with amorphous images of girls I had met at the Whisky [a Go Go] and the Troubadour,” Henley recalled.
Interestingly, Henley later assured that the women in the song aren’t being discussed negatively and that each adopted their own charm and charisma in unique ways. One of which was a roommate he had during the 1970s who practised “white witchcraft”, meaning she dabbled in spiritual activity with positive intentions. Henley, of course, didn’t pay much mind, saying, “I never took any of it seriously.”
