“Favourite we’ve ever written”: Glenn Frey on Don Henley’s finest moment as a vocalist
Most of Eagles’ back catalogue was always about getting everything to sound absolutely perfect. Those harmonies don’t come together by chance, and that meant everyone practising for hours on end until everything blended well whenever they got onstage to sing ‘Desperado’ or ‘Seven Bridges Road’. Granted, it was always going to be some degree of good whenever Don Henley was behind the microphone, and for Glenn Frey, it didn’t get much better than this brilliant ballad.
But Henley was never one to show off his chops as you might think someone like Freddie Mercury would. He had a voice made of solid gold, but the lion’s share of his best moments came from him selling the emotion behind the song rather than doing impressive vocal runs or trying to out-diva the next person onstage.
That’s not to say that he didn’t have his shining moments, either. ‘One of These Nights’ was his chance to channel his inner Barry Gibb on those high notes, and even if he was admittedly nervous doing the vocal for ‘Desperado’, he pulled off the perfect emotion for the tune, sounding both like a concerned older brother and the partner-in-crime worried about seeing their friend ride into the sunset alone.
When someone like that is on the bandstand, there’s no real sense in competing with them. Every member of the group knew how to sing really well, but if you look at the track record of each of their songs, it’s easy to look at how many songs went to Henley towards the later years. Frey could belt out the rockers, but when it came to any heartfelt material, most were advised to stand the hell back.
If the previous records were building to something, then Hotel California was the moment they became superstars. The title track is already one of their most iconic moments, and ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ is certainly the peak of that era of dad rock, but ‘Wasted Time’ has a certain place in fans’ hearts. As much as the band could toy with soul, hearing Henley sing against those strings about a relationship gone bad falls somewhere between country twang, Philly soul, and The Beatles’ knack for melody.
And despite Frey being the main leader of the group, he couldn’t even pretend to hold back when talking about Henley’s vocal on the final track, saying, “Wasted Time’ is one of Don Henley’s finest moments as a singer. [It’s] one of my personal favourite ballads that we’ve ever written.”
For a band that was always about keeping things clear and to the point, ‘Wasted Time’ almost seemed too good to let go, eventually getting used twice when an orchestral version of the song is reprised before going into ‘Victim of Love’. Though that kind of move usually reeks of pretentiousness, this one actually feels earned, like watching the credits roll on the final act of a high-stakes romantic drama.
But that’s what the California rockers were always great at. Not all of their songs were meant to be the most intellectual thing in the world, but when they managed to stick the landing, no one else could have delivered anything that sincere if they tried.
