The 1974 Eagles song used to mock Richard Nixon: “Our little kiss off to Tricky Dicky”
The Eagles were never afraid to sound like grown-ups.
Even though they came up in the generation of flower power in the late 1960s, their debut in 1972 saw them already working as a songwriting machine, making songs that were about something much more thoughtful than getting stoned 24 hours a day. As America entered a dark chapter in its history, Don Henley used the song ‘On the Border’ to poke fun at the recently disgraced president.
At a time when many rock bands were either avoiding politics altogether or approaching it in broad, protest-song strokes, Henley’s writing stood apart for its precision. Not just reacting to events but dissecting them, filtering national disillusionment through character-driven storytelling and wry, often cutting observations about power and corruption.
Then again, critiquing the American system was something that came naturally to Henley. When working on some of the band’s greatest albums, there had always been a common thread about the nature of what America was supposed to be, including a few songs about the Wild West on songs like Desperado.
For the first half of the band’s career, though, it looked like they were trying to do everything they could to not talk about hot-button issues. In the wake of the constant war and fear of nuclear annihilation, songs like ‘Take It Easy’ seemed designed to make everything feel like things were going to be fine…only for another problem to be lurking just around the corner.
After the major fallout behind the Kennedy assassination in the early 1960s, another blow to the American political system came with Richard Nixon resigning in the backlash of the Watergate scandal. While many rockers were still more likely to talk about the Vietnam War at the time, Henley was more concerned with what was happening in the home territory when writing his songs.
That inward focus gave the Eagles a different kind of weight. Rather than framing America as an abstract battleground, Henley zeroed in on its institutions, its leadership, and the subtle erosion of trust happening in real time, making his critiques feel both immediate and deeply personal.
Whereas Desperado looked back to the days of gunslingers, On the Border was the band’s opportunity to flirt with contemporary sounds, including a few country songs like ‘Midnight Flyer’ amid the fun rockers like ‘Already Gone’. For the title track, Henley had something else on his mind besides music, and he would do whatever he could to put Nixon in his place.
Compared to the other songs on the record, ‘On the Border’ feels much more melodramatic, as if the band were trying to flex their soulful chops. Right as we come to the end of a song being caught on the edge of a wasteland, the final few seconds of the song leave a little epigraph for how Nixon sounded to the Eagles.
Hidden in the background, Henley made a comment in the last seconds of the song, whispering, ‘Say goodnight, Dick’. Although the phrase had been made famous by The Smothers Brothers, Henley was seething with anger when he wrote it, saying, “We were addressing Nixon, because at that time it was pretty clear that he was on his way out, so that was our little kiss-off to Tricky Dick”.
That would be far from the last time Henley put on his self-righteous cap as well. While he may have been on the right side of history putting someone in their place, Hotel California would be his magnum opus, talking about the dangers of being a rock and roll star while at the same time being one of the biggest names in music. Henley had his way of making carefree music and the occasional love song, but he wasn’t afraid to preach from a pulpit when he needed to.
