The 1982 Don Henley song that turned celebrity gossip into a rock anthem
Considering he was in one of the biggest bands on the planet, Don Henley really wasn’t a big fan of the celebrity lifestyle.
A lot of people forget just how much of a big deal the Eagles were. They were often referred to as the American Beatles because of the massive impact they had on music. They were one of the first bands to blend country and rock music together, and they were certainly one of the first bands to make such a sound mainstream.
Of course, their sound evolved over time, and it was on Hotel California when they had their biggest commercial hit. Both the single and the album topped the charts without really breaking a sweat, as people became obsessed with the lyrics, choruses, melody, solos, the works. For them, it was a stellar rock album; however, when you listen with a bit more intent, you realise the band is essentially tearing the façade of fame and Hollywood to shreds.
Just look at the track ‘Life In The Fast Lane’: it’s hard to hear such a stellar riff and not become completely obsessed with that and that in isolation. That being said, when you listen to the lyrics, the band’s opinion on what it’s like being in the spotlight and surrounding yourself with those who are obsessed with material possessions becomes pretty clear. Glenn Frey once spoke about the song and how it was supposed to shine a light on such a toxic lifestyle.
“‘Life In The Fast Lane’ kind of expressed the stereotyped LA ‘run around in your Porsche’ 24-hour boogie mode that unfortunately is too true for a lot of people,” he said, “It wasn’t really a statement about the guys in the band, or about anybody in particular. Just, it’s kind of disturbing to see the extremes that the bourgeois jet set will involve themselves in. For instance, disco almost turned into a lifestyle, and it’s such a non-meaningful thing on which to base one’s life.”
Even the song ‘Hotel California’ itself was partly about how trapped the band can feel in the tangled web of the music industry. It’s an incredibly complicated world to navigate, and the success of that record didn’t help things, as suddenly they were attempting to make an album that could live up to the hype, while having no real idea what they wanted to write about. Talk about feeling trapped.
“It had stopped being fun,” said Frey, “Going to the studio was like going to school; I simply didn’t want to go. But most importantly, during the making of The Long Run, Henley and I found out that lyrics are not a replenishable source. It is a very polished album, as well it should be after all that, and has some excellent moments, but none of us wanted to go through that again, so we figured it was the right time to call it a day.”
The album proved to be a bit too taxing for the band, and they wound up splitting; regardless, even in their respective solo careers, a lot of the themes they wrote about were similar to those covered by the Eagles, as Henley was still happy to critique celebrity culture even if he was writing on his own. You can hear that most effectively on his 1982 offering ‘Dirty Laundry’.
The song was a real breakthrough track as far as Henley’s solo career was concerned, and it took aim at how toxic a lot of the culture surrounding celebrity can be. This time, it was less about how celebrities treat themselves and more about how they were treated by other people, namely the media. He didn’t bite back when talking about the industry and was thus able to change the attitude towards celebrity gossip and make it a great rock anthem.
