The Don Henley solo song the Eagles used to make a political statement: “I applaud them”
It’s easy to feel let down in today’s day and age, as our society continues to plunge deeper into the shadow of bureaucratic powers that seem hellbent on expediting the apocalypse, but there’s a part of that that feels inevitable: politicians and businessmen sucking the soul of the world for personal and financial gain.
We’ve always had the music to use against them, pioneered by counterculture heroes who put up the good fight, but they are seemingly absent right now.
Ultimately, why we feel so let down these days is not because of the predictable sources of evil plummeting to new murky depths, but because of how quickly the heroes of yesteryear have gone missing. The musicians who propped up the liberal resistance in the 1960s and ‘70s have suddenly gone quiet the minute their wallets feel threatened, and now we are in the ensuing vacuum that they abandoned.
Whether it’s Gene Simmons telling us to separate art and politics, or Rod Stewart trying to convince us that Nigel Farage is, in fact, a decent bloke, we’re constantly confronted with some of the biggest names in artistic history heading for the exit door.
It’s all the more frustrating when you realise just how low their barrier of entry is for this sort of stuff. They’ve all made it; they sit at the very top of the social pile and can wield influence with a quick turn of the tongue, or better yet, the striking of a musical note. So many of the great anthems from the counterculture era can inspire change, and so all we crave is for them to be continually performed, with a sense of vitality appropriate for this increasingly dark age.
Don Henley and the Eagles might not have always been the most overtly political band, taking aim at the system with both barrels, but even in their legacy era, they’re continuing to pledge for the right side by utilising one of Henley’s most cutting solo songs in their set.
“We have put ‘The End of the Innocence’ in the [Sphere] set in Vegas, and we made a video that’s the only political statement we make,” Henley explained of the band’s recent string of shows in Las Vegas.
He continued to explain that while that was their attempt at protesting, it wasn’t a scratch on what his contemporaries are doing. “Bruce [Springsteen], bless his heart, him and Tom Morello are out there doing their thing, and I applaud them for it. Something changed since the late ’60s and early ’70s. Back in that era, musicians were part and parcel of the counterculture and the political movements: Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, even Stevie Wonder. Peter, Paul and Mary, of course, Country Joe and the Fish; Joe just passed away recently. Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young; Neil wrote ‘Ohio’ and all that.”
Henley is right, something has changed. But it’s not us, the people who listen to the music, it’s the musicians who have abandoned their principles when we really need them to hold on. Henley mildly opted to join the resistance, but as he quite rightly claims, it’s absolutely nothing on Springsteen, Morello and still Young, who all continue to understand that art and politics do coexist.
Never Miss A Tale
The Far Out Classic Rock Newsletter
All the latest Classic Rock content from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.