‘Frail Grasp on the Big Picture’: The three pillars of society the Eagles attacked in one of their worst songs
The world is a confusing place. It’s changing at a pace that few can fully comprehend or predict, and most of us are simply trying to navigate it as best we can. However, there are always a few brave souls who believe they possess just the right combination of moxie, intellect, and flair to take the world to task and explain it all to the rest of us. And who are these heroes, you ask? Old white millionaires, of course. Truly, they’ve got their fingers on the pulse of today’s most pressing issues. Case in point: an absolute gem of an example courtesy of everyone’s favourite band of LA jocks—the Eagles.
That said, this band would know how a person can become so paranoid, edgy, and completely convinced of their own superiority. After all, this is the same band that has had multiple fistfights on stage and multiple inter-band lawsuits and generally conducts itself with the kind of visceral hatred for each other that makes The Police look like The Flanders.
So, when they got back together in 1994, fans were confused, to say the very least. The band, at the very least, had a little fun with it, naming their reunion tour Hell Freeze Over. Legend also has it they had their own rugs to stand on when they performed, to get around all the times they’d signed contracts promising to “never share a stage again”. Probably cobblers, but considering this was a band who couldn’t even share a studio together by the end, with producers having to piece together harmonies by splicing together individual tapes, I wouldn’t put it past them.
Yet in 2007, they graced the world with their comeback album, Long Road Out Of Eden, and wouldn’t you know it, they have opinions about the state of the world! Turns out they don’t like it! On ‘Frail Grasp of the Big Picture’, they treat you to their take on three failing pillars of society over just under six endless minutes of a country-blues drone that sounds as expensive as it does dull. Credit where credit’s due: the first pillar in their site is somewhat prescient, taking the rise of ‘fake news’ to task a decade and a half early with lines like “Even if one of them was to read the newspaper cover-to-cover / That ain’t what’s going on / Journalism’s dead and gone.”
All the subtlety and poetry of a sledgehammer, but misinformation is at the very least a pretty obvious problem with the modern world. Unlike the next pillar Henley and co go after, which is this sin of… short-term relationships: “You’re living in a hollow dream / You don’t have the slightest notion / What long-term love is all about.” It’s important to note that between them, the Eagles have around twice as many divorces as members, Joe Walsh alone having five of them. Not a problem, to be clear. Sometimes, that’s just how it goes. However, if you’re then going to lecture us about how “real romance” is dead, at least have the self-awareness to show how you might know that.
The final pillar is people’s use of God to justify their own selfish actions. “And we pray to our Lord / Who we know is American” – again, this is at least a problem that people are facing, but acting like it’s anything new is just blinkered. Above all, though, the superiority of this song is what kneecaps it before it even gets going. If you told me this was a lyric written by a 14-year-old after their first time watching the news, I’d believe you, so the idea that this was written by a group of middle-aged men with the kind of life experiences that the Eagles have?
No, thank you. It’s lazy, it’s cynical, it’s paint-by-numbers and above all, it’s one of the worst songs in a legendary back catalogue.
