‘Life in the Fast Lane’: The Eagles song about cocaine
Listening to the Eagles feels like spending every day in California. In the wake of hard rock bands arriving around the same time as Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin, the songwriting of Don Henley and Glenn Frey was always about laid-back tunes about everyday life. The Eagles did have a nasty side when they wanted to, and ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ was a peek into their misbehaviour.
Around the time they were making Hotel California, both Henley and Frey knew they had something that could fit within the concept of the Hollywood lifestyle. When coming up with potential ideas for songs, the guitar riff that turned their heads was an improvisation by Joe Walsh, who played the iconic riff of ‘Fast Lane’ as a warm-up exercise.
Though the band knew the potential behind the song, the title didn’t fall into place until Frey went on a ride of a lifetime with a drug dealer friend, remembering as part of The History of the Eagles, “I was riding shotgun in a Corvette with a drug dealer on the way to a poker game. The next thing I know, we’re doing 90. Holding! [cocaine] Big time! I say, ‘Hey man!’ He grins and goes, ‘Life in the fast lane!’ I thought, ‘Now there’s a song title’”.
From there, the song became a glorification of the rock and roll lifestyle taking place in Los Angeles every day. Across every verse of the song, Henley describes some of the seediest characters that he’s seen throughout his time in the City of Angels, from a pair of misfits whose only common traits is being good in bed to being on the verge of crashing at the end of the song.
The Eagles knew about this kind of lifestyle firsthand, too. During the touring cycle for the album One of These Nights, Frey mentioned being at the height of excess nearly every night, going on to say, “The goal was seeing who could function. Who could show up”. Although the boogie sugar made for some decent inspiration at the time, the band hit a wall when they started work on their next album, The Long Run.
After spending most of ‘Fast Lane’ glorifying the drug, Frey and Henley hit a wall trying to think of something for the next record, taking to calling the album ‘The Long One’ when putting together the tracks, with Henley remarking “at the end, it brought out the worst in everyone”.
By the time the band got back together in the ‘90s, the biggest common thread was that everyone had to sober. Never using any substances during band activities, Walsh performed without any junk in his veins for the first time, which he later said he was terrified to do.
While backstage activities look a little different these days, ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ is an ode to the lifestyle lost to history. The Eagles might not have been choirboys, but it’s about making it to the other side in one piece these days.
