The Eagles song Glenn Frey always thought fell short
Nobody said being in a band was easy. Ask the members of the Eagles how difficult it can be.
The group enjoyed tremendous success, but those commercial gains came with personal issues. The band became just as famous for their brutish on-stage antics towards one another as their incredible record sales.
One of the hardest parts of the creative process is getting all your ideas down in one place. As much as people might like the idea of poring over every word, trying to dissect what artists are getting at in their songs, the artists themselves are usually just as meticulous at making every word suit what they’re trying to say. Although the Eagles didn’t have to worry with a wordsmith like Don Henley at their disposal, Glenn Frey admitted that getting the lyrics right to the song ‘Lyin’ Eyes’ was absolute murder.
Ever since the band started, Frey knew that there were eyes on him. Since he had graduated from being the backing musician in Linda Ronstadt’s band to the frontman role, he didn’t think the band had any time to waste on songs that would be considered filler at best on any other rock and roll album.
While it was a slow process getting time to work with Henley, the pair would eventually blossom into one of the most creative duos in classic rock history, telling vivid stories about what the 1970s were supposed to be. Although songs like ‘Chug All Night’ from their first record didn’t have much of a point behind getting a vibe going in the room, songs like ‘Desperado’ and ‘Tequila Sunrise’ were the kinds of pictures that felt like they were ripped directly from an old western.
Even though the band’s ambitious concept album Desperado fell on deaf ears, Frey was determined to keep pushing the band forward on albums like On the Border. Flirting with everything from country to rock and roll to even R&B, the band’s next album, One of These Nights, was destined to take them even further with the title track.
When the band were sitting in one of their favourite restaurants one night, Frey came up with the idea for ‘Lyin Eyes’ after looking at various women at the end of the bar. Knowing that most of them were already married, Frey came up with the song from the perspective of city girls who like to go out drinking with rockers and return to their ritzy homes at the end of the night.
Although the track boasts some of the greatest soaring harmonies the band ever made, Frey was never happy with how it sounded from the start. While most people struggle with getting the right high note at the end of a song or making sure one part of the track is in tune, Frey could barely make it past the first word without running into problems.
When talking about the time in the studio, guitarist Don Felder explained just how much effort Frey put into the opening line about city girls finding out early, saying, “It would either be a little early, or a little late, or the ‘T’ would be too sharp. But every time that word goes by now, and I hear it, I can appreciate the time and dedication and perseverance that it took to get it perfect”.
Any ordinary producer would have probably cleaned up something like that in post-production, but that was not how the Eagles operated. From top to bottom, they weren’t going to give up until they had something that was as close to perfect as they could, and with a song this tender, Frey was going to put himself through hell if it meant having the right word down on tape.
Perhaps his heart wasn’t quite in it, given that he hadn’t written the song from personal experience. We’ll never know the name of that young woman he took a shine to, or her much older dinner date. Nevertheless, the track remains a classic, showcasing some of the best harmonies the Eagles ever recorded.
