The Eagles song that showed Don Henley their time was ending: “Some of the lustre was beginning to wear off”
No rock band can spend the rest of their lives being the biggest group in the world. Even though The Beatles are still one of the most celebrated acts in the history of rock and roll, even they knew better than to try to carry on after the party had come to an end in the late 1960s. While nothing seemed to be stopping The Eagles in the next decade, Don Henley knew that something had to give when penning ‘After The Thrill Is Gone’.
Then again, thinking that the party was over at this stage of the California rockers’ careers would be impossible. They had just made one of their most daring albums, and since Hotel California was just around the corner, they hadn’t even begun to realise the mark they were about to make their mark on music history.
When looking at the tension between the members, though, it’s easy to see the first era of them cratering. Bernie Leadon had finally had enough of having his country flair stifled in the band, and since he had to threaten violence to get his track ‘I Wish You Peace’ onto One of These Nights, it’s not like everyone was hanging around each other’s dressing room during every show.
On the surface, Henley originally wrote the track when listening to the BB King classic, ‘The Thrill is Gone’. Since the blues legend had already talked about the moment when the spark went out of his relationship, this was a chance for them to explore the aftermath, when two people are still trying to make it work between each other even though they know the end is near.
However, it doesn’t take a seasoned therapist to realise that a lot of the track also applies to what every band member was going through, with Henley later confessing, “As exciting as the whole Eagles thing was at times, some of the lustre was beginning to wear off. We were combining our personal and professional lives in song.”
So, in that respect, ‘After The Thrill is Gone’ was a premonition of what was to come once the Eagles finally burned themselves out on The Long Run. Even though they tried to keep going, they did leave a few scarred bandmates along the way, from Randy Meisner leaving midway through the Hotel California tour to Glenn Frey and Don Felder officially ending the group after getting into a fight during a benefit gig.
Looking at where they had gone on The Long Run, though, Henley had seen the writing on the wall. If ‘After The Thrill is Gone’ was the first inkling that something was wrong, ‘The Sad Cafe’ was the cold look at what their scene had been reduced to after they got famous, with everyone now rich and famous but more lonely than ever.
Even though the song is far from the most memorable Eagles track, it should probably be studied by any artist looking to put a band together. As fun as it sounds, jamming with friends is the kind of scenario you might find yourself in when trading in your heart for success.
