The Eagles song that was inspired by The Beatles: “It’s a classic”
Inspiration can strike anywhere, and that is why it feels so unique when it does hit. No matter the time of day or season or cultural zeitgeist, the arrival of true inspiration can feel so out of the blue that many musicians credit it to a higher power. Sure, a lot of an artist’s best work can come when they are in the pocket, delivering songs from a creative headspace.
However, like one Eagles hit, tragedy can influence how a musician records a track, too.
No event shaped the 2000s more significantly than the attack on the Twin Towers on September 11th, 2001. The tragic moment two planes were deliberately flown into the towers, killing thousands of people, would set the course of the cultural landscape, both in America and on foreign lands, for years to come. It also shaped culture, with reams of art being created because of the seismic moment.
One such song was Eagles track ‘Hole in the World’. Written in the hours that followed the attack on the World Trade Centre, Don Henley began singing “hole in the world” atop a range of different chords, noting that he wrote the refrain “in one sitting”. But, for months after, the tune lay dormant, with Henley admitting to Cameron Crowe, “I was stuck”.
The attack would spark George W Bush’s ‘War on Terror’, which, in turn, landed the US Army in Iraq as it hunted down Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. In 2003, the war in the Gulf was still going on and it connected with Henley and pushed him to complete the song: “The fighting was supposedly over in May, and yet one or two or three of our boys were—and still are—getting killed every day, which means somebody’s daddy is not coming home. So, that’s another hole, a huge hole in somebody’s life—a child, a wife, a mother, a father, a brother, a sister.”
“There are holes in the information that the public is getting, both from the media and the government,” Henley continued, as he explained the many levels of the track. “There are holes in what passes for the logic of this administration’s foreign policy. The stars and stripes may be flying and the drums beating, but things are never going to be the same for some people. The ill-conceived attempt to ‘avenge’ the victims of September 11th has only brought more misery and sorrow.”
“He wrote the second verse,” Henley explained of Frey’s contribution to the track. He also noted that it wasn’t just tragedy that inspired the track but another band: “We started a third verse and then scrapped it in favor of simplicity. I originally envisioned it as a very short song, anyway, like those snippets the Beatles used to do that only lasted for about a minute. But it turned out to be a little longer than that.”
For Frey, the son may have sad origins, but it is archetypal of Eagles and their unique view on the world: “Talk about a record that you know is the Eagles. ‘Hi, we’re in charge again.’ These would be the compelling, perfect vocals, and of course, let’s just start with Don’s opening lines of the song, which I think are brilliant. ‘They say that anger is just love disappointed.’ It’s all there. The big chorus, the ooohs under the verse. It’s a classic Eagles record, I’m telling you.”
Not all inspiration is as wonderful as it sounds. Catastrophe, just like joy, love and all the great things in the world, can offer just as vibrant a spark for making art. But what is perhaps soothing is that it also helps those who appreciate it turn the feelings of loss or bereavement into understanding and, perhaps, make life a little easier.
