“It’s lacks authenticity”: The genre Don Henley never understood
Every musician should be a student of the legends that came before. Even if it’s not to one’s taste, it’s sometimes better to dissect something that you don’t like to understand why other people do and maybe find some undiscovered pieces that could be used to make your own masterpiece. While Don Henley tried to absorb any kind of genre he could when working with the Eagles, he thought that times had definitely changed when looking at the state of this modern genre.
Because, for all of the tags that had been put on the Eagles throughout their career, it always came back to country music. The Byrds may have been the ones breaking down doors for what the genre could do with a little bit of twang, but judging by the way that the California rockers were written, most would have sworn that the Eagles lived every day of their lives with a cowboy hat on singing about the joys of living on a ranch.
Nothing could have been further from the truth, as far as Henley was concerned. They certainly respected some of the biggest names in country music and even covered some of their tunes, but the main objective every time they played centred around them working on whatever style floated their way. They could be hard rock on ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, they could take on country on ‘Desperado’, and even tried their hand at soul music on tunes like ‘Wasted Time’.
As the Eagles disbanded, though, their music became a template for what modern country music would sound like. Although the boom of artists like Garth Brooks and Shania Twain was reserved for the 1990s, the band were being treated like elder statesmen of the genre when they reunited for Hell Freezes Over, especially with the help of Travis Tritt covering ‘Take It Easy’.
Once they hit the road again after making the album Long Road Out of Eden, the commercialisation of country had started to shift. Despite years of people relying on great musicians with something to say, the Florida Georgia Line brand of what’s commonly referred to as “bro-country” seemed to be using the genre as a way of making the same kind of mindless party music that no one could object to. Think of country musicians with Drake’s care level, and you’re somewhere close.
Now that he had been around the block, Henley was the first to admit that he didn’t care for the modern state of country music at all, telling Billy Joel, “Nashville is –I don’t know what that stuff is, but it’s lacking authenticity, and it’s lacking tradition. We’re all standing on the shoulders of somebody, and we need to remember who those people are.”
That’s not to say there haven’t been authentic artists out there. Chris Stapleton is one of the few still carrying the torch for letter-perfect outlaw country in the mainstream, and despite some goofy lyrics, guitarists like Brad Paisley have clearly studied under some of the best and have even taken their cues from what Eagles greats like Joe Walsh have done in the past.
But what Henley is getting at really speaks to the wider problem he has with genres today. Since everything is compartmentalised in the radio format or even catered to someone’s palette on Spotify, it’s always better to listen to a little bit of everything to find out what is the best fit for you.
