“We’re in charge again”: The song Glenn Frey considered the Eagles’ comeback
The comeback trail is one of the biggest hurdles for any rock band to survive. It might not have been easy trying to make it work the first time around when the charts loved you, but when you’ve taken a dip and faded from relevance, it’s a much different situation when trying to convince the public that you’re worth keeping around on the charts again. Then again, there’s a good chance that classic rock has had absolutely no problem with Eagles during any incarnation of their career.
Even though they have gone through many different periods during their career, the country-rockers were always fan favourites no matter what generation they reached. Their care-free approach to music was by far the most agreeable flavour of rock and roll during the 1970s, and despite not being exactly as deep as anything from the punk scene or the art-rock scene, it was the most unobjectionable music to put on whenever someone was hanging out with their friends after a long week of nine-to-five hustling.
Although the band could have easily faded from view after they broke up in the early 1980s, a funny thing happened with the radio format. The idea of classic rock had only started to come into view, so when the stations started replaying the oldies in the middle of the MTV generation, it was like the band had never left, with people still singing along to ‘Already Gone’ and ‘One of These Nights’.
No matter what the fans liked to hear, it was going to be a long time before the band had the sense to get back together. The wounds between them were still fairly raw, but Hell Freezes Over helped put them back on top again. A lot of it may have been them refining their old material through the same unplugged scenario that made Eric Clapton take off, but that wasn’t enough for Glenn Frey.
He had to do something more, and that meant cutting some dead weight in the meantime. While having the original lineup back together helped build camaraderie, Don Felder’s pushback towards the rest of his bandmates after getting paid less led to him being fired, relegating the band to a four-piece again. They were more than willing to push ahead with a new album, but as soon as 9/11 came, they knew they needed to turn their voice up a little more.
Despite tunes like ‘Get Over It’ and ‘Love Will Keep Us Alive’ being hits on the radio, ‘Hole in the World’ was the group’s true comeback on the charts for Frey, saying, “Talk about a record that you know is the Eagles: ‘Hi, we’re in charge again.’ These would be the compelling perfect vocals. It’s all there. The big chorus, the ooohs under the verse…. It’s a classic Eagles record, I’m telling you.”
And for a band that had been up to a lot of misbehaviour in their prime, the fact that they could still sing those soaring harmonies is a miracle. Henley’s vocals had a bit more gravel in them after years of singing, but the minute that they all storm in on the chorus, they sound like the same band that sang ‘Lyin Eyes’ back in the day, only this time with a bit more depth than before.
It was never going to be easy to recover from a tragedy like 9/11, but having those voices on the radio may have helped stitch up the wounds for many people. It was a tense time back then, and while many were justifiably angry on both sides of the aisle, having songs that reminded us that things were going to be alright was almost essential.
