Why did Steely Dan fire Don Henley?
The story of Steely Dan and the Eagles is a long and varied tapestry.
The very nature of musical feuds is woven into rock and roll, but usually, if you follow the thread, they will join forces or at least let bygones be bygones sooner or later. The same can certainly be said for the aforementioned titans of 1970s rock.
They had a gentle feud during their heyday and even wrote a song or two about one another, one from Steely Dan, ‘Everything You Did’ from their 1976 record The Royal Scam saw the group write in their lyrics: “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbours are listening”. Whether this is truly an insult or not is up to the listener’s interpretation, but the song itself is a pretty severe indictment of a less-than-loyal lover.
“Apparently, Walter Becker’s girlfriend loved the Eagles, and she played them all the time,” Glenn Frey is quoted as saying in Gavin Edwards’ Is Tiny Dancer Really Elton’s Little John?: Music’s Most Enduring Mysteries, Myths, and Rumors Revealed. “I think it drove him nuts. So, the story goes that they were having a fight one day, and that was the genesis of the line.” As it happens, the ubiquity of the Eagles’ sound is something that the Dan have ratified as a facet of the ‘70s firmly in the cross-hairs of their creative thinking.
However, by the following year, it would appear as though at least two parts of the individual bands were cool enough with one another to work with each other. Steely Dan would invite Don Henley to take part in what would become one of the group’s most famous songs. While it is regarded as one of their best, the infamy of the track is almost as noteworthy.
The creation of Aja’s iconic track ‘Peg’ – particularly its dazzling 30-second guitar solo – stands as one of Steely Dan’s most infamous studio sagas. Fagen and Becker, ever the meticulous taskmasters, dismissed six guitarists before finally settling on session wizard Jay Graydon.
While their reputation for perfectionism preceded them, Graydon’s experience, though occasionally tense, was a relatively smooth ride by Steely Dan standards. “For about an hour and a half, I’m playing my hip, melodic kind of jazz style. Then Donald says to me, ‘Naw, man. Try to play the blues,’” Graydon once recalled. “The whole thing probably took about four, five hours. Including taking some breaks. They knew they were onto something.”
Not everyone came out of the Aja sessions with such measured reflections. ‘Peg’ rhythm guitarist Steve Khan wasn’t shy about calling out the band’s excesses: “Having the money, and the power of guaranteed sales, is a license for abuse,” he noted. “What they might waste on one or two days of recording to get a single track, most artists, like me, could make an entire record for that.”
And Elliot Scheiner, lead engineer on the track, offered a similar glimpse into Becker and Fagen’s relentless approach. “A band would come in and record and two hours later [Becker and Fagen] would look at their producer, and say, ‘Fire this band. Let’s go with somebody else tomorrow night.’ It’d be different bands every night to get the same song.”
You might think that acclaimed stars like Don Henley would escape such embarrassment, but you’d be wrong. Producer Greg Katz recalls firing vocalist Don Henley after the Eagles drummer tried to record backing vocals for ‘Peg’.
In an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, Katz describes the move as tricky, but an essential one. “In the chorus, the backgrounds are sort of the lead,” Katz recalled. “It wasn’t like a [usual] background part.” Recognising the importance of the harmony line, Katz felt that the best way to do it justice was to hire professional assistance.
As if spurred into creative epiphany, Katz thought: “‘Why don’t we call Henley and Linda Ronstadt? Maybe that would be cool and something different.’ So, I called Irving … Linda wasn’t feeling well, so Nicolette Larson came.” However, Henley was up for it, excitedly making the trip over. It was one he would regret.
Already a seasoned producer, Katz recognised that Henley’s vocals were out of sync with the other musicians. “There wasn’t patience as much as instant reaction of the realities of the moment,” Katz said. “We didn’t jerk people off by letting them think it was going to work and have them sit for two hours. When we knew it wasn’t going to be OK, Fagen would tell me to end it. So they sang it again, and it was no good.”
Fagen held a similar opinion and asked the producer to dismiss Henley. “Which I did – and have heard about for 35 years since, in various ways.” When he met Henley on another occasion, the singing drummer always asked, “Are you going to fire me again today, Katz?”
Naturally, it wasn’t a pleasant experience for anyone, and Katz recalls how tricky it was to hide away from Henley. “We were all in the same little area. We lived in the same place and had the same manager. It was always Eagles and Steely Dan for a long time in LA.”
Invariably, Michael McDonald recorded the backing vocals that wound up on ‘Peg’. Although Henley would refer to the dismissal in future conversations, he did sing on Steely Dan’s number ‘FM (No Static at All)’ (alongside fellow Eagle Glenn Frey), which suggests that the memory can’t have been as painful as Katz may have feared.
Why did Steely Dan fire so many musicians?
But from Steely Dan’s standpoint, while fellows like Khan might have found the whole ordeal frustrating, the fact that Aja now stands out as a masterpiece lauded by legions as the high reference point for recording quality within music is surely the perfect retort. Having Henley on a track in ‘77 would’ve been big news and a commercial boon, but the Dan clearly weren’t motivated by that, and his dismissal is an indicator of their artistic integrity.
Henley wasn’t alone either. From Jeff Porcaro of Toto to Rick Deringer and David Palmer, Steely Dan championed the song uber alles, and weren’t afraid to shun famous names. However, the lack of acrimony that surrounds their many dismissals shows that even those on the receiving end knew that these decisions were informed by musical particulars more so than anything personal. If anything, it was an honour being invited to work with the scrupulous duo. Like being dumped by Francoise Hardy, at least you got to date her in the first place.
