Don Henley was by no means essentially the most prolific artist in pop music: Within the 40 years because the Eagles’ authentic breakup he’s launched 5 solo studio albums and valuable few non-album songs. Taken collectively they current an artist who solely data when he’s bought one thing to say, and who’s by no means been afraid to throw his followers a curveball. This imaginary ten-track compilation is supposed as a crash course in solo Henley, taking in highlights from every of his phases. It’s undoubtedly not a greatest-hits compilation since there are already two good ones in print, Precise Miles and The Very Better of Don Henley. Reasonably, it is a selective taster of some necessities and a few of our favourite deeper cuts.
“Johnny Can’t Read” (from I Can’t Stand Nonetheless, 1982)
The primary single from Don Henley’s solo debut, this track served discover that his solo profession wouldn’t be Eagles redux. Its jittery New Wave sound was lots nearer to The Vehicles. It additionally signaled that solo Henley can be about hard-hitting social commentary, right here taking up the thought of scholars getting a tutorial go in the event that they’re good at sports activities. Although FM radio jumped on this on the time of launch, it doesn’t seem on both of Henley’s best hits collections, making it the forgotten Henley hit.
“Dirty Laundry” (from I Can’t Stand Nonetheless, 1982)
Don Henley’s breakthrough solo track continued the fashionable New Wave sound, even with two different Eagles (Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit) lending a hand. It takes on a subject he knew just a few issues about; specifically tabloids and their urge for food for movie star blood. Suffice to say, he bought even, however the track was proper on course about the place journalism was headed. No surprise it retains a spot of honor in latter-day Eagles units.
“The Boys of Summer” (from Constructing the Good Beast, 1984)
This album and its follow-up have been the high-water mark of solo Don Henley, spawning seven Prime 40 hits between them. It is a contender for the quintessential Henley track, filled with sharp observations and drenched in California sunshine. With a vocal efficiency for the ages, it pledges unchanging love throughout altering occasions. Although the track started life as a Mike Campbell demo for Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, it took Henley’s lyric to convey it to life; the road in regards to the Deadhead sticker on the Cadillac nonetheless resonates.
“Sunset Grill” (from Constructing the Good Beast, 1984)
The fourth and final single from Good Beast didn’t do as effectively chart-wise as the remainder, being slightly extra epic and difficult. But it surely’s as shut as you’ll get to a “Hotel California” follow-up, visiting a dead-end bar in roughly the identical neighborhood. The tune is completely haunting, and the story takes a shock flip on the finish: The narrator could have checked out way back, however you understand he’ll by no means depart. Like “Hotel” it ends with a climactic guitar solo, this one by Danny Kortchmar on synth guitar.
“Who Owns This Place?” (from The Coloration of Cash soundtrack, 1986)
There aren’t lots of stray Don Henley songs however right here’s a very good one which fell by way of the cracks. He wrote it for the 1986 Scorsese movie, the place it appeared alongside recent tracks by Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, and others. Henley’s tune echoes the darkish temper of the movie. Like most of the 80s tracks he produced with Danny Kortchmar, it has a smooth sound with enormous drums and synths, however the trade-offs with the feminine backup refrain aren’t one million miles from Eagles territory.
“I Will Not Go Quietly” (from The Finish of the Innocence, 1989)
A contender for the heaviest rock track in Don Henley’s catalogue, that is additionally one of many deep cuts that ought to have been a single. The six-minute monitor boasts a sweeping lyric, partially about holding onto love and getting the hell out of a small city, but additionally about Henley defending his personal house within the rock panorama. The studio band (largely an overdubbed Kortchmar) appears like hopped-up metallic youngsters, and Henley’s voice blends remarkably effectively with that of visitor singer Axl Rose.
“The Heart of the Matter” (from The Finish of the Innocence, 1989)
In spite of everything these heavy songs, Don Henley calls on his potential to interrupt hearts with a love ballad. He got here up with a gem to shut the third album, and recorded it in old-school type: No massive synths or whomping drums right here, only a guitar-based sound that fits the emotive vocal. But when the music harks again to youthful days, the lyric is totally grown-up: The singer learns that his outdated flame has lastly discovered somebody new. All he asks for is “forgiveness, even if you don’t love me anymore.” Callow younger guys don’t write that form of lyric.
“The Garden of Allah” (from Precise Miles, 1995)
One in every of three new tracks on the Precise Miles compilation, this dark-humored track finds Don Henley assembly up with the Satan, who admires Henley’s automotive and professes to be fairly happy with the path shopper society has gone. The setting is appropriately a once-glamorous, long-demolished Sundown Boulevard lodge (which actually existed). This was successfully a final hurrah for the synth-heavy Good Beast sound, and one of many final occasions Henley wrote within the sweeping epic type.
“Taking You Home” (from Inside Job, 2000)
After an eleven-year break and an Eagles’ reunion, it was a much less spiky Don Henley who confirmed up on the following solo album. Inside Job is heat and melodic for essentially the most half, gathering his longtime musical companions collectively as soon as extra. “Taking You Home” was new territory for Henley: a love track with a cheerful ending. Accordingly, it topped the adult-contemporary charts, making it one thing of a valentine for the followers who’d include him this far.
“The Brand New Tennessee Waltz” (from Cass County deluxe version, 2015)
Since Don Henley helped popularize country-rock with the Eagles, it’s shocking that it took till 2015 for him to make a full-fledged nation album. Cass County proved to be a star-studded affair, with Henley doing new and traditional tunes within the hallowed firm of Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and others. One in every of its sweetest moments will be discovered on the deluxe version: Initially on Jesse Winchester’s 1970 debut, “The Brand New Tennessee Waltz” was the form of lilting, harmony-driven tune that impressed the Eagles and their contemporaries within the first place. He and duet accomplice Alison Krauss deal with it with loving care, bringing Henley’s profession to a satisfying full-circle second.
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