{"id":1126905,"date":"2026-08-03T00:28:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:28:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1126905\/"},"modified":"2026-08-03T00:28:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-03T00:28:19","slug":"the-1973-song-don-henley-could-listen-to-forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1126905\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1973 song Don Henley could listen to forever"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Don<\/p>\n

Credit: Far Out \/ Album Cover<\/p>\n

Sun 2 August 2026 21:30, UK <\/p>\n

Don Henley<\/a> tended to have a much more serious outlook on what the Eagles were supposed to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t seem like the California icons needed to make some of the greatest rock music of all time when they first started, but Henley was the one daring to ask the question: \u2018What if we didn\u2019t always write about the sunny side of life?\u2019 It was a question worth discussing, but that didn\u2019t mean that any of their albums needed to cut out any of the laid-back and breezy songs in their catalogue, either.<\/p>\n

The band had their teeth on some of the greatest care-free tunes of all time, and when you look at the titles of some of their songs, it\u2019s not like they had to be that deep. \u2018Take It Easy\u2019<\/a>, \u2018Peaceful Easy Feeling\u2019, \u2018Saturday Night\u2019. None of these is supposed to be one of the biggest musical epiphanies anyone has ever put to vinyl, but Henley did feel like there was some sense of progression going on, even on those first albums.<\/p>\n

Most of them hadn\u2019t thought about writing together, but even when they were writing via committee, Henley and Glenn Frey at least knew a good hook when they heard one. \u2018Witchy Woman\u2019 had Henley\u2019s smoky voice on top of everything, Frey was the perfect person to deliver \u2018Take it Easy\u2019, and they even had a few rockers on the album too, but Desperado was a case of the band trying to go up way too fast when looking at their track record.<\/p>\n

They didn\u2019t have what it took to become one of the biggest bands in the world just yet, but a concept record centred around the outlaws of the West is the kind of concept made by someone who thinks they can do anything. And while there are some beautiful songs across that record, it\u2019s not like the rest of the public was ready to see every member suddenly adopt cowboy personas and lean even further into country music with every single song they made.<\/p>\n

Even Henley thought that the concept of the piece was absolute crap<\/a>, but that didn\u2019t mean Frey couldn\u2019t hit the nail on the head when making \u2018Tequila Sunrise\u2019. This was the point in the record where there was a bit of respite from the constant outlaw mythmaking, and the picture of a bunch of rock stars singing in harmony about having a couple of drinks to summon up the courage to talk to girls is the kind of inspired idea that would have worked perfectly without the concept.<\/p>\n

And even years after the fact, Henley felt that the song never truly lost its lustre for him, saying<\/a>, \u201cThat\u2019s one song I don\u2019t get tired of. \u201cTake another shot of courage\u201d refers to tequila \u2014 because we used to call it \u2018instant courage.\u2019 We very much wanted to talk to the ladies, but we often didn\u2019t have the nerve, so we\u2019d drink a couple of shots and suddenly it was, \u2018Howdy, ma\u2019am.\u2019\u201d But a lot of that nostalgia does have to do with what the song stands for aside from beginning one of their first great singles.<\/p>\n

Further reading: From The Vault<\/strong><\/p>\n

The whole idea started as a germ of an idea that Frey was thinking about when working on a Roy Orbison-style rhythm, and after working on the song a bit more, it became the first official Frey\/Henley song that they ever wrote together. And even if the entire album failed as a whole, that wasn\u2019t going to stop them from continuing down that same road when working on some of their later material.<\/p>\n

They had discovered the magic one way or the other, and Henley figured that they didn\u2019t need to have the most high-energy song to leave an impact. All that mattered was whether or not they had a story to tell, and every piece of this song was filled to the brim with the kind of tale that every single rocker knew all too well whenever they took a couple of shots to ease their nerves at the bar. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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