![\"Glenn](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Glenn-Frey-Musician-The-Eagles-2010-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Steve Alexander)<\/p>\n
Wed 13 August 2025 18:00, UK <\/p>\n
Any artist\u2019s main objective is to write the kind of song that will last longer than they did. It might be telling a story of heartache or taking the listener on a journey they have never experienced before, but as far as Glenn Frey<\/a> was concerned, there needed to be at least a little substance there for people to latch onto.<\/p>\n After all, that was the kind of musical upbringing that Frey knew too well. Listening to his work with Eagles and his gigs in Linda Ronstadt\u2019s band, he wouldn\u2019t settle for anything less than excellent whenever he made records, which meant getting the best singer and the best song for them to sing. Even if he wrote something that wasn\u2019t perfectly suited to his voice, it was better for him to inhabit a song properly than anything.<\/p>\n The same could be said for how Don Henley approached his lyrics. Despite being two sides of the same coin in Eagles, he was always the more serious songwriter compared to Frey. There\u2019s a reason why the latter was singing the laid-back songs like \u2018Take It Easy\u2019 and \u2018Lyin\u2019 Eyes\u2019, but whenever Henley wrapped his golden vocals around a song, it usually had a great message behind it, whether that was \u2018Hotel California<\/a>\u2019 or some of his more serious solo hits like \u2018New York Minute\u2019.<\/p>\n As it turns out, Eagles may have broken up at the exact right time for their music to live on. They belonged on classic rock radio from the moment they started recording, and while both Frey and Henley made their respective stabs at MTV, there was a reason why the classic stations were still playing songs like \u2018Already Gone\u2019 and \u2018Desperado\u2019 the same way that pop stations played \u2018The Boys of Summer\u2019.<\/p>\n Both could adapt to the times, but it\u2019s not like they were in love with MTV. Frey could certainly handle it a little better, given his eventual turn as an actor in a handful of projects like Miami Vice and Jerry Maguire, but when he looked at some of his MTV contemporaries, all he could see was a bunch of slop that didn\u2019t really have that much heart behind it.<\/p>\n There were still geniuses in the world of rock and people who threw caution to the wind like Prince, but Frey would get bored listening to Lionel Richie, about which he said<\/a>, \u201cYou need meat to the matter something you can sink your teeth into instead of just dancing to it. Lionel Richie makes terrific records; they sound fantastic, but what do they mean? You call those lyrics? My first interest is checking out the lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n