Defending the indefensible: Don Henley

oh come on, you guys! desperado!? right? right.

Dirty Laundry is a good jam

Yeah, it really is.

i used to have the 7" of this:

I once had an argument with the guitarist in my band on a long road trip about whether the Henley song was called 'Boys of Summer' (my claim) or 'Poisoned Summer' (his claim). We even wagered $10 on it. I pretended to be hesitant when making the wager because I really wanted to win, because he was such a c*nt. So I went, 'Er, er, alright, $10'. He then said words to the following effect:

'See, moley, that's the difference between you and me. You'll always lose bets because you're jewish, you're nervous. That's why jews will never be good poker players. You jews don't have the pokerfaces to win on a bet like this, cos you're too neurotic. You give yourselves away'.

I made him pay the $10. The only real issue was what nickname to give him from that point on. The singer and I couldn't decide between 'Pokerface' and 'Poisoned Summer'. In the end we just sacked him.

!

"I made him pay the $10."

insert jewish joke here instead.

Every Don Henley solo album means fewer other Eagles were involved.

I read the Don Felder book about his days in the Eagles. I don't like their music, but I figured there would be some good dirt in there. It was pretty good, but Frey comes across as an even bigger asshole than Henley, if that's possible.

hope this isn't too tacky, but i can't let his words go to waste: http://tinyurl.com/cc6wrh

Ah, yes — Mr. Christgau, the self-proclaimed “Dean of American Rock Critics.” I have never found anything in his work that was constructive or illuminating. His rants are mean-spirited, pretentious drivel that often miss the mark entirely. His tastes are narrow, his views myopic and he writes primarily to impress other critics rather than to educate or enlighten the average listener. The guy is so caught up in his own prejudices that he usually can’t see the forest for the trees and his toxic screeds devolve into nonsense — like the one above, which, I assume, is supposed to be some kind of clever, semantical wordplay, but is so clichéd and daffy that it’s meaningless. Christgau is like the nutty, eccentric professor who tries hard to be hip, but can never get there because he is locked in the ivory tower of his pedantry. Because he’s so gone, so deranged, I could no more be offended by him than by a besotted bum who cursed at me on the street. As that old philosopher Joe Walsh once said, “You Can’t Argue With a Sick Mind.”

I have a special love of "The End of The Innocence" because it came out when I graduated from high school, and it seemed to fit that feeling of graduating. Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...he came from like very near my hometown...I think he recorded something very near my hometown. Yeah, he had some video with a bunch of basketball players from there or something. Not sure I really want to remember the details, but you know...

I only get to have three pieces of pride for my small hometown and they are:
1) Dave Matthews Band
2) Happy Flowers
3) Bruce Hornsby

That's it. That's all I get. I'll take the abuse, that's fine, but not unless you know Happy Flowers.

The line "Oh beautiful for spacious skies/Now those skies are threatening" is absolute shit.

i prefer "heart of the matter" ...

did Hornsby play the piano for the End of the Innocence? maybe my favourite thing he's ever done...

also I just got kicked in the stomach by "Last Worthless Evening"...

Much as I hate the smugness of the lyrics, "All She Wants To Do is Dance" is one helluva electro-groove.

From Wikipedia:

"The End of the Innocence" was the lead single and title song from Don Henley's third solo studio album, The End of the Innocence, in 1989. The song was written by Bruce Hornsby, with lyrics added by Henley, and both perform the song live in their respective concerts. The Henley version became his fifth solo Top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100, which is more than any of the other Eagles members, peaking at number 8. It also became his fourth number 1 single on the Mainstream Rock chart.

There are two political comments in the video by Henley. At the line "they're beating plowshares into swords, for the tired old man that we elected king", it shows a series of posters of President Ronald Reagan, and at the line "armchair warriors often fail" it shows a TV set showing scenes of the congressional testimony of Oliver North.

After George H. W. Bush became president, instead of the lyric "they're beating plowshares into swords, for the tired old man that we elected king" Bruce Hornsby began singing his version with the line " for the tired old man that is no longer king" since Reagan was out of office.

"The End of the Innocence" excerpt
Play sound
From the album The End of the Innocence. This sample includes a portion of chorus.
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

The music video for the song was directed by future film director, David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) and earned Henley an MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video in 1990.

Don't really care about "All She Wants To Do Is Dance", but I haven't heard "Last Worthless Evening" in quite awhile, Drugs A. Money. Will listen again soon.

In other news, Alfred, I did end up downloading that Bryan Ferry song though about dance...what was it..."Don't Stop The Dance", yeah I did get that one on my iPod and enjoyed it very much. Thanks.

i dont know how good of a song LWE really is Bimble...it fits in with certain weird situations I am involved with right now...but the only reason I remember it is bcz it was on the first VH1 top 20 video countdown I ever watched...another song on that: Eric Clapton's "Pretending"

Eric Clapton can suck my...

Don't worry I'll be disappointed in LWE, Drugs. If I am, I promise I won't blame you. :)

Also let's not forget: John Peel called Eric Clapton a "nincompoop"

Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...Also the guy who played piano...Bruce Hornsby...

: )

LOLOLOLOL

80s Don Henley--all synthed out, political and super commercial--is a deeply weird aesthetic.

The song Building The Perfect Beast may be the most 80s sounding song ever recorded. But I have a soft spot for that record, I still love it. First one has some good songs too.

Building The Perfect Beast is a very defendable album, but I'm listening to The End of the Innocence and let me just observe:

5. "New York Minute" - 6:36

That's a pretty good depiction of what's wrong with this album.

I agree re Building The Perfect Beast; I'm fond of the less ambitious album tracks like "You Can't Make Love." Also: seek a cut found only on the Vision Quest soundtrack called "She's On the Zoom," a pretty good old-fart-goes-New-Wave track.

There's a lot going on in the low-end of "How Bad Do You Want It", metallic-sounding synth bass bits. Henley doesn't have enough sass in his vocals to pull this song off, though; the backup singers don't help. Axl, on "I Will Not Go Quietly", does help.

I will look out for the Vision Quest thing!

haha apparently Christgau already made my "New York Minute" joke years ago.

tha other Henley thread forced me to pick up a used copy of BtPB and i have to say "A month of Sundays" - holy crap what a song! and Don does a nice job of it, too. was listening to it on repeat for most of last week

Yeah, that album is pretty good -- I got a used copy a couple of years ago. "You Can't Make Love" is a nice one; it reminds me of Zevon's work from this period.

Ha -- and I said so in one of the last revivals.

And this is finally on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6HOqur1IHA

pick up a used copy of BtPB and i have to say "A month of Sundays" - holy crap what a song

Which wasn't even on the (actual, original, vinyl) album, fwiw. (Was just the B-side of the "Boys Of Summer" 45. Guessing it wound up showing up on a CD reissue, though?)

re: " A month of Sundays"- friend o' mine told me it was on the original cassette and cd, but not vinyl. (I don't see a reissue listed anywhere for anybody BtPB, which seems odd) This song seems like it would've made a **killer** Springsteen tune. "you can't make love" is indeed great, too, but the former has the power to paralyze me - (akin to the "desperado" episode of Seinfeld)

A Month of Sundays...wasn't even on the (actual, original, vinyl) album, fwiw. (Was just the B-side of the "Boys Of Summer" 45. Guessing it wound up showing up on a CD reissue, though?)

It was on the cassette.

"All She Wants To Do Is Dance" is a weird song. The music is all Weekend at Bernies sounding especially with the title and chorus, but then he goes all Iran-Contra in the verses. At least with say Bruce Cockburn, you are going to get an Iran-Contra sounding song to go with an Iran-Contra lyric you know.

"Boys of Summer/A Month of Sundays" charted on the P&J poll as a double-sided single, fyi.

Don Henley of the Eagles accuses Frank Ocean of ‘stealing’ his song.
4 DAYS AGO JUNE 02, 2014 2:14PM

ROCK legend Don Henley has slapped down hipster singer Frank Ocean for 'stealing’ the Eagles' Hotel California and has told him to get his own ideas.

Ocean sampled of the entire 1977 classic - minus the lyrics - for his song American Wedding. However Ocean sings his own brand new lyrics over the million-selling rock anthem.
Henley refused to allow Ocean to release the track, which has since leaked online.

I heard it," Henley said of American Wedding. "I was not impressed. He needs to come up with his own ideas and stop stealing stuff from already established works."

Ocean wrote on his Tumblr that Henley was "apparently intimidated by my rendition of Hotel California" and "threatened to sue if I perform it again."

Henley admitted his lawyers were involved.

"Mr. Ocean doesn't seem to understand US copyright law. Anyone who knows anything should know you cannot take a master track of a recording and write another song over the top of it. You just can't do that. You can call it a tribute or whatever you want to call it, but it's against the law. That's a problem with some of the younger generation, they don't understand the concept of intellectual property and copyright."

"(Mr. Ocean) was quite arrogant about it," Henley said. "We tried to approach him calmly to talk reason to him via his managers and his attorneys and he wouldn't listen. So finally we threatened to bring legal action against him. He was clearly in the wrong. I wouldn't dream of doing something like that. What kind of ego is that? I don't understand it.”

Henley also nixed a remake of his solo hit "The End of the Innocence" by US band Okkervil River, who had planned to release it online for free.

Okkervil River singer Will Sheff told The Music they "sincerely" loved the song and said Henley was an "old-fashioned guy who doesn't understand...it's not like I was making money, I figure that's all he f---ing cares about.

"It's not like I was making money off it, but he still made me take it down."

Henley said he was more concerned by the fact they altered his original lyrics.

"They don't understand the law either," Henley said. "You can't re-write the lyrics to somebody else's songs and record it and put it on the internet. I'm sorry, but it wasn't an improvement. We were not impressed. So we simply had our legal team tell them to take it down and they got all huffy about it.

"It's a different mindset. I don't know how they'd react if I took one of their songs and re-wrote the lyrics and recorded it, I don't know if they'd like that. Maybe they wouldn't care but I care. We work really really hard on our material. We spend months writing it and years recording it. You don't go into a museum and paint a moustache on somebody else's painting. Nobody would think of doing that.”

Henley said he did not see either remake as a tribute "If I were going to do something like that (as a tribute ) I'd get permission first. If you respect somebody you ask their permission to diddle around with their work. You don't just go and do it."

Henley has no problem with Eagles songs being covered by other artists, the most recent high profile cover was Michael Buble’s remake of Heartache Tonight.

"You can record anyone's song you like," Henley said. "It's called a compulsory license. That's not what Mr. Ocean nor Okkervil River did. They took the song and they changed it. they put their own stuff on it. Michael Buble did a totally legal cover, that's standard procedure.”

Frank Ocean has been contacted for comment via his Australian record company, Universal.

The Eagles tour Australia in February/March next year.

http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/music/don-henley-of-the-eagles-accuses-frank-ocean-of-stealing-his-song/story-e6frfn09-1226941446957

Oh (Well?) yeah, we've been having fun with that over at A Good Day In Hell - The Official ILM Track-By-Track EAGLES Listening Thread

Thanks

don henley is NOT impressed

Well, no

Henley's mind might be blown when he becomes familiar with the concept of interpolations

is the song literally just frank ocean singing a new melody over the hotel california backing track?

yes. it's embarassingly bad.

btw don henley looking a lot like mike love these days

http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/ln/20130425/250413_sundance_screening_eagles_3/don-henley-eagles-sundance-london-history-of-the_3628313.jpg