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The
Question Man Don Henley Writes Songs that Probe Serious Matters Detroit
Free Press Don
Henley’s music, as he sings in his new single, is a place where”;
happily ever after’ fails.” The
former Eagle doesn’t write easy ditties with warm, fuzzy endings. On
the three albums he’s released since his group splintered in 1981, his
hit songs have been about illiteracy ("Johnny Can’t Read”_, TV
sensationalism (“Dirty Laundry”), apathy (“All She Wants to Do is
Dance”), political recklessness (“Driving with Your Eyes Closed”)
and lack of accountability (“Sunset Grill”). And that’s not even
mentioning a basketful of particularly dire broken-heart songs. The
terrain is no smoother on his new album, “The End of the Innocence,”
as Henley rocks through bitter 10-song treatise on political and persona
disenchantment that focuses on the ecology, celebrity and former
President Ronald Reagan. “I
just write about things that I see and things that concern me,” the
42-year-old singer-drummer explained by phone from his manager’s Los
Angeles office. “I’m just trying to write what I think I know about.
If it concern other people, if it touches other people, that’s
great.” But, he
hurriedly added, his songs are merely observations. “I’m not the
answer man; I’m the question man,” he said. “That’s all I aspire
to do. I want people to look in the mirror and look around and try to be
aware of the things I’m writing about. I don’t want to preach; I’m
really very aware of being perceived as being on a soap box and
preaching.” Henley’s
road to “The End of the Innocence”—which follows the multi-million
selling “Building the Perfect Beast” by a whopping 4 1/2 years—was
itself a rocky path, and when the notoriously reticent star offers some
insight into his personal life during that time, it’s easy to
understand the new album’s somber tone. Henley’s
“Perfect Beast” tour coincided with the end of a five-year
relationship, a “particularly devastating” blow. Then, while on the
rebound, “I met Donna Rice and Fawn Hall, and that’s all I’m gonna
say about that,” he said. But
Henley noted that his role in Rice’s liaison with presidential
aspirant Gary Hart has been overstated. Yes, he hosted the New Year’s
Eve party where they met; no, he didn’t introduce them. Still,
his turbulent personal life had him reeling and watching TV wasn’t
exactly an escape. “I’m a news junkie,” said the native of Linden,
Texas, who moved during the late ‘60s to Los Angeles as a member of
the group Shiloh, forming the Eagles with Glenn Frey in 1971. “I watch
the news constantly. I keep CNN going all the time at home, and I always
watch the six o’clock network news. I read a few books, too, and
basically keep my eyes open. It keeps you aware of what kind of shape
the world’s in.” And as
the recipient of a daily pile of mail from environmental and
humanitarian groups he belongs to, Henley didn’t like what he saw. So
out came songs that railed against greed (“Gimme What You Got,”
“It Dirt Were Dollars”), celebrity (“Shangri-La”) and TV
evangelists (“Little Tin God”). Love takes a beating all over the
album, as does the American Dream. “O’ beautiful for specious
skies/But now those skies are threatening,” he sings in the title
track, a Top 20 hit. “The
American Dream has failed to materialize for people,” Henley said.
“Americans are still where they were eight years ago, despite
Reagan’s glossy rhetoric. A lot of people are worse off than they were
four or eight years ago. “The
big things affect the little things, and vice versa. It’s just the
precariousness of life now, the threat of nuclear holocaust, the threat
of rampant pollution, the threat of violence among ourselves and
minorities and our fellow man. That has a very deep and penetrating
effect on how we look at other people; people seem to be very suspicious
of each other nowadays, and because of that, things have become very
impersonal.” Henley
knows that he and his songs aren’t about to solve those problems, but
he thinks it’s worthwhile to at least call his fans’ attention to
them. “I
think eventually we will have to be bound together again,” he said.”
I do see it changing; I see a lot of young musicians and actors and kids
around me who are very aware and concerned, doing a little bit here, a
little bit there. “I
think things will come to such a state of crisis that we’ll have to
come to our senses. It just hasn’t gotten bad enough yet.” Until
that time, Henley plans to keep singing about the ills of the
world—“I don’t think I can knock off cute little love songs,” he
said. But he plans to keep doing it alone, answering the perfunctory
inquiry about the chance of an Eagles reunion with a firm “I seriously
doubt it.” In
fact, there’s no smooth flying in Eagles-ville these days. Henley is
angry at Joe Walsh, who’s on tour with Ringo Starr performing Eagles
songs—including “Desperado,” Which was recorded before he joined
the band. “He was never really keen on the Eagles,” Henley said.
“You read his interviews, and he comes off like he was doing us a
favor. I don’t think he has a right to go out and do those songs; let
him do his own songs.” Eagles
fans will, however, find a new group package in record racks later this
year, a retrospective from Elektra Records that Henley, Frey and Don
Felder grudgingly agreed to help put together. “There’s not great
outtakes or stuff lying around in vaults somewhere that would make this
record new and different.” Henley said. “But there’s nothing we
can do to stop them from putting it out.” A reunited Eagles, however, “wouldn’t be the same” according to Henley. “You really can’t go back and re-create that. Plus, I’ve really been enjoying my own albums. I’ve been doing this long enough that I’m starting to feel like an elder statesman…I’m starting to feel like I’ve doe a pretty good body of work, and that feels pretty good.”
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