Peaceful, Uneasy Feeling

Having raised vast sums for progressive candidates and causes over the decades, Henley despairs over current politics, but he has managed to find at least one strange bedfellow:

"I have a lot of respect for John McCain. I've met with him on various issues and testified before the Senate Commerce Committee that he chaired. He was very fair. I like the fact that he doesn't always go along with the extreme right wing of his party."

Which does sound strange, coming from the guy who co-wrote "Long Road Out of Eden," a 10-minute excoriation of imperialism from Julius Caesar to George W. Bush that is also highly listenable, a rare feat in the body of anti-war music inspired by Iraq.

"I didn't say I was going to vote for him," says Henley. "I just respect him as a human being."

Another rare feat of the Eagles' is that the four of them — Henley, Frey, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit — are all around 60, and they're still making vital, culturally resonant, new music that sounds just like the Eagles. Yes, the Eagles. One of rock's most contentiously dysfunctional families — who had been on and off the road playing their old hits since reuniting in 1994 — finally sat down and recorded new stuff. Their latest album, Long Road Out of Eden, includes 20 tracks of closely observed love songs (Frey and Schmit), mocking introspection (Walsh) and biting political and social commentaries (Henley), all delivered with the Eagles' unmistakable harmonies amid widely varying instrumental textures and haunting melodies. It's their first album of original music since 1979, and they're touring for as long as they feel like it with a three-hour show that highlights almost half the new album. Maybe they're a "heritage" act by sheer force of chronology, but there aren't many other heritage acts who can so flagrantly defy the actuarial tables for creativity.

"The album would have been better if we'd taken another six months," says Henley. "There are some weak spots. I still think it should have been a single album. But I lost that one. There were four or five more songs that were good but not finished. But we wanted to get it out for Christmas. Again, the dictates of business. Either Christmas, or they'd have to wait for the summer or even next fall to put it out. We're not getting any younger, so we decided to let it go. But I wasn't done."

Twenty songs, and he wasn't done?

"I'm still accused of perfectionism. There's no such thing as perfection. But I do think it's a good idea to strive for excellence and have a vision and go for it. This album is very good, but it could have been better. But that thing called democracy reared its head again. And here we are. But that's OK. I stewed about it for a while. But I'm over it now."

[Excerpt from Issue 1053 — May 29, 2008]