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CONTENTS
shield. fhe radio playi an hour of nothing but in the passenger seat talks Eagles, and the woman ln to balance the mirror / tazor tries as she career abJut her UlJe, tequita, sunglasses, etc' Into overdrive' onto the pacific Coast Flighlway, 1rP to Malibu, the sun dying off the coast and seagulls screaming overhead...
rrLv " qJ / Monica{reeway' trtc Santa down the Speeolng qowrl I'm speeding o I'm 'Jdlrta rvruruLs watching unoi-hut smogset burn across the wind-

Sorry, wrong decade. "Those days are gone

forever," says Don Henlev in "Bovs Of Summer." Diive by ihe Troubador-rr none of the old faces.

Turn on the radio

no Check California sound.

no cocaine. the mirror The former Eagle has uP-

dated both the sound

and vision of that quintes-

sential California band, leaving behind a life irr the fast lane that now amounts to nostalgia. In this issue's cover 'storY, childbandmates' chrld^l.l handmatesHenlev's views - on LA, old career a and road, the on n"oa i" Texas, adult tife emotions conflicting same the convey of his own
,r- -.r -:--^

Li-

- a,rvronl

-efprial

itq dpnth,

BF

Genersl PUBLIC
---&ll&boa'4to
LETTERS

DEPARTMENTS
6

NrwsnEnrs Vrsuntsr DrREcroR MARK RYDELL olJ "THr RIVER" INDUSTRY UppatE' "Vrpro 22" TAKES oN MTV VrDEo NorEs STUDTo PnoPtlrs
NIGHTBEAT oN THE RISE"'FIsHBoNE"

REvrsws

10
'

18 42 43 44 47

'

'"
A
1985

58
1

Contents and Couer Photos: Robert M|theu

Next Issue: March

Available at:

Music MaSazin' is Pubrished rt I%5, whu)e No 200, aAM' The Califortlia ;l'MiilJ'F;;.* si. o"krand' cA e460e Phone (ar5) 652-3810 Los An8ebs o$rce: il';;i; ;;'ic:;;;.';"lirii'a'iils (,r,1{l'l'ii: iJd;jl"ld;il':fii;lfi;"i, ia rjiijzsiph" 1^y.".":.i-:::,iT 9";:'s.:1,-'.11lii:l g40 surra(e m.r h'

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A Desperado Comes To His Senses

By Bill Forman
A
familiariW with three American

the release of Hotel Califomia. The

familv olaved together for the sake of ot * iuit itrita, Tn" less gifted Lorrg Run, which had its moments, but not enouqh of them. The final break-uP

mvths is helbful in attemPting to unddrstand Don HenleY. First there's the California Dream, its neon stars and (smog-induced) flaming sunsets enough to make a Young drumer

She Wants To Do Is Dance," and assembling a band for a late sPring tour

supporring the Building The Perferl Eeist album. The record, HenleY's
second, is certainly the most satisfying effort from an ex-Eagle, a work of measured bnlliance that draws upon passion, obsession, irony and celeb;ation to create a world dangerously close to our own. The album's tales of thwarted love, hesitant ideals and tourists in politically uncertain lands

left Fenley disoriented,

Ieavihis

Texas farm town behind'

Then the CowboY MYth, its desP-eradoes and cheatin' women trailing The Eagles long after the grouP abandon"ed thern-as images. And finallv the adolescent fantasy itself, Roci< and Roll, its impersonal stadiums and trashed hotellooms offering a stranqe rendition of etemal youth' Heniev's phenomenal success with The Eagies can be attributed to the interactio-n of these three myths, but other parts of the picture resist easy analvsis. As singei, songwriter and

Glenn Friy, and uncertain of

divorced From longtime songwriting partner

his

abilities as a solo artist. "It was a very lonely feeling," admits the 37-year' old irtist, dressed comfortablY in black sweatshirt, black ieans and hand-stitched boots, seated less comfortably on the edge of a couch in a

convey an underlying struggle

be-

tween technology and individualism

druirmer, Henley always seemed to reDresent the dirker side of The

Ea'gles, unwilling to settle for the laid baik congeniality of "Take It Easy" oi the break-neck sliallowness of "Life In The Fast Lane." Though he became a millionaire before age 30, he also

small ilffice at the Wamer Brothers comolex in Burbank. "There was a certa'in securitv in the band, even with the conflict. Vou had five other guys to bounce things off of, and GIem and I were partners. t thought, well, I'd better get myself another Partner
who plays guitar. scotch and stuff for a couple of years

(or is it romanticism?), matched bY the clash between high tech instrumentation and Henley's impassioned
vocals.

The formula is most striking on "sunset Grill," a gloribusiY moodY ode to Los Angeles. The track, its

"So, vou know, I drank a lot of

imag,ery evocative to the Point of being cinematic, is the direct descendant

there," he says with a laugh You

earned an ulcer in tfie Process, and it's anyone's guess which he Prides

*ore. person, HenleY's eyes aren't as haunted as. say, Lindsay Bucking-

i.

ham's in the "Go Insane" video, but the piercing gaze under the ever-furro*^ed bro* conveys an agitated sense of disbelief nonetheless. That almost eerie, fixed stare is captured well bv the Pre-teen who PlaYs the young'Don HenleY in the "BoYs Of Su-me." video, a detail typicalof the artist's arid, frequently overlooked
sense of humor.

wouldn't call ioyous, "trying to sort it all out." Henley's post-Eagles depression was deepened bY a drug anest under circumitances that would have made a USA TodaY editor's daY, had thev been around back then. "Obviouslv l've used drugs off and on for a

of-Eagles songs like "Hotel California" Jnd "Sad Cafe." and Henley is planning to use it as the basis for a 20-

minirte video. This time out, our

long time now," he saYs when the topic shifts to Phamacology. "But l've never allowed them to make me
non-productive or counter-productive or anv of that stuff. I kncu when l'm turniig into somebody else . . usuallv. Nbt all the time. But drugs are pliying less and less a part in my life. ih6y bore me. I've 8ot too much to

hero's promise to his girlin the song's "Someday soon we're bridge - in that car dnd get outtd gonna get is betrayed in the final verse: here" - we'll leave come springtime/ "Maybe Meairwhile have another beer/ What

would we do without all these jerks anvway?/ Besides, all our friends are heie/ Down at the Sunset Grill."
Henley describes it as his approachavoidance conflict with LA, the bittersweet realization that the best and worst scenes of his bfe were staged here. A similar conflict arises when discussing his past. "I refuse to get trapped in the business of nostalgra and saying, 'BoY, those were the Sood

Henley's 30th bhthdaY coincided

do."

met of The Eagles' career, following

with the height and imminent Plum-

Among the Priorities on the HenleY agenda a*re a rbmix and video for "All

24

FE8RUARYI5,1985/BAM

Henley's new LP is certainly the most satisfying effort from an ex-Eaglle, a work of measured brilliance that draws upon passion, obsession, irony and celebration to create a world dangerously close to our own.
FEBRUARY,I5,1985,/SAM 25

I
. ol' days, weren't they? That Califomia sound and you and Jackson and Linda and all that stuf f' . . I mean, you t'uck! know? Is life supposed to stop when vou hit 30?" ' Just call Don a sentimental fool. l'Pe-oplg have this tendency to iook back. The past always lookjrosy. It,s a.lways bathed in a golden tight. And the tuture is always sort of ilark and uncertain. But I'm really looking forward to it." LA is, of course, no place for nostalgia. .The scene changes monthly, trends rise and fall, and people like io

a dream about tust going into ranching some day ... farming,
have-

i
these songs because I'm concemed about all the messes in the world. "I write those kinda sonqs because I

somethiig like that. Living the agra?ian myth, the country life, being the

out, and I thoueht it wirs Pretty -

childish."
If

genu-eman tarmer. I got all this property_I've purchased waiting until I get readv to do that-" Th'at time nearly came after The Eagles'demise. Th'e ealy goals, after all, had been achieveb,- and the

don't like it, I'm iorry. No, Irm not

give a shit," he says. ,,An? if people

group's final years were less than happy. "We spent two miserable

years making The Long Rnn, which is obviously not as good,-as Hotet Califor

playing with other ex-Tenni in the band Sl.iloh, to tou with a young Linda Ronstadt. "It feels furiny t6 drive by there and see that it,s changed so much," says Henley of "Doug Weston's got to make a living, I guess. It never oicuned to me that'it would change that way, but that,s the way it goes. There's always Tana,s restaurant next door. I aiways go there to be near the Troubadou birt not in it. Same waiters we had in the late '60s, early '70s, you know, just like family. Food's good. It's as much
the Sad Cafe as the Troubadour is.', The idsa ot family rs an rmportant one to HenJey, an onJy child whose father, a farmer and auto parts store owner, died around the time "Witchy

largely oblivious to the club,s reputation as the hangout where a yorithful Glenn Frey recmited HenJey, then

e-rplain what they've 'doie lately. Clubs open and tlose. The heaiy metal kids at the Troubadour are

cheerful: "No, it wasn't fun at all. It was recorded too, and you wouldn't believe what went on onstage. That was our last gig. Period." Bandmembers proceeded to tum
down offers to reunite at the US Festi-

efit, particularly

make." Nor were the band's final gigs, including an A-lan Ganston ben-

/ld and was not very much fun

to

women relate to each other in the way they do, has something to do with thl way the rest of the wo-rld is. The precariousness of the world situation, the tenuousness of life in general right now. 50 I try to mix that stuff together in songs. I tried to do it in ,Boys Of Summer,' in 'The Long Way tiome,

think the reason that the divorce rate is so high, and the reason men and

commentary. "l think love and politics and theway the world is all come together at some point," he says. ,,1

ent for mixing personal and

sofry." Henley's recent work shows a talsocial

the Santa Monica Boulevard ilub.

peace and good vibrations on the beaches and in their rooms, The .Eagles came west with a discontented ambition their hometowns couldn't
accommodate. That edge showed in their music, and also insured that there would always be something more to prove. "There was a time," Henley recal.ls, "a couple, three years ago,- when I thought about quitting. But, ah hell, we used to think about it every tine we finished an album. We'd be so exhausted and pissed off at each other that we would all just decide to quit. But it was just bullshit. We weren't really serious." _ And so the life of the gentleman tarmer was postponed for a solo album, I Can't Stan'J Sti/I, an equal mixture of bitter socral courmentary and tender ballads which comes aaoss as fairly cathartic. "As soon as I got done," he recalls, "I went to the ranch in Colorado, and I sat there for six months and recuperated." Henley's second solo effort is less

to record one last song for a second greatest hits LP. But if Henley coutd get by without The Eagles, could he also get by without the record ind ustry? Though natural-bom Californians like the Beach Boys couJd find

val, as well as record company pleas

GriU.' I sort of see things as one big thing. I sort of have a co"nceptual wai oflooking at things. It's from going tir
college, I guess.'

on the Iast albm, and in

,Sunset

"l refuse to get trapped in the business of nostalgia and

saying, 'Boy, those were the good ol' days, weren't thef That California
sound and you and Jackson

I I asked me what I thought about a[ Ihe I opposition we got about 'Lyin' Eyes,' I which I thought was a really -silly I question. Beca"use there are thrJe miJ- | e;rable_people in 'Lyin' Eyes,'and no I one of them is anv more euiltv than t the rest of them. And it's iist astory, I for Christ's sake, Just [ke every I episode of Dynasty oi Dallas is a storj. I Nobody writes in and savs, 'Whv aie I you doing this to women'onDynistv?' I it's a fucljng story, for ChristYs safe, I it's not my philosophy of life. I'm a I storyteller. Every song I tell is not I perdonal experiehce aid not neces- t iarily the tnith." il One song that comes close to the I truth, in H6nlev's eves. is "A Month I Of Sundays,"'aborit tire demise of I America's imall famer. Henlev is do- | J-.il fu.-, I "Thegov- I ernment's not helping much anv- I more," savs ttenlerl. 'ft's sivine til | breaks to'these big .o.po.itu fui*r, I agribusiness, and the small mvs are I u, the rate of abJui 200 a f,,6","Ot,yndu. I "A Month Of Srmdavs" is the B-side I of "Boys Of Summer,i and is also in- | cluded on the cassette version of Per- I fecl Beast. "[t's more old fashioned I production-wise than the rest of the I iecord," savs Henlev. "It sounds like I a sbng The Band rJoutd have done, I and iis right in the middle of side I two, whicli'is filled with all this tech- I ff ':8J#'rll'IT:'.,3'ii *xi'*:?: il talking Sbout is sort of the il -what's word?"-an anachronism. So the sons I "tiltil'"i?r,rn, to get ir on tt".", u"l I cause Kooch couldn't relate to it, He's I from Larchmont, New York." Koo.n, . I a.k.a. Danny Kortchmar, has to some I extent taken over Glenn Frev's role as I Henley's songwriting purt u^J I "., also contributes two of his own sones F ("All She Wants To Do ls Dance" an'd I "You're Not Drinkine Enoush") to I Perfect Beast. "Glenn aid I unol;.a " I bit too much about this woid or that I word," recalls Henlev. "We were a bit il hard on ourselves . ]. on each other- I much have K1i,B3lll;sl,prettv
ganization that saves
irom goingoutofbusiness.
Those roles, though not written

"somebodv asked me the other riight in a raiio interoiew, some girl

The Eagles as a whole got their share I ofcriticism fora tendenry toattribute d demonic tendencies to the women in ; their songs. "We were a little bit im- I mature in The Eagles about women I and love and relationships," Henlev I admits, "but I don't thini tirat anv rif I the songs could be called vicioui or I brutal oi anything like that. I alwavs I wondered *hv lie were sineled olt I for that, becadse I never thoisht we I were thatbadaboutit. " I

Walsh lived out rock and roll,s I promise of perpefual adolescence, I

l*T$.jli;ffiqi.%H:t

:".

mother continues to live in the fairly impoverished Linden, Texas, wherb wealthiest woman in town.
she's become, thanks to her son, the "I try to take her on a trip every year," he siys.

Woman" was on the charts. Hi!

*: I

"l

every couple of years and

somewhere. Get her a new Cadillac

take her to'Vegai'or Hawaii'or

happy. I offer to get her a Mercedes, but she'd rather have a Cadi.llac. lt,s still the symbol of success in Texas."

she,s

when I get home," he says. "l tend to stay in the house or out on the fam. Just stayin' with Mom. And we go out to the farm and see how the catlle are doing and see if the well water is okay. And I go and visit my father's grave. And that's about it. I don't see inv of the people I went to high school with, because a couple of them I - there'sthe like to see-but rest I don't have much in common with. I don't really give a damn whether I see them or

mile trek to the nearest town with a bar, the oddly named Uncertain, Texas. Henley's visits home are not entirely pleasant reminders of his past. "The whole fuckin' town knows

town is on the other side of the tracks. "I knew since I was 15 years old that I was gonna be famous, that I was gonna make it," he recalls. "I was jusione of those people insane enough to not have any doubts about it." Most of Linden's population of 2000 never left, unless it was to make the 15

for a young musician whose entire

Success could become an obsession

obvious in its anger and also less specific in its tarfets. "l'm not maybe-as angry as I was during the

and Linda ..."'

of Henley the press has caused some initition. "He made some statements about some of his antics on the road realJy pissing me off," Henley comments, t'*hen
characterization
fact I wasn't piying any attention to what he was doing on the road. He was making me out to be some kind of schoolmam or chaperone, and I was busy with other problems. I wasn't watching him. Although he did do a lot of destructive things that were stupid. Like tearing up hotel rooms and having to pay for them to the tune of thousands of dollars is pretty silly." Did he really take a chiinsaw with him on the road? "He did once or twice. Most of his legend looms larger than it actually was. Frey and I made him stop that shit eventually. There wereni any fucking hotels we could stay in. W-e were gonna have to start camping

first album, but I'm stiU angry about a lot of things. ['m trying to leam to live with that anger. I think the purpose of making records or making art, if you want to call rock and roLl art, is to mirror your times and to point out what you see. I like a love song as nuch as anybody else, but there are other things involved." Judging from recent output, Hendisagree. "Glenn is consciously going that way because I'm going this way," says Henley. "And those are our personalities. I mean, Glenn didn't want to think about those things anymore. He wanted to have a good time and enioy himself. Thinking about social issues and things that are wrong in the world and war and poverty lnd star-

is former

Probably less conceptual in outlook Eagle Joe Walsh, whose

in

li

Iey's old partner would

in

not."

But though he invokes Paul Simon's "nothin' but the dead and dyin"'line to describe his little town,
fa miliar to an artist whose father and father's father were both farmers. "l

Linden does represent still another American myth in Henley's life, one

vation and all those things, doesn't mean that I'm miserable. I don't lose sleep over it at night, i don't get up in the morning thinking, 'Oh God, it's

awful.'l'hat is not the way my life is. My life is reasonably happy and joyous, but I feel it necessary to write

28

FIBRUARYI5,I985/BAM

I ;X"#il"":l3Jl';,'"'^T'H: I il;;'d, ;lilE::,::"-,ii:i;,1;.:'i I

:iffi:*i':$x::txnT';tflitff
li:."'x''

ment fairlv develop6d musical trjcks provided lry Kortcirmar. "l'll put it in "l"""i"f#"y:l5r,ffI"lg

:3*lI

! I
I

tarist/synthesist Mike Campbell), I

drove up to Zuma and sat there on the
beach.

"That's the way 'Hotel Califomia' was written. Don Felder gave me a cassette with seven pieces of music on it, and that was the one I liked. I like writing that way,. though it's not the way people think of two guys writing, sitting around together with guitars, sweating it out." Nor are Henley and Kortchmar, a drummer and ex-drummer respectively, inclined to compose on guitar
these days anyway. Though not quite

Depeche Mode, Perfect Bedsl swims in synthesizers and drum machines, a departure from The Eagles sound that may have swayed further than Henley expected. "Kooch and I tend to

write on synthesizers more these days than guitar or piano. Next album, I think I might get back to a more organic approach."

But first, there's the task of packing and DX7's and hitting the roacl. Asked if his own shows will be more spontaneous than Eagles gigs (known for perfectionist renditions just like on the radio), Henley responds, "l don't know. I mean, yes/ I'd likf to try to change things a little bit every night to keep it fresh. On the other hand, I'm the kind of person who can stand a lot

up the Linn drums, Fairlights

of monotony. I can sing the

years.

thing over and over again, and

same be

happy to do it, and not be tired ofit for

"And I'm sure they'll want to hear a couple of old Eagles songs, and I'll do l/rose, you know, whether I want to or not. I'll do 'em, because the customer is always right." Not having toured since The Eagles, Henley recognizes the difference between composing on the freeway and
performing

in front of a hall. "I've

been studying mime, and I'm going to study some African and Latin dance

and try to get comfortable with my

body," says Henley, who won't be behind the drums this time. "I'll stand out front and probably play rhythm guitar, maybe some percussion. l'll be all right, I'll do it."

At 37, Henley may not b taking it easy, but he is settling down somewhat. He cites Jagger & Company as proof that rock and roll doesn't have to be a young man's game, but the Iifestyle has changed. "If you're getting toward 40like I am, you iust can't do what you used to do. i'm lucky to be in as good a shape as I am, after what I've done to myself. And so is Kooch and most of the other people I

Though Henley is engaged, he wants to build up his career as a solo artist before starting a family of his own. "l see a lot of people bringing up kids wrong, and I don't want to do it that way," he says. "My usual answer is I'll have a kid when I grow up, but that's a joke. We'll get around to it in
the next three or four yems." Perhaps. But other goals beckon, including the possible creation of another semi-democratic band along the lines of The Eagles. The rock and roll myth lives on as Henley speculates about joining forces with Lindsay Buckingham, Danny Kortchmar

know."

and others, And who would those

couple

others be? Henley grins. "We'll see what groups break up in the next

years." t]

Photo: Robert Mqtheu

FEBRUAPYI5.I985lBAM 29