Welcome to your life
There’s no turning back

You expect the hits, and he did "Heart Of The Matter", even a faithful "Hotel California" instead of the Spanish version the Eagles perform, despite the presence of a seven piece horn section, but some of the left turns were so mind-bending you wondered if this was the performer accused of being rigid, of having no sense of humor.

So glad we’ve almost made it
So sad they had to fade it
Everybody wants to rule the world

Yes, last night at the Greek Theatre Don Henley played that well-worn nugget from the foggy eighties, "Everybody Wants To Rule The World". Huh?

It has an unmistakable intro. The number is in our DNA. There was no irony, other than that which is embedded in the song itself. Henley performed this English nugget like he was fronting the best bar band in the world, like the show was all about roots as opposed to as a career retrospective, a dash for cash.

And there was the funk interlude. Laced with a tribute to Otis Redding, whose song Don said he used to play in the clubs.

And there were the new songs, that he discovered pushing the buttons on satellite radio, composed by the likes of Jeffrey Foucault and Eric Hutchinson.

But the highlight for me was Randy Newman’s "Guilty", whom Henley pronounced his favorite songwriter. Don sold it in a way such that I got insight I’ve never had before, even though I know every lick of Bonnie Raitt’s cover and the original. You could see the hangdog man at the door, and when Henley sang the last line, "It takes a whole lot of medicine for me to pretend that I’m somebody else"…whew! I could feel the self-hatred.

This was unexpected. Henley told us he was going to take some left turns. But just like a performer tells the assembled multitude he’s going to perform each and every hit the audience screams out and doesn’t, I didn’t expect it.

Yes, as Don sang, he couldn’t get enough of that funky stuff.

We saw this last year with Donald Fagen’s Dukes Of September entourage. Taking chances, having fun, creating something new.

Suddenly, after all the classic rockers have decided to play the hits and nothing but, there’s a small coterie saying NO!

I think of Don Henley as an erudite saver of Walden Woods, a political commentator, a high class agitator. But last night I saw who he truly was.

A musician.

All the detritus was scrubbed away, only the essence shined. What a surprise!