Tom Rush screwed up. He sent this Vimeo link in his weekly Patreon missive, which means you can see it until he takes it down, not that I’d advise him to.

Patreon is good if you’re not looking to grow, if you want to service your hard core audience, which can’t get enough of you and is willing to support you. As for growth, Tom just turned 80, fifty years ago we thought you’d be dead by then, but now Ringo is 80, and McCartney is on the verge, and once when I asked Tom about getting older, what it all means, what choices you should make, he told me you’ve got no choice but to keep doing what you do, in his case making music.

I can’t say it felt like a July 4th weekend to me. I didn’t go anywhere, I didn’t see anybody, on Thursday I’m getting another blood test to see if I’ve got any B-cells, if so, I can get the vaccine again. The yin and the yang are…my skin is really good, which would tend to indicate I don’t have many B-cells, but I’ll see.

Anyway, by time I hit Friday afternoon I’m burnt, I recede, you see I lead a double life, one of business person and one of writer. Most people sit in front of the computer all day long, fielding e-mail, they jump from phone call to phone call, but if I do that I can’t write, and first and foremost I’m a writer. During the week I’m always anxious someone is going to be looking for me, something important is happening, so I can’t really relax and get into the groove of writing until about 11 PM, when I’m calm and relaxed and the ideas start to flow, in between the window of e-mail from the U.S. and the rest of the world. But if I write then I don’t get to sleep until the wee hours, and if I do I don’t sleep well, the next day is sacrificed. Hell, I wrote the other day and was fried for hours and hours even though it was just a list of Don Henley’s music. And it’s constantly frustrating, writing is about zing, the little something extra the audience resonates with, and you can only get that when you’re inspired, which for me happens mostly late at night.

But this afternoon…

I just went through a hundred plus e-mails, I save the important ones for last, and when I finally addressed the one from Tom I saw he was singing “Merrimack County,” which I wanted to hear, not that I expected to be…

Taken away.

That’s the experience, when you hear a record and you’re released, set free from the real world. You’re just ambling along, thinking about your troubles, what you’ve got to do, what you don’t want to do, and then a song starts to play and that all fades away.

That’s why I go to the show. Others go to hang out, feel part of the crowd, to party, but never me, I want to commune with the music, connect with the band, levitate even though I’m sitting in a seat, and I’ve always preferred sitting, giving the music respect, standing you’re always worried about getting tired, jockeying for position, music is best when you’re relaxed and open.

“Way up north by the icebound ocean

I was born I was born

Way up north in the Merrimack county

That’s my home that’s my home”

I wasn’t born way up north, but that’s where my heart is, in the country. I love the city, for the anonymity, the availability of everything, but there’s a freedom in the country, it’s just you and the land, you don’t feel like you’re in a Dodgem, it’s just you, the landscape and your thoughts, you’re still, but you’re fully alive. I know the feeling, but I can’t always get there, Tom Rush brought me there today.

All of a sudden everything fell away, it was just me and the music, the feeling, and I haven’t had that feeling for so long. You know, the feeling where you’re at a show and the music is more important than the badge of honor of being there, when your whole life is set in relief.

Now the truth is “Merrimack County” wasn’t a hit even when it was released back in 1970, the folk/troubadour sound was then at its peak, but it never goes completely away, it’s the essence, just a guitar and a voice, that’s all you really need, and if you can make it that way, you can make it any day anywhere.

You think you’ve lost yourself, you’re far away from your roots, and then you hear a song and you’re right back where you belong, comfortable, you’re in touch with your identity, you’re the same as you ever were and it feels good, because in truth we live alone in our own minds and the key is to feel comfortable there, and it’s music that calms us, makes us feel rooted and powerful in our identity.

Who even knows if I’ll get back to Merrimack County. But it’s not the place, but a state of mind, and every once in a while you’re brought right back to where you belong when you least expect it and it feels so good, it’s precious but you want to tell everybody about it, like today, when I heard Tom Rush perform “Merrimack County.”

Spotify Playlist: https://spoti.fi/2UsHOVv

1. CAPTAIN FANTASTIC AND THE BROWN DIRT COWBOY

Elton John

“Tell Me When the Whistle Blows”

The first album to enter the chart at #1, pre-Soundscan, back in the days of the manipulated chart. This was unheard of, you worked your way up the chart and reigned. “Captain Fantastic” is most certainly an album, with only one single, “Someone Saved My Life Tonight,” a ballad unlike so much of the LP. For me, it’s all about the first side, containing tracks nobody talks about anymore, like this. “Tell Me When the Whistle Blows” has a swagger, that makes it, Elton’s spitting the lyrics like he means them.

2. VENUS AND MARS

Wings

“Letting Go”

“Ah, she looks like snow

I want to put her in a Broadway show”

Never talked about anymore, “Venus and Mars” was a masterful follow-up to the comeback breakthrough, “Band on the Run.” “Letting Go” is my favorite track, this is rock before rock became something else, when power with melody was still acceptable.

“Medicine Jar”

Written (with Colin Allen) and sung by Jimmy McCulloch from Thunderclap Newman.

“What’s wrong with you

I wish I knew

You say time will tell

I hope that’s true

There’s more to life than blues and reds

I say I know how you feel

Now your friends are dead

Dead on your feet you won’t get far

If you keep on sticking your hand

In the medicine jar”

Words Jimmy himself did not heed, he died three years later as a result of heart failure caused by morphine and alcohol.

3. ONE OF THESE NIGHTS

Eagles

The song “One of These Nights” was all over the radio, this was a harder Eagles and over the summer they became the biggest act in the land, setting up expectations for “Hotel California,” which was a great leap forward, they delivered.

The ballads “Lyin’ Eyes” and “Take It to the Limit” followed up the #1 title track single, but no one listening thought the Eagles were wimpy.

The surprise, the track that still titillates me today, that brings me back to that era, is Bernie Leadon’s “Journey of the Sorcerer,” a six and a half minute journey, that had you grooving along and contemplating your life.

10. GORILLA

James Taylor

A light, breezy album standing in contrast to what came before the tone is set by the opening cut, “Mexico.”

My favorite, in my belief the best cut on “Gorilla,” is “Lighthouse.” It’s made special by Randy Newman’s hornorgan and Crosby & Nash’s background vocals but in truth, it’s the lyrics that make it special.

“But just because I might be standing here

That don’t mean I won’t be wrong this time

You could follow me and lose your mind”

I’m not always right, nobody is, gather the information and make your own decision.

And it took me years to truly appreciate the greatness of “Angry Blues,” which is made so special by the guitarwork and harmony vocals of Lowell George, who was always subtle, never overplayed, he added, he didn’t unnecessarily dominate.

13. STAMPEDE

The Doobie Brothers

The hit single was a cover of the Holland/Dozier/Holland song “Take Me in Your Arms (Rock Me),” but the best two songs on the LP were the second on each side, written and sung by Patrick Simmons, “Neal’s Fandango” and “I Cheat the Hangman.” The latter got radio airplay, the former never did, but it’s my favorite on the LP, it’s a tear that represents the freedom of California.

14. FANDANGO!

ZZ Top

You could not turn on the radio without hearing “Tush.” (I’m talking about FM radio, did anybody still listen to the AM band in 1975?) This was truly the breakthrough for ZZ Top.

16. DIAMONDS & RUST

Joan Baez

It’s taken me forty six years to be able to listen to “Diamonds & Rust” without pushing the button. Joan Baez’s last big radio track, she wrote it, a rarity, and it was well-documented it was about Bob Dylan.

24. THE ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK

10cc

10cc was huge in the U.K. but meaningless in the U.S. until this album, which included “I’m Not In Love,” but the most memorable track if you were a fan, if you’d been following along, was the almost nine minute opener, “Une Nuit a Paris,” that’s the way the croissant crumbles after all…

35. “TOYS IN THE ATTIC

Aerosmith

This was the album that cemented their legacy, that turned them into stars, I loved its predecessor “Get Your Wings” but “Toys In the Attic” is the one that the public at large finally embraced. At this point, the most famous cut is “Walk This Way,” overplayed as a result of the Run-D.M.C. collaboration, but the biggest cut at the time, and still a killer, the essence of rock freedom in the summer, is “Sweet Emotion,” but as much as I love it it’s the following cut that was always my favorite, with that descending guitar lick and Tyler’s impassioned vocal, “No More No More.”

“Baby I’m a dreamer

Found my horse and carriage”

41. BLOW BY BLOW

Jeff Beck

Beck finally gave up on the vocalists and decided to make his guitar the lead singer and ultimately created his best LP since “Truth,” probably his best solo album ever. The standout is the cover of the little known Stevie Wonder song, “Cause We’ve Ended as Lovers,” and if you’ve never heard it you’re in for a treat.

This is the album that contains the original “Freeway Jam,” more famous in its live iteration with the Jan Hammer Group from two years later, the latter’s got more energy, it makes you want to be at the show, listen, you’ll get it.

Beck does an indelible cover of “Day In The Life,” but here he turns “She’s a Woman” into something totally new.

46. STRAIGHT SHOOTER

Bad Company

Feel like makin’ love?

A twin with “Toys In the Attic,” “Straight Shooter” was an absolute monster, an incredible, equal follow-up to Bad Company’s debut. My favorite song at the time was the first side closer, “Shooting Star,” I too was a schoolboy when I heard my first Beatles song. And I’m gonna include the hypnotic “Wild Fire Woman” just to show the magic of not only the forgotten Mick Ralphs but the exquisite vocals of Paul Rodgers, listen to him in the chorus!

51. SOAP OPERA

The Kinks

When they were still on RCA, cutting theme/musical play albums, before Clive Davis corralled them and took them out of the music hall and back to the rock stage. The opening cut, “Everybody’s a Star (Starmaker),” got some airplay, but the best cut is the closer, “You Can’t Stop the Music.”

52. TROUBLE IN PARADISE

Souther, Hillman, Furay Band

The unsuccessful follow-up to the gold debut it contains J.D. Souther singing his own “Prisoner in Disguise,” which was the title song of Linda Ronstadt’s follow-up to “Heart Like a Wheel” released in September.

54. AMBROSIA

Ambrosia

Hobbled by being on 20th Century Records, like the Alan Parsons Project’s debut, nothing could hold back the incredible single “Holdin’ on to Yesterday.” Subsequently on Warner Brothers, Ambrosia was seen as a soft rock act, but on their debut they had more of an edge, especially in the opener “Nice, Nice, Very Nice,” for which the band wrote music to Kurt Vonnegut’s words.

59. THE DARK SIDE OF THE MOON

Pink Floyd

61. NUTHIN ‘FANCY

Lynyrd Skynyrd

The third album, with “Saturday Night Special” and “Whiskey Rock-a-Roller.”

73. PHYSICAL GRAFFITI

Led Zeppelin

“Ten Years Gone,” my favorite Zeppelin track, as of today anyway.

75. FRAMPTON

Peter Frampton

The blueprint for “Frampton Comes Alive” the following year, a remarkable return to form after the disappointment of “Somethin’s Happening,” my favorite cut on the LP is “Nowhere’s Too Far (For My Baby).”

81. FIVE-A-SIDE

Ace

How long has this been goin’ on? I bought the album just for the single and became a Paul Carrack fan.

84. KATY LIED

Steely Dan

“Bad sneakers and a Pina Colada my friend

Stompin’ on the avenue

By Radio City with a

Transistor and a large sum of money to spend”

No hit singles but the album that truly made me a fan. My first favorite was “Your Gold Teeth II,” with its temp change and intimate vocal.”

96. INITIATION

Todd Rundgren

“Get your trip together

Be a real man”

97. TONIGHT’S THE NIGHT

Neil Young

“Bruce Berry was a working man

He used to load that Econoline van”

Jan Berry’s brother in case you missed rock and roll high school that day.

103. MAIN COURSE

Bee Gees

Part of the reinvention campaign before the triumph with “Saturday Night Fever” I never cottoned to “Nights on Broadway” but I LOVED and STILL LOVE “Jive Talkin’.”

105. YOUNG AMERICANS

David Bowie

From rock and roller to the R&B Thin White Duke I never liked “Fame” ever and “Young Americans” I can tolerate, but “Somebody Up There Likes Me” and “Fascination” I LOVE!!

107. SHEER HEART ATTACK

Queen

The breakthrough, the commercial set-up for “A Night At the Opera.” The hit was “Killer Queen.”

138. SNEAKIN’ SALLY THRU THE ALLEY

Robert Palmer

The solo debut, before the debonair suits and the models with guitars, the opening trilogy of “Sailling Shoes/Hey Julia/Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley” was revelatory back then and still is today, no one seems to be making this music anymore.

140. BLOOD ON THE TRACKS

Bob Dylan

No one ever talks about the closer, “Buckets of Rain,” but I always loved it.

https://amzn.to/3hGXPzr

This is a wild book, and I wholeheartedly recommend it.

But first I read “Malibu Rising,” Taylor Jenkins Reid’s follow-up to “Daisy Jones & the Six,” her surprise hit novel based on Fleetwood Mac. “Malibu Rising” is number one in Los Angeles, top ten nationally, and I don’t recommend you read it, it’s a glorified beach read. It starts off with a description of the Malibu/Southern California/weather landscape and you might be tempted to put it down but then it goes into the saga of a Malibu family that’s got some interesting thoughts on fame and relationships but if you’re looking for something meatier, something more insightful, “Black Buck” is definitely the one.

Not that I caught it when it was released six months ago in the endless procession of titles. Or maybe the description didn’t float my boat. But it was highly recommended by a reader so I downloaded it from the library and when I had nothing else new to read I started it and…

They don’t write books like this. That are outside the canon, that break the style rulebook, which you learn at Iowa’s graduate writing program, or the plethora of its imitators…it’s all about descriptors, metaphors, the writing as opposed to the plot, all immediacy is sacrificed, all originality squandered in pursuit of something seamless, too often essentially plotless, to appeal to a small coterie of pooh-bahs. It’s a competition most of us are not interested in. What we’re looking for is something different, something that captures the zeitgeist, that titillates us and keeps us reading, that evidences attitude and personality, that’s innovative, that we want to tell everybody about, and that’s Mateo Askaripour’s “Black Buck.

I know, I know, you’re turned off by the author’s name. You can admit it. You don’t want another highly touted highfalutin’ book about the African experience, coming to America and adjusting or not. But that’s not what “Black Buck” is about. You can’t judge a book by its cover, nor the name of its author, nor its title, it’s what’s between the covers that counts.

And Mateo Askaripour did not go to the Iowa school, he didn’t follow anybody else’s precepts, he pursued his personal direction, and therefore he ended up with something unique, that every American should read, even though they won’t.

It starts off as a sales manual. Yes, how do you sell? If you’ve got that skill you can always make bank, you can survive, you might even triumph.

Buck was the valedictorian at Bronx Science but he’s managing a Starbucks, he didn’t go to college. He still lives in Bed-Stuy with his mother, quite near…Marcy Playground. I never knew it was a real place! He’s got his friends from the hood and he’s going nowhere fast but he dreams he will triumph but he just can’t take the risk, that’s the American way, you coulda been a contender, only first you’ve got to get into the ring.

So, he’s recruited by Rhett to work at his startup, because…well, I’ll let you read and find out, but it all comes down to the art of sales.

And that’s what it’s all about at Sumwun, the startup, selling. They teach you the skills in a boot camp that’s more akin to a frat hazing and…

You won’t be sure exactly what is going on. Where the book is going. You’re thrilled by the blocked out insights peppering the book, the sales tips, but what is “Black Buck” really about?

Hang in there, the book gets exciting about 30% in and about halfway through you can’t put it down. It makes huge, relevant points with a sense of humor, and plot, that will have you thinking about race in America today.

But “Black Buck” doesn’t beat you over the head, it’s not a sermon, just an illustration and…

If you get ahead will your old friends resent your ascendance?

Probably. Or else you’ll find you’d rather hang with your new buddies, who understand what you’re talking about, who are more stimulating.

Can your relationship with your parents hold you back, the obligation to look out for them, be there for them? 

That’s true too.

Can you own your identity at work?

Well, usually not.

Are people out to get you at work?

Unfortunately, yes.

Is it better to keep your head down and go along with the team or go your own way, speak your own truth?

The game is rigged folks. And the people in power want to keep it that way. So what is going to happen in America now?

Damned if I know. But what I do know is Mateo Askaripour delineates the issues better than any billionaire coming down off their throne to try and inspire us. “Black Buck” is the best business book you can read. But is it a self-help book or a novel? Actually, it’s both. But is the self-help tongue-in-cheek?

Well, Askaripour did start off in sales, he did work in the startup world, he didn’t have to research to know the landscape, he lived it.

You’ll be captivated, you’ll laugh, you’ll marvel at the truth and you’ll tell people about “Black Buck.” Word of mouth is everything these days, top down marketing doesn’t work. If you can infect people with your art they can’t wait to tell others about it. Like me, with “Black Buck.”

Spotify playlist: https://spoti.fi/2Tyc3uf

I have certain go-to songs.

One is “Big Barn Bed,” the opening cut off “Red Rose Speedway” by Wings. The sound is just incredible, the track’s never played anymore, but it’s just as magical as it was back in ’73. You get exquisite harmonies and the Paul McCartney vocals he used to employ in covers of original rock and roll songs in the Beatles, growling, going to the top of his register, and there’s a stinging Henry McCullough guitar solo and a hypnotic chorus/hook. Amazing, it can’t help but brighten my day!

Another is the Doobie Brothers’ “Another Park, Another Sunday” from their 1974 album “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits,” which was seen as a disappointment follow-up to the smash success “The Captain and Me” until “Black Water” broke through belatedly, but “What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits” is the Doobies’ best LP. “Another Park, Another Sunday” features Tom Johnston’s mellifluous vocal, so sweet, great changes and the indelible lines, “Just when you think you’ve got a good thing, it seems to slip away.” It was the first single, it didn’t break through, but that does not mean it’s not magic.

The third is Don Henley’s “The End of the Innocence.” Bruce Hornsby’s piano is enough to seal the deal all by itself, but then you’ve got Henley’s barely sandpapery vocal that adds meaning to the lyrics that are a cut above the rest of the fare on the hit parade, still. And today I was alone at home and I called out to Alexa to play “The End of the Innocence” and as it was playing it felt so right and I thought of the rest of Henley’s post-Eagles work and I thought of delineating it, then I realized there’d be backlash, people hate anybody with this level of success, especially someone like Henley who has an opinion he doesn’t back down from and an edge, but it’s his constant striving for excellence, getting it exactly right, that puts him at the pinnacle, his songs are not just fodder but statements made to be the equivalent of great books. Just listen.

LEATHER AND LACE

“You in the moonlight

With your sleepy eyes

Could you ever love a man like me”

Whew!

After the disappointment of “Tusk,” Stevie Nicks released her initial solo album. She had immediate success with the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers outtake “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” one of the great rock tracks of all time, never mind being a duet with Tom and being backed up by him and his band. And in 1995, Tom and the gang released the boxed set “Playback” with their demo, unfortunately it’s not on Spotify, but you can hear it on YouTube here: https://bit.ly/2ToXs4p The demo is a little earthier, a little more intense, a Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers song, not a Stevie Nicks song, you should definitely check it out, they say it’s a demo but it sounds like a finished record to me.

And at this point the most famous track on “Bella Donna” is the in-your-face rocker composed solely by Nicks entitled “Edge of Seventeen.” The track from that album I listen to most is also a solo composition by Nicks, but it’s put over the top by Don Henley, it’s a duet. Stevie is singing with her rough, emotive voice and then Don comes in so sweet you’re transfixed, he’s so sensitive.

“Sometimes I’m a strong man

Sometimes cold and scared

And sometimes I cry

But that time I saw you

Knew with you to light my night

Somehow I’d get by”

I CAN’T STAND STILL

Glenn Frey’s solo album came out first, entitled “No Fun Aloud” it was sold and perceived as a lark, a throwaway, a man no longer constrained by the Eagles cutting loose, this was just the beginning. So expectations were a bit low, but the album was fun, and the opening cut, “I Found Somebody,” was a Glenn Frey smash, exactly what you’d expect on an Eagles album, at this point Glenn was still seen as the leader of the band, the focus, but that would change.

The opening cut to Henley’s solo LP was just the opposite of “I Found Somebody,” slow and meaningful, but as many times as you listened to it, it wasn’t the equal of his work with the Eagles, it sounded like Henley, but it just wasn’t a smash. As a matter of fact, the entire album “I Can’t Stand Still” was an artistic disappointment, a misfire, the sound was right, it’s just that the songs weren’t top-notch, except for “Dirty Laundry.”

DIRTY LAUNDRY

“We got the bubble-headed

Bleached blonde

Comes on at five”

Everybody in Los Angeles knew exactly who Don was singing about, back before streaming, when there were still very few TV channels and people still watched television news. Henley had tangled with the law and decided to fight back, and there’s no greater artistic inspiration than an affront. And what Henley ended up with was a masterpiece, one step beyond the Eagles’ work, more intense, with more direct lyrics, sung with heretofore unheard attitude.

“I make my living off the evening news

Just give me something

Something I can use

People love it when you lose

They love dirty laundry”

This could not be more true today, if it bleeds it leads and TMZ is on the hunt for dirt 24/7.

“Well I coulda been an actor

But I wound up here

I just have to look good

I don’t have to be clear

Come and whisper in my ear

Give us dirty laundry”

Once upon a time people believed newscasters knew something, now they know they’re just pretty faces making nice, playing at being friends with the rest of the “talent” on air.

“Can we film the operation

Is the head dead yet

You know the boys in the newsroom

Got a running bet

Get the widow on the set

We need dirty laundry”

Hopefully you will never be involved in something newsworthy, for if you are you’ll be inundated with news inquiries, you’ll be overwhelmed by the attention, you’ll think you’re important, that they care for you, but after your words are in print all those callers and e-mailers will immediately disappear, leaving you feeling raped. You’re just grist for the mill, and the machine has got an endless appetite.

THE BOYS OF SUMMER

Times had changed, the seventies were over, all the excitement was no longer on radio but MTV, and what built the channel were the new English acts like Duran Duran and Culture Club, their sound and image couldn’t be more different from that of Don Henley and the Eagles. And then the seeming underdog, away from the market for two years, delivers such an undeniable wallop everyone pays attention, “The Boys of Summer” becomes a classic. The track was enough, but the video encapsulated the feel, late summer, maybe fall, remorseful, still there reminiscing about what was and may never be again. 

“I can see you

Your brown skin shinin’ in the sun

You got that top pulled down and that radio on baby

And I can tell you my love for you will still be strong

After the boys of summer have gone”

You didn’t have to live in Southern California to picture it, but it helped.

“Out on the road today, I saw a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac

A little voice inside my head said, ‘Don’t look back. You can never look back’

I thought I knew what love was

What did I know

Those days are gone forever

I should just let them go”

Deadhead sticker? The Grateful Dead and the Eagles lived on different planets, they didn’t even share much of an audience, but Don was paying attention, he knew what was going on, and the truth is at this point, 1984, the Dead were already a nostalgia act, heresy, I know, but it’s true. Gen-X’ers kept their gate numbers high, but artistically it had almost all been done.

“You got that hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on baby”

Suddenly everybody knew what those Ray-Ban sunglasses were called, sales went through the roof.

ALL SHE WANTS TO DO IS DANCE

An earthy, dangerous feel, the more you listen, the more you like it.

SUNSET GRILL

A six minute epic, a new twist on the ones Henley wrote and sang with the Eagles. It fired on absolutely all cylinders. Henley’s was never better, you could feel the emotion in his voice. And the synth solo. Henley was singing about Sunset Boulevard, but not the Strip, but further east, the seedier part, in Hollywood, it only had glamor in the movies. And then it turned out the Sunset Grill was just a burger stand by Guitar Center.

“Let’s go down to the Sunset Grill

Watch the working girls go by

Watch the basket people walk around and mumble

And gaze out at the auburn sky

Maybe we’ll leave come springtime

Meanwhile have another beer

What would we do without all these jerks anyway

Besides all our friends are here”

Jerks? Isn’t the #1 rule of rock and roll not to insult the audience, to appear one of the people unless you’re selling glitz and glamor, which was the opposite of seventies and early eighties Los Angeles rock and roll? Henley was making a judgment, he was excluding people, he wasn’t holding back, he had an attitude, he’s not making any friends, but he is making delectable art.

NOT ENOUGH LOVE IN THE WORLD

“I’m not easy to live with

I know that it’s true

You’re no picnic either babe

That’s one of the things I loved about you”

This verse makes the song, Don pokes fun at himself, but says they’ve both got their flaws, he’s almost laughing about it. You didn’t get this kind of insight, this kind of honesty, in the rest of the songs on the hit parade, which is why Don Henley ascended into the stratosphere, was seen as a solo icon, the essence of the Eagles, Don was alive and kicking in the eighties.

THE HEART OF THE MATTER

It was four and a half years since Henley’s last LP. And “Building the Perfect Beast” never really went away, MTV had oldies weekends, the still extant rock radio went classic to survive and Henley’s tracks were staples.

“The Heart of the Matter” was the third single from “The End of the Innocence” but it’s the song emblazoned in listeners’ brains most, it has never really gone away, because of the truth contained therein. If you’ve ever broken up, you’ve been through these feelings.

“I got the call today I didn’t want to hear

But I knew that it would come

An old true friend of ours was talkin’ on the phone

She said you found someone

And I thought of all the bad luck

And the struggles we went through

And how I lost me and you lost you

What are these voices outside love’s open door

Make us throw off our contentment

And beg for something more”

I don’t care whether you left or were abandoned, your heart always skips a beat when you hear an ex has gotten (re)married, had a baby, it puts a nail in the coffin of the past, they’ve moved on, you guess you should too.

And when it gets bad you do lose yourself. And the truth is…in your mind you want more, do you settle? And then you get old enough and realize perfection doesn’t exist, all that talk of soulmates is b.s., it’s about being together, trust, commitment, facing the hurdles with each other.

As for forgiveness…I’d like to tell you I can forgive, but I can’t.

THE LAST WORTHLESS EVENING

The flip side of “The Heart of the Matter.”

“It’s been over two years for me

And I’m still not quite myself”

Anyone who tells you they’re over it immediately is either lying or shallow. You lived together, had sex, saw each other every day and then you can suddenly be rid of them in your mind? That’s not how human beings work.

NEW YORK MINUTE

I’d never heard the expression before, but Henley popularized the term, you’ve heard it everywhere since.

HOW BAD DO YOU WANT IT?

In truth, the rockers on “The End of the Innocence” are not in the league of the ballads, but despite that I quote this song all the time.

“How bad do you want it

Not bad enough”

That’s the truth. It’s a long way to the top if you want to rock ‘n roll, if you want to be successful at anything, and the truth is most people just don’t want it bad enough, because if you do you’ll ultimately be let in the door, you may not become a household name, but you’ll get your time in the circus, you’ll become part of the firmament. I’m not talking about 10,000 hours, practicing in your basement, gigging at the local venue, but a raw desire where everything else is subsidiary, relationships, a house, a car, everything. You keep trying, you keep adjusting, you’re making friends, learning the landscape…

SOMETIMES LOVE JUST AIN’T ENOUGH

Irving Azoff handed MCA to Al Teller. But the company ran on Irving’s fumes, it couldn’t break any new acts. The landscape was changing, it was about big hit singles, albums were an afterthough, a way to cash in on the single, especially after the single itself was cut out. I ran into Teller at the Roxy and we were talking at the end of the show and he told me to wait for Tuesday, he was so confident, he had an absolute smash…that track was Patty Smyth and Don Henley’s duet on “Sometimes Love Just Ain’t Enough.” It went to #1.

EVERYBODY KNOWS

It had been six and a half years since “The End of the Innocence.” The had Eagles reunited. It was a perfect time for Geffen Records to try and cash in with a greatest hits package, even though Henley had only put out three albums. And at the time it was thought the best way to sell a greatest hits package was to add new material, ergo the inclusion of this cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows.” It’s the best one. Even though all the musos will have their private favorites that don’t make it without the lyrics, Henley’s take works irrelevant of the meaning of the words, but it’s the words that put it over the top. The truth is everybody knows.

TAKING YOU HOME

Now it was the year 2000, the Napster era, all hell was breaking loose in the music business and despite reuniting with the Eagles Henley had not released a solo album in over a decade and at this time it was thought the best way to break a track was via a synch on TV. So “Taking You Home” was put in “E.R.,” it ended up driving the track to #1 on Adult Contemporary radio, but it stalled in the fifties on Top Forty. And this was the only hit on “Inside Job,” the only track with significant radio play, even though “Inside Job” is a fantastic album and would have been all over the charts in a prior era. Then again, it was rock, which was dying, even if most people didn’t realize it yet, and rock was not on Top Forty and MTV was starting to mean less and…

EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT NOW

“I hate to tell you this but I’m very very happy”

The malcontent got married and settled down and reaped the rewards of family. The lyrics are great, but even better are the dynamics.

GOODBYE TO A RIVER

Henley was still an environmentalist, noting change while everybody else was now online, running to Computerland to buy new gadgets.

FOR MY WEDDING

Written by Larry John McNally, in another world this is a standard.

The truth is weddings are celebrations, but the heaviness resides within your head, this is a commitment, this is a change, the biggest one of your life so far, that’s supposed to run for the rest of your days, will it?

THEY’RE NOT HERE, THEY’RE NOT COMING

“Would they pile into the saucer

Find Orlando’s rat and hug it

Go screaming through the universe

Just to get McNuggets

Well I don’t think so I don’t think so

It’s much too dangerous it’s much too strange

Here in a world that won’t give Oprah no home on the range”

A six minute opus making fun of those who believe aliens are going to descend from heaven and grace us with their presence on Earth. Do they really want McNuggets? And Oprah was being sued by Texas ranchers for saying she stopped eating burgers. It’s only gotten worse in America since. Society was starting to fracture, there was no one to believe in, not even Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

MY THANKSGIVING

The closing track of “Inside Job” and my favorite on the album. A straight-ahead rocker it would now be a classic rock staple if it was released in the seventies. The music and the changes are great, but even better are the lyrics.

“Now the trouble with you and me my friend

Is the trouble with this nation

Too many blessings too little appreciation

And I know that kind of notion, well it just ain’t cool

So send me back to Sunday school

Because I’m tired of waiting for reason to arrive

It’s too long we’ve been living

These unexamined lives”

As bad as it was back then, it’s worse now. As for examining your life, that’s seen as sixties drivel, and it seems most people don’t have the smarts or education to do so. They just take a position, plant the flag and own it, forever.

“Have you noticed that an angry man

Can only get so far

Until he reconciles the way he thinks things ought to be

With the way things are”

These were my go-to words on Napster and digital disruption.

WORDS CAN BREAK YOUR HEART

Henley waited fifteen years to release a new solo LP. And whereas with “Inside Job” he was too late, with “Cass County” he was too early. In 2015 there was still a belief that there was a substantial market for the new work of classic rockers. Now we know that is patently untrue. Today you  make the album for yourself, because that’s what you do, make music, if you stop creating you die. But the core audience is aged and stuck in its ways, the new market is fragmented and oftentimes there’s nowhere to display your new work. Sure, you can get ink, your name is still reliable for that, but that’s no longer how you break records, you do it online, ultimately via word of mouth, and boomer word of mouth is so much slower than that of the youngsters. Bottom line, if you listen to “Cass County” you’ll enjoy it, it’s very good, but it doesn’t have the iconic songs of yore. Today you make records for cheap, throw them out there, try to hit the target, and if you don’t you go back to the drawing board, the studio, putting all your eggs in one basket, in an expensive long player, an album, is a fool’s errand, because if it fails in the marketplace, almost everything fails in the marketplace, it’s immediately forgotten and you’re nowhere, best to constantly be in the public eye, especially in a world where most of the money is made on the road. Now, more than ever, it’s time to experiment as opposed to trying to get it right.

“Sticks and stones may break your bones

But words can break your heart”

So true, and the words work better in the song than they appear on paper.

THE END OF THE INNOCENCE

“Remember when the days were long

And rolled beneath a deep blue sky

Didn’t have a care in the world

With mommy and daddy standing by

When happily ever after fails

And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales

The lawyers dwell on small details

Since daddy had to fly”

Boomers remember, we were basking in the economic run-up of the post-war era. We not only felt safe, we thought the world was our oyster. Divorce was rare, frequently there was only one breadwinner in the family, you felt supported, you felt optimistic.

But then this same generation took advantage of the freewheeling eighties to bend the rules to get ever richer and after all the takeovers, lawsuits and jail sentences we thought things would change, but they did not, we didn’t know how bad it was gonna get, ending in 2008, not that those bad days where the financial institutions wreck our economy won’t come back again.

“Oh but I know a place where we can go

Still untouched by man

We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by

And the tall grass waves in the wind

You can lay your head back on the ground

And let your hair fall all around me

Offer up your best defense

But this is the end

This is the end of the innocence”

You used to be able to get away, disconnect, recharge, but those days are through, everybody’s available everywhere, you can talk on the phone at the top of Mt. Everest and if you don’t respond to a text in a matter of minutes people wonder what’s wrong. The innocence the baby boomers had in their hearts is now gone, and the younger generations never had it.

“O’ beautiful, for spacious skies

But now those skies are threatening

They’re beating plowshares into swords

For this tired old man that we elected king”

That’s St. Reagan, who single-handedly ushered in the age of income inequality but was a Democrat by today’s standards. Remember when he was our biggest enemy? Boy, we didn’t know what was coming.

“Who knows how long this will last

Now we’ve come so far so fast

But somewhere back there in the dust

That same small town in each of us

I need to remember this

So baby give me just one kiss

And let me take a long last look

Before we say good bye”

We remember the way it used to be, we know it was flawed, we were excited by the technological revolution but now we see its cost. Boomers are throwing their hands in the air, retiring, handing this broken world to the younger generations as the earth burns up and American democracy is on the verge of becoming an oxymoron.

But a kiss is still the same. Humans are still the same. We can still feel, still analyze, we can still laugh, but it’s hard to be optimistic about the future.

We thought the innocence was ending back in 1989, we had no idea how bad it would get. We looked to our musical artists for truth, for a path, for a way. But today music is just about becoming a brand and getting rich, figuring out the data game, getting on TikTok, you can make a brilliant statement and it can go unheard, whereas in the pre-internet era that was never the case, if your track had the goods people heard it, and were affected by it.

So Bruce Hornsby got out early. Rather than continue to strive for a radio hit, he played with the Dead, bluegrass pickers, he nurtured his muse, continued to be an artist, everybody said he was killing his career, but in truth he was reinventing it, saving it, knowing that today it’s all about your core audience, it will keep you alive, if anybody else wants to come along that’s great, but you’re not going to pander to them.

As for Don Henley… It’s good to be the king, but every kingdom must die. You’re internationally known, “Hotel California” is recognized in the bush, but people aren’t interested in what you have to say today, even worse it’s hard to get them to hear it to then accept or reject it, the whole paradigm has changed. As for the creators… Mariah Carey became the archetype, making it about the voice, pop music, and that was in 1990, thirty years ago, today’s younger generations have no frame of reference, they didn’t grow up when music was king, when it was everything, when you listened to the radio to know which way the wind blew.

We are no longer innocent. We yearn to be, but we’re not. You can keep your head in the sand or wake up. But sometimes it’s better to leave the blinders on, ignore reality and try to be happy. But the truth is innocence has ended. Happy July 4th.