As the main songwriting duo in the Eagles throughout their time as a functioning recording group, Don Henley and Glenn Frey would have had plenty of time to get to understand each other’s methods of working.
There would, like in any working partnership, have been some disagreements, and moments where differences of opinion and taste would have got in the way of their ability to communicate ideas to one another in a way that worked for the rest of the band. The thing is, by the time they’d reached their fifth album, Hotel California, there were clearly fewer issues within the group than there had been at any point before, and it led to the group being able to record their most critically and commercially acclaimed record.
With Joe Walsh, Don Felder, and Randy Meisner also involved at this point, this was the Eagles at their absolute peak; a cast of five musicians who were completely in sync with each other, and fully understanding of how to produce the best possible work they were capable of. That isn’t to dismiss all of the other members who had departed prior to this point, and it’s far from disparaging of their previous outings, but this was arguably the Eagles reaching supreme levels of songwriting and musicianship that they’d only been within reaching distance of before.
Eagles likely see things the same way, and even though they would only manage to push themselves to release one more album in their initial run together before reforming to release a final record in the 2000s, Long Road Out of Eden, nothing really came close to eclipsing the splendour of Hotel California as their most succinct statement of intent.
At the end of side one, and crossing over into side two of the vinyl pressing of the record as a short instrumental reprise, ‘Wasted Time’ is one of the highlights of the record, and is perhaps a moment where the band truly reached soft rock perfection. Ditching the country rock flavours that had permeated through their previous releases, they instead chose to punt for a more soulful angle, and it’s this facet of Henley’s songwriting and performance that Frey thought showed a great sense of maturation and an ability to push the band in a myriad of creative directions.
In the liner notes for The Very Best of the Eagles, Frey went into detail on how he felt Henley’s songwriting and performance were at their best, and underlined where some of the influences for the track had arisen from. “I loved all the records coming out of Philadelphia at that time,” he claimed. “I sent for some sheet music so I could learn some of those songs, and I started creating my own musical ideas with that Philly influence. Don was our Teddy Pendergrass. He could stand out there all alone and just wail.”
He continued by arguing that this was far removed from anything else they’d ever done: “You’re not going to find that track on a Crosby, Stills & Nash record or Beach Boys record. Don’s singing abilities stretched so many of our boundaries. He could sing the phone book. It didn’t matter.”
While it may be one of Henley’s best vocal performances, and one of the finest songs the duo wrote together, what it does signal is the band evolving into a sound, and one that it’s a shame they weren’t around for long enough to explore deeper.
