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Any songwriter could benefit from taking more than a few cues from what Don Henley was doing in the Eagles’ prime.
He never claimed to be one of the greatest tunesmiths in the world, but he knew the work that went into crafting a fantastic song, and he was willing to work his ass off to make sure that he had everything ready to become a legend with the Eagles. But even compared to some of his greatest tunes, Henley felt that there were more than a few artists who were almost on another level of inspiration.
Then again, talking about songwriting means talking about many different approaches. It’s not like people looking to write a pop hit is necessarily going to be looking to someone like Leonard Cohen for guidance or anything, but when you look at the mechanics of what he did on tracks like ‘Susanne’, it was still about him trying to make some of the best records that he could by telling a story rather than use the same ‘June/spoon/moon’ procedure of writing a pop song.
It’s not like Henley didn’t take his cues from that style of songwriting, either. A lot of his lyrics are clearly indebted to the great poets that have come before him, but there are also pieces that are about paying tribute to the greatest acts in country music. Calling Eagles ‘country rock’ wasn’t an accident, and a lot of the greatest moments of their career did have a few shades of Hank Williams and Merle Haggard thrown in there for good measure.
But Henley was more than happy to take a few lessons from the other artists that were in town when he moved to California. The Byrds were a guiding force during that time, but there were also people like Elton John making his musical debut at the Troubadour around the same time, and you can’t forget what the Eagles-adjacent artists like Jackson Browne and JD Souther were doing alongside Henley and Glenn Frey around the same time.
If you look at the way they construct songs, though, Henley felt that there was no way of replicating what Randy Newman could do, saying, “He’s influenced me a lot; I think he’s probably the best songwriter in America right now, except he’s probably too good for his own good. He goes right over peoples’ heads, usually. He’s been a big influence on me. I had a lot of help on this album too from guys like him.”
When you think about it, though, it’s not like Newman had the greatest voice in the world. One hell of a supergroup could have been made out of him writing the songs and Henley singing them, but the type of social commentary that Newman could make with only a few lines would have been more witty than over half of what Eagles songs could do.
Henley wasn’t exactly known as the most lighthearted lyricist in the world, but the power that Newman had with his wit was as good as his piano playing. None of his songs are about following the traditional song structure, and whether that’s listening to albums like Sail Away or introducing kids to his music by showing them Toy Story or Monsters Inc, there are more than a few twists and turns that most people wouldn’t see coming if they are following the four-chord formula most other people do.
Newman may have been incredibly self-effacing when it came to his musical style and his own voice, but the reason he works so well on his own tunes is because of how much heart he can put into them. It’s not easy to get a bunch of Southerners to sing along to a track like ‘Rednecks’, but it turns out when you have the best songs at your disposal, nearly anything is possible.
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