Being one of the primary songwriters of the Eagles, Don Henley penned many of the band’s greatest hits. His penmanship can be found in songs like “Wasted Time,” “Best of My Love,” “Desperado,” and many others.
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Of his many cuts with the band, which is Henley’s favorite? Shockingly it’s not any of the songs mentioned above, or even the world-renowned “Hotel California.” Find out which surprising track Henley marks as his favorite below.
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Don Henley’s favorite Eagles Song
In an interview with Rolling Stone, Henley called “The Last Resort” one of his favorite songs. The Hotel California cut deals with the hazardous effects man has had on the environment.
Who will provide the grand design? / What is yours and what is mine? / ‘Cause there is no more new frontier / But we have got to make it here / We satisfy our endless needs / And justify our bloody deeds / In the name of destiny / And in the name of God, the searing lyrics read.
“That’s because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind,” he told the outlet (per Songfacts).
“The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence–by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment,” Henley continued. “The environment is the reason I got into politics: to try to do something about what I saw as the complete destruction of most of the resources that we have left. We have mortgaged our future for gain and greed.”
The song’s lyrics start at one end of the U.S. and slowly sweep the country. Glenn Frey once called the track Henley’s “epic.”
“I have to give all the credit for ‘The Last Resort’ to Henley,” Frey explained in an episode of In the Studio with Redbeard (quote via Country Thang Daily). “It was the first time that Don, on his own, took it upon himself to write an epic story. We were very much at that time, concerned about the environment and doing anti-nuclear benefits. It seemed the perfect way to wrap up all of the different topics we had explored on the Hotel California album.
“Don found himself as a lyricist with that song, kind of outdid himself,” he continued. “We’re constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at some point there is going to be no more new frontiers. I mean we’re putting junk, er, garbage into space now. There’s enough crap floating around the planet that we can’t even use so it just seems to be our way. It’s unfortunate but that is sort of what happens.”
“The Last Resort” acted as the B-side to “Life in the Fast Lane.” Though it may not be as famous as its A-side, it’s not hard to understand why Henley finds it so rewarding.
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