Rock and roll proudly promoted its immaturity in its early days. After all, it was music made by a younger generation. But as those leading lights of the genre aged a bit, it made sense that the music they made started to show a bit more maturity. On his 1989 song “The Heart Of The Matter”, Don Henley leads with wisdom and maturity as he muses on a lost love. It’s a song he and his co-writers likely couldn’t have delivered without hard-earned experience and time-fueled perspective. And it features some crucial lines that you don’t often hear in this type of song.
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A Terrific Trio of Writers
In 1984, Don Henley released one of the most iconic songs of the decade in “The Boys Of Summer”. He wrote the lyrics based on a musical bed composed by Mike Campbell, lead guitarist of Tom Petty’s backing band, the Heartbreakers. When Campbell came calling again with another piece of music, Henley didn’t hesitate to pounce on it.
The somber yet resigned guitar chords that formed the foundation for the song sent Henley in a reflective direction. To help him out with the words, he called on his old buddy JD Souther. Souther had pitched in on wistful Eagles tracks like “Best Of My Love” and “New Kid In Town”.
The song that they composed, “The Heart Of The Matter”, veers off on some tangents after establishing that it’s a song about heartbreak. But what sets it apart were some lines written by Henley to serve as the kicker to the song’s refrains.
Straight to the “Heart”
In the first verse of “The Heart Of The Matter”, Don Henley and Souther establish the scenario. The narrator gets the news that his ex has found someone new. It starts with him looking back at the times they’ve spent together and the mistakes that they made. “What are these voices outside love’s open door?” Henley wonders. “Make us throw off our contentment and beg for something more.”
The second verse allows Henley to ponder the state of the world, as one might do after receiving life-changing news. “How can love survive in such a graceless age?” he wonders. He then returns to his sorrow. In particular, he can’t reconcile his current emptiness with all the effort he put into his former relationship.
Henley uses the middle eight to give some advice. You can sense that he’s speaking not just to his ex within the song, but to the listeners outside it. “You keep carryin’ that anger,” he warns. “It’ll eat you up inside.” It dovetails with the revelation he has in the chorus.
A “Matter” of Forgiveness
“I’ve been tryin’ to get down,” Don Henley sings in the refrain. “To the heart of the matter.” It’s not an easy task, he admits, as he wavers due to his loneliness and frailty. That’s when he unleashes the point to which he’s been building throughout the song.
“But I think it’s about forgiveness, forgiveness,” he sings, repeating that key word for emphasis. “Even if you don’t love me anymore.” Most songs that lament lost love never reach that enlightened revelation. They might wallow, or they might rage. But they rarely forgive.
That kind of mature insight makes “The Heart Of The Matter” a song that makes more sense to folks of a certain age. Most people know what it’s like to love and lose. This fantastic song prepares you for what comes after, and it offers a mature example of how to handle it.
Photo by Kevin Kane/Getty Images for Scoop Marketing
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