“I Think That We Were at the Height of Our Powers”: The Eagles Album Don Henley Believes to Be Their Peak

Very rarely have musicians and bands reached their peak and stayed at that level for the entirety of their careers. One may argue that The Beatles and Michael Jackson did so, and as of today, Taylor Swift seems to be on her way to doing so if she continues to play her cards right. However, those two parties are unfair examples, as the majority of successful musicians experience peaks and valleys, including The Eagles.

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We need not remind you of The Eagles’ success story and lasting impact. Although their success story, more or less, came to an end with the end of the 1970s. This decline cannot be attributed to one singular thing, as it never can be, and what also cannot be attributed to one singular thing is peak performance. To Don Henley, The Eagles’ peak performance and or height of their career was during the making and the release of, you probably guessed it, Hotel California.

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Consistent and everlasting popularity in the music business is not something all musicians necessarily expect. After all, as time passes, trends change, and consequently, tastes differ; that’s just the way it is, and having a mindset that accepts this fact is healthy. That is the mindset of Don Henley, as he can identify and celebrate the peak of The Eagles while also accepting when their notoriety and cultural prominence started to fizzle out.

In a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, Henley said of Hotel California, “I think that we were at the height of our powers. Every band has a peak, and that was ours.” “And because of various factors—pressure to perform at peak level, pressure to deliver more of the same, the changing nature of the band dynamic, the constantly changing public tastes, etc.—it was impossible for us to take the time off that we needed in order to get our heads together, to regain a sense of perspective that we had lost.”

What Henley speaks about in that passage is seemingly one of the most common plights among professional musicians. What will it take, and how can one constantly outperform their former self? To us, that is the root of the plight that plagues so many musicians. Per Henley’s quotes, it seems The Eagles never outperformed themselves. Nevertheless, their glory days are among the most remarkable of all time.

Photo by Richard E. Aaron/Redferns