The End Of The Innocence - Don Henley (1989)

Quality or nostalgia: There are things I really loved when I was younger, and when I hear them now I’m never sure if I’m really hearing the music or if I’m just hearing my fond memories. So I’m going to add in this little feature to explore whether younger me was onto something, or just on something

I will forever remember this record because the brief time I was fixated on it was while I was on a student tour of Germany. It was playing the first time I ever took off in an airplane, and stuck with me for a solid month. While I was in Munich near the end of my tour, I bought the new release by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, and that dethroned Henley.

As with many super-successful bands, internal disagreements and ego clashes spelled the end of The Eagles in the early 80s, although there would be another act to come for them. Henley took a stab at a solo career, making several successful records and scoring several big hits before that phase imploded in legal trouble with his label.

This was the third of Henley’s three big solo releases in the 80s, and the best-selling. No massive hit like Boys Of Summer, but a lot of recognizable tunes tastefully done; well, tasteful by 80s legacy pop star standards anyway.

The instrumentation and production are of their time, and about half the songs are clearly designed for adult contemporary radio: catchy, inoffensive, unremarkable. Henley (or his various co-writers) do have a good ear for a fun phrase. I still occasionally use the line “She looked at me / uncomprehendingly / like cows at a passing train”

So is it Quality or Nostalgia?

The tunes that were supposed to sound hip and modern–the cheese-ass rock tropes of I Will Not Go Quietly, the ultra-shitty pop-ska beat on Little Tin God–are honestly terrible. The clearly radio-ready tunes like the title track and The Heart Of The Matter are tasteful but not particularly exciting. A few songs have the same combo of attitude, humor, and pop savvy that made his other work so accessible.

Tracks I Liked

End of The Innocence - a collab with 80s piano pop standout (and future Grateful Dead keyboardist) Bruce Hornsby. Classy if unexciting.

How Bad Do You Want it - sonically a sequel to the superior All She Wants To Do Is Dance, but it does a good job of it.

If Dirt Were Dollars - I had totally forgotten how great this song is.