![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/The-song-the-Eagles-refuse-to-play-in-the-American-West-People-have-their-own-interpretations-Far-Ou.jpeg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ The Eagles)<\/p>\n
Sat 7 March 2026 20:30, UK <\/p>\n
The oddity of the Eagles<\/a> never ceases to amaze.<\/p>\n When the world can\u2019t even agree on whether one of the best-selling bands in history is called The Eagles or simply Eagles, it is little wonder that the members themselves rarely saw eye to eye. Beyond internal feuds, the individual members even seem to directly contradict themselves. This is most patently apparent when they are faced with mulling over the conundrum of whether they\u2019re a political band.<\/p>\n \u201cWe let the music do the talking,\u201d Don Henley once said in response to the subject of statesmanship, apparently declaring an apolitical approach. But by the same token, he has often been at pains to explain that \u201con just about every album we made, there was some kind of commentary on the music business, and on American culture in general.\u201d<\/p>\n When it comes to their biggest song, in fact, \u2018Hotel California<\/a>\u2019, he has explained that it is about \u201cthe dark underbelly of the American dream\u201d. It just so happens that this scathing attack on the sham of \u2018Hope and Glory\u2019 is also cryptically woven within the walls of an allegorical hotel, allowing Henley the wiggle room to still sneakily abide by the epigram that the Eagles \u201clet the music do the talking\u201d.<\/p>\n However, not every song in their arsenal can hide behind poetic obfuscation. It is clear as day that \u2018The Last Resort\u2019 is about Manifest Destiny \u2013 the belief that the United States was divinely ordained to expand westward across North America, at all costs. It was the journalist John L O\u2019Sullivan who popularised this phrase in 1845, when he first wrote, \u201cOur manifest destiny is to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.\u201d<\/p>\n Over a century later, on their 1976 album, Hotel California, the Eagles provided a verse cut through what came from Sullivan\u2019s high and mighty words when they sang, \u201cWe satisfy our endless needs \/ And justify our bloody deeds \/ In the name of destiny \/ And in the name of God.\u201d<\/p>\n At the time when Henley wrote those lyrics, Manifest Destiny might have been a bygone term, but the desire to \u2018overspread\u2019 was still a strong tenet of the American spirit. \u201cIt was the first time that Don, on his own, took it upon himself to write an epic story,\u201d Glenn Frey explained on In The Studio with Redbeard.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe were very much at that time, concerned about the environment and doing anti-nuclear benefit (concerts),\u201d he continued. \u201cIt seemed the perfect way to wrap up all of the different topics we had explored on the Hotel California album.\u201d Those themes could be summarised as wanton greed in disguise, sending America awry.\u00a0<\/p>\n So, \u2018The Last Resort\u2019 looked to launch a scathing attack on the underbelly of that frontier spirit, as Frey explained, \u201cWe\u2019re 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.\u201d Henley\u2019s song questioned the constant need to \u2018overspread\u2019, bringing into sharp focus the plight of Native Americans, the ugliness of the concrete sprawl, and the \u201chungry for power\u201d need to erect capitalist \u201cneon\u201d in every corner.<\/p>\n It is a great and meaningful song, with Frey rightly adding, \u201cDon found himself as a lyricist with that song, kind of outdid himself.\u201d But there is a sting in the tale that has led many naysayers to point out the dark side of the contradictions within the Eagles.<\/p>\n If there is one fair criticism of the country-rock pioneers, then it is that they could be accused of greed in disguise, sending America awry. Or at least that\u2019s certainly what T Bone Burnett accused them of when he was working on the music for The Big Lebowski<\/a>. In an interview with Rolling Stone<\/a>, he explained, \u201c[The Eagles] sort of single-handedly destroyed that whole scene [West Coast counterculture] that was brewing back then.\u201d<\/p>\n As it happens, a few years prior to the release of the movie, the Eagles hit headlines as the first rock band to charge over $100 for tickets. That\u2019s certainly not a move that aligns perfectly with the politics of \u2018The Last Resort\u2019. And in a bid to keep their commercialism afloat in all major touring markets, they often censored themselves when it came to their setlists.<\/p>\n As Henley even admitted, \u201cIt goes over like gangbusters in some parts of the country, because it really is a song about Manifest Destiny. But we pick and choose where to do it. We have too many ballads in the set anyway.\u201d The suffix to that statement of \u2018too many ballads\u2019 feels an awfully timid, throwaway excuse to himself, more so than anyone else.<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/The-Eagles-1970s-03-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Showtime \/ The Eagles)<\/p>\n
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<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Showtime \/ The Eagles)<\/p>\n