(Credits: TIDAL)
Mon 2 February 2026 13:36, UK
No one would claim that Joe Walsh was the most vital songwriter of the Eagles. Throughout their time together in the mid-1970s, Walsh was more suited to playing guitar, weaving together one classic solo after the next with Don Felder on tracks like ‘Hotel California’. Now and again, though, Walsh liked digging into his psyche to deliver a more thoughtful take on rock and roll.
Before he had even considered joining the California rockers, Walsh was already one of the kings of rock and roll guitar. His delicate touch on both slide guitar and lead playing had made him a favourite of acts like Pete Townshend, whom he would eventually gift the guitar that The Who guitarist would use on Who’s Next.
Outside of working with James Gang and his solo career, Walsh constantly kept tabs on the Eagles. Having been a fan of James Gang growing up, Eagles frontman Glenn Frey had always considered getting a guitarist of Walsh’s calibre in the band.
When recounting the band’s early years, a chance meeting on tour got the wheels turning in Frey’s head for Walsh to replace original guitarist Bernie Leadon, recalling in History of the Eagles, “We’d put Joe Walsh in a road box, and for our encore, he would come up and play ‘Rocky Mountain Way’. After playing a couple of shows, I started to think, ‘Joe Walsh for Bernie Leadon?’. Maybe the vocals won’t be quite as good, but boy, are we gonna kick some ass!”.
Although Walsh loved the idea of collaborating with the rest of the band, he was also starstruck at the prospect of working with songwriters like Frey and Henley, recalling, “I was constantly in awe of Don and Glenn. I was intimidated because they sang so good. They could write stuff that I couldn’t even think of writing.”
Finally having a rock-oriented player to offset Felder, Walsh contributed his first song to an Eagles album on the album Hotel California. While being known primarily for his cutthroat approach to rock, Walsh’s ‘Pretty Maids All In a Row’ brought depth to the artist that many rock fans seemed to have pigeonholed.
Featuring various string arrangements and a gentle slide guitar part, Walsh said the lyrics took a sombre look at humanity, telling the BBC, “I think the best thing to say is that it’s a kind of melancholy observation on life that we hoped would be a valid statement for people from our generation.”
Throughout the song, Walsh empathises with those who strive so hard to achieve their dreams but never put in the work to get there. Even as someone who achieved a dream of being a rock and roll star, though, Walsh knows that his time at the top is fleeting, remarking that all heroes will fade from view eventually.
While Walsh may have been able to sing what was in his heart, it tended to sting all the more for his six-string partner. Despite being in the band for years, Don Felder had not been able to sing that many songs, eventually being tricked into leaving the studio while the rest of the group recut the track for ‘Victim of Love’ with Don Henley singing instead. Walsh may have been looking to shed his rocker skin, but the melancholy of this song was proof that all wasn’t well in the Eagles’ camp anymore.
Is it Eagles’ best song ever?
Well, Bob Dylan certainly thought so. When picking his favourite songs by the band, “‘New Kid in Town,’ ‘Life in the Fast Lane,’ ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’,” Dylan says without hesitation. “That could be one of the best songs ever,” he notes of the last selection.
However, for the most part, fans would more naturally call songs like ‘Desperado’ and, of course, ‘Hotel California’ the band’s best tunes. But, to ignore the beautiful melancholy desperation within the notes of ‘Pretty Maids All in a Row’ is to ignore some of the most pointedly unique work the band ever created.
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