(Credits: Far Out / Steve Alexander)
Sat 20 September 2025 20:00, UK
Not every great song has to rely on having the most sophisticated chord sequence by any means. Many musicians have cut their teeth trying to twist the usual pop formula into something different, but instead of cramming in random sections into a tune, it’s sometimes easier for an artist to hang on one chord for ages to get the perfect sound.
Because in the world of music, the right vibe is as important as the right lyrics, and Glenn Frey never forgot that when working with the Eagles. If you think about it, a lot of the greatest Eagles could be played on a guitar or piano and still sound good, but it’s about the way that they present everything. ‘Hotel California’ may have sounded beautiful as a great acoustic guitar piece, but had they not put the massive solo at the end or Don Henley’s lyrics about the darker side of Hollywood, there’s a good chance that it wouldn’t have done what it was supposed to.
Then again, Frey and Henley were still firm believers in the song being able to move you first. They had already seen what prog rock could do when they toured with Yes, and while the prog giants could come up with fantastic tunes like ‘Close to the Edge’, it’s not like Frey and Henley were exactly itching to have Don Felder and Joe Walsh bust out a bunch of meaningless noodling, either.
Prog would have been the antithesis of everything that they stood for, but the more adventurous of the bunch were turning a corner by the early 1980s. Around the time that the Eagles were breaking up, Phil Collins was also on sabbatical from Genesis while he sorted out his marriage, but when fans first got to hear what he sounded like as a pop star, no one was prepared for what they got on ‘In the Air Tonight’.
Genesis was known for the most outlandish musical detours, but here was a song based on only three chords that didn’t properly get going for nearly three minutes into the song, but that didn’t matter. The tune was all about revenge in one form or another, and when that classic drum fill comes in, it’s as if all of that anger is finally being unleashed.
Even when Frey went solo, he had to give Collins props for making one of the best-sounding pop hits of the past few years, saying, “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a single record that had more atmosphere than this Phil Collins track. It’s so cinematic, and it’s another one of those records that starts out and it sort of hooks you, and you can’t stop listening, and then once he’s got you drawn in, then he starts adding things. I love the tension in that record. There’s something sort of unpredictable about it. You don’t quite know what’s going to happen next, and of course, when the drum fills come in, it’s absolutely mind-blowing.”
And it’s not like Eagles weren’t paying attention when listening to their final records. The Long Run already had a few moody tracks like ‘King of Hollywood’, but when they eventually reformed for Long Road Out of Eden, the best tunes on the record relied on atmosphere in the same way, whether it was the brooding nature of the title track or following it up with a musical ray of sunlight on ‘I Dreamed There Was No War’.
Prog-rock always felt like the furthest thing from the Eagles’ wheelhouse, but listening to Collins’s work reinforced everything that Frey loved about recording. Anyone could record themselves sitting in their room playing demos, but it takes a special kind of artist to build a sonic masterpiece using only three chords and ambience.
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