All eyes are on you when you join a hit band. So it was for Timothy B. Schmit, plucked from semi-obscurity as a member of Poco to join Eagles, who were then coming off one of the biggest albums of all time.
His new band gladly ceded some of the spotlight on “I Can’t Tell You Why”, a highlight of Eagles’ 1979 album The Long Run. It now holds a place as Schmit’s signature performance with the band.
Welcome Aboard
Timothy B. Schmit had already replaced Randy Meisner once before. He took over for Meisner in Poco when the latter man decided to become one of the founding members of Eagles. When Meisner decided the pressure of being in perhaps the most popular rock band of the era was too much, Don Henley and Glenn Frey immediately thought of Schmit as a replacement.
On the one hand, Schmit’s ability as a singer would make him a natural fit for the band’s harmony structure. In addition, he was known as an easy-going sort, just what was needed to slide into a group filled with outsized personalities.
Joining the band in 1977, Schmit’s first studio time with his new band came as they started making the follow-up to Hotel California, an unstoppable hit album. His new bandmates decided they wanted to indoctrinate Schmit quickly. The first song that they recorded for the album that would become The Long Run was one that Schmit had brought to the sessions. And he’d also be singing lead.
“Why” Indeed
Schmit had the bare bones of “I Can’t Tell You Why” in place already when the band began to record. Don Henley and Glenn Frey ensured that Schmit didn’t fall back into country-rock mode on the song, since Eagles had striven to leave that part of their career behind on their most recent albums at that point.
As such, the two men helped to complete the writing process. They also found a soulful groove for the song, which Schmit accentuated by letting some falsetto techniques sneak into his lead vocal. Even with Joe Walsh and Don Henley on hand, Frey took the lead guitar part and milked it for every last bit of sorrow.
The Eagles released “I Can’t Tell You Why” as the third single from The Long Run. And, like the two songs that preceded it on the release schedule, it soared into the Top 10, immediately solidifying Schmit’s status in the band.
Behind the Lyrics of “I Can’t Tell You Why”
“I Can’t Tell You Why” finds a narrator pleading for calm in a torrential downpour of a relationship. “Look at us, baby,” he says, trying to make sense of how they reached this chaotic place. “Weren’t we the same two people who lived through years in the dark?” he asks.
Countermelody vocals from Frey and Henley try to reach the girl, while Schmit pleads for a measure of sanity between them. “We’ll make it harder than it has to be,” he insists. But he can’t quite quit the drama. “Every time I try to walk away,” the narrator explains. “Something makes me turn around and stay.”
As soon as Schmit enjoyed his ringing success with the band, he was faced with the prospect of their breakup. But Eagles would eventually reunite, giving him the chance to take his nightly spotlight with “I Can’t Tell You Why” for all the band’s shows thereafter.
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