(Credits: Far Out / Steve Alexander)
Sat 17 January 2026 17:12, UK
When the Eagles first got started, Glenn Frey wanted to make sure that he had the best shot at being a rock and roll star.
Don Henley may have been his partner in crime, but even with all of the great lyrics that he could weave into their tracks, Frey was there, making sure to bring the right chords, the right harmonies, and a semblance of cool that no one else could have possibly matched. But even at his most laid-back, it took a lot of tension to make all of their records sound absolutely perfect when they first came out.
I mean, it’s not like the band was the same kind of band that they presented themselves to be onstage all the time. They weren’t at each other’s throats nearly as much as history has made it out to be, but it could get more than a little bit frustrating when not everyone is on the same page. The rock and roll direction was enough to make Bernie Leadon leave the group, but even when they got a shot in the arm with Joe Walsh, things weren’t exactly perfect when making Hotel California.
No classic record is made without a little bit of elbow grease, and while they gave it their all, that didn’t come without a few bruised egos, either. Walsh was able to squeak by okay with a beautiful ballad to sing, but given that Henley insisted that Don Felder play the solo to ‘Hotel California’ perfectly and ended up tricking Felder into leaving the studio while they sang ‘Victim of Love’ without him, it was clear that he and Frey had turned into the true leaders of the band.
It was impossible to question their judgement at the time, so after they’ve won awards for the record and reached the top of the rock and roll world, where the hell do you go next? It’s never an easy decision for a band to make, but judging by the fact that Frey and Henley didn’t have a single song finished, it was safe to say that they were a little bit apprehensive about what their next move should have been.
Because, really, they had been fried after playing for so many years, and a lot of that fatigue is palpable on The Long Run. Henley was among the first to say that the album was never going to have the same impact as Hotel California, but even when they were playing a few of the songs at the time, Frey could be heard getting more and more pissed off at how some of the tunes were coming together.
Their sense of quality control was as tight as could be back in the day, but when listening to ‘The Disco Strangler’, Frey was absolutely livid that a song like this could have ever been picked off the cutting room floor for a record, saying in Rolling Stone at the time, “I hate this song! I hate this album! God help me! I’m bumming!” Not everything on the record is bad, but if there was any song that warranted that kind of frustration, ‘The Disco Strangler’ is a decent contender for one of the least essential parts of the band’s career.
The lyrics are halfway there to having something to say, but aside from a few cheap shots at the disco scene, all the song boils down to is one simple guitar lick. It’s not even a particularly good guitar lick, either. If you listen to it in isolation, it feels like something that a guitarist would have played in between sections of a much better song, but if this was suddenly good enough to be one of the keepers for the record, it was a sad indication of where the band would be headed when they went on tour.
The Long Run isn’t as dire as the band made it out to be, and there are some genuinely great songs here, but when ‘The Sad Cafe’ and ‘I Can’t Tell You Why’ turn up on a record, this was always going to be considered a massive step down from the same people that made ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and ‘New Kid in Town’. Those were great songs, and this was a half-formed idea masquerading as a finished deep cut.
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