Each of the members has pursued a solo career, with Don Henley’s the most successful commercially and critically. In the ’90s, after what they considered a "14 year break", the band’s sound was frequently cited as an influence by young country stars, many of whom contributed tracks to the album Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles (#3, 1993), which won Album of the Year at the 1994 Country Music Associations's CMA Awards. That same year, the Eagles revival culminated in the band’s reunion tour and album.
The group originally coalesced from L.A.’s country-rock community. Before producer John Boylan assembled them as Linda Ronstadt’s backup band on her album Silk Purse (1970), the four original Eagles were already experienced professionals. Bernie Leadon had played in the Dillard and Clark Expedition and the Flying Burrito Brothers; Randy Meisner, with Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. Glenn Frey had played with various Detroit rock bands (including Bob Seger’s) and Longbranch Pennywhistle (with J.D. Souther, a sometime songwriting partner), and Henley had been with a transplanted Texas group, Shiloh. After working with Ronstadt, Henley and Frey decided to form the Eagles, recruiting Leadon and Meisner.
Intending to take the country rock of the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers a step further toward hard rock, the Eagles recorded their first album with producer Glyn Johns in England. Take It Easy (#12, 1972), written by Frey and Jackson Browne, went gold shortly after its release, as did their debut album of the same name. (Another single, Witchy Woman, reached #9 that year.)
Desperado was a concept album with enough of a plot line to encourage rumors of a movie version. The LP yielded no major pop hits, but its title track, Desperado, a ballad penned by Henley and Frey, has become a classic rock standard covered by Linda Ronstadt among others.
With On the Border, the Eagles changed producers, bringing in Bill Szymczyk (who worked on all subsequent albums through 1982’s Greatest Hits, vol. 2) and adding Don Felder, who had recorded with Flow in Gainesville, Florida (and who once gave guitar lessons to another Gainesville native, Tom Petty), then became a session guitarist and studio engineer in New York, Boston, and L.A.
The increased emphasis on rock attracted more listeners - mid-’70s hits included Best of My Love (#1, 1975), One of These Nights (#1, 1975), Lyin’ Eyes (#2, 1975), and Take It to the Limit (#4, 1975) - but alienated Leadon. After One of These Nights, Leadon left to form the Bernie Leadon–Michael Georgiades Band, which released Natural Progressions in 1977. (Leadon went on to become a Nashville session musician, and in the ’90s formed Run-C&W, a jokester group who played a blend of country and R&B.)
Leadon was replaced by Joe Walsh, who had established himself with the James Gang and as a solo artist. His Eagles debut, Hotel California, was their third consecutive #1 album (the second was their record-breaking 1976 greatest-hits compilation). New Kid in Town (#1, 1976), the title cut Hotel California (#1, 1977), and Life in the Fast Lane (#11, 1977) spurred sales of more than 15 million copies worldwide.
Meisner left in 1977, replaced by Timothy B. Schmit, who had similarly replaced him in Poco. Meisner has released two solo albums, Randy Meisner (1978) and One More Song (1980). (In 1981, he toured with the Silveradoes; later, in 1990, Meisner reemerged in the group Black Tie, alongside Billy Swan and Bread’s James Griffin.) Henley and Frey sang backup on One More Song, and in the late ’70s they also appeared on albums by Bob Seger and Randy Newman. In 1981 Henley duetted with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks on the #6 single Leather and Lace.
Between outside projects and legal entanglements, it took the Eagles two years and $1 million to make the multiplatinum LP The Long Run, their last album of all-new material. Parting hit singles included Heartache Tonight (#1, 1979), The Long Run (#8, 1980), and I Can’t Tell You Why (#8, 1980).
Walsh continued to release solo albums, though his biggest single to date has been 1978’s cheeky Life’s Been Good (#12). Felder and Schmit also put out their own albums and contributed songs to film soundtracks. Schmit’s second LP, Timothy B, included Boys Night Out (#25, 1987).
In 1982 Don Henley and Glenn Frey both embarked on solo careers. Frey charted with The One You Love (#15, 1982) and Sexy Girl (#20, 1984) before a movie proved his ticket into the Top 10: The Heat Is On, featured in Beverly Hills Cop, shot to #2 in 1985.
Frey followed this success by becoming an actor, making a guest appearance as a drug dealer on the popular TV series Miami Vice. The episode was based on a track from his album The Allnighter, Smuggler’s Blues, which consequently reached #12 (1985). Later in 1985, Frey’s You Belong to the City hit #2. While still dabbling in acting with roles in the short-lived TV series South of Sunset, the movie Jerry Maguire, and a guest spot on the Don Johnson post–Miami Vice series Nash Bridges in the ’90s, Frey also cofounded a music label, Mission Records, in 1997.
Ultimately, though, Henley was the ex-Eagle who garnered the greatest chart success, and the most critical acclaim as well. His Dirty Laundry (from his first solo effort, I Can’t Stand Still) made it to #3, but the 1985 album Building the Perfect Beast was to be his true arrival as solo hitmaker and respected singer/songwriter. The kickoff single, The Boys of Summer, went to #5 - supported by an evocative black-and-white video that fast became an MTV favourite - and earned Henley a Grammy for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male; the hits All She Wants to Do Is Dance (#9, 1985) and Sunset Grill (#22, 1985) followed. A third album, The End of the Innocence, produced a #8 title track, End of the Innocence, and the additional singles The Last Worthless Evening and The Heart of the Matter, which both hit #21. The LP won Henley another Grammy, in the same category as before.
In the early ’90s, Henley sought release from his Geffen Records contract, initiating a long and bitter legal dispute. After participating in the release of a solo best-of album in 1995, Henley was freed from his contract. Five years later, he released a studio album of all-new material, Inside Job (coproduced by former Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers drummer Stan Lynch), and embarked on a solo tour to support it. Henley had married for the first time in May 1995 and had three children before releasing Inside Job. This life-altering change for the longtime bachelour resulted in a new theme in his songwriting; several of Inside Job’s tracks were clearly about marriage and family, including the gentle ballad Taking You Home (#58 pop, #1 Adult Contemporary, 2000). Much of the rest of the album, however, still explored Henley’s cynicism toward the business world and the media.
In 1990 Henley founded the Walden Woods Project, dedicated to preserving historic lands around Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts (where Henry David Thoreau and others reflected and wrote), from corporate development. Among the singer’s various fund-raising means were holding charity concerts, featuring other top rock artists, and donating proceeds from some of his own recordings, including a reggae version of the Guys and Dolls standard “Sit Down You’re Rocking the Boat” (1993). In 1993 the Walden Woods Project got a big boost from Common Thread: The Songs of the Eagles, coorganised by Henley and featuring Clint Black, Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, and others.
In 1994, after years of fielding off reunion rumours, Henley, Frey, Walsh, Felder, and Schmit - who had appeared together in the video for Tritt’s version of Take It Easy - hit the road for a massively successful tour, the third-highest grossing concert tour of that year. The tour went on hiatus toward the end of 1994, due to Frey’s gastrointestinal surgery, but it continued in 1995. In November 1994, the band released Hell Freezes Over, which featured four new songs, including the singles Get Over It (#31, 1994), Love Will Keep Us Alive (#1 Adult Contemporary, 1994), Learn to Be Still (#15 Adult Contemporary, 1995), and 11 of the old hits culled from the band’s 1994 live appearance on MTV. Within months the reunion LP had sold more than 10 million copies and gone to #1 on the pop album chart.
In 1998 the Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. All seven members of the band performed together for the first time at the induction ceremony. The core members of the group - the ones who had recorded and toured together in the mid-’90s - reunited again for a few concerts at the end of 1999, including a New Year’s Eve show in L.A. A four-CD retrospective set, Eagles 1972–1999: Selected Works (#109, 2000), was released in November 2000.
Don Felder was fired from the band in 2000, leaving Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit as the remaining members of the band.
In 2007 they released a double album Long Road out of Eden, logically followed by a world tour, which was, regardless of people's opinion on the new album, a guaranteed sold-out event. The base line-up on this album is Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit. Also performing on the studio recording are Steuart Smith (guitar, keyboard, mandolin), Scott Crago (percussion) and Will Hollis (keyboard).
On January 18, 2016, it was announced that Glenn Frey had died at the age of 67 in New York City from complications arising from rheumatoid arthritis, colitis and pneumonia.
Learn To Be Still
Eagles Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
As you stumble to your bed
You'd give anything to silence
Those voices ringing in your head
You thought you could find happiness
Just over that green hill
You thought you would be satisfied
But you never will-
Learn to be still
We are like sheep without a shepherd
We don't know how to be alone
So we wander 'round this desert
And wind up following the wrong gods home
But the flock cries out for another
And they keep answering that bell
And one more starry-eyed messiah
Meets a violent farewell-
Learn to be still
Learn to be still
Now the flowers in your garden
They don't smell so sweet
Maybe you've forgotten
The heaven lying at your feet
There are so many contradictions
In all these messages we send
(We keep asking)
How do I get out of here
Where do I fit in?
Though the world is torn and shaken
Even if your heart is breakin'
It's waiting for you to awaken
And someday you will-
Learn to be still
Learn to be still
You just keep on runnin'
Keep on runnin'
The lyrics of Eagles’ song Learn To Be Still are about the disillusionment of looking for happiness and fulfillment in external things, only to realize that true peace and satisfaction can only be found within oneself. The opening lines of the song describe the feeling of being overwhelmed with the stresses and noise of everyday life, and how this can make one long for quietness and calm. The singer’s search for happiness takes them to a faraway green hill, symbolic of an idealized destination where their problems will be solved. However, this quest proves futile as they come to the realization that they will never find true happiness outside of themselves. The title “Learn To Be Still” is a call to find inner peace and contentment, despite the chaos of the world.
The chorus of the song invokes the metaphor of sheep without a shepherd, roaming aimlessly through the desert. This image implies that, like sheep, we are often lost and directionless without guidance, seeking answers and fulfillment in empty promises and false prophets. However, the flock is not content to be still and continues to search for something more. The lyrics then shift towards an exploration of the contradictions and anxieties inherent to modern life, where people are bombarded with messages about success and worth but often feel disconnected and unfulfilled. The lines “The flowers in your garden, they don’t smell so sweet / Maybe you’ve forgotten the heaven lying at your feet” suggest that true beauty and meaning in life can be found in the present moment and the simple things around us.
Overall, the song Learn To Be Still is a meditation on the human condition and the search for meaning and happiness. Its message is one of hope and the possibility of finding peace and contentment within oneself, even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty.
Line by Line Meaning
It's just another day in paradise
Everything seems to be fine but secretly, you're struggling with your own problems.
As you stumble to your bed
You're exhausted both mentally and physically to the point of just collapsing into bed.
You'd give anything to silence those voices ringing in your head
You're constantly distracted by the negative thoughts in your head and wish they would go away.
You thought you could find happiness just over that green hill
You believed that happiness was something that could be easily attained but quickly realized it wasn't.
You thought you would be satisfied, But you never will-
Even though you thought you could be content in life, you've come to the realization that it may never be the case.
Learn to be still
Take the time to reflect and be present in the moment.
We are like sheep without a shepherd
We're lost and without guidance or direction.
We don't know how to be alone
We constantly seek the comfort of others and struggle to be comfortable in solitude.
So we wander 'round this desert
We aimlessly search in a barren and empty place.
And wind up following the wrong gods home
We often fall prey to false idols and beliefs.
But the flock cries out for another, And they keep answering that bell
We continue to follow leaders who we believe will lead us to the promised land, ignorant of the fact that they may lead us astray.
And one more starry-eyed messiah, Meets a violent farewell-
We witness the tragic end of those who preach a message of hope and salvation.
Now the flowers in your garden, They don't smell so sweet
The beauty around you no longer holds the same joy and appreciation it once did.
Maybe you've forgotten, The heaven lying at your feet
You're so consumed by the chaos and negativity in your life that you've overlooked the good things that surround you.
There are so many contradictions, In all these messages we send
The messages we communicate contain so many conflicting ideas and beliefs.
(We keep asking) How do I get out of here, Where do I fit in?
You're uncertain about where you belong or how to progress in life.
Though the world is torn and shaken, Even if your heart is breakin',It's waiting for you to awaken,And someday you will-
Despite the turmoil and pain, there is still the potential for growth and change.
Learn to be still
Take the time to be present and learn from the world around you.
You just keep on runnin',Keep on runnin'
Don't ignore your problems but instead strive to overcome them.
Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Cass County Music / Wisteria Music / Privet Music, HORI PRO ENTERTAINMENT GROUP
Written by: DON HENLEY, STANLEY LYNCH
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@karenjoslyn4051
Such a beautiful song!!
@supernaturalcrossroad8702
🧡
@ra7ph_w
Thank you.