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.
Wasted Time
Eagles Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
With your little head, down in your hand
Oh, my God, you can't believe it's happening again
Your baby's gone, and you're all alone
And it looks like the end
And you're back out on the street
And you're tryin' to remember
You don't know if you can
You don't care much for a stranger's touch
But you can't hold your man
You never thought you'd be alone
This far down the line
And I know what's been on your mind
You're afraid it's all been wasted time
The autumn leaves have got you thinking
About the first time that you fell
You didn't love the boy too much, no, no
You just loved the boy to well, farewell
So you live day to day
And you dream about tomorrow, oh
And the hours go by like minutes
And the shadows come to stay
So you take a little something
To make them go away
I could have done so many things, baby
If I could only stop my mind
From wonderin' what I left behind
And from worrying 'bout this wasted time
Ooh, another love has come and gone
Ooh, and the years keep rushing on
I remember what you told me before you went out on your own
Sometimes to keep it together, we got to leave it alone
So you can get on with your search, baby
And I can get on with mine
And maybe someday we will find
That it wasn't really wasted time
Mmm, hmm mm
Oh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, mmm mmm
The Eagles' song "Wasted Time" describes the feeling of heartbreak and loss. The lyrics tell the story of a woman who has lost her lover and is struggling to move on. The opening lines set the tone for the song as the singer describes the woman standing with her head down in her hands, overcome by sadness. The repetition of "it's happening again" suggests that this is not the first time the woman has experienced this pain.
The chorus of the song reveals the woman's fear that all the time she spent with her lover has been wasted. She never thought that she would be alone at this point in her life and is struggling to come to terms with her situation. The final verse describes the passing of time and how the woman has turned to drugs to numb her pain. The lines "And the hours go by like minutes, And the shadows come to stay" highlight her despair and the feeling that she is stuck in an endless cycle.
The song's final lines suggest a glimmer of hope as the singer acknowledges that, perhaps someday, they will find that the time they spent together was not wasted after all. The song ends on an optimistic note, suggesting that the pain of heartbreak does not have to be the end.
Line by Line Meaning
Well baby, there you stand
The singer acknowledges the person's presence
With your little head, down in your hand
The person is in despair and is feeling downcast
Oh, my God, you can't believe it's happening again
The person is experiencing the same tragedy as before, making them hopeless
Your baby's gone, and you're all alone
The person's loved one is no longer with them, leaving them lonely
And it looks like the end
The situation seems hopeless as if the end has come
And you're back out on the street
The person is out in the open, in the world
And you're tryin' to remember
They are reminiscing about the past
How do you start it over
They are trying to figure out how to restart life
You don't know if you can
The person is uncertain whether they can move on
You don't care much for a stranger's touch
They don't like unwanted attention
But you can't hold your man
They are missing their loved one who is no longer with them
You never thought you'd be alone
They never anticipated being in this situation
This far down the line
They've been through a lot
And I know what's been on your mind
The singer understands what the person has been thinking
You're afraid it's all been wasted time
The person is scared that everything has been done without purpose
The autumn leaves have got you thinking
The changing season has made the person contemplative
About the first time that you fell
They are thinking about the initial time they experienced love
You didn't love the boy too much, no, no
The love was intense
You just loved the boy to well, farewell
They loved the boy so much that they have to say goodbye
So you live day to day
The person is just living life
And you dream about tomorrow, oh
They spend time wishing for a better future
And the hours go by like minutes
Time is moving too fast
And the shadows come to stay
The darkness is here to stay
So you take a little something
The person uses drugs to feel better
To make them go away
They are trying to escape their problems
I could have done so many things, baby
The singer regrets some choices made
If I could only stop my mind
Desiring to escape the negative thoughts
From wonderin' what I left behind
The singer is thinking about the past
And from worrying 'bout this wasted time
Worrying about whether their life has been spent meaningfully
Ooh, another love has come and gone
Another relationship has ended
Ooh, and the years keep rushing on
Time goes by too quickly
I remember what you told me before you went out on your own
They recall the advice they received in the past
Sometimes to keep it together, we got to leave it alone
One needs to let go to keep things together
So you can get on with your search, baby
They can start looking for what they seek
And I can get on with mine
The singer can also move on
And maybe someday we will find
Perhaps they will find what they are searching for
That it wasn't really wasted time
They will realize that their life was not a waste
Mmm, hmm mm
Oh, ooh, ooh
Ooh, ooh, mmm mmm
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: Glenn Lewis Frey, Donald Hugh Henley
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind