13 of the Eagles' most enduring lyrics
Good music grabs you with catchy hooks and meaningful lyrics. Great music establishes a state of mind.
Long after their parade of 1970s hits has fallen from the charts, the Eagles' catalog endures as a collection of archetypes, places so familiar to fans it's hard to imagine a time without them.
The Eagles created those places with masterful musicianship, top-notch songwriting and some of the most memorable lyrics in popular music history. We've collected 13 of our favorites that illustrate the Eagles' ability to take us to the limits of our imagination — from Winslow, Ariz., to the Old West, down Seven Bridges Road, to the Hotel California and beyond.
1. "She is headed for the cheatin' side of town."
From "Lyin' Eyes," off "One of These Nights" album (1975)
"Lyin' Eyes" demonstrates as well as any Eagles song their grasp of the genre they'd mastered in their pre-"Hotel California" years. But the cliched phrasing belies a depth of understanding for the "city girl" who cheats on her "rich old man" because, well, she's unhappy with him. Throwing words around like "lyin'" and "cheatin'" invokes the language of a man wronged, and on the surface he definitely was, but really, the song tells the story from her point of view, which gives you a better indication of where the Eagles' sympathies lie. — C.S.
2. "I'm going back in time and it's a sweet dream / It was a quiet night and I would be all right if I could go on sleeping."
From "Best of My Love," off "On the Border" album (1974)
The Eagles' first No. 1 hit and third single off the album, this sweet, melodious track often is played to demonstrate love and affection, despite actually being a breakup song. This lyric conveys the sentiment of a brokenhearted man reminiscing about an ex-love and wishing to escape his current situation by staying in that dream just a little longer. Who among us hasn't wished to stay asleep when a wonderful, sweet dream is rudely interrupted by reality and everyday life? — J.S.
3. "Most of us are sad / No one lets it show / I've been shadows of myself / How was I to know?"
"Most of Us Are Sad," from "Eagles" album (1972)
Glenn Frey wrote the lovely lyrics, but it was founding member Randy Meisner's vocals who so beautifully mined the simplicity of the words to make the song drift over you like a veil of melancholy. A track off the band's debut album, it's a message that seems to have come from sneaking into our collective souls, and then gently lifting us back up with harmonies to remind us "Still we must go on."— K.M.
4. "They will never forget you till somebody new comes along."
From "New Kid in Town," off "Hotel California" album (1976)
Who doesn't know the giddy delight of being the fresh face that everyone's dying to meet, just as we're all acquainted with the sobering sting of being yesterday's news when the next best thing pushes us into the background. I'm betting the allegory of "New Kid in Town" wasn't lost on the Eagles as they watched the punk revolution of the mid-1970s overturn the world order and threaten to relegate them to dinosaur status. Who could've guessed a sizable pop audience freaked out by the likes of Sid Vicious or the Ramones would clamor for the soothing California sound crafted by the Eagles, keeping them rich and healthy decades after the "new kids" burned themselves out? — C.S.
5. "They call it paradise, I don't know why / You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye."
From "The Last Resort," off "Hotel California" album
Possibly my favorite Eagles song, this underrated track may be Don Henley's greatest ballad. It builds for seven verses before closing strong with this powerful lyric. The passion is clear as he lays out how man inevitably destroys anything that is ever considered paradise, which is a obvious (and still relevant) reference to human destruction of the environment. The Eagles were passionate about the environment and the beauty of Southern California, and this lamentation of its destruction is even more fitting nearly 40 years later. — J.S.
6. "Aren't we the same two people who lived through years in the dark?"
From "I Can't Tell You Why," off "The Long Run" album (1979)
Most standard breakup songs (including many Eagles ones) tread the all-too-familiar ground of fighting, cheating, lying, etc. "I Can't Tell You Why" probably more accurately describes, in complex and honest terms, why most modern relationships fail, falling victim to the indifference and malaise brought about by years of routine. — C.S.
7. "And then you'll have to eat your lunch all by yourself / 'Cause I'm already gone."
From "Already Gone," off "On the Border" album
One of the few Eagles songs not written by members of the band, props to songwriters Jack Tempchin and Robb Strandlund for delivering this zinger in a song about moving on after the end of a relationship. Because there's lyrical heartbreak and tears, and then there's the mundane, everyday hurt of having to eat your sandwich alone. — K.M.
8. "Well, the towns lay out across the dusty plains / Like graveyards filled with tombstones, waiting for the names."
From "Doolin-Dalton," off "Desperado" album (1973)
In the middle of a song that tells the story of the 19th century Dalton Gang of outlaws, comes this line that evokes a hauntingly beautiful image. You can picture going through the Old West seeing deserted towns lined up, one after another, like tombstones in a graveyard. They're just waiting for the names, and the bodies, to make their deaths official. While perhaps not as relatable — or pleasant — as some Eagles lyrics, it does bring to mind the inevitably of death for most things in this world. — J.S.
9. "The queen of diamonds let you down, she was just an empty fable / The queen of hearts you say you never met."
From "Doolin-Dalton/Desperado (Reprise)," off "Desperado" album
Everyone remembers the queen of diamonds and the queen of hearts (your best bet) from Desperado, but for me, this callback beats the initial pair. The subject of the title track apparently fails to heed the earlier warning about the queen of diamonds, and she beats him. As for the queen of hearts? She never had a chance. The Desperado was too busy chasing the things he couldn't have, and it cost him. The Eagles told a lot of stories with their songs, and this one — complete with Old West and gambling references — is among their best. — J.S.
10. "Listen baby, you can hear the engine ring / We've been up and down this highway, haven't seen a goddamn thing."
From "Life in the Fast Lane," off "Hotel California" album
Much of the album "Hotel California" concerns itself with the narcissism and spiritual emptiness of 1970s Southern California, and what better vehicle to project that than a sex-crazed, drug-fueled couple on an aimless thrill ride until they inevitably crash and burn. Such are the perils of "Life in the Fast Lane." — C.S.
11. "You better let somebody love you, before it's too late."
From Desperado, off "Desperado" album
The truly memorable lyrics hit you in the gut, or at least give you pause, no matter how many times you've heard them. File this wisdom from the band's soaring piano ballad, delivered so hauntingly by Don Henley, right alongside "Even children get older and I'm getting older too" by Stevie Nicks on "Landslide." — K.M.
12. "There are stars in the southern sky, southward as you go / There is moonlight and moss in the trees, down the Seven Bridges Road."
From "Seven Bridges Road," off "Eagles Live" album (1980)
While not an Eagles original, this has a quintessential Eagles sound. One of the band's signatures is its powerful and precise use of harmony, and there is no greater example than the five-part arrangement here. It's a fan favorite when performed live and started as simply a backstage warmup for the band. They may not have written the lyrics, but the imagery fits in perfectly with the rest of the band's country, rock and bluegrass-influenced catalog. — J.S.
13. "It's interesting when people die."
From "Dirty Laundry," off Don Henley's "I Can't Stand Still" album (1982)
OK, "Dirty Laundry" is solo Don Henley, but I couldn't resist including his scathing indictment of the profession to which I've devoted my career (although he was specifically calling out TV news). And while many of us in the business take great pains to distance ourselves from our broadcast cousins, they deliver what their audiences want (even when they say they don't want it). Sort of like a certain country-rock band we know. — C.S.
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