I like to think of Don Henley as one of rock\u2019s biggest nutters.\u00a0 This may sound a little unkind, but if his four studio albums are anything to go by when trying to get a glimpse of what makes this man tick, then I think I\u2019m pretty much on the money. 1982\u2019s I Can\u2019t Stand Still<\/i> saw him take aim at the tabloids who dared report on the absolute debauchery that his band lived in on \u201cDirty Laundry.\u201d\u00a0 And on \u201cJohnny Can\u2019t Read,\u201d he did have a point to make as he poured out his frustration about the education system.\u00a0 Not all bad, I know, but his progression into madness had to start somewhere.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
His massive 1984 LP, Building The Perfect Beast <\/i>is still the most \u201880s sounding album ever made, and although he shook it up a little and had some fun, he did scatter his politics throughout the record, which in the context of the album seems impossible to get a grip on where he stands on certain subjects that he raises.\u00a0 His next album, The End Of The Innocence <\/i>(from 1989) is a hard one to sit through because he just added more political statements and subtracted some fun from his previous effort.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Whatever his motivation is, Henley is a pretty crafty songwriter and there are some fine songs on his most recent solo album, 2000\u2019s Inside Job<\/i>.\u00a0 Having said that, there is also some rampant stupidity that just makes no sense at all either way I look at it.\u00a0 I\u2019ll get to that in a minute, but let me say first that the production of this album is superb and the cavalcade of session players used here all earned their money, it sounds great. Henley sounds great singing about his new wife at the time and how she saved his soul on \u201cFor My Wedding\u201d and \u201cEverything Is Different.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Equally pleasing is the funky opener \u201cNobody Else In The World But You\u201d featuring Stevie Wonder, but Don\u2019s ranting again and I\u2019ve got no idea who is the object of ire on this one.\u00a0 \u201cTaking You Home\u201d follows and is a pleasant enough song, but all of this is just the calm before Hurricane Henley unleashes his anger and destroys everything in his path.\u00a0 This happens across two songs that would have made decent rockers had it not been a Henley album.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
\u201cWorkin\u2019 It\u201d is first and despite playing it a dozen times, I\u2019m still thinking \u201cWho\u2019s workin\u2019 who Don?\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s ranting about the government again and the state his homeland is in: \u201cWelcome to the land of flame and fizz, where you will learn that packaging is all that heaven is.\u201d\u00a0 Nice one.\u00a0 But that\u2019s just the start of it, because \u201cWe\u2019re so busy covering our asses, that we just can\u2019t commit \/ We say back off, don\u2019t bother me baby \/ Can\u2019t you see I\u2019m workin\u2019 it.\u201d\u00a0 Commit to what, Don?\u00a0 Workin\u2019 what, Don?\u00a0 In between this, he unleashes a tirade on everything from the media (again) to talk shows and yuppies, just for doing what they do. It seems as though he never makes clear just what is pissing him off so damn much.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n Finally his descent into madness is complete with the insane title track that has to be heard to be believed.\u00a0 Again he is vague about who is conducting these inside jobs, but it could possibly be every government department, every corporation and every Mom and Pop store for all I know.\u00a0 He wails about \u201cmen in towers\u201d screwing everyone over and just goes on from there to hammer it home again and again.\u00a0 He\u2019s clearly worried about something \u2013 the invasion of privacy seems to be at the forefront of this one \u2013 but its just so bonkers it loses any credibility in my mind.\u00a0 <\/p>\n He then launches into \u201cThey\u2019re Not Here, They\u2019re Not Coming,\u201d during which he informs us that UFO\u2019s piloted by little green men with \u201cgreat big heads\u201d are all fiction.\u00a0 Fair enough if you don\u2019t buy into all that stuff, but Don knows for sure and he wrote this stupid little song to tell us \u2013 oh, and he also wants us to stop fighting and hating each other and then maybe they\u2019ll drop in and say hi.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Don does, however, believe in ghosts; he wrote a song about that, too (\u201cMiss Ghost\u201d) and after all of that insanity he then returns to his loves (wife and daughter) and gives us a lovely ballad \u201cAnnabel\u201d and the closer (eight songs too late) \u201cMy Thanksgiving.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n So what could have been Henley\u2019s best solo album, turned out to be a collision of ideas and sounds that never quite works.\u00a0 And while I have nothing against artists using their craft to make political and social statements, it helps when said statements are well thought out and clearly articulated so we the listeners know what\u2019s being said and why they\u2019re saying it.\u00a0 Inside Job <\/i>sounds like Don just ripped pages out of his diary and put the words to music, and if that\u2019s what indeed took place here, than I hope he\u2019s found some help over the last decade or so, \u2019cause boy did he need it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":30854,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5759],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-42531","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-don-henley","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/67"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42531"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42531\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30854"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42531"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}