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The Very Best of the Eagles liner notes
THE LONG RUN
GLENN: We'd had the idea for about six or seven years. The title of the song was apropos, and it seemed to be a good title for the album -- let's see who'll last. I think it was a lot about longevity, and it was also about me just lovin' Tyrone Davis' record "Turning Point." We had done some slicker production like the Philly sound, but "Long Run" was more like a tribute to Memphis with the slide guitars playing the parts of the horns.
DON: It was a long and difficult album. Everything was catching up to us. Too much pressure, too much worry, too much traveling, too many controlled substances, too much paranoia and infighting. I missed having a normal life. Glenn and I were starting to grow distant. Everything was pulling apart -- and we were writing about longevity. [thoughtful pause] Yeah, well, even if we weren't living it, we were always able to idealize it in a song about the way we'd like to be -- the way we'd like to be perceived. That song may have been a message to our critics. It may have been a message from Glenn to me or me to Glenn. It could be taken all kinds of different ways. Could be a message to a girl -- a long-departed lover. But, again, it was built on that foundation of Glenn's rhythm guitar playing [sings part]. Always that foundation. So, here we are some 25 years later -- 32 years total -- still going strong. The Long Run, indeed.