Brainy Quote

[DonFan]

As I was Google-ing Don the other day, I stumbled upon a section of Google called "brainyquote.com" and here are some of the Henley quotes that were posted there. I don't know who chose the quotes, but I took out the ones that were quoted from his songs, and I tried to put them in some sort of order. All in all, these are pretty interesting:

I've got a college education. I was an English literature major.
Don Henley

Actually, my mother and father were both musical people, not in a professional sense, by my mother played gospel piano and my father could sing pretty well.
Don Henley

I think my first instrument was a ukulele that they gave me. I used to know how to play that pretty well.
Don Henley

I even learned to read drum music pretty well for a while, although I don't know if I could now.
Don Henley

I felt like I had paid my dues in Texas and that I really didn't owe any dues in California. I had already played so many clubs and gigs that by the time I got to California, I knew that I could probably play with the best of them at least with the kind of people who did the music I liked.
Don Henley

After the Eagles got successful I stopped playing drums on other people's records unless they were really good friends of mine.
When a group gets successful, people are more hesitant to ask you to come and play sessions.
Don Henley

I come from the school of thinking that believes that the customer is always right.
Don Henley

I care about the drum sound. I'm very critical when it comes to the sound of the drums that will go into a song.
Don Henley

I could have played more complex stuff. I could have been a busier player. But that's not what I wanted to do. I played what I wanted to play.
Don Henley

I picked up licks from all the records I ever heard, as I guess all drummers do. I don't care what anybody says about Ringo. I cut my rock -n- roll teeth listening to him.
Don Henley

I don't mind doing two or three Eagles songs and playing the drums. I'm not one of those artists who's going to sit here and deny the past. I could stand out front and sing Eagles songs that I sing in my set, but I think people enjoy watching me sing and play the drums. It seems to fascinate people. I don't know why.
Don Henley

I have a bad back partially from playing the drums and singing. I used to have to hold my body in such a position that my spine got out of alignment.
Don Henley

Playing the drums is not my first love anymore and hasn't been for a long time.
Don Henley

Some records with drum machines on them sound phony and plastic. It all depends on how you use the tools.
Don Henley

I'm certainly not thrilled with everything the Eagles did, but there are some things I'm quite proud of.
Don Henley

Selling eight million copies of your first album will mess you up.
Don Henley

The Eagles and the critics were not the best of friends.
Don Henley

The Eagles ended on a rather abrupt note, although in retrospect I realize now that it had been ending for quite some time. It was pretty frightening because as we all know, when large, famous groups breakup, a lot of the members don't survive in solo careers.
Mick Jagger can't even make a successful solo album, and the Stones are the biggest rock group that ever was.
Don Henley

I started looking around for another partner, because I'm a collaborator. I can't do it all by myself; I need that other half.
Don Henley

At one point during the making of my first solo album, I considered chucking the whole thing, selling my house in LA, moving to Colorado, and buying some head of cattle and retiring.
Don Henley

I think I made a pretty respectable first album. I don't think it did as well as it should have, because I think the people at Elektra records saw me as a dinosaur, and really didn't have much faith in my future.
Don Henley

I generally like to call an album by one of the song's titles, one that's probably going to be the single.
Don Henley

I have things that I am interested in, and that's usually what comes out on the album. I have a certain pool of subject matter that I like to write about, things that interest me: politics, religion, ecology, and relationships between men and women. And that's usually what I focus on.
Don Henley

The only thing it means in the context of the album is that the song is kind of like an umbrella that you could apply to a lot of the other songs. A lot of the songs are about an end of an innocence, the loss of innocence, and about fallen heroes.
Don Henley

I try to write conversationally; I try to write like people speak and put the emphasis on the right syllable. Sometimes songwriters and singers forget that. They get a melody in their head and the notes will take precedence, so that they wind up forcing a word onto a melody. It doesn't ring true.
Don Henley

It works both ways. I will have a concept or a song title that I want to write a song about, and I'll go to Danny and tell him I want to do this kind of song. Sometimes, though, Danny will give me a track, and I'll either come up with a whole new set of lyrics to graft onto that track, or it will fit some idea that I already had for a song, and I'll graft that on and then fill in the blanks.
Don Henley

I'm blessed with a pretty good voice. So just sitting back there banging on the tubs wasn't enough.
Don Henley

I still find it more difficult to sing and play guitar at the same time than I do to sing and play the drums.
Don Henley

Between each album I try to gain a new insight that I didn't have before and perhaps write a song about something that I've written about before, but from a fresh viewpoint.
Don Henley

I'm fortunate that I've been in this business long enough that I've earned the right to be left alone by my record company.
Don Henley

I'm always jotting things down on pieces of paper. I've got pieces of paper all over my house. When it comes time to make an album, I have to go back through all that stuff and sort it out and put it into some kind of order which is another reason why it takes me so long to make a record!
Don Henley

I would rather take a long time and make a record with eight or ten good songs on it than to rush one out with only one or two good songs on it, which is what I find to be the case most of the time.
Don Henley


(I think this one is my favorite--short & to the point

I always take a long time to make a record.
Don Henley

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I always take a long time to make a record.
Don Henley

Thanks for clearing that up for us, Don. Now we know what's taking so long!

Actually, most of these are very interesting. Thanks DF.

[sodascouts]

Thanks for these, DF! My favorites:

I come from the school of thinking that believes that the customer is always right.

So, Don, your customers would like an album and tour... lol

I don't mind doing two or three Eagles songs and playing the drums. I'm not one of those artists who's going to sit here and deny the past. I could stand out front and sing Eagles songs that I sing in my set, but I think people enjoy watching me sing and play the drums. It seems to fascinate people. I don't know why.

Sure works for me!

At one point during the making of my first solo album, I considered chucking the whole thing, selling my house in LA, moving to Colorado, and buying some head of cattle and retiring.

Can you imagine Don as a cattle rancher?! Gotta love it.

I try to write conversationally; I try to write like people speak and put the emphasis on the right syllable. Sometimes songwriters and singers forget that. They get a melody in their head and the notes will take precedence, so that they wind up forcing a word onto a melody.

I think I might have told you guys this story before, but when Don heard an early version of Stevie Nicks' song "Dreams," he told her she needed to change "washes" in the chorus (Stevie: "When the rain washES you clean you'll know). Stevie says he told her "You can't just put the emphasis on the wrong syllable like that! It's WASHes!" The stubborn girl didn't listen.

I'm blessed with a pretty good voice. So just sitting back there banging on the tubs wasn't enough.

That's an understatement!

[DonFan]

"Can you imagine Don as a cattle rancher?! Gotta love it."

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I have an early article on Don in Rolling Stone right after he went solo that actually has a picture of him, posed sitting on a bull. The picture is hilarious--I will send you a copy of it.
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"I think I might have told you guys this story before, but when Don heard an early version of Stevie Nicks' song "Dreams," he told her she needed to change "washes" in the chorus (Stevie: "When the rain washES you clean you'll know). Stevie says he told her "You can't just put the emphasis on the wrong syllable like that! It's WASHes!" The stubborn girl didn't listen. "
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I always wondered about those lyrics! At first I couldn't even understand that she was saying washES. Don was SO right!

Well, I didn't put my comments in the right place after Soda's comments, but you guys understand.....

[Freypower]

I'd like to tell him I'm one of the people who is 'fascinated' by him singing & playing drums. He's very good at it and long may he continue to be. I love watching him play. He underrates himself. As Glenn said there are not many people who do what he does - Levon Helm (and Phil Collins, who was not mentioned by Glenn).

[glenneaglesfan]

Great quotes, Df. I'd love to see Don perched on a bull!!

I found this on a newspaper cutting - I don't know its date.

In a letter to Rolling Stone, Don Henley of The Eagles signs off with:"Anyway, just wanted to let you know that we are still managing to survive, even though the slaves escaped, we ran out of Perrier and the BMW blew up."

[DonFan]

That one is great too, GEF. It sounds just like him.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Well - I'm sure glad Don didn't hang it up and retire to the cattle ranch! Love the Rolling Stone quote - it does sound very "Don".

[sodascouts]

LOL! I love a man who knows how to be effectively sarcastic.

[SweetHolly]

LOL! I love a man who knows how to be effectively sarcastic.

So do I.