Those Shoes - Stevie?

[moonrambler]

I would think too that Glenn & Don don't have a problem with Joe doing the song these days and especially under those circumstances. Soda -- it's like you were asking -- I think if Joe had been able to do the song justice when he performed it in concert, they might not have minded. And that interview you mention where Glenn says the other Eagles are not fun guys, he specifically singles Joe out. I figure Glenn's life had changed, he'd had enough of the constant party, and I think we probably all know how when you get tired of all that, that the guy who IS the party starts to seem kind of obnoxious.

[sodascouts]

How ironic that when they mended fences and started performing together, it was dubbed the "Party of Two" lol.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

That must be when they turned into fun guys again.

[Freypower]

I would think too that Glenn & Don don't have a problem with Joe doing the song these days and especially under those circumstances. Soda -- it's like you were asking -- I think if Joe had been able to do the song justice when he performed it in concert, they might not have minded. And that interview you mention where Glenn says the other Eagles are not fun guys, he specifically singles Joe out. I figure Glenn's life had changed, he'd had enough of the constant party, and I think we probably all know how when you get tired of all that, that the guy who IS the party starts to seem kind of obnoxious.

Which makes Glenn's 'Joe WAS the party' line in the F1 interviews somewhat ironic. I always thought the two of them got on the best (I am leaving Glenn/Don Henley out of this). It never occurred to me that Glenn might have got tired of Joe's - shall we say - antics.

[katherine5832]

I know that the original question about the origins of this song was posted about 6 months ago, but I thought I'd post what Don had to say in the "Very Best Of" booklet:

Don: One of my favorites. At that time, all the girls were wearing Charles Jourdan shoes - the ones with the little ankle straps. They'd become very popular and we were big fans [laughs]. And so, we said, "Well, it's not enough just to write about that; we have to turn it into a metaphor for women standing on their own two feet, so to speak, and taking responsibility for their own lives, their own losses." That was our intent. The lyric "Once you've started wearing those shoes" meant "Once you've started being your own woman and taking responsibility for your own life; once you've decided not to be just decoration - an appendage to some guy - then this is all the crap you're going to have to put up with in conjunction with that." Anyone who decides to become the master of his or her own destiny always has to put up with a lot of crap. On the surface the song was about the singles scene: the beautiful, young women seemingly unaware of the sharks waiting in the shallows...sharks that sometimes included us. It was also a great, great beat. It gave Felder a chance to strap on the talkbox, a device which Joe Walsh pioneered on "Rocky Mountain Way" - and the two of them soloed together...

[Share1967]

I thought by now it was common knowledge that HOTM is about Maren Jensen.

The next question is has Joe, whose relationship with Stevie was deeper and longer lasting, ever written any songs about her? I know she wrote at least two for him.

I knew Joe dated Stevie, but I didnt know it was a longer relationship than Don and hers. I love all the info I am finding out.

[Share1967]

Since we were talking about Maren Jensen earlier in this thread, I remembered that I read a more recent quote from Don about Maren. It was from an interview done with Timothy White in Billboard magazine in 2000, promoting Inside Job:

Timothy: "But knowing many women you’ve dated for a long time, I’m aware that you’re very loyal to them and they speak well of you."

Don: "I know what you mean. I am good friends with most of my exes. And sometimes it took several years to get back to that point with those people, but if you love somebody they become part of your life. Especially in Maren’s case. We went through a lot together, and we’re still very close friends, and she’s about to have a baby any day now, and my wife and I are gonna have one any day now, too [Julia Sophia Henley, Don and the former Sharon Summerall’s third child, was born two days after this interview.] She and her husband are doing very well, and I helped her get her business off the ground, and now they’ve just sold it to Estee Lauder, and she’s fixed for the rest of her life. But my life has changed, too. I finally woke up one day and took a look around and said to myself, “I don’t want to be the last guy at the party. It’s too sad.” The guy with the lampshade on after the party is not me, and I snapped out of it. And the universe responded in kind and sent me Sharon. [The couple married in 1995.] And then the kids came [including a daughter, Annabel, and a son, Will] and that really changed everything. So these songs are heartfelt, although some may scoff. But that’s OK."

Wow!! Isnt that sweet. I think if I was his wife Sharon, I would stick to him like fabric softener. She must be very secure in their love. Sweet!

[Share1967]

What is the story about Joe's daughter Emma? I wonder who was ummmm...more impressionable to Stevie, Joe or Don?

[glenneaglesfan]

Interesting thought, Share. Soda posted part of an interview Stevie gave earlier this year. It's here.

https://eaglesonlinecentral.com/foru...8&postcount=33

"There are the great loves of your life, [Stevie] says, then there are the loves of your life, and then there are the companions of your life - 'there's all the different kind of love affairs that you have. But all the great loves of my life wouldn't have been any better at settling down than me.'

And who has been the greatest love of her life?

'My great, great love was Joe Walsh.'

Joe Walsh? Of the Eagles? I struggle to keep the note of surprise out of my voice.

'It's crazy, isn't it?'

I am no expert on Nicks's romantic adventures, but I've done my research. Her affairs with Buckingham, Fleetwood, Don Henley, the record executive Jimmy Iovine - all are well chronicled. But nowhere have I found a single reference to Joe Walsh.

'1983 to 1986,' Nicks says crisply. 'I don't know - why do you love somebody? Why do you love them so much that when they walk in the room your heart jumps out of your chest? I don't know. But I fell in love with Joe at first sight from across the room, in the bar at the Mansions Hotel in Dallas. I looked at him and I walked across the room and I sat on the bar stool next to him, and two seconds later I crawled into his lap, and that was it.

'We were probably the perfect, complete, crazy pair. He was the one that I would have married, and that I would probably have changed my life around for…' She pauses. 'A little bit. Not a lot. But he wouldn't have changed his life either.'

The reason they broke up, she says, is that they were both 'really seriously drug addicts. We were a couple on the way to hell.'

The relationship finally ended when Walsh got on a plane and went to Australia 'to get away from me, basically. He thought - or so I'm told by my friends that Joe told - that one of us was going to die, and the other person would not be able to save them. And I did think I was going to die, absolutely. It took me a long, long time to get over it - if I ever got over it. Because there was no other man in the world for me. And it's the same today, even though Joe is married and has two sons. He met somebody in rehab and got married. And I think he's happy.'"

[sodascouts]

To answer your question about Emma - she died in a car accident in Colorado on her way to kindergarten. This was in 1974. Joe wrote "Song for Emma" as a goodbye for her, and Stevie wrote "Has Anyone Ever Written Anything for You" in sympathy for Joe's loss, after he showed her a little water fountain he erected in honor of Emma in her favorite park. She had always complained that the water fountains were too high for her to reach, so Joe built one her size in her memory.

This is from an interview with Bill Szymczyk:

"A simple plaque adorns the water fountain in North Boulder Park: 'This fountain is given in loving memory of Emma Walsh. April 29, 1971, to April 1, 1974.'

Walsh and former wife Stephanie donated the water fountain to the park in 1976 because it was a favorite playspot of their daughter, who died in a car accident. Walsh's 'So What?' album also included another tribute, 'Song for Emma.'

'Joe was on the road constantly, and when he'd get off he'd spend more time in L.A. than he would in Colorado,' Szymczyk said.

'When Emma died, that put the period on the whole deal. Stephanie went to pieces, and so did he, and so did I - I was her godfather, in the hospital when they had to take her off life support. That was a very dark time.

'Very shortly after that, Joe was permanently gone (from Colorado).'