One Of These Nights

About

The members of the Eagles were struggling to write strong material for the band’s fourth album when, one night in the mid-1970, guitarist Glenn Frey went out to dinner with a friend, the songwriter J.D. Souther. At their favorite restaurant next to the Los Angeles club the Troubadour, Frey noticed an attractive blonde woman out to dinner with a much older man. “Look at those lyin’ eye,” Frey said, before immediately picking up a pen. The moment wa, of course, the genesis of the Eagles’ “Lyin’ Eye,” which Bob Buziak, the former president of RCA Record, called “among the best LA rock ’n’ roll songs ever written.” Released in 1975, <i>One of These Nights</i> was the Eagles most “painless” album, according to Frey, whose songwriting partnership with Don Henley was hitting new peak. Sharing a Beverly Hills home together, the two wrote classic after classic: The sleazy dance-floor stomper “One of These Night,” and “Take It to the Limit,” an anthem about the downsides of life on the road, co-written with Randy Meisner. While chronicling fame’s dark side can be a tired trope, Henley and Frey proved they were keen observers of life in the fast lane. “The only two people in this group who tend to think alike are Glenn and me,” said Henley, “and we’ve always wanted every song to be the best that it could be.” Working with their producer Bill Szymczyk, the band took new risk. They layered complex guitar riffs on “Too Many Hand,” and built Bernie Leadon’s banjo instrumental “Journey of the Sorcerer” into a folk-prog epic. Inspired by Al Green, Henley belted the title track with a soulful falsetto over a four-on-the-floor dance groove. Not everyone was happy with the session. Leadon resented Henley and Frey listening to demos and making changes without the rest of the band, and at one point disappeared from sessions for three day. He left the group in 1975. .

via Apple Music

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