Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful and elegiac, a heartfelt mourning of Americana., April 27, 2000
Don Henley's The End of the Innocence capped off the '80s on a perfect note. With Bruce Hornsby's classy piano sounding like the last, gentle strains of an uneasy age, lead track "The End of the Innocence" features one of the best lyrics ever written on disillusionment...and hope in the face of disillusionment. Henley sounds like he was put on earth to make this majestic song come alive, his singing the best he's ever done, a high croon filled with longing and sadness.And the rest of the album holds up: "The Heart of the Matter" is a quiet, extraordinary exploration of lost love, moving beyond words; "I Will Not Go Quietly" rips into hard-rock mode; "The Last Worthless Evening" is a brewing ballad with suppressed feelings of desire; and "New York Minute"'s ringing guitars make for a perfect accompaniment to Henley's mournful but hypnotic voice. This album belongs on every list as one of the best of the 1980s.
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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Award-winning ballads and Reagonomics -- a Henley must-have., July 20, 2001
"Remember when the days were long and rolled beneath a deep blue sky" ... remember Paradise Lost and the Last Resort? At the end of the 1980s, his awareness of society and what's wrong with it more acute than ever, on his third solo album Don Henley took up the theme of the closing song of the Eagles' classic "Hotel California" even more forcefully than on his two prior releases. Now, however, it was not just "somebody" any longer who "laid the mountains low while the town got high." Now the enemy had a face; he was "the tired old man that we elected king;" that cowboy whose name was Jingo, and who "heard that there was trouble, so in a blaze of glory he rode out of the west - nobody was ever certain what it was that he was sayin' but they loved it when he told them they were better than the rest." ("Little Tin God.")
By the time he published "The End of the Innocence," Don Henley's name was as firmly established as that of a successful solo artist as it had previously come to be known as one of the driving forces behind the Eagles' almost decade-long success. Commercially his most successful album and critically his most acclaimed, his third solo release garnered a Grammy for Best Male Rock Vocalist (for the title track) and produced several more hit singles besides "The End of the Innocence:" "The Heart of the Matter," "New York Minute," "How Bad Do You Want It?" and "Last Worthless Evening." Stylistically, the album ranges from ballads like the piano-driven title song (co-written by Bruce Hornsby, whose fingerprints are all over its instrumentation; not just in the keyboards but also in the saxophone solo, performed by Wayne Shorter, and in the song's main theme), "The Last Worthless Evening," and Don Henley's variation on the theme of forgiveness, "The Heart of the Matter" (a song that took him "42 years to write," as he explained during the opening show of the Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" tour) - all the way to hard-rocking tunes like "I Will Not Go Quietly," featuring background vocals by Axl Rose. In between are the jazzy, introspective "New York Minute," yet another (percussion- and rhythm-driven) warning that the world "ain't no Shangri-La," the deceptively light-footed "Little Tin God," and no less than three hard, edgy songs rounding up Henley's damning verdict on Reaganomics ("How Bad Do You Want It?," "Gimme What You Got" and "If Dirt Were Dollars").
As were his previous solo albums, "The End of the Innocence" was co-produced and largely co-written by Danny Kortchmar, and likewise as on the previous albums, Henley enlisted the cooperation of a number of other outstanding musicians - in addition to Kortchmar, Hornsby, Shorter and Rose, Melissa Etheridge, Sheryl Crow, Julia and Maxine Waters, Heartbreakers Mike Campbell and Stan Lynch, Toto's David Paich and Jeff Porcaro, "inofficial Eagle" J.D. Souther, and many others. Except for his greatest hits album, 1995's "Actual Miles," this was also to be the last record Don Henley would publish on Geffen; a label he did not leave without a fight (which alongside the Eagles' reunion, his marriage and his preoccupation with the Walden Woods Project, he would later list as one of the reasons why he did not produce another new album in all of eleven years).
Henley is well-known to be a perfectionist and is sometimes criticized for allegedly overly "slick" productions; a statement usually going hand in hand with accusations of superficiality and occasionally even hypocrisy (his records did, after all, earn him millions; so how serious can he be about his social criticism?). But it doesn't even take a look at his efforts to preserve the environment (in the Walden Woods Project and elsewhere), his recently formed coalition for artists' rights, and his testimony before Congress on a variety of related topics to doubt the accuracy of that assessment. This guy means every word he writes; just listen to his lyrics - and as long as "we got the bully pulpit and the poisoned pen" and "this brave new world [is] gone bad again" ("If Dirt Were Dollars [we'd all be in the black]"), he'll be around to hold up a mirror before our eyes.
Also recommended:
Don Henley Live - Inside Job
The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
Selected Works: 1972-1999
Hotel California
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Henley's Best Solo Work - An All-Star Collaboration, December 29, 2004
Following the breakup of the Eagles, Don Henley would embark on what would slowly become a very successful solo career. In the 1980s, Henley would release three albums. His first effort was 1982's "I Can't Stand Still". This effort would produce a classic tune called "Dirty Laundry" in which Henley poked fun at the "pretty faces" doing the TV news. Two+ years later - in 1984, a more successful follow-up "Building the Perfect Beast" would produce three more singles "All She Wants To Do is Dance", "Sunset Grill", and "The Boys of Summer". "The Boys of Summer" was a mega-hit for Henley that was boosted by an award winning music video. Following "Building the Perfect Beast", Henley would take nearly 5 years to make his next effort. The 5 year effort made by Henley would not disappoint - his 1989 effort entitled "The End of the Innocence" would become his most successful solo effort to date. Each of Don Henley's solo albums would be more successful from both a commercial sales and criticial acclaim standpoint. "The End of the Innocence" marked the peak of Don Henley's solo career and broke him out of the mold of the Eagles and put him on his own two feet.
There are three factors that make "The End of the Innocence" a great album. First, from a songwriting standpoint - Henley and Company do some of his best work. Second, from a production standpoint. Danny Kortchmar was brought in as the a co-producer with Henley for 7 of the 10 songs. Kortchmar had collaborated with Henley on his two previous albums as a songwriter. Kortchmar continues to collaborate with Henley on several tunes, but now moves into the role as the main co-producer. Kortchmar's previous work with Henley makes him a natural fit as he is able to get the most out of Don Henley's talents. Finally, as with his previous studio albums - Henley brings in an all-star lineup of musicians - past, present, and future. This lineup of musicians help augment Henley's talents even more and make this such as great release. The lineup of musicians includes: Bruce Hornsby, Mike Campbell (from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers), Patty Smyth (Scandal), Axl Rose (Guns N Roses), Jeff Porcaro and David Paich (Toto). The lineup includes three woman who would become big stars in the 90s: Melissa Etheridge, Edie Brickell, and Sheryl Crow.
Bruce Hornsby is co-writer, producer (this is the one of non-Kortchmar produced song), and pianist of "The End of the Innocence". Hornsby's trademark piano playing combined with Henley's vocals make this a classic. The lyrics make a lot of use of metaphors. Although a much different sound than 1984's "The Boys of Summer", the song still has much of the retro-qualities of "Boys of Summer".
"How Bad Do You Want It" is a very underrated tune. It probably is one of the best songs of the album and is co-written by Henley, Kortchmar, and Stan Lynch. There is some great horn work and terrific drum work. Patty Smyth plays a key role with the background vocals that fold in perfectly when needed. Although not as strong a song as "How Bad Do You Want It", the third track "I Will Not Go Quietly" makes good use of background vocals as well. Another Henley and Kortchmar collaboration, this strong uses Axl Rose on background vocals and he goes perfectly with the hard rock edge of this song.
Despite Kortchmar's solid influence, the collection's best track "The Last Worthless Evening" wasn't a Kortchmar collaboration from a songwriting or production standpoint. Mike Campbell and John Corey (Corey and Stan Lynch wrote and produced this with Henley) provide some terrific guitar work. The acoustic sound makes this song special. In this song, Don sings this song to himself about a woman who has broken up with someone and Don feels he can fill the void in the woman's life. The best part of the song is the bridge in the middle of the song that goes "Time Time Ticking...". This song is a classic.
"New York Minute" was written in 1989 by Henley, Kortchmar, and Jai Winding. It is a truly great song that features Toto's Jeff Porcaro on drums and Toto's David Paich on piano. This song has a terrific haunting quality. What nobody would realize is how this song would almost become a soundtrack for the state of New York City following the World Trade Center attack. Lyrics such as "Harry Got Up....Went Down to the Station; And He Never Came Back" and "Lying here in darkness; I hear the Sirens Wail" are examples of this. Paich also contributes piano on "Little Tin God". "Little Tin God" deals with Evangelists and Healers. This best way to describe this song's sound is a folk-like quality applied with a harder Rock edge.
Edie Brickell and Melissa Etheridge contribute background vocals on "Gimme What You Got". Because of Kotchmar's guitar, this song has almost a John Fogerty sound to it - much like you hear on "Centerfield". Sheryl Crow contributes background vocals on "If Dirt Were Dollars". This song also has a Fogerty like quality. Both songs may have a Fogerty sound, but they also explore Fogerty-like topics of materialism and greed.
The collection wraps up with "The Heart of the Matter". This song almost seems like a perfect "wrap-up" like song. Mike Campbell plays guitar and keyboards and is a co-writer and producer with Henley on this track (also Kortchmar co-produces). Don sings about a lost love and he explores to see what went wrong by getting to "The Heart of the Matter". Campbell's work on guitar and keyboards will really be the foundation to this song.
The liner notes of this collection contain the lyrics to all of the songs. The production and songwriting credits are also included. The collection also does a nice job at listing the studio musicians. Overall, this is a solid effort by Don Henley - highly recommended.
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~ Don Henley
~ Don Henley
~ Don Henley
~ Alan Parsons Project
by Don Henley 
