Eagles - Dark Desert Highway: How America’s Dream Band Turned into a Nightmare

by Mick Wall

Genres: Biography

368 pages, Paperback

Published November 9, 2023

About the author

Mick Wall is an author, journalist, film, television and radio writer-producer, who’s worked inside the music industry for over 35 years. He began his career contributing to the music weekly Sounds in 1977, where he wrote about punk and the new wave, and then rockabilly, funk, New Romantic pop and, eventually, hard rock and heavy metal. By 1983, Wall become one of the main journalists in the early days of Kerrang! magazine, where he was their star cover story writer for the next nine years. He subsequently became the founding editor of Classic Rock magazine in 1998, and presented his own television and radio shows.

Reviews

[James Boys · Rating 4 out of 5]

A pet peeve of mine is the way in which so many celebrities are deified as they get older. This book does not have that problem, and takes the reader through the remarkable rise and rise and rise of the Eagles in a text that can best be described as ‘absolutely unauthorized.’
Some reviewers have rightly raised the author’s writing style, which is certainly not what many may expect, and which does, frankly, take a little getting used to. Once one has acclimatized to the style, however, the narrative becomes yet another enjoyable element of this engaging history of the remarkable band and its various members.
I’d have liked to see more material on the reformation process but, other than that, it’s an easy text to recommend.
It makes a great read alongside the impressive, but heavily sanitized and authorized History of the Eagles documentary.

[Heidi Wynter · Rating 2 out of 5]

this was pretty repetitive, it could’ve done with a few rounds of editing, the writing almost put the Eagles on a pedestal with almost weird comparisons and intemperate style.
that aside it was fine to learn about their history but there’s definitely smoother ways you could learn about them yourself.

[Terry Oomens · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tortuous read..... Interesting and detailed but I found the author's writing difficult (?self indulgent in a way?)..... Glad it's done!

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Just watch the history of the Eagles instead

[Blair Beaton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic history and insights into the band and its members - would have rated it 5 for that, but I wasn’t as keen on the writing style.