Eagles: Dark Desert Highway : How America's dream band turned into a nightmare

by Mick Wall

'This could be heaven or this could be hell...'

So sings Don Henley on their biggest hit, 'Hotel California', yet for The Eagles their story was one where the dividing line between ultimate Hollywood highs and subterranean LA lows was blurred beyond recognition, blinded by white-powdered double-visions and buried beneath greenback mountains.

The band that embodied the American dream with globe-straddling success, impossibly luxurious lives, almost supernatural talent also descended into nightmare with bloodletting betrayal, hate-filled hubris, the skeletons of perceived enemies, brutally discarded lovers and former band mates left unburied in the road behind them. The story of The Eagles is a truly gothic American one of ultimate power and rivers of money; of sex and drugs at a time when both were the lingua-franca of sophisticated So-Cal living; of a band who sang of peaceful easy feelings in public while threatening to kill each other in private.

Now, for the first time, esteemed music biographer Mick Wall will provide the definitive insight into America's best-selling band of all time, a band who have sold more records than Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones combined, exploring their meteoric rise to fame, and the hedonistic days of the 70s music scene in LA, when American music was taking over the world.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

335 pages, Paperback

Published May 25, 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

[John Priest · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting book ruined by the authors continual need to write as if his brain got fried in the 70s and got stuck there.

[Daniela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mick Wall kicks off the book by stating that Don Henley doesn’t like books about the Eagles.

The rest of the book seems like a statement of Mick Wall not liking Don Henley.

[Cait · Rating 2 out of 5]

This structure didn't work for me, unfortunately. I want to read a book about silly little dudes with their silly egos and drama!

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent enough read. You're unlikely to like them more as a result of reading this

[Pat · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first line of this account of the Eagles did not bode well for me. I like the band very much thank you; “The Eagles have never been anybody’s favourite band”. The author did go onto elaborate what he meant, “Oh sure, they may have written and recorded lots of people’s favourite song”-but still, why write about a band you don’t actually seem to like that much? This was not an attitude that was going to put me in the best frame of mind to continue with this account. True there was a lot of interesting information here and stuff I didn’t know, but it was all based on information from other published sources and the author’s take on this. Of course I am fully aware that the Eagles (now just Don from the original line up) are very controlling of anything written or recorded about them and they were far from angels. And then there is the very annoying style; like some stoned American college kid. Mick Wall is in fact “the UK’s best known rock writer [and] …He lives in England”. I did really like the last two chapters because he described the Eagles concert at Hyde Park in 2022 and I was there, though it seems I enjoyed it a lot more than Mr Wall. But then I really, really like the Eagles.

[Misty Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unusually for a band biog this has no illustrations at all - a pity on many levels.

For me, this was a book of two halves, but I'm not entirely sure why...

I found the first few chapters a struggle - not because of the content or the actual writing, but because the prose seemed to be written in a form of 'jive talk' which made it a little problematic to work out exactly what the author's meaning was. However, either I just got used to the style, or maybe he eased off for the latter part of the book, but somehow it became much easier as it went along.

The book is subtitled 'How America's Dream Band Turned into a Nightmare'. Hmmm...Yes, they had their problems, particularly in the late 1970s - but how many bands did not go through something similar - dope, 'ladies', etc etc. Yes, they fell out amongst themselves but again, almost any band that tours for an extended period will find themselves lashing out at some point (as indeed do most people who travel frequently with the same person or group of people). It would be easy to take this, along with some of the vast amounts of disinformation posted on YouTube etc, at face value, but the longevity of the band and their continuing to tour as they do, has to mean something - for which anyone who appreciates their flawless music has to be very grateful!

[Ville Verkkapuro]

A fast-paced, quirky and restless memoir of Eagles, but more like all of Los Angeles in the 70's, the whole vibe with its excess, parties, politics and music. So many namedrops here, the whole scene and the music business. Felt like watching Almost Famous or Boogie Nights and I'm not complaining. Yet still reminding me that if I need to know a bit more about Eagles, I should maybe go somewhere else. But boy, my boy, how times have changed and we can't go back, but the 70's were wild, loose and interesting in so many ways that it's a damn shame it's gone.

[Antti Iiskola · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mick Wall is apparently a bitter, sad individual who hates Eagles. And especially he hates Glenn Frey and Don Henley. But he _really_ hates Don Henley. This book smells of a money-grab.

There are chapters upon chapters of babble not even remotely related to Eagles, and multiple ”facts” are incorrect. Some things keep getting repeated over and over again.

Don’t bother.

[Brett Oaten · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't like the Eagles but I loved this book

[William Norton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mick Wall !!

Mick Wall writes another good book about a band ! Shock, horror, probe ! Not his best but a good steady read,full of the essential sex , drugs, and rock and roll

[Michael S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lite väl mycket om David Geffen i början, men historien vävs ihop och blir sammantaget hyfsat intressant.
Inte lika bra som de flesta andra Mick Wall-böcker jag läst, men duglig förströelse.

[David Rhodes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good account of the history of the Eagles and well worth a read.

[3PCats · Rating 1 out of 5]

Reading hell, baby! Back to the library it goes!