LP Lookback: Don Henley’s Masterpiece ‘Building The Perfect Beast’ Turns 40

“Meanwhile, have another beer, What would we do without all these jerks anyway? Besides, all our friends are here…” – Don Henley, “Sunset Grill”

As usual, I was surprised to see that Don Henley’s masterpiece second solo album, Building The Perfect Beast will turn 40 years old next month in November. The first single from the album, the iconic “Boys Of Summer,” came out 40 years ago this month, October 26, 1984. I bought this album shortly after it came out and still own that vinyl. It was my first Henley solo purchase and oddly this is my first post about Don Henley on B&V which is long overdue. Oh man, I can remember sitting alone in my room in college on a fine fall evening and listening to “Boys Of Summer” while sipping whiskey (alas, probably with Coca-Cola or 7-Up in it…youth really is wasted on the young) and pretending to be Bogart in Casablanca. Alas, I was like most people, by the time you reach college you understand the heartbreak and the longing to go back in time that Henley captures so perfectly on that song. The video was huge. I remember when it won an award Henley said the director “made the south of California look like the south of France”… indeed.

It has been amazing to me this year to look back on all the great albums that came out in 1984. It may not have been 1971, but as I compiled this year’s 1984 Playlist, I realized it was a helluva year. We had landmark albums from Springsteen (Born In The U.S.A.), Van Halen (1984), Prince (Purple Rain), and The Cars (Heartbeat City) that I’ve already touched on. I’ve been meaning to post about Henley’s Building The Perfect Beast as well, but this album just always reminds me of fall. Maybe it was the line, “Nobody on the road, nobody on the beach, I feel it in the air, the summer’s out of reach…” Now that the calendar has officially jumped to autumn, it’s time to talk about this great album on it’s 40th anniversary.

The late 70s and early 80s were a transitional time. For those of us too young to have jumped on the bandwagon of all those great 70s bands, we were able to catch the wave of all the guys going solo when those bands broke up. Zeppelin had broken up – although I got in on the In Through The Out Door release) and we’d all jumped on the Robert Plant solo train. The Who saw both Daltrey and Townshend going solo prior to their first breakup. Fleetwood Mac didn’t break up but Stevie Nicks had already been very successful in her solo career with Lindsey Buckingham being less successful in his. The guys in Pink Floyd – Roger Waters and David Gilmour – were releasing solo albums (although much to Waters’ chagrin, Pink Floyd did reunite without him). Jagger slipped out his solo debut somewhere in there. Sabbath had seen both Ozzy go solo and then Dio follow suit.

The Eagles were also a part of that transition. They broke up after The Long Run (released in 1979) and Eagles Live (1980) that documented that final tour (well, final at the time). My buddy Brewster, much as he’d done for Springsteen’s tour behind The River, snuck off with West Coast Bob for the Eagles’ The Long Run show. I had to wait until the tour for Hell Freezes Over to see them, but I digress. Bygones. Since I was too young to be purchasing each of the prior Eagles’ albums – I only earned so much mowing lawns – I had purchased, like most people, that blue, single-disc Eagles’ Greatest Hits album. I just about wore that thing out because unlike The Dude in the movie The Big Lebowski, I dug the Eagles. The Rock Chick, however, does not. Although, having professed my love of the Eagles, I didn’t rush out and buy Glenn Frey’s first solo album or Henley’s first album I Can’t Stand Still. I’d heard and liked “Johnny Can’t Read,” and especially “Dirty Laundry” from that debut but that didn’t send me to the record store. I think I still harbored the belief that they’d get back together. I was right, they did get back together, it only took 15 years longer than I’d anticipated.

For Building The Perfect Beast, Henley collaborated again with guitarist Danny “Kootch” Kortchmar as he’d done on his solo debut. Danny had been a part of the legendary L.A. session band The Section. He’d worked with James Taylor, Carole King, Warren Zevon and Jackson Browne to name but a few. Eventually I think he worked with Neil Young as well. When I listened to I Can’t Stand Still I could still hear that Eagle-esque sound from Henley. There was some dabbling in synth and pop song construction but for the most part, if you listen to that album, you’d come out saying, “Yeah, that’s a guy from the Eagles.” Kortchmar and Henley came dashing into the new decade of the 80s full bore on Building. There are more synths here. While I’ll fully admit the sound and production on this album is very dated – you’d be hard pressed not to immediately guess it was an 80s record – the songs have aged extremely well. It helped that Henley collaborated with several members of Tom Petty’s band including Mike Campbell, Ben Tench, and Stan Lynch. Campbell co-wrote “Boys Of Summer.”

The album, almost like those old Rod Stewart albums in the early 70s was divided into two almost distinct halves. The first side of the album was all about love and the loss there of. The second side was more political in nature, but in a mostly subtle way. Henley had already dipped his toe into the “socially conscious” pond with songs like “Dirty Laundry” about the media and “Johnny Can’t Read” about the education system. It was like side one of Building was “New Kid In Town” meets “Tequila Sunrise” and side two was “The Last Resort” meets “Out On The Border,” but with synths and drum machines.

As a young romantic boy, side one pulled me in immediately. When I heard Mike Campbell’s guitar figure on that song it grabbed me by the collar The lyrics portray a yearning that only an Eagle could conjure. Those guys had that whole jaded but longing thing down like on “After The Thrill Is Gone.” The “I’m broken hearted but I still hope she’ll come back” thing. “Not Enough Love In The World” is a devastating song in my ears. It’s a perfect farewell song. “I’m not easy to live with – I know that it’s true, you’re no picnic either, babe, and that’s one of the things I love about you” could be my mantra to this day. My favorite deep track is probably the Kortchmar penned track “You’re Not Drinking Enough.” “You still want to hold her, you must not be drinking enough.” That song is so on brand for B&V. “Man On A Mission” is a great little country rocker of a tune. “You Can’t Make Love” is another rumination on love gone wrong and I soaked all of it up.

Side 2 on the album is where we get the more political bent from Henley. My vinyl copy didn’t have the “bonus track” that was only on the cassette, “A Month Of Sundays” about the farm crisis in America. It’s a great, piano driven track that I’ve always loved. It was one of the first MP3’s I purchased. “All She Wants To Do Is Dance,” which made my Wallflowers Playlist, was more than a frustrated lover’s tune, it was about instability in places around the world. “They said, “Don’t come back here Yankee,” but if I ever do, I’ll bring more money…” One of my other favorite songs on the album is “Sunset Grill.” Of course, I lived on Sunset Avenue at the time… The song about urban decay and rummies hanging around in a bar always makes me smile. One of my roommates and I used to always jokingly say, after bagging on a social situation, “Besides, all our friends are here.” “Building The Perfect Beast” is probably the only swing and a miss on this record for me… “Driving With Your Eyes Closed” does make the point that “women are the only works of art.” So true…

The album ends on one of the most hopeful notes I’ve ever heard on any album with “Land Of The Living.” After all the heartbreak of side 1, and the fraught political landscape laid out on side 2, we have this gorgeous ballad/midtempo thing extolling the hope of a new love. “And I was slipping away, you came and pulled me through, I wanna stay in the land of the living with you.” Despite all the bad stuff that may happen, you can point to that song and know that good things will always come around again. I know they did for me, literally weeks later. We all go through some dark times, but please, stay here in the land of the living with us, it’ll all pass.

This is simply one of the greatest albums of 1984, and of the 80s in general. I loved his follow up The End Of The Innocence, which he took forever to record, but this one is my Henley pick. Maybe that’s just for sentimental reasons. He’s such a fabulous lyricist. There are quotable lines on almost every song on this album.  I still find myself sitting up on fine fall evenings with some whiskey (no soda in it, thank God) and listening to the songs on this record but feeling a whole lot different than I did 40 years ago. Hopefully you do too!

Gonna be a crazy fall. Take care of each other out there. Cheers!