Songwriter JD Souther sat down with Professor of Rock and talked about The Eagles song he wrote and how the writing process went. JD also told the story of Bob Seger’s collaboration in The Eagles’ hit ‘Heartache Tonight,’ saying that it didn’t sit right with either him or Glenn Frey:
“We didn’t think we had the chorus just right. And Glenn Frey and Bob Seger were old buddies. In fact, Glenn is the harmony singer on Rambling Gambling Man. We just didn’t think it was finished. The verses were really tight. Glenn and I just started walking around my house, snapping fingers, and clapping hands. And then he only got in and cleaned it up a little.”
Souther further explained how Bob Seger was included in unconventional ways:
“The song got stronger and then, still just didn’t think we had the chorus perfectly. I don’t know exactly what happened in what order then but I know Glenn was talking on the phone to Bob and he said ‘Hey, we got this song. We can’t seem to finish.’ And he sang it to Bob, Bob sang in the chorus.”
The songwriter also mentioned that he wasn’t thrilled about the songwriting crew getting bigger. He also explained that ‘Heartache Tonight’ came out in a sort of haze:
“Glenn called Don, and Don called me and said ‘We got a fourth writer.’ And I said ‘Well, that’s splitting the money a lot of ways.’ I think I heard him work on but I didn’t ever heard that finished until it was on the radio. I didn’t know what we had so start frankly. Obviously, it had the words ‘heartache tonight’ in it but I can’t even remember how, again, it went because Bob’s version of it was so good, we forgot.”
JD then revealed the key point in writing songs:
“That’s the way when you’re working alone, you’re chipping away at a sculpture and the idea is to chip away everything that’s not necessary.”
In a 2008 interview, Souther mentioned that initially, he didn’t want to participate in ‘Heartache Tonight.’ Although he ended up contributing to the song, he had an uneasy feeling due to the band’s inner dynamics. He vocalised these feelings in the interview:
“I’m sure [Geffen] thought having five songwriters would be better than four. Everybody was probably relieved when I said I didn’t want to do it. Within that band dynamic, it seemed like a very thorny place to be for me. I wasn’t fully there in spirit. I felt like I had some more songwriting work to be done at home.”
Below, you can watch the interview.
