The Eagles Predicted Their Demise With ‘New Kid in Town’
Classic rock songs can be deceiving. The Eagles’ “New Kid in Town” might seem like a song about love, but Don Henley said the tune has a double meaning. It’s a lot darker than it might appear on first listen.
The connection between Eagles’ ‘New Kid in Town’ and ‘Hotel California’
During a 2003 interview with The Uncool, Glenn Frey discussed what the Eagles were thinking when they penned the album Hotel California. “When we wrote ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ and started working on ‘Hotel California’ and ‘New Kid in Town’ with J.D. [Souther], we knew we were heading down a long and twisted corridor and just stayed with it,” he said. “Songs from the dark side — The Eagles take a look at the seamy underbelly of L.A. — the flip side of fame and failure, love and money.”
Henley gave us more insight into “New Kid in Town.” “J.D. Souther started the song,” the “Boys of Summer” singer said. “It’s about the fleeting, fickle nature of love and romance. It’s also about the fleeting nature of fame, especially in the music business.”
Was Eagles’ fame truly fleeting?
Henley said “New Kid in Town” had a grim message. “We were already chronicling our own demise [laughs],” he recalled. “We were basically saying, ‘Look, we know we’re red hot now, but we also know that somebody’s going to come along and replace us — both in music and in love.’ We were always doing that double entendre thing, between the music business and personal relationships. But that song was J.D.’s baby — he was the father of that song.”
After the album Hotel California became a huge hit, the Eagles released a record called The Long Run, which seemed to say the band would stick around for a while. Then, they broke up. Henley and Frey had successful solo careers in the 1980s, but the other members were easily ignored.
With that in mind, it’s up to interpretation whether or not “New Kid in Town” was an accurate self-fulfilling prophecy. Even if the Eagles weren’t the biggest name in show business forever, they were still huge.
‘New Kid in Town’ owned the charts
While “New Kid in Town” is a song about the fleeting nature of fame, it became a big hit. The tune topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a week, lasting on the chart for 15 weeks. “New Kid in Town” appeared on the album Hotel California, which topped the Billboard 200 for eight weeks. The album lasted on the Billboard 200 for 158 weeks in total.
Hotel California gave us two other hits. The most famous is the epic “Hotel California,” which was No. 1 for a week and lasted on the chart for 19 weeks altogether. The other single from the album, “Life in the Fast Lane,” became a minor hit. That track climbed to No. 11 and charted for 14 weeks.
Part of the reason why Hotel California remains one of the most beloved albums of the 1970s is because it picked a theme and stuck with it — which is a lot harder than it looks.
