“I turn on the tube and what do I see, a whole lotta
people cryin’ ‘Don’t blame me,’
Point their crooked little fingers at everybody
else, spend all their time feelin’ sorry for themselves...
Victim of this, victim of that... all this whinin’
and cryin’ and pitchin’ a fit, Get over it, get over it...
You don’t want to work, you want to live like a king
but the big, bad world doesn’t owe you a thing
Get over it. Get over it.
You’re makin’ the most of your losin’ streak, some
call it sick, but I call it weak
You drag it around like a ball and chain; you wallow
in the guilt, you wallow in the pain
You wave it like a flag, you wear it like a crown,
got your mind in the gutter, bringin’ everybody down
Complain about the present and blame it on the past;
I’d like to find your inner child and kick its little a**.”
“Get Over It” — Written by Glenn Frey and Don
Henley for Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over” tour, 1994
After last week’s column
laying out my positions on domestic issues, in the hope that some
presidential candidate would run on them, I planned to set forth my
solutions to international issues. It didn’t take me long to realize
I have no idea what to do about the Middle East, Africa, Russia and
China and North Korea; even Europe needs more help than I could
offer it.
But I think this effort
was useful to me. As I looked for ideas coming from the candidates,
I didn’t find much that made sense. “Send troops to another war.
Carpet-bomb. Play Snoopy and the Red Baron with Russia in a no-fly
zone. Just kill ISIS (somehow). Get other Muslim countries to lead
(somehow). Bring Syrian refugees here. More understanding of the
root causes of war. Whatever.”
Now I’m looking for the
candidate who honestly admits that he/she doesn’t know what to do
either, who says: “The world is a mess. The United States is no
longer strong enough or sure enough to fix it. Elect me and we’ll
figure it out together while we strengthen America, using Barbara’s
suggestions (see
The Salem News, Jan. 21).”
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Eagles, L-R: Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley,
Glenn Frey, and Don Felder |
I do like a proposal for a
kind of Marshall Plan for Syria, getting everyone involved to share
the cost of keeping refugees safe and comfortable somewhere in the
Middle East, until Assad dies, ISIS has been defeated, and they can
go back home. As they wait, they can be taught how to run a free
country, so they can thrive the way the original Marshall Plan
recipients did.
There, that takes care of
that. So I can pause now to mourn the passing of Glenn Frey, who
with Don Henley wrote my favorite rock and roll piece, excerpts
above. Since it isn’t as well-known as some of the Eagles’ hits, I
wanted to make sure you hadn’t missed these still-timely lyrics.
For those who weren’t
Eagles fans and might not know: the band, popular mostly in the
’70s, broke up in 1980 with one member insisting the group wouldn’t
get together again “until hell freezes over.”
In 1994 the title of their
new album and road tour was “Hell Freezes Over” and along with
playing their old hits “Desperado,” “Hotel California,” “Life in the
Fast Lane,” etc., two of the songwriters, Henley and Frey,
collaborated again; their first new track was “Get Over It.”
As the story goes, Henley,
who had a solid interim career as a solo writer and singer, was fed
up with people (like TV talk show guests) “whinin’” and blaming
others for their failures. He and Frey were working on a new piece,
and a guitar opening moved Henley to create lyrics expressing his
disgust.
I wasn’t originally an
Eagles fan, was living in Greece when the band formed and then with
a husband who listened mostly to Johnny Rivers; I knew the Eagles’
hit singles, but didn’t notice the band itself until I met Chip
Ford, who had their albums. Then I learned about Don Henley’s
founding of the
Walden Woods Project here in Massachusetts.
In the “History of the
Eagles” television documentary, Henley talks about the influence of
Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau on his thinking. That’s
where my thinking started too! Seeing him support Democrat
candidates, I suspect his thinking didn’t broaden past this early
libertarian influence into other issues, but add his concern about
Walden to his unique voice and writing talent, and I’m a fan.
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The Eagles,
2007 "Long Road Out of Eden" tour
L-R: Timothy B. Schmit, Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe
Walsh |
Glenn Frey was an original
part of the Eagles’ magic; I’ve been contemplating his passing at
age 67, just a few years younger than I. As I watched Showtime’s
“The History of the Eagles” while trying to compose a column about
saving America, I had a hopeful thought I want to share with you.
I’ve written about this
before, about the Golden Age in which I grew up: America saving the
world from the Nazis as I was in my cradle, from communism in my
formative years, children making the Pledge of Allegiance each day
in school, flags hanging from porches on Memorial Day. The best rock
‘n’ roll, that multi-generations still enjoy. Medical and
environmental advances.
Then things started to
fall apart — just as with the Eagles, fighting among themselves,
losing themselves never to return until hell freezes over. But it
did. Guitarist Joe Walsh overcame drug and alcohol addiction to find
happiness in sobriety. A rule was made, no drugs or alcohol when
being the Eagles, who are now honored as artists not just by our own
generation, but those that have followed.
If the Eagles can win the
war on drugs, learn to get along, triumph over adversity, America
can too!
Rest in peace, Glenn Frey,
and thank you, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, and Don
Felder for creating the favorite music of my life.
Barbara Anderson of
Marblehead is a weekly columnist for the Salem News and
Eagle-Tribune Publishing Company.
