Track Listing

1. Dirty Laundry
2. The Boys Of Summer
3. All She Wants To Do Is Dance
4. Not Enough Love In The World
5. Sunset Grill
6. The End Of The Innocence
7. The Last Worthless Evening
8. New York Minute
9. I Will Not Go Quietly
10. The Heart Of The Matter
11. The Garden Of Allah
12. You Don't Know Me At All
13. Everybody Knows

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #12267 in Music
• Released on: 1999-03-20
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 73 minutes

CD Description
Every one of once-and-future Eagles vocalist Don Henley's solo hits, plus two new tunes and an overlooked cover versionof an old Leonard Cohen songs are included on ACTUAL MILES.
One could question the validity of a greatest hits collection that draws from only three solo albums, but with the rampant success of the Eagles' recent reunion, Henley saw fitto compile this retrospective personally. He could have done much worse. The songs still stand up over time, and the thematic sequencing of ACTUAL MILES serves the selection well.The collection also features a pair of previously unrecorded tracks with "The Garden Of Allah" being the more interesting of the two. ACTUAL MILES serves as a decent primer to anyone who wants to hear Henley's hits but wishes to eschew hisactual albums.

Customer Reviews

A Collection of Masterpieces
After the Eagles, Don Henley and Glenn Frey spent all of the '80s and part of the '90s competing with each other, both out-doing the other until the reunion. This album is a collection of Henley's finest works from the three albums he released during that period. In my opinion, Don Henley is one of the finest lyricists popular music has ever witnessed, and this album is severely under-rated in the UK. For anyone who appreciates Henleys work as an Eagle (Hotel California, Desperado, The Sad Cafe), this album is an absolute must. A balanced collection of ballads, easy-listening and hard-rockers. The only dissapointment for me is that 'Talking to the Moon' and 'Lilah' are not included from Henley's first album 'I Can't Stand Still'.

These really *are* the greatest hits
All but two of the recordings on this album are taken from four older albums: BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST (4 of 13), THE END OF THE INNOCENCE (5 of 13), I CAN'T STAND STILL (1), and TOWER OF SONG (1). That is, they're the same recordings, not re-recorded or rearranged to 'get a musically superior version'.

Speaking for myself, knowing that and being able to get "Dirty Laundry" with a sampling of songs from BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST is all I needed to know to persuade me that this album was worth pursuing. Henley's got a gift for coupling good music with clever lyrics, and he sings clearly enough that I don't have trouble following what he's saying. (Which means, of course, that the arrangements aren't drowning out the vocals with percussion, a plus.)

Four of the first five songs strike me as perfect for playing over the summer holidays in hot weather.

"Dirty Laundry" (from I CAN'T STAND STILL) Good song to listen to when the scandal-mongers have been unusually busy in the media. "I make my livin' off the evenin' news/Just give me somethin', somethin' I can use/People love it when you lose/They love dirty laundry..."

From BUILDING THE PERFECT BEAST (see): "The Boys of Summer", "All She Wants To Do Is Dance", "Not Enough Love in the World", and "Sunset Grill", of which the last is my favourite of this group. "Let's go down to the Sunset Grill/watch the workin' girls go by/Watch the basket people walk around and mumble/stare out at the auburn sky..."

From THE END OF THE INNOCENCE (see): "The End of the Innocence", "The Last Worthless Evening", "New York Minute", "I Will Not Go Quietly", and "The Heart of the Matter", the last of which is a contender for best breakup song. "I'm learning to live without you now/but I miss you sometimes/The more I know, the less I understand/All the things I thought I knew, I'm learning again..."

Really, if you like Henley's music at all, you should know enough by know to persuade you whether this album is worth your time, if you don't have the individual albums from which most of the songs were drawn.

"The Garden of Allah" Recorded in 1995; the sense of the title is roughly any supposed earthly paradise. Fairly slow tempo, minor key as the Devil appears, lamenting simpler days past. "Vainly reaching for the bottle full of empty Edens/branded specially for the ones/who had come with great expectations/to the perfumed halls of Allah/for their time in the sun..."

"You Don't Know Me at All" Breakup song. "I gave you everything on a silver tray/Could've been a fool forever, but I'm not made that way/And after all these years, I think it's time to say goodbye/I'm doin' you a favour, I will not help you live a lie/And believe me, if you think I'm gonna catch you when you fall/you don't know me, you don't know me at all."

"Everybody Knows" (from TOWER OF SONG) The only piece on this album that Henley didn't compose as well as perform.

Soaring like an Eagle
Don Henley's transition from the halcyon days of the Eagles could not be described as effortless as a few mediocre albums showed. But now the best (well almost) songs have found their way into this collection which really should open up with the Boys of Summer. When you hear that toe-tapping drum beat and then infectious guitar riff, you can remember the 1980s and wearing your Wayfarers. An absolute classic that is worth paying for the album alone.
It would get a perfect 5 (unlike the perfect beast, he never built the perfect album) except that you have to import the cd from the US. When this album is stocked in the UK it deserves to fly off the shelves - until then keep listening to the Eagles and the more searching fans can seek this gem out.