[The Eagles] - Don Henley

Estimate

15,000 - 20,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

Original autograph working manuscript of "Life in the Fast Lane"
ink and paper

3 pages of lined yellow paper from a legal-sized pad, (13 x 1/2 ins.; 340 x 220 mm.) with lyrics, edits and notes in black pen, as written by Don Henley

Catalogue Note

"brutally handsome and terminally pretty," don henley's working draft for one of the biggest hits of the seventies, from one of the decades most enduring bands

The first page of the present manuscript closely resembles the first verse of the finished song, with a few notable exceptions including the word “evil” instead of “nasty”, and a blank “__ __” where the words “cold cold” would eventually be. There are a few other fragments including “a child of the borderline/ a child of the night” and “mirrors on the ceiling/ mirrors on the floor” which didn’t make the cut.

The next page features the famous chorus “Life in the Fast Lane (surely make you lose your mind)” along with some alternatives including “Life in the Fast Lane (see/watch the years go rushing by)” and “Life in the Fast Lane (are you speeding? are you speeding?)”, also “Step on it Joe” a possible direction to lead guitarist Joe Walsh.

The third and final page features several lines which would eventually make the third verse, including a list of rhymed words, “reverse/ curse/ burst/ worst” finally working up to “took a turn for the worse”, as present on the final recording. “He said call the doctor/ I think I’m gonna crash”, is also present in this early draft and in another hand (probably Glenn Frey), “we’ve been down every highway/ but we haven’t seen a thing.”

“Life in the Fast Lane” would become the third single released off the immensely successful Hotel California and peak at #11 on the Billboard Hot 100. It remains a live staple for the band to the present.