5 Facts And Stories About ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ Fans Probably Didn’t Know About
Members of the American soft-rock ensemble The Eagles sit on chairs as the perform on the television show 'Don Kirschner's Rock Concert,' 1979. Bandmembers are (left to right) Glenn Frey, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, and Don Felder. (Photo by Fotos International/Getty Images)
Written by Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey and Don Henley, “Life in the Fast Lane” was the third single released from The Eagles magnum opus “Hotel California.” It has been widely considered as one of the band’s greatest songs.
Let’s check out interesting facts about it.
1. It’s about a couple living excessive lifestyles which caused their downfall.
“Life In The Fast Lane’ kind of expressed the stereotyped LA ‘run around in your Porsche’ 24 hour boogie mode that unfortunately is too true for a lot of people,” Frey told BBC in 1981. “It wasn’t really a statement about the guys in the band, or about anybody in particular – just it’s kind of disturbing to see the extremes that the bourgeois jet set will involve themselves in. For instance, disco almost turned into a lifestyle, and it’s such a non-meaningful thing on which to base one’s life.”
2. It’s often misinterpreted.
Most people thought the song glamorized living life on the fast lane. On the contrary, it’s a warning against the use of drugs and alcohol.
3. Frey came up with the title while hanging out with a drug dealer.
“I was riding shotgun in a Corvette with a drug dealer on the way to a poker game,” he recalled. “The next thing I know we’re going about 90 miles an hour. Holding, big time. I said, ‘Hey, man! What are you doing?’ He looked at me, he grinned and goes, ‘Life in the fast lane!’ And I thought immediately, ‘Now there’s a song title.’”
4. The iconic riff started as Walsh’s warm-up exercise before rehearsals.
“I was just playing, warming up for the show, and Glenn comes busting into my dressing room and says ‘What the hell is that?’” Walsh told Paul Shaffer. “I said, ‘I don’t know, it’s just this lick I warm up with.’ He said, ‘That’s an Eagles song, dude!’”
5. Most of the lyrics were written by Henley.
“I could hardly listen to that song when we were recording it, because I was getting high a lot at the time and the song made me ill,” Henley explained to Rolling Stone in a 1979 interview. “We were trying to paint a picture that cocaine wasn’t that great. It turns on you. It messed up my back muscles, it messed up my nerves, it messed up my stomach and it makes you paranoid.”
