The Eagles Album the Band Called Their “Satanic Country Rock Period”

The words “satanic” and “country rock” don’t often go hand in hand, but in 1975, Eagles managed to blend the two ideas into one exceptional and soulful album. The California rock band, once known for its hits like “Peaceful Easy Feeling” and “Take It Easy”, showed the world they could infuse their signature sound with more soul and groove than one might expect with One Of These Nights.

And despite the chill, laid-back attitude that pervades the album, Don Henley said the band was pulling from far darker inspiration for this mid-1970s smash success. “We like to call it our satanic country-rock period,” Henley said in a 2003 interview with Cameron Crowe. “It was a dark time, both politically and musically, in America.”

“There was turmoil in Washington and disco music was starting to take off,” he continued. “We thought, ‘Well, how can we write something with that flavor, with that kind of beat, and still have the dangerous guitars?’ We wanted to capture the spirit of the times.”

Glenn Frey Called ‘One Of These Nights’ the Most ‘Painless’ Eagles Album

Eagles certainly achieved the moody vibe they were after on One Of These Nights. From the title track to “Lyin’ Eyes” to “Take It To The Limit”, the band’s fourth studio album was chock full of hits that would come to define their career. And although that career was plagued with interpersonal drama on and off stage, One Of These Nights was a notable outlier in this regard.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that One Of These Nights was the most fluid and ‘painless’ album we ever made,” Glenn Frey mused to Cameron Crowe in 2003. “A lot of things came together on One Of These Nights—our love of the studio, the dramatic improvement in Don’s and my songwriting. We made a quantum leap with [the title track]. It was a breakthrough song. It is my favorite Eagles record. If I ever had to pick one, it wouldn’t be ‘Hotel California’, it wouldn’t be ‘Take It Easy’, for me, it would be ‘One Of These Nights’.”

The rest of the world would seem to agree, at least in the months immediately following its release. This dark, brooding, and incredibly groovy Eagles album peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 within four weeks of being released. It would stay there for another four weeks, marking Eagles’ fourth consecutive No. 1 album.

Photo by Gijsbert Hanekroot/Redferns

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