Building The Perfect Beast (40th Anniversary - Remastered 2024) Don Henley

• 1 The Boys Of Summer 04:47
• 2 You Can't Make Love 03:34
• 3 Man With A Mission 02:43
• 4 You're Not Drinking Enough 04:40
• 5 Not Enough Love In The World 03:54
• 6 Building The Perfect Beast 04:59
• 7 All She Wants To Do Is Dance 04:29
• 8 A Month Of Sundays 04:29
• 9 Sunset Grill 06:29
• 10 Drivin' With Your Eyes Closed 03:41
• 11 Land Of The Living 03:24
• Total Runtime 47:09

Info for Building The Perfect Beast (40th Anniversary - Remastered 2024)

Newly remastered! "40th Anniversary Edition" of Don Henley's triple-platinum classic album Building the Perfect Beast. Released in 1984, it features the Top 10 hits "The Boys of Summer" and "All She Wants to Do Is Dance," plus the singles "Not Enough Love in the World" and "Sunset Grill."

In addition to featuring four hit singles, Building The Perfect Beast garnered five Grammy nominations and won the award for Best Rock Vocal Performance, Male for “The Boys Of Summer.” Don Henley was also the biggest winner of the 1985 MTV Video Music Awards, taking home four Moonmen, including Video of the Year for “The Boys of Summer,” which was also the year’s most nominated video.

Best known as co-founder of the legendary rock band, the Eagles, as well as an influential solo artist, Don Henley has maintained an extraordinary commitment to music and various philanthropic efforts throughout his career, including a dedication to environmental issues and artists’ rights.

Raised in a small East Texas town, Henley was drawn to the sounds of exotic music broadcast from distant radio stations in New Orleans, Nashville, and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. These stations introduced him to the blues, bluegrass, gospel, jazz, and rock and roll, paving the way for his future as an artist.

As a solo artist and member of the Eagles, Don Henley has received countless accolades, numerous gold and platinum records, and performed sold-out concert tours worldwide. A highly-respected musical artist, Henley launched his solo career in 1982 with his debut album, I Can't Stand Still, featuring the hit single "Dirty Laundry." 1984's Building The Perfect Beast followed, and the artist's track record continued unabated with 1989's The End Of The Innocence, which yielded three more hits, including the title track, and brought Henley another Best Rock Vocal GRAMMY Award. Henley is a founding member, drummer, vocalist, and songwriter of the Eagles. The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998 and continues to perform sold-out concerts all over the world.

Formed in 1971, the Eagles pioneered a uniquely American musical style, blending elements of country, folk, R&B, rock, and pop. Since then, it has become one of the most creatively and commercially successful bands of all time. Despite today’s fractured rock ’n’ roll landscape, the Eagles retain a timeless appeal that transcends both generations and genres, solidifying the band’s status as a musical icon.

The Eagles have sold more than 150 million albums worldwide, scoring six #1 albums and five chart-topping singles. They have earned six GRAMMY Awards, were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2016. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 stands as the best-selling album in history (certified 38-times platinum), while Hotel California ranks as the third best-selling U.S. album in history (certified 26-times platinum). Check Eagles.com for full band and tour information.

Raised in a small East Texas town, Henley was drawn to the sounds of exotic music broadcast from distant radio stations in New Orleans, Nashville, and Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. These stations introduced him to the blues, bluegrass, gospel, jazz, and rock and roll, paving the way for his future as an artist.

The album reached #13 on the Billboard 200 and was certified 3x Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). The album spawned four singles which all reached the top forty on the Billboard Hot 100, including “The Boys of Summer”, which would become one of Henley’s most popular songs and win him numerous awards, including a Grammy Award and four MTV Video Music Awards.

In 1989, the album was ranked No. 73 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s”.

"After experimenting with synthesizers and a pop sound on his solo debut, Don Henley hits the mark on his sophomore release, Building the Perfect Beast. This album established Henley as an artist in his own right after many successful years with the Eagles, as it spawned numerous hits. While the songs seem crafted for pop radio, it's hard to fault him for choosing arrangements that would get his messages to the masses. Unlike most pop in the 1980s, however, Henley had deep intellectual themes layered beneath the synthesizer sounds and crisp production. In the opening song "Boys of Summer," he talks about trying to recapture the past while knowing that things will never be the same. Henley has a gift for writing about the heart and soul of America and for mixing his love for the country and small-town life ("Sunset Grill") with cynicism about government ("All She Wants to Do Is Dance") and modernization ("Month of Sundays"). Although the politics and the sound of the album make the decade of release easy to place, Henley's earnest delivery and universal messages give many of the tracks a timeless feel, which is no small feat. This is Henley's most consistent album, and it is the place to start for those wanting to sample his solo work." (Vik Iyengar, AMG)

Don Henley, lead vocals, harmony vocals (2, 5, 7, 11) drums (2-4, 7, 8), keyboards (5), percussion (5, 6, 10), synthesizers (6), chant voices (6), synthesizer arrangements (9)
Danny Kortchmar, synthesizers (1, 3, 6), guitars (1-7, 9–11), horns (3), organ (4), Omnichord (4), percussion (6, 10, 11), chant voices (6), guitar synthesizer solo (9), horn solo (9), synthesizer arrangements (9), keyboards (10), bass (10), arrangements (11)
Mike Campbell, synthesizers (1), guitars (1), percussion (1)
Steve Porcaro, synthesizers (1, 4), programming (7)
Benmont Tench, keyboards (2, 5), acoustic piano (8), synthesizers (9), synthesizer arrangements (9)
David Paich, acoustic piano (4), synthesizers (7, 8), synthesizer arrangements (8), acoustic piano solo (9)
Michael Boddicker, programming (6), sequencing (6), synthesizers (8, 9), E-mu Emulator (9), synthesizer arrangements (9)
Albhy Galuten, Synclavier (6)
Randy Newman, synthesizers (8), synthesizer arrangements (8, 9)
Bill Cuomo, synthesizers (11), programming (11), percussion (11)
Lindsey Buckingham, guitars (2), harmony vocals (2)
Charlie Sexton, guitars (3)
Larry Klein, bass (1)
Pino Palladino, bass (2, 9, 11)
Tim Drummond, bass (4, 5)
Ian Wallace, drums (5)
Kevin McCormick, African drums (6)
Jim Keltner, additional drums (8)

Recorded 1983–1984 at Record One (Los Angeles), Bill Schnee (Universal City, California), The Villa (Hollywood)
Recorded by Greg Ladanyi, Niko Bolas
Mastered at The Mastering Lab
Produced by Don Henley, Danny Kortchmar, Greg Ladanyi, Mike Campbell

Digitally remastered

Please note: we do not offer the 192 kHz version. Our measurement system analysis did not achieve the necessary frequency response. Reason why we offer 96 kHz

Don Henley
Born and raised in Texas (he attended North Texas State) Henley was taken under the wing of country superstar Kenny Rogers in 1970. Rogers encouraged him in the creation of his early band Shiloh and in California he teamed up with Glenn Frey as part of Linda Ronstadt’s backing band. That was the catalyst for forming The Eagles, once Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner were hired to complete a legendary quartet. Henley and Frey assumed a major controlling interest in the band’s development – operating under the theory that a benevolent dictatorship would accomplish far more than a full fledged democracy, and Don’s methodical raping vocal style and underrated drumming underpinned everything from ‘Desperado’ and ‘Witchy Woman’ to the gloriously romantic ‘Best of My Love’ and its polar opposite ‘Hotel California’, a song which couldn’t really have been sung by anyone other than him.

Don’s debut solo album, the self-explanatory I Can’t Stand Still, was extremely well received. Tracks like ‘Dirty Laundry’ and ‘Johnny Can’t Read’ (a sideswipe against American educational standards) pleased critics and piqued public interest. But it was Building the Perfect Beast (1984) that persuaded everyone – here was an artist who was far more than an Eagle, let alone a drummer. The disc has sold over three million copies and established a brilliant partnership with Tom Petty’s Heartbreakers men Mike Campbell, Stan Lynch and Benmont Tench. The stand-out song ‘The Boys of Summer’ is a Henley/Campbell collaboration which won Don the Grammy Award for Best Male Vocal Performance in 1986 but it’s the startling lyrics about youth and mortality that make it so resonant. The lyrical reference to the Deadhead bumper sticker spotted on a Cadillac gave the number instant appeal to generations of listeners and wry as the observation was it also made a valid point about one time rebellion becoming a consumerist normality – albeit with a perfect up tempo rhythm offset by an entirely downbeat delivery. Stellar assistance on this classic album arrives via Lindsey Buckingham, bassist Tim Drummond, Jim Keltner’s kit and Jerry Hey’s moody horn parts but there are also surprise contributions from a fellow sardonic in Randy Newman (synthesiser) and the late great English drummer Ian Wallace, a member of Henley’s touring band.

Don follows that three years later with The End of the Innocence whose title track is another brilliantly conceived account of impending middle age. This time he colludes with pianist Bruce Hornsby (ironically then a member of The Grateful Dead) and the video is shot by the celebrated movie director David Fincher (Se7en, Fight Club) is startling black and white. The track ‘I Will Not Go Quietly’ (written with long time pal Danny Kortchmar) finds space for Axl Rose’s backing vocals, making it a collector’s piece, and the not to be overlooked gem ‘New York Minute’ has a slick apocalyptic arrangement augmented by Toto maestros David Paich and Jeff Porcaro: this has a distinctive whiff of Steely Dan about it. Other notables in the ranks are Edie Brickell, Valerie Carter, Sheryl Crow and Wayne Shorter, as well as those Heartbreakers. The End of the Innocence is a top-notch example of peerless West Coast rock cut though with acerbic lyrical wit.

Augmenting these two fabulous discs we have Actual Miles: Henley’s Greatest Hits (1995). Another Platinum affair this collates material from his first three solo discs and adds new tracks – ‘The Garden of Allah’ (a Hollywood Babylon epic on a par with his finest writing), ‘You Don’t Know Me at All’ and a superb cover of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Everybody Knows’ whose mordant lyrics reference everything from AIDS to social unrest and religious turmoil. All a far cry from The Eagles’ ‘Take it Easy’.

With Henley back in the driving and drumming seat with his parent group Inside Job (2000) was another well-received release but we point you towards The Very Best of Don Henley, available in a deluxe version that contains extra bonus audio and DVD. This came out in 2009 but it’s unlikely to be the last word on his idiosyncratic take regarding the American condition from Mr Henley. He remains one of the most insightful commentators on modern society viewed through a rock star’s eyes that we have. Turn up the Don Henley, the neighbours are listening. (Words: Max Bell, Source Universal Music)

This album contains no booklet.