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DON HENLEY-DIRTY LAUNDRY

LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES- OCT 12, 2019…ON THIS DATE IN 1982 DON HENLEY RELEASED ‘DIRTY LAUNDRY’ THE FIRST SINGLE FROM HIS DEBUT SOLO ALBUM ‘I CAN’T STAND STILL.’ LYRICALLY THE SONG DESCRIBES MASS MEDIA SENSATIONALISM AND YELLOW JOURNALISM, MAKING FUN OF NEWS ANCHORS WHO ARE MORE CONCERNED WITH THEIR LOOKS THAN ACCURATELY REPORTING THE NEWS.  DANNY KORTCHMAR WROTE THIS SONG WITH HENLEY AND DESCRIBED HOW HE CAME UP WITH THE MUSIC:”One night I set it up, ran it into an Echoplex and started banging out that part that you hear on the record. I was up into the wee hours banging away on this thing. That’s when I recorded it, and when I played it for Don the next day, I said, ‘I think this is ‘Dirty Laundry.” He said, ‘Yeah, that’s it. Record it and let’s go.'” THERE ARE SOME GREAT GUITAR CONTRIBUTIONS ON THIS SONG. DANNY KORTCHMAR PLAYED THE BASIC PARTS, JOE WALSH DID THE FIRST GUITAR SOLO, AND STEVE LUKATHER OF TOTO DID THE SECOND SOLO. LUKATHER SAID HE DID HIS SOLO IN ONE TAKE AND IT’S ONE OF HIS FAVORITES.

HERE’S DON HENLEY WITH A LIVE VERSION OF ‘DIRTY LAUNDRY’