Don Henley Defends Eagles’ Wal-Mart Deal
The Eagles making a deal with Wal-Mart is symptomatic of the difficulty even conservation-minded people have in maintaining integrity when they are involved in Big Business as the Eagles are. I admire Henley’s conservation work - thank-you, Don - but integrity is not like Carbon Credits - you can’t trade some here to make ‘em up there. The Eagles didn’t make this deal to reach corporate America (big as they are, the Eagles aren’t pimples on Wal-Mart’s butt in terms of business influence), and they didn’t make it because they admire Wal-Mart’s smoke-and-mirrors conservation work. They did it in the hopes of moving vast amounts of product, because their egos demand this - period. Henley’s arguments are after-the-fact attempts at justification. Settling for less sales is clearly not in the picture for the Eagles - and not being willing to settle for less is the very problem that is killing the planet. The Eagles could very easily strike a more integral deal if they’d settle for more modest sales - something i am sure they could afford. Monetarily, i suspect they don’t need to sell a single copy. But they’re the Eagles - selling big is a huge part of their identity. That’s why they agonize over each album, and why they have indeed made this “deal with the Devil”, as Henley well knows. Problem is, you can’t suck and blow at the same time.
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