A tribute to the songs of JD Souther, the songwriter well known particularly for his collaborations with the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt. Souther died at age 78 on Sept. 17.

So, a lot of Eagles/Don Henley and Ronstadt tracks, one by Warren Zevon, another by Bonnie Raitt and some stuff performed by Souther himself. Included is his biggest hit, You’re Only Lonely plus an early song with Glenn Frey of Eagles fame in Longbranch Pennywhistle plus work with former members of The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Poco in the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band. My track-by-track tales follow the song list.

Souther was also an actor, with roles in Thirtysomething in 1989 and Nashville in 2012, with his other parts including small roles in the films Postcards From the Edge, Always, Purgatory, Deadline and My Girl 2. A thorough article on him in Variety: JD Souther

The set list:

1. Eagles, The Sad Cafe
2. Eagles, Victim Of Love
3. Bonnie Raitt, Run Like A Thief
4. Linda Ronstadt, White Rhythm And Blues
5. JD Souther, You’re Only Lonely
6. Linda Ronstadt, Prisoner In Disguise
7. Longbranch Pennywhistle, Kite Woman
8. Don Henley, Nobody’s Business
9. Eagles, You Never Cry Like A Lover
10. Linda Ronstadt, Silver Blue
11. The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, The Heartbreaker
12. Eagles, How Long
13. Don Henley, If Dirt Were Dollars
14. Linda Ronstadt, Simple Man, Simple Dream
15. Eagles, Doolin’ Dalton/Doolin’ Dalton instrumental/Doolin’ Dalton/Desperado (Reprise)
16. Don Henley, Man With A Mission
17. Eagles, James Dean
18. Warren Zevon, Trouble Waiting To Happen
19. Eagles, Last Good Time In Town

My track-by-track tales:

1. Eagles, The Sad Cafe . . . A JD Souther co-write along with Eagles members Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh from The Long Run album. Doing a deep cuts show using Eagles songs can be a challenge, since so many of their songs are widely known, like this one, and appeared on ‘hits’ compilations, as The Sad Cafe did on Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2 which came out in 1982, after the first breakup of the band. It was also was part of the double-disc 2003 The Very Best Of compilation. Featured is the saxophone playing of David Sanborn, who played on, besides his own, more albums, by myriad artists across the musical spectrum, than one could count. Look him up for the evidence.

2. Eagles, Victim Of Love . . . The B-side to New Kid In Town, also co-written by JD Souther, from the Hotel California album, and renowned in its own right. Nice guitar work by Don Felder, who c0-wrote the tune along with the usual Eagles songwriting suspects Glenn Frey and Don Henley.

3. Bonnie Raitt, Run Like A Thief . . . Nice ballad from before Raitt achieved widespread commercial success, from her 1975 album Home Plate, cover photo showing Bonnie sliding into, well, home plate. Souther recorded it for his 1972 debut solo album John David Souther and this is the first instance in the set of something that is common – Souther’s songs being done by him, and by other artists; sometimes Souther recorded his versions on his own albums first, other times he followed up previous releases of his songs that were done by others.

4. Linda Ronstadt, White Rhythm And Blues . . . From Ronstadt’s 1978 Living In The USA album, the one with her on roller skates on the cover, somewhat of a reminder for males of a certain age, like me, of Raquel Welch in the 1972 roller derby movie Kansas City Bomber. Both Welch and later Ronstadt were wearing old-time roller skates, not the inline skates of today. Anyway, back to the music. A lovely ballad featuring Ronstadt’s amazing voice. Souther, who was Ronstadt’s romantic partner for a time, did his own version, with Phil Everly of Everly Brothers fame, on harmony/backing vocals on Souther’s 1979 album You’re Only Lonely which yielded JD’s lone big individual chart hit, the title cut.

5. JD Souther, You’re Only Lonely . . . Speaking of which, here’s JD’s big solo hit, Roy Orbison-esque to the point I almost wrote it down as Orbison’s hit Only The Lonely. Both great tunes. You’re Only Lonely hit No. 7 on Billboard and No. 1, for several weeks, on the adult contemporary charts. Among those on the session were David Sanborn on saxophone, studio ace guitarist Danny Kortchmar and Eagles Glenn Frey, Don Felder and Don Henley.

6. Linda Ronstadt, Prisoner In Disguise . . . A beautiful duet with JD and the title cut from Ronstadt’s 1975 album. Souther had previously recorded it for the second Souther-Hillman-Furay Band album (more on them in a bit) and later on Natural History, Souther’s 2011 album of new recordings of his songs that achieved greater success when recorded by many of the artists in this set.

7. Longbranch Pennywhistle, Kite Woman . . . Easily identifiable as a precursor to Eagles music, from the duo of Souther and future Eagle Glenn Frey, 1969.

About Longbranch Pennywhistle, from Wikipedia:
“Longbranch Pennywhistle was a country rock/folk music group featuring Glenn Frey and John David Souther. They originally performed as “John David & Glenn,” but when they added bass player David Jackson, they were encouraged to come up with a new name. Frey suggested “Longbranch,” Souther came up with “Pennywhistle,” and the names were merged at the suggestion of manager Doug Weston. They released a self-titled album in 1969 under Jimmy Bowen’s Amos Records label. Frey had made the migration from Detroit to California and Souther from Amarillo, Texas and were adapting to what would become the California sound. When the Amos Records label dissolved in 1971 the group had already disbanded the year prior.

Frey went on to co-found the Eagles and Souther wrote or co-wrote several of the Eagles’ most popular songs, along with hits for Linda Ronstadt. He also was a third of the Souther-Hillman-Furay Band.”

8. Don Henley, Nobody’s Business . . . Uptempo tune that gallops along, from Henley’s 1982 debut solo album I Can’t Stand Still which featured the hit Dirty Laundry. Co-written, along with Henley, by Souther and Bob Seger, the three of whom combined, with Glenn Frey, to write the earlier Eagles hit Heartache Tonight from The Long Run album.

9. Eagles, You Never Cry Like A Lover . . . Ballad from 1974’s On The Border, which introduced guitarist Don Felder to the Eagles’ lineup.

10. Linda Ronstadt, Silver Blue . . . From Ronstadt’s 1975 album Prisoner in Disguise and another one of those instances where Souther later did his own version of a song he wrote. JD’s Silver Blue came out on his Black Rose album in 1976.

11. The Souther-Hillman-Furay Band, The Heartbreaker . . . Funky country rocker from the trio’s 1974 debut album. Group members: JD Souther, Chris Hillman of Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers and Stephen Stills’ Manassas’ fame and Richie Furay of Buffalo Springfield and Poco – which later included future Eagle Timothy B. Schmit.

12. Eagles, How Long . . . Jaunty number from Souther’s 1972 debut album John David Souther. The Eagles covered it on their 2007 album Long Road Out Of Eden, which was their first full album of new material since 1979’s The Long Run.

13. Don Henley, If Dirt Were Dollars . . . From Henley’s biggest hit album, 1989’s The End Of The Innocence. Could easily have been a hit and I think is pretty well known. Great tune, great lyrics, often caustic or world-weary and realistic which is the case any time Henley and Souther are involved. The line “I was flyin’ back from Lubbock I saw Jesus on the plane . . . or maybe it was Elvis, you know, they kinda look the same’ from the first verse is worth the price of admission alone, to me, anyway. Henley had three top 40 singles off the record – The End Of The Innocence, The Heart Of The Matter and The Last Worthless Evening, plus a No. 48, New York Minute.

14. Linda Ronstadt, Simple Man, Simple Dream . . . From JD Souther’s Black Rose album in 1976, this version cut by Ronstadt for her Simple Dreams album in 1977 which also featured her hit covers of The Rolling Stones’ Tumbling Dice, Buddy Holly’s It’s So Easy, Roy Orbison’s Blue Bayou and Warren Zevon’s Poor Poor Pitiful Me. Souther’s Black Rose also includes his own version of his Faithless Love, which Ronstadt covered in 1974 and I played last Saturday morning in my teaser to tonight’s show featuring Souther’s songs.

15. Eagles, Doolin’ Dalton/Doolin’ Dalton instrumental/Doolin’ Dalton/Desperado (Reprise) . . . Nine minutes or so I’ve pieced together from the Desperado album, where all three songs, including the short instrumental part, appear at different stages of the 1973 release. Doolin’ Dalton leads the album off, then halfway through comes the 48-second banjo pickin’ instrumental featuring Bernie Leadon, before the album wraps up with the reprise including elements of the song Desperado.

16. Don Henley, Man With A Mission . . . From Henley’s second solo album, 1984’s Building The Perfect Beast which gave us the hits The Boys Of Summer, Sunset Grill, All She Wants To Do Is Dance and Not Enough Love In The World. I hadn’t listened to Man With A Mission in a long time but in revisiting it, I hear in it elements, in terms of the arrangement, to the later Eagles’ song Get Over It which was one of the studio cuts on the 1994 reunion live album Hell Freezes Over.

17. Eagles, James Dean . . . A tribute to the actor who died at age 24 in an auto accident. Toe-tapping rocker was the second single, after Already Gone, released from the 1974 album On The Border, but made just No. 77 in the US, No. 56 in Canada. The B-side was Good Day In Hell, the first song on which then-new Eagles guitarist Don Felder announced his musical presence after joining the album sessions midway through.

18. Warren Zevon, Trouble Waiting To Happen . . . Back to Zevon’s 1987 album Sentimental Hygiene I go, was there last Monday, Sept. 16 with The Factory, before JD Souther died and I thought of doing a tribute to him via his songs. Co-written by Zevon and Souther, who also did backing vocals on various Zevon albums.

19. Eagles, Last Good Time In Town . . . Santana-esque hypnotic groove on this one Souther co-wrote with Joe Walsh, from the 2007 Eagles album Long Road Out Of Eden. It rivals the title cut as my favorite from that record.