Like Old Times for Don Henley and Friends
Author: Steve Morse
Publication: Boston Globe
Date: April 25, 1990
Abstract: Henley talks about the Walden Woods benefit.
Two days after Earth Day again highlighted the impact of rock music on social causes, Don Henley's rock-as-politics caravan of friends and performers pulled into the Boston area last night for a benefit to help preserve Walden Woods.
It was an impressive example of what the rock world can do for a cause - and on short notice. Henley's shows at the Worcester Centrum last night and tonight, featuring the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Bob Seger, Jimmy Buffett and John Mellencamp, are now national and international events, complete with hordes of press and the ubiquitous MTV cameras.
How did it all come about?
Henley, nominated for four Grammy awards this year, was walking through his kitchen recently in Los Angeles when he glimpsed a TV report on the Cable News Network. It was about the proposed development of condos and an office park in Walden Woods, near Henry David Thoreau's beloved Walden Pond. He had loved Thoreau's "Walden" during college in the late '60s - and couldn't believe this "symbol of environmentalism" was in danger of being spoiled.
So Henley went into overdrive. In just a few weeks' time - remarkably little by rock benefit standards - he recruited friends such as Raitt, Buffett, Seger, Mellencamp, Glenn Frey, Arlo Guthrie, Carrie Fisher, Don Johnson and Ed Begley Jr. to join him at the Centrum.
Most of the performers have also played the Farm Aid concerts - and the Walden benefits have a similar ring. Boston's Cone Communications, which handled Farm Aid, is also handling these shows. There's even an 800 number for donations: (800) 543-9911.
Unlike Farm Aid, however, there's no live radio or TV broadcast. Nor will there be any home video or compilation album, unlike some other benefit projects. The performers;
are strictly coming to help Henley, though of course the national publicity won't hurt, despite a recent controversy over the nature of the issue at hand - there has been criticism from some quarters that the development is being protested only because it includes affordable housing. Henley now hopes to buy parcels of land outside Walden Woods, so these can still be built.
The irony is that most of the performers are "outsiders," rather than the local artists who one might think would have discovered this issue long ago.
"I have to defend a lot of my peers in Hollywood, whether they be musicians or movie stars," said Henley, a Texan by birth who's also been active in the anti-nuke movement. "It's a very concerned, conscientious group - and they're doing this for the right reason. It's because they care. If we can use our celebrity for something positive besides getting good tables at restaurants, I think it behooves us to do so."
It was also important to find a domestic environmental issue, rather than one outside the United States, Henley said.
"I was talking to Sting a few weeks ago; we did a rain-forest benefit together in Los Angeles with some other people. I told him about this project and he thought it was a wonderful idea because, as he said to me, 'I've been going down to Brazil and some of these other Third World countries for years now, trying to convince these desperate people to stop chopping down their rain forest. They look at me and say, "How dare you come down here and tell us what to do with our forest? You people in America have not only cut down all your virgin forest, but you killed the Indians to boot. Why don't you go home and heal your own land?" '
"I think that point is well taken," Henley said. "I don't think we should forget about the rain forest necessarily, but I think we need some kind of symbol in this country of environmentalism. I think this is the best place to do it."
Henley's Walden Woods brainstorm has been a true triumph of personal will.
"We tried to set these up so they would be routed on the tour. I was going to play Worcester anyway on the 25th and I was originally scheduled to play Providence on the 24th, but we canceled Providence and put in another concert in Worcester on the 24th," he said. "Then I started calling all my friends to help me with this thing. My old partner Glenn Frey was the first guy to step up. He said, 'I know how much this means to you and if you want me to, I'll come to Massachusetts and do it with you.' Then I called up Bob Seger and he volunteered. Then I called Bonnie Raitt and Jimmy Buffett."
The toughest task has fallen to Henley's band, which will back these various acts.
"My poor band has been rehearsing in every spare moment," he said. "They've got instruments set up in their hotel rooms and they're learning everybody's songs. . . . They've had Buffett's cassettes and Seger's cassettes and Bonnie's cassettes. And every day we've done a soundcheck for our regular concert of the evening, we rehearse some of these tunes. It's going to be interesting."
