Live by Request (Darkside Production DP-0010-1/2)
Fair Park Music Hall, Dallas, TX – May 25th, 2000
Disc 1 (48:01): A&E Intro., Dirty Laundry, Sunset Grill, Don’s greeting, Working It, Email Request #1, Taking You Home, Phone Request #1, The Boys Of Summer, About the new album, intro to “Everything Is Different Now,” Everything Is Different Now, Phone Request #2, The End Of The Innocence
Disc 2 (41:54): About the “Walden Woods Project,” video request from WWP, Goodbye To A River, All She Wants To Do Is Dance, Email Request #2, Heart Of The Matter, Phone Request #3, Desperado, Intro to “The Long Run,” The Long Run, Don’s farewell, Hotel California (calypso)
Just days after releasing Inside Job, his first solo album in eleven years, Don Henley was featured on the A&E cable channel’s “Live By Request” program. The show was officially released on DVD called Don Henley Live: Inside Job in November 2000, but featured only the live portion of the show.
On the one hand it included songs not in the telecast such as “Lilah” “They’re Not Here, They’re Not Coming” and “My Thanksgiving,” but it was missing the emails, phone calls, and general banter which was the center of the actual show. Live By Request on Darkside Productions presents the actual broadcast that night sourced from an excellent copy of the telecast.
Henley has been accused of being rather stiff as a performer, even dating back to his time with The Eagles. Some of the criticisms leveled against this performance on the official DVD also point that out. The charm of the telecast is in showing Henley in a much different light. Instead of the artists singing songs of biting sarcasm, he comes off as warm, funny, and genuinely appreciative of the support and success he’s managed to attain in a career lasting forty years.
The show was taped at the Fair Park Music Hall, a venue familiar to Henley because “this is where I saw Nemo.” He plays several hits by request such as “Boys Of Summer” and introduces many of the songs from his new album such as “Working It” and “Taking You Home.”
In the middle of the show he plugs his involvement with the Walden Woods Project and ends the show playing some of his biggest hits like “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” and “The Long Run.” The final number of the night is a truly interesting calypso-reggae arrangement of “Hotel California.”
Live By Request is packaged in a double slimline jewel case with simple inserts for the artwork. Darkside Productions seemed to be a label associated with other labels such as Super Sonic. It’s a good title to have as a complement to the official release and is worth having.
