THE EAGLES - SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD

SEVEN BRIDGES ROAD

THE EAGLES

SONGWRITER: STEVE YOUNG

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: EAGLES LIVE

LABEL: ASYLUM

GENRE: COUNTRY ROCK

YEAR: 1980

"Seven Bridges Road" is a song written by American musician Steve Young, recorded in 1969 for his Rock Salt & Nails album. It has since been covered by many artists, the best-known version being a five-part harmony arrangement by English musician Iain Matthews recorded by the American rock band Eagles in 1980.

"Seven Bridges Road" would have its highest profile incarnation due to a 1980 live recording by the Eagles whose 4/4 tempo and close harmony vocal arrangement are borrowed from a recording made by Iain Matthews from his August 1973 album release Valley Hi. Matthews' album was recorded with producer Mike Nesmith at the latter's Countryside Ranch studio in North Hills (LA): Nesmith would recall of Matthews' recording of "Seven Bridges Road": "Ian and I put it together and [we] sang about six or seven part harmony on the thing, and I played acoustic. It turned out to be a beautiful record[ing]". On the similarity of the Eagles' later version, Nesmith would state: "Son of a gun if...Don [Henley] or somebody in the Eagles didn't lift [our] arrangement absolutely note for note for vocal harmony for vocal harmony...If they can't think it up themselves [and] they've got to steal it from somebody else, better they should steal it...from me I guess." Ian Matthews would recall that, in 1973, he and the members of the Eagles were acquainted through frequenting the Troubadour: "we were forever going back to somebody's house and playing music. Don Henley had a copy of 'Valley Hi' that he liked, so I've no doubt about that being where their version of the song came from."

The Eagles recorded "Seven Bridges Road" for their Eagles Live concert album. According to band member Don Felder, when the Eagles first began playing stadiums the group would warm up pre-concert by singing "Seven Bridges Road" in a locker room shower area. After, each concert would then open with the group's five members singing "Seven Bridges Road" a capella into a single microphone. Felder recalls that it "blew [the audience] away. It was always a vocally unifying moment, all five voices coming together in harmony." Following the release of the Hotel California album, that set's title cut replaced "Seven Bridges Road" as the Eagles' concert opener, and according to Felder, the band "rarely even bothered to rehearse with it in the shower of the dressing room anymore." The song was restored to the set list for the Eagles' tour, prior to the band's 31 July 1980 breakup, with the band's performance of the song at their 28 July 1980 concert at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, which was recorded for the Eagles Live album released in November 1980. They issued it as a single, with "The Long Run" (live) as its B-side; Eagles' "Seven Bridges Road" reached #21 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 becoming the group's final Top 40 hit until "Get Over It" by the reunited band in 1994. "Seven Bridges Road" also became the third Eagles' single to appear on the Billboard C&W chart, reaching #55 there. At the time Eagles charted with "Seven Bridges Road" the song's composer Steve Young commented: "I didn't like the Eagles' version at first. I thought it was tôo bluegrassy, tôo gospel. But the more I hear it, the better it sounds."

There are stars in the southern sky

Southward as you go.

There is moonlight and moss in the trees

Down the Seven Bridges Road.

Now I have loved you like a baby...

Like some lonesome child,

And I have loved you in a tame way,

And I have loved you wild.

Sometimes there's a part of me

Has to turn from here and go...

Running like a child from these warm stars

Down the Seven Bridges Road.

There are stars in the southern sky.

And if ever you decide you should go,

There is a taste of time sweet and honey

Down the Seven Bridges Road.