Description
Don Henley – Building The Perfect Beast – Double 180 Gram Vinyl Records
40th Anniversary 2-LP edition in gatefold jacket.
This 2-LP release features the vinyl debut of the album’s complete track list, as “A Month Of Sundays” was only available previously on the CD, cassette, and digital versions.
Building the Perfect Beast, released on November 19, 1984, is the second solo album by Don Henley, best known as a founding member, drummer, and co-lead vocalist of The Eagles. Coming off the dissolution of the Eagles in 1980 and the success of his first solo outing (I Can’t Stand Still, 1982), this record cemented Henley’s ability to thrive outside the band. With its blend of rock, pop, and synthesizer-driven textures, and its sharp-eyed lyrics about love, politics, and modern life, the album became one of the defining works of Henley’s solo career and of 1980s mainstream rock.
The album’s most famous track, “The Boys of Summer,” is one of Henley’s signature songs and a quintessential 1980s classic. Written with Mike Campbell of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, it’s a moody, synth-tinged meditation on nostalgia, fading youth, and lost love. The song’s evocative imagery (“a Deadhead sticker on a Cadillac”) and wistful tone struck a chord, and its innovative music video — which won multiple MTV Video Music Awards — helped propel it to #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 and lasting cultural resonance.
Other key singles included “All She Wants to Do Is Dance,” a funky, politically tinged track driven by synths and percussion, which reached #9 on the Billboard Hot 100. While it grooves like a party anthem, its lyrics satirize political apathy and Western decadence, showing Henley’s knack for embedding social commentary within pop frameworks. “Not Enough Love in the World” is a more tender ballad, showcasing his gift for intimate, emotional storytelling, while “Sunset Grill” is a moody, atmospheric piece about finding fleeting moments of peace amid urban decay.
Building the Perfect Beast reflects the era’s fascination with synthesizers and drum machines but tempers them with Henley’s rock roots and folk sensibilities. The result is a sound that feels sleek and contemporary for the mid-’80s yet anchored by strong songwriting. Henley collaborated with an impressive roster of musicians and writers, including Mike Campbell, Danny Kortchmar, Benmont Tench, Lindsey Buckingham, and Belinda Carlisle, who provided backing vocals. This mix of talent helped give the album its polished yet eclectic feel.
Henley balances personal reflection and social critique. Songs touch on themes of love, memory, generational change, and political cynicism, a continuation of the observational style he honed in the Eagles but sharpened here for the Reagan-era context. The title itself, Building the Perfect Beast, hints at his interest in the machinery of modern life — technological, political, and cultural — and its dehumanizing effects.
Commercially the album was a major success. It reached #13 on the Billboard 200, went triple platinum in the U.S., and produced several hit singles that defined Henley’s solo identity. Critically, it was praised for combining pop accessibility with lyrical sophistication, a balance that not all Eagles alumni managed as solo artists. It also won Henley a Grammy Award for Best Male Rock Vocal Performance for “The Boys of Summer.”
Building the Perfect Beast is widely seen as Henley’s defining solo statement, rivaled only by his follow-up, The End of the Innocence (1989). It captures both the sound and anxieties of the mid-1980s, with Henley’s raspy, soulful voice cutting through glossy production to deliver timeless songs. For many listeners, it remains proof that Henley could step out of the Eagles’ shadow and create music that was urgent, relevant, and enduring on its own terms.
Brand new, never played and still sealed in the factory plastic
Track Listing
The Boys Of Summer
You Can’t Make Love
Man With A Mission
You’re Not Drinking Enough
Not Enough Love In The World
Building The Perfect Beast
All She Wants To Do Is Dance
A Month Of Sundays
Sunset Grill
Drivin’ With Your Eyes Closed
Land Of The Living
