The Last Worthless Evening

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"The Last Worthless Evening"

Single by Don Henley
from the album The End of the Innocence
Released	June 1989
Format	CD
Recorded	1989
Genre	Rock
Length	06:03
Label	Geffen
Writer(s)	John Corey, Don Henley, Stan Lynch
Producer(s)	Don Henley, Mike Campbell, John Corey
Chart positions
#21 (Billboard Hot 100)

The Last Worthless Evening is a song written by John Corey, Don Henley,and Stan Lynch. It was a single recorded by Don Henley in 1989 which reached #21 on US charts. The song, a ballad sung by a man asking a woman to fall in love with him, was included on Henley's third album The End of the Innocence 1989.

It is not known where the writers got the idea for the song title. In 1986, the author Andre Dubus had published a collection of stories entitled "The Last Worthless Evening: Four Novellas & Two Stories," [1]. According to Time Magazine's review of the Dubus book, Dubus did not use the term "last worthless evening" in any passage in his book itself; instead the phrase was a reference to a passage in William Faulkner's "The Bear," which laments man's spoliation of the New World.[2] While Dubus's stories did not utilize the term "last worthless evening," the mournful title, together with a painting of a middle-aged woman on the cover of the book wearing a contemplative visage, are both suggestive of feelings of loneliness and desire for connection with others- themes present in Dubus's collection of stories, and plumbed explicity by Henley's song. On the other hand Henley is a well-known environmentalist and pro-environmental literature such as the Faulkner story would have been right up his alley. Thus it's possible the authors got the title from Faulkner but just as likely they were also inspired by seeing Dubus's near-contemporaneous book.

Like other videos shot from this album, the video for "The Last Worthless Evening" features black-and-white imagery of people loving and longing in seeming slow-motion, and cuts to shots of an unsmiling Henley singing seriously to the camera. The song is written from the point of view of a man who wishes to reach out to a woman, who like the singer has lost love in the last few years and probably shares the singer’s 40ish age bracket. The singer feels he and the woman are well-matched to have a relationship by virtue of their similar experiences and the lyrics consist of his pitch to be with her. The song proposes a relationship that will take them both out of the sad cycle of the singles circuit, and let them forget their regrets for past relationships as they get older together. The lyrics refer to time ticking away, the singer laments that they both see the "same old crowd" in "smoky rooms," and he cautions the woman that there are only "so many summers" to live.

The refrain promises the woman that this is the "last worthless evening" she will have to waste being bored and unfulfilled, and begs her for a chance to "show you how to love again." The man promises her that if she takes this chance on him, they can perhaps combine wisdom they've gotten from living a while, with their still-burning desire to be loved, and leave behind the pain of the past to build a meaningful life together. Oddly, the lyrics focus mostly on the pain and boredom of the present and past, and spend little time making the singer's best case for why they should be together in the future; at times it sounds like he's proposing a merger rather than professing romantic love. This device appears intentional however, as his promise to show the woman "how to love again" and to mend her heart, is an effort to say more with less. The singer is volunteering to help her carry the burden of her pain, a selfless act motivated by an obvious but quiet love; furthermore since the two characters are not presently involved, laying it on too thick is ill-advised. Combining this subtlety with the obvious tenderness Henley applies to his depiction of the sadness in her life, the song conveys a depth of emotion tinged with wisdom that a dozen "I love you baby"'s could not have matched. Henley's sonorous voice combines nicely in this track with a pretty melody and deft pop arrangement. It is considered a high point of the album (and Henley's solo career) by many reviewers.