The Sad Cafe

Okay, those are some deep comments folks. The truth is this song is literally about The Troubadour Bar in LA. Back in the early 70's there was something of a Folk/Country Rock Bohemian brotherhood happening there. It was very special. Back then you could literally go hang out with musical artists of the day (both up&coming and already-signed successful singer-songwriters). The time only lasted for a short while. Don is trying to capture that magical time when they were young, optimistic, knaive... this is a time that he can never go back to. It is a ballad expressing a nastalgic yearning for those years gone bye. The band & its members had changed a great deal from those days, and I believe it shows a maturing of these guys as the approach what they all probably realize is the end of the group. It is really serves as the perfect "swan song" for the eagles, a little more subtle but still much like the song "let it be" for the beatles.

The song's title is drawn from "The Ballad of the Sad Café", a novella by Southern Gothic writer Carson McCullers. The original story is about a woman with a harsh demeanor who is transformed by love and opens her home to people in her small southern town, turning it into a café. Likely this reference comes from Don Henley, who was a one-time English lit major and is generally credited with elevating much of the Eagles' output from simple love ballads.

Other writers credited include Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh and JD Souther. Souther was Frey's pre-Eagles partner in Longbranch Pennywhistle. He wrote or co-wrote several of the Eagles'
hits, but never matched the fame of his former partner. The song is both a nostalgic longing for a familiar place, but also a meditation on the fickle nature of fame.

As others have said, The Sad Café of the song is the Troubadour club. Frey and Henley met at the club in 1970 and formed a plan for a rock band. The Troubadour at the time was already an epicenter of the LA music scene, serving as a launching pad for performers like the Byrds, the Doors, Joni Mitchell, and comedians like Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and Steve Martin.

The lyrics make metaphorical comparisons to a church, calling it "a holy place protected by amazing grace." The refrain goes: "Oh, expecting to fly, we would meet on that beautiful shore in the sweet by and by." The latter is a turn on the lyrics of a Christian hymn from 1868. It encourages listeners not to be sad because everything will be fine in the afterlife, or the "sweet by and by."

"Expecting to Fly" is a song by Buffalo Springfield (written and sung by Neil Young.) Buffalo Springfield in the late 60's was considered the best live band in LA. In their heyday, they were expected to break out big like the Byrds, but they only kissed fame briefly with a single top-ten hit.

And thence we consider the line: "I don't know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free." In the afterlife of Buffalo Springfield, members Stephen Stills and Neil Young went on to fame and fortune. Richie Furray formed Poco, but struggled with achieving the same relevancy. Later, he and JD Souther joined ex-Byrd Chris Hillman to form a supergroup after the formula of Crosby, Stills and Nash, but lightning didn't strike for them.

Many speculate that The Sad Café is the Eagles themselves, and maybe there is some truth to it. In the McCuller's story, the café is torn apart by greed and ego and the desire for control, much like the Eagles were and continued to be in their reunion efforts. The shore wasn't so beautiful in the sweet by and by. Or if you prefer: the long run.

My opinion on this song is simply that they are talking about the break-up of the band.

The "Cafe" is just the Eagles themselves - or better put, the time that the band was together.

The first stanza just lays out that a reminising is about to happen.

The next stanza states that the members could express their feelings through song more than - or instead of - through their words or actions.

"Expecting to fly" could represent the word Eagle.

"Some of THEIR dreams came true" - THEIR being the important word - signifying the past tense of the Eagles. Then "stayed behind..." meaning the band did not finish all that the members wanted to accomplish and/or communicate to us.

I may be totally off - but that is my take on this song....

wow you seem so correct its creepy, because they say that they remember the time they spent inside or as the group, nice call!!

well i think sad cafe is an expression but w/e

this is one of my all time favorite songs that is soooo underrated and that not too many people know about. this song is absolutely beautiful w ith the sax and all and don henley's voice is beautiful. i think im gonna name my kid don now... or maybe not

i love this song it has so much meaning and is very soothing. the eagles are awsome and are often over looked for bands like AC/DC which are definatly not even competition to the eagles. I LOVE THE EAGLES.

That's funny, I never related this song to the band. I always thought it was about the 60's and utopian, idealistic dreams of youth dashed. Of course, I can interpret it the way I want to! :-)

Joe Walsh makes reference to the Sad cafe in his song Lifes been good
"Life's been good to me so far baby, inside the Sad Cafe." Which does kinda make the song being about the bands breakup more realistic

This is a wonderful song that touches the heart. It soothes the soul. I also love the sax in the end. that is really cool.~

Zor: Was this in a concert version or demo of the song? I don't recall hearing any voices say "in the sad cafe" in the studio version of "Life's Been Good."

The Eagles is that one band that I always come back to. They were one of the first bands that I really got into, and even though I don't listen to their music all of the time whenever I do I find something that relates to my life. My interpretation isn't based on the history of the band or even a popularly held believe, it's just what the song means to me, but I still feel like sharing it.

To me, the "sad cafe" is a metaphor for a special place and/or time in a persons life where they shared dreams, ambitions, outlook and friendship. It could be high-school, college, a home town, or even an era (eg. the 70s).

"we could sing right out loud, the things we could not say" - this line reminds me of reckless freedom and haphazard ways. kind of like the saying "gotta learn to run before you can walk".

"oh expecting to fly..." people believed that their dreams, no matter how outlandish, would come true. The kind of boundless optimism that can never last.

In many ways "the sad cafe" is a metaphor for growing and changing and the sincere happiness one gets from sharing a vision or a dream.

The song is about the nostalgia one feels when looking back at the time that was the "sad cafe" and the people who were there with him, with the sober clarity gained by experience and the passing of time.

The line, "the clouds rolled in and hid that shore," signifies the end of that time. Some people go off to pursue their dreams, others give up, and some are paralyzed by inaction yet cling to what they wish they could achieve.

The narrator, looking at his own life and where it has taken him, wonders why he has been so lucky, wonders why he has come so far while some of the people he remembers never made it. He has fond memories of this long gone time and place, yet he feels that maybe the memories ("maybe the time has drawn the faces I recall") are just an idealized version of the way things actually were.

Finally, he decides to revisit the past, the place where his journey began. Perhaps he is looking for closure, perhaps answers to old questions, or maybe he just wants to remember what it felt like to share a dream.