THANKS, GLENN!

For the record, according to a popular online search engine (rhymes with bugle), no public statement, interview, or song lyric indicates Glenn Frey of The Eagles ever said, “Nothing good in life is not hard won.”

So, no, I didn’t quote Frey when I wrote the lyrics to “Live and Learn” back in 2016, but the observation is a common sentiment, and, as I recently discovered, it was even expressed by Theodore Roosevelt in a famous speech in 1910: “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty…”

The song “Live and Learn” is a pedal-to-the-metal, windows-down, rockin’-down-the-highway tune that puts life’s trials and tribulations in perspective. It’s an oddly exuberant song about a pivotal mortal decision that could literally careen off the road in the ghostly, two-lane-blacktop isolation of a dark night ride, having only the high-speed blur of cornfields to bear witness.

A lonely road and a tankful of velocity has a tendency to make your mind wander into mental wonderland as it struggles to straddle the ever-present streak of oil smeared between the highway’s shoulder and its centerline. You try your best to keep the greasy side down while fighting bad memories, bad juju, bad potholes, gruesome roadkill, and your sandbag-heavy eyelids’ ever-urgent demand to drop the curtain on the whole torturous ordeal.

Yes, you guessed right, “Live and Learn” is another “road as a metaphor for life” song, and I like to believe that Glenn Frey would have loved it. I also believe it would make a great set opener for any band that would like to tackle it on stage in a bar, at a festival, in a stadium, in a concert hall, on the radio, or in your headphones.

In fact, I hope some artist or group picks it up and runs like hell to the bank with it. As I say in the song, “Each new day takes its turn,” and sometimes, those turns, in turn, turn out pretty damn good.

Thank you, Glenn Frey, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, J.D.Souther and a host of other erstwhile denizens of early-70s Echo Park and Laurel Canyon,Cali., for the musical inspiration!

Take it easy,
Mike Ankelman

Released September 9, 2026
The lyrics and music to “Live and Learn” were conceived and written by Michael Ankelman. The lyrics were written in 10.1.16 and the music was written in 10.31.18. Directing AI and other digital production tools, this iteration of “Live and Learn” was produced, recorded, edited, and mastered by Byron Sletten and Michael Ankelman in the summer of 2026, and released to the public in September, 2026 under the artist name “Ankelman Sletten.”