He deserves to be remembered as more than that guy in the Eagles documentary, the one who incurred Glenn Frey's wrath. Hell, he deserves to be remembered for more than "Take It to the Limit."
It was fifty one years ago today, not that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play, but that "Take It Easy" dominated the airwaves. It was an instant hit single. On AM. When that still mattered, because of the car.
But this was different. Because usually records started on FM and then crossed over to AM. They got a start on the quieter band, the act gained fans, and after they'd embraced them then the group was ready for mainstream consumption. The Eagles did it backward. And as a result were not warmly embraced by the cognoscenti. Sure, it was an amazing hit single, but really was this act any better than the Starland Vocal Band, which had its one monster smash?
Well, if you bought the album you found out. The group emerged fully-formed. But if you didn't buy the album, you didn't know this. FM itself was becoming codified, less deep, less the bastion of album tracks. And since the Eagles hadn't paid their dues they were not all over the radio.
But if you bought the album...
The big surprise was "Witchy Woman," which followed the first side opener "Take It Easy." "Witchy Woman" was as dark and brooding as "Take It Easy" was breezy and uplifting. This was our introduction to Don Henley. The drummer. He only sang two songs on the LP.
So, the Eagles were Linda Ronstadt's backup band, experienced musicians, who'd been in groups previously, who were not wet behind the ears, they all had history, it was a minor league supergroup.
And not the group most people talk about today.
There are two Eagles periods, and they are quite different. Don Felder joined the band for the fourth album, "On the Border," and the band rocked harder. Then Joe Walsh joined for "Hotel California" and there was no confusing what was happening then with what happened before. When the Dude criticized the Eagles, he was talking about the earlier period.
Not that it matters, not with fifty years of hindsight.
Randy Meisner was the bassist in the earlier period of the band.
And unlike Bernie Leadon, he never came back. Then again, Meisner was sick, had been for eons. At Glenn Frey's memorial service he was using oxygen and...it's not a complete surprise Randy passed.
And Randy did make a solo album after he left the band, 1978's eponymous effort. I bought it, it was not memorable. And then...
He was akin to Jason Newsted. Then again, Jason was not an original member of Metallica.
So back to the narrative.
Well, let's start before that. With Poco. A previous supergroup that was supposed to rival Crosby, Stills & Nash on the chart, but didn't. Randy Meisner was the bass player, but he quit before the album came out.
Then Randy played with Rick Nelson's Stone Canyon Band, an outfit that was gaining credibility, rejecting Ricky's early hits for something deeper, meatier and more soulful.
And then Randy was in the Eagles.
Oh, he went back to Nebraska and went straight for a moment in between, but that brings us back to 1972, and the Eagles debut.
The songs left off the greatest hits albums have faded away. But when there was only one album, I was deeply enamored of the closing track, Randy Meisner's "Tryin'."
"I'm just arriving in the city
And there's music on my mind
Lookin' for my destination and
My home is far behind"
That's what they all did. Came from disparate burgs across this great nation of ours to Los Angeles, to make it. They'd outgrown the local scene, they wanted more, they believed they deserved more.
"'Cause it's a long road ahead
And you can make it in the end
I'm gonna make it with my friends
And I'm tryin'"
Was it Glenn Frey who called a band a gang? They're in the trenches together, slugging it out, friends until...the band doesn't make it and breaks up or it does and friendships fracture.
And the funny thing about Meisner's voice is it's somewhere between Henley and Frey's, it fits right in, and did as part of the harmonies. He too sounded like an Eagle. To hear Randy sing was not jarring.
So "Tryin'" is a tear. And optimistic.
"And it's a lonely way to live
You gotta take it, you gotta give
If you mistake it just try again
And I'm trying"
Everybody in L.A. was tryin', but very few were makin' it.
And the sound is a road trip with the top down, the band locked in with Randy's vocal on top and then, AND THEN!
"Ah-ha-ha, we've got to keep on tryin'
Ah-ha-ha, we got to keep on tryin'
Ah-ha-ha, we got to keep on tryin'
Ah-ha-ha, we got to keep on tryin'
Whoa I'm tryin'"
Talk about magical...
It's nearly a-cappella. The Eagles singing together. The smooth, developed sound that pushed the band to the top. Crosby, Stills & Nash could never get the harmonies right live, either in their heyday or the latter day, but the Eagles? They nailed it every time.
And Randy didn't sing "Earlybird," but he did write it with Bernie Leadon. This more country-influenced sound was ultimately dropped by the latter day band, but it was a feature of the first edition.
These two unheralded cuts from the first LP are two of my favorites, once you could pick and choose with the advent of the CD I played them plenty, I know them by heart.
Randy had even fewer writing credits on "Desperado," but it is his song that opens the second side of this legendary concept album that was a stiff upon release. But you can't keep greatness down, "Desperado" is now the absolute highlight of the live show.
"He was a poor boy, raised in a small family
He kinda had a cravin' for somethin' no one else could see"
That's it, the essence. You know. You need to leave town, be more, or you're satisfied where you are. Some of us are incomplete and want more. That's the story of rock and roll.
"They say that he was crazy
The kind that no lady should meet"
The rock and roll outlaw. That was the theme of the LP, the melding, the comparing and contrasting of yesterday's cowboys and today's.
"He ran out to the city and wandered around in the street
He wants to dance, oh yeah
He wants to sing, oh yeah
He wants to see the lights a-flashin'
And listen to the thundering"
You've got to be able to cut loose to rock and roll. Let go. Cross the lines, throw away the rule book. Most people don't have the guts, the chutzpah.
"He knew he could stand with the best
They got respect, oh yeah
He wants the same, oh yeah
And it's a certain kind of fool
That likes to hear the sound of his own name"
You've got to be a certain kind of fool to play this game, the odds are just too long.
"A poster on a storefront, the picture of a wanted man
He had a reputation spreading like fire through the land
It wasn't for the money, at least it didn't start that way
It wasn't for the runnin', but now he's runnin' every day"
That's the story of the bank robbers of the west, but it's also the story of seventies rockers. You were lucky if you got a poster in the storefront. And it doesn't start out about the money, but when you gain a certain amount of success... And you keep runnin' every day, you're on tour, keeping the starmaking machinery alive.
There used to be an amazing video on YouTube of the Eagles performing "Certain Kind of Fool" on TV. Only four members, but they got it exactly right, including Randy Meisner's vocal. They weren't jumping around the stage, there were no antics, they were letting the music speak for itself.
1974's "On the Border" was the commercial breakthrough, suddenly the Eagles were everywhere.
My favorite cut is the title song, a Henley/Leadon/Frey number. And Henley's vocal stands out, but Randy Meisner is there singing too.
And Randy also sings "Midnight Flyer," which Paul Craft wrote. And he wrote and sang "Is It True?," and I like his vocal, and it fits in the album perfectly, but it's a minor cut.
And then came "One of These Nights." It's this album that made the Eagles superstars. "Hotel California" was the cherry on top, an unexpected great leap forward, but in a summer competing with James Taylor's "Gorilla" and Paul McCartney and Wings's "Venus and Mars" and Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks," it was "One of These Nights" which was dominant. Everywhere in a way no album is today, none. Pouring out of every window. Talk about the soundtrack of the summer.
And of course "One of These Nights" contains "Take It to the Limit," which actually is not one of my favorites, I prefer "Too Many Hands," from the first side, a number Randy cowrote with Don Felder, which Randy sings himself.
"Too Many Hands" has the intensity of "Certain Kind of Fool." A stinging guitar. And Randy singing like someone's squeezing his balls, like every word is important and counts, imploring you to listen.
But it was a different era. The album era. When it was a rare record that exceeded forty minutes and you knew what you bought by heart. These Randy Meisner cuts may not have been radio hits, but they were personal hits, I know them just as well as the songs that floated over the airwaves. You see our albums were religious texts, we studied them, they were more important than television or movies, they were more important than us, we couldn't compete with the musicians, they were gods, we bowed at their feet, and Randy Meisner was one of them, and once you reach this level, once you're in the pantheon, you're never forgotten.
So it wasn't a complete shock that Randy Meisner passed today. He'd been ill and off the radar screen for so long. But still, it affects us. He was talented, a member of a group that won the World Series, ultimately the Eagles are the Yankees, in that they triumphed again and again, more than anybody else, they sit above the rest, you don't own the best-selling album of all time by accident, that's not something you can fake.
And you might say that the Eagles haven't had a hit in decades, but I'll say the Yankees haven't been the Yankees for decades, maybe since George Steinbrenner came along and laid down all that cash.
Randy Meisner was there, he was part of it.
Some may not know, but I will never forget.
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