Disco de Eagles: “Desperado”

Hardcore fans will undoubtedly disagree, but for my money, The Eagles absolutely nailed it with "Desperado," which ranks with The Byrds "Sweethard of the Rodeo" and Gram Parsons' "Return of the Grevious Angel" as a high-water mark for '70's country rock.

Containing songs rich with Western/outlaw imagery, singers Glen Frey and Don Henley's trademark vocals were never better in delivering classics like "Tequila Sunrise," "Saturday Night," and the title track - and with Bernie Leadon still in the band, the authenticity of the group's country underpinnings were never stronger.

Once Leadon left, The Eagles became more of an arena band that tried to capture more of the mainstream rock audience (while still delivering the occasional country-tinged classic like "Lyin' Eyes" and "Best of My Love"). Obviously, they were wildly successful, but with the possible exception of "Hotel California," the band never again approached the creative genius that produced "Desperado."

The Eagles' second album, "Desperado", is a concept album, exploring the theme "rock musician as outlaw" and doing it very well. It's a mixture of rock `n' roll and country, some tracks mostly rock, some mostly country. The opening track, "Doolin-Dalton", is a beautiful ballad without being sappy, and the same thing goes for the famous title track. The tempo is sometimes slow, sometimes fast, and as usual, all the then-Eagles, Frey, Henley, Meisner and Leadon, do lead vocals on at least one track. The last song on the album is titled "Doolin-Dalton/Desperado reprise", and it is indeed just an added verse to both songs, but it is in no way superflous. The "Desperado" reprise in particular is a wonderful piece of music, sporting great vocal harmonies, beautiful lyrics and melodiousness like none other. On "Hotel California", The Eagles left no doubt as to who are the best bunch of musicians in the business, but although "Desperado" is three years older and a lot more simple, it is still the work of accomplished craftsmen, and that makes it all the more wonderful. The album is filled with superb vocal and instrumental harmonies and great solos from both Bernie Leadon and Glenn Frey. Sure, there are one or two sort of boring songs, but most of them are either "good" or "great", and none are actually bad. All in all, this is really very close to five stars, but since I can't give 4½, I'll have to settle for four. Enjoy!

Thought it was not all that successful when it was released in 1973, the Eagles' DESPERADO remains the country-rock genre's greatest concept album. Not surprisingly, it is built around the concept of Old West outlaws and rock and roll guitar slingers as being their 20th century equivalent. But there's more to DESPERADO than just the concept.

The songwriting here is something a lot of today's singers (particularly in the country field) can only dream about. The title track, written by Don Henley and Glenn Frey, has become a standard and has been covered by a lot of others (though a version by the Eagles' former benefactor Linda Ronstadt stands out the best). "Tequila Sunrise" is also a memorable piece, with Bernie Leadon's countrified stringbender electric guitar licks and an almost Mexican acoustic guitar sound making it so. Leadon also contributes his usual hard-driving bluegrass skills with "Twenty-One". The finale, a reprise of the title track and the album's opening track ("Doolin-Dalton"), is a grim epic, in which the outlaws' story seems to end in bullets and bloodshed a la Sam Peckinpah.

DESPERADO is an essential album for anyone interested in country-rock in general, and the Eagles in particular.

The critics have pretty much always held up Hotel California as the greatest Eagles album and the first Greatest Hits collection (1971-75) as all we really need from the pre-Hotel days, but I have never agreed. While Hotel is an undeniably impressive record, it is clearly the product of a different group than the Frey/Henley/Leadon/Meisner quartet which was the nucleus of the first four albums. And of those four discs, which are all great, Desperado is simply the best. From start to finish, this record is nothing but one great song after another. I love them all, but on side two (on my vinyl version!) we get "Certain Kind of Fool," "Saturday Night" and "Bitter Creek," three of the best things these guys ever did...For me, this group was just never the same without Bernie Leadon's bluegrass influence and Randy Meisner's rock & roll heart. This stuff is endlessly listenable. Truly a "desert island disc." Essential.

This is the Eagles' best album. Hotel California is their most polished, and contains their best song (the title track), but Desperado is their best from top to bottom. The lyrics are heavy--not a throwaway line anywhere on the album. Some of today's bands could learn quite a bit about songwriting by studying this album.

As for the individual songs: Out of Control has the heaviest guitars I've ever heard from the Eagles. Doolin-Dalton, Desperado, and their reprises are almost chilling. Tequila Sunrise, Certain Kind of Fool, and Outlaw Man are amazing--lyrics, melody, vocals, and musicianship come together perfectly. Bitter Creek is the second best song Bernie Leadon contributed to the band, behind My Man (from On the Border). Saturday Night is beautiful--the way the piano and mandolin shadow each other on their solo (duet?) is haunting.

The Eagles, in their various incarnations, were never as good as they were here. It's difficult to quantify the majesty of this album with mere words, so just listen to it!