Though Randy Meisner‘s time with the Eagles was short-lived, his contribution has lasted the band’s entirety. Whether writing with chief songwriters Glenn Frey and Don Henley, guitarist Don Felder, or on his own, the bassist made some beautiful music for the Eagles, from the band’s eponymous 1972 debut through their classic Hotel California in 1976.
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Here’s a look at six songs Meisner, who passed away on Wednesday, July 26, wrote for the Eagles.
1. – 2. “Take the Devil” / “Tryin” (1972)
Both songs written by Randy Meisner
Right from the start, the Eagles had their first hit with the opening “Take It Easy” and hit the top 10 (at No. 9) with “Witchy Woman.” Further into the album, were two Meisner-penned songs. A more leisurely meditation on the spiritual, “Take to the Devil,” closes on some jammed-out riffs, and offered the more uptempo “Tryin'” as a close to Eagles.
“Take the Devil”
Open up your eyes
Take the devil from your mind
He’s been holding on to you
And you’re so hard to find
The wind outside is cold
Restless feeling in my soul
Tempting me to get away
But there’s no place a man can go
God, will you lead me where I roam?
Help me not to let my feelings show
“Tryin'”
It took me sometime to see it
Now I’m looking through this world
And it’s gonna take some time before
I get back, help me girl
‘Cause you can make it if you try
You’ve gotta lay it on the line
And everything will be fine if you try
3. “Certain Kind of Fool” (1973)
Written by Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey
It wasn’t for the money. At least, it didn’t start that way sings Meisner, opening side two of the Eagles’ sophomore album, Desperado. Meisner co-wrote the acoustic-heavy tale of a young man who leaves home to become a guitarist and turns toward a fugitive life.
Meisner started the song and had the first half written before asking Henley and Frey to help him with the remaining lyrics “I had the beginning of it but not the body of the song,” said Meisner. “So, in London, they helped me finish it real quick and it tuned out real good. It fit with what they were portraying in the theme. That outlaw theme was a neat idea.”
Produced by Glyn Johns, and recorded in 1973 at Island Studios in London, the songs of Desperado were inspired by stories about the 19th century outlaws of the Doolin-Dalton Gang. The stories resonated with the band with Henley being from Texas, Frey from Michigan, Leadon from Minnesota, and Meisner, a Nebraska native, and their quest for a different life — out west.
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“All of us went out west,” said Leadon. “People would go to LA and fail, and the responsible ones would move back home and start a family, while the malcontent never-say-die type personalities said, ‘No, I’m staying!’ That was our story. The idea was: ‘How are we feeling about our lives and what we’re doing, and would the people in a gang have felt the same way?’”
Leadon added, “Breaking out of societal expectations and doing something extraordinary. We were just kids, but we were looking at our lives and trying to make reasonable comments about it.”
He was a poor boy, raised in a small family
He kinda had a cravin’ for somethin’ no one else could see
They say that he was crazy
The kind that no lady should meet
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
4. “Is it True?” (1974)
Written by Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey
Along with Leadon’s “My Man,” a tribute to his former Flying Burrito Brothers bandmate, Gram Parsons, who died in 1973, Meisner also penned one song on the Eagles’ third release On the Border. “Is it True?” follows the tribulations of a love affair.
When we were young, we didn’t really have a care
You were hung up, I had a good line
I never knew it then but, man, I was in love
How could I know it was the right time?
Is it true?
You’ve lost that feelin’?
Is is true?
5. “Take It to the Limit” (1975)
Written by Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey
After one late night of partying at the Troubadour, Meisner started writing the Eagles hit “Take It to the Limit,” off the band’s fourth album, One of These Nights, on his acoustic guitar. “We drank a lot of beer there,” laughed Meisner of his hangouts at the famed Hollywood venue.
He continued, “Randy Newman, Steve Martin, Jim Morrison, all these people that we’d know hung out here. We’d go down there and have a few beers. That’s how I started ‘Take It To The Limit.’ I went back to my house one night from the Troubadour. It was real late at night. I was by myself and started singing and playing All alone at the end of the evening. That’s where it started.”
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On One of These Nights, Meisner also co-wrote the track “Too Many Hands” with guitarist Don Felder, while “Take It to the Limit” peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100.
“The line ‘take it to the limit’ was to keep trying,” said Meisner of the song in the 2013 documentary The History of the Eagles. “You reach a point in your life where you feel you’ve done everything and seen everything—it’s part of getting old. And just to take it to the limit one more time, like every day just keep punching away at it. That was the line, and from there the song took a different course.”
And when you’re looking for your freedom (nobody seems to care)
And you can’t find the door
(Can’t find it anywhere)
When there’s nothing to believe in
Still you’re coming back
You’re running back
You’re coming back for more…
Put me on a highway
Show me a sign
Take it to the limit
6. “Try and Love Again” (1976)
Written by Randy Meisner
By the end of the Eagles’ Hotel California Tour, Meisner exited the band. The last song he wrote for the before parting ways with the Eagles in 1977, “Try and Love Again,” was also the only song of his that made the cut on the band’s pivotal album.
A more hopeful song, the penultimate track is a hidden Hotel California gem and a deeper cut that deserved more attention at the time.
Right or wrong, what’s done is done
It’s only moments that you borrow
But the thoughts will linger on of the lady and her song
When the sun comes up tomorrow
Well it might take years to see through all these tears
Don’t let go, when you find it you will know
Correction: We initially reported that Meisner passed away on Thursday, July 27, 2023. The date has been updated to Wednesday, July 26.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
