Customer Reviews

Desperado

5 star:		(54)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I know this is not the majority opinion, but in my view, "Desperado" is easily the Eagles' best album and their most enduring work. "Desperado" is the Eagles' only "concept" album, and one of the best concept albums ever.

Besides a lyrical cohesiveness that far exceeds most "concept" albums, the musicianship demonstrated in this album eclipses anything the Eagles did before or after. It shows how much was lost when Bernie Leadon left the band.

The album presents the story of an outlaw using a loose historical reference to a member of the Doolin-Dalton gang at the turn of the century. The main character begins as a relative innocent with a taste for the fast life. He follows that instinct and finds himself unable or unwilling to break away from it. He senses it will overwhelm him, and in the end, it does.

The songs on the album have a subtle appeal ... they take time to appreciate, but both the lyrics and the melodies are superb. "Twenty-One" and "Out of Control" are terrific depictions of the life. Musically and lyrically, "Out of Control" is just that ... out of control. "Tequila Sunrise" and "Desperado" reflect the reality of the choices he's made ... when the lights are off and everyone goes home he's still all alone. He knows he's headed for trouble:

"You better let somebody love you, before it's too late."

In "Certain Kind of Fool", he chooses the wild life, but why?

"It wasn't for the money, at least it didn't start that way It wasn't for the running, but now he's running every day."

The transformation is complete in "Outlaw Man," which reflects the lonely reality of the wild life:

"All my friends are strangers, they quickly come and go; and all my love's in danger, cause I steal hearts and souls."

In the end, the life destroys him, "all alone in the center ring" and "with no time left to borrow." Musically, the last song on the album reprises the first: "Doolin Dalton." Here, the epilogue of his life and the reasons for his untimely end are made clear:

"The Queen of Diamonds let you down, she was just an empty fable; the Queen of Hearts you say you never met. Your twisted fate has found you out, and it's finally turned the tables; stole your dreams and paid you with regret."

Great stuff.

Hey, I know. It's only an album. Maybe it's because I spent a similar period of my life like a "Desperado" -- in a room full of people, yet somehow still alone. But I think it's a great album. Nothing the Eagles did before or since can touch it.

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 didn't invent country-rock, although all of them were involved with groups that dove into those deep, turbulent waters early on. What they did was evolve and perfect the form, taking it to new levels. Desperado is the quintessential country-rock album, a true masterpiece based loosely around the Doolin-Dalton gang. The songs lead one to the next in a seamless blend of musical styles. Folk, country, bluegrass and rock are all churned together to form something altogether different and wonderful.

Don Henley's plaintive Doolin-Dalton sets the tone for the album. Bernie Leadon's Twenty-One gives the sense of youthful exuberence and invincibility a real kickin' edge. Glen Frey's Out Of Control rocks your socks off with the boys comin' to town for a night of raucous amusement which then leads to the morning after, Tequila Sunrise. Desperado is a masterful ballad beautifully sung by Henley. Randy Meisner's Certain Kind Of Fool is the definitive song in drawing parallels between outlaws and musicians. The Doolin-Dalton instrumental shows off their accomplished pickin' skills and leads into Outlaw Man, another rocker sung by Frey. Saturday Night is some of the most beautiful close harmony ballad work ever heard. Leadon's Bitter Creek is a brilliant ballad, its stark acoustic pathos a warning to those that would venture the outlaw path. The Reprise ending the album just keeps going through my head even after fading completely.

If you are a fan of Country-Rock, this album is a must for your collection. It shows what can be done when a group of highly talented musicians write some great songs and capture the magic on tape. They blazed a trail for so many new artists to walk.

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 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!

I have, oh, I dunno. Maybe 550 LP records, some 200 casettes, and probably a like number of CD's. Of all of them, this record has been played more than any of them. In the early 70's I listened to it constantly. The concept, "modern rock and rollers as old west outlaws", was easily segued, by me, into my own life as a military elite.

The story of Bill Doolin and Bill Dalton was familiar to me. Seems that 3 Dalton brothers, Grat, Bob, and Emmitt, along with two others, tried to rob two banks at once in Coffeyville, Kansas. The attempt went horribly wrong, and 4 townspeople and 4 outlaws were killed, including Bob and Grat. Emmitt survived about 20 some wounds to live well into the 20th Century. Bill Dalton, another brother, then joined up with a gang member that didn't make the trip, Bill Doolin. The resulting Doolin-Dalton gang ran through the territory in a manner the original gang never imagined. It included members named Dynamite Dick, Tulsa Jack, Arkansas Tom, and a fellow named Bitter Creek Newcombe.

The Eagles used all this as an allegory to describe the life of a modern rock and roll star. Loneliness, uncertainty, fear, the road, wild times and hangovers, sudden death, love that is all too short. The feeling of being outside the mainstream. I loved it.

From the opening strains of "Doolin-Dalton", to the quiet, desperate "Saturday Night", the raucous full speed ahead of "Out of Control" followed by the painful "Tequila Sunrise", the Album explores all that. But the best song is the classic, "Desperado". It asks, is it all worth it, all this fast living on the edge, without love?

Bernie Leadon, Don Henley, Glen Frey and Randy Meisner are all good players, singers, and songwriters. This band does not have the virtuoso feel of the Joe Walsh/Don Felder bands on guitar, just good, solid country picking. Great singing on every song. A quiet, heartfelt classic, that really really speaks to me today, after all these years.

That was the designation given to DESPERADOS by Jerry Wexler of Atlantic Records when the Eagles first released it in 1973. But it's a concept album that happened to feature great songs stellarly done. Although the band repeatedly slagged producer Glyn Johns' strongarm efforts to put the emphasis on the "country" part of the "country rock" tag with which the Eagles were often saddled, you can see why. They nail the western-tinged pathos thing here every time out, something they were nowhere near as sucessful doing with the harder rock they veered towards from ON THE BORDER on, and it's largely because Johns holds their country boots to the fire. "Tequila Sunrise" is one of the best things the group ever did; Glenn Frey never sounded so believable afterwards. And Don Henley gives one of his best vocals on the title cut; you absolutely feel for that poor schmuck "out riding fences for so long now." All said, DESPERADOS is a high-water mark for the Eagles and their music, even if it didn't fell that way at the beginning.

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 my favourite Eagles album without a doubt. Their classic era albums can be divided into two general eras: the first two albums Eagles (1972) and Desperado (1973) with the original line up which included guitarist/banjo player/singer Bernie Leadon. And the later albums On The Border (1974) One Of these Nights (1975) Hotel California (1976) and The Long Run (1979) which subtituted Leadon for Don Felder and then added Joe Walsh as well.

Their early albums were very influenced by Gram Parsons and "country rock" bands such as Poco; the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers (of which Leadon was a member). Therefore this album is generally classed as such. When Leadon left the band he look most of their country influence with him resulting in the Eagles having a harder edge but a highly ommercial one at that.

Most hard-core Eagles fans would agree that their Leadon years were their best in terms of creativity and substance, which is what I think too. Desperado is just that: very ambitious and creative while the music is absolute gold. From a commercial point of view (which many Eagles fans come from) then this is not an album-come-greatest-hits style album like Hotel California or One Of These Nights. It has the hits Desperado, Tequila Sunrise and Outlaw Man, and although they are all excellent songs the real beauty of the album is as a whole.

One of the Eagles most ragged rockers (if not the most) is on here (Out of Control) which has slowly creeped up on me as one of their best ever songs. Bernie Leadons Bitter Creek is also some of his best songwriting but I often hear this song getting dismissed.

If you are one of the people that only like the singles then there are numerous greatest hits packages out there.
If you want some top grade classic rock by a great band in their prime, then this album is for you.

A Masterpiece!!!

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!