Hi, everyone. Welcome to another edition of Music Monday.

(Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

Such heartbreaking news last week to learn that former Eagles co-founder, bassist, singer and songwriter Randy Meisner died at age 77. The band was one of my favorite groups when I was growing up but all the fighting really soured me on them. It also bothered Meisner, too, as it was reportedly the main reason for his departure from the group in September 1977, six years after they formed. That and because the band was freezing him out due to his reluctance to be in the spotlight, which never sat well with his ego-driven fame-hungry bandmates and fellow co-founders, Glenn Frey and Don Henley.

Meisner was the one member I always adored. His harmonies were pristine & beautiful, plus his vocals on “Take It To The Limit” (which was the band’s first million-seller, according to a Twitter post by the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame) and today’s song are my top favorite moments by the band. And the latter was written solely by him, a feat one of the primary antagonists for the group-Henley-never accomplished.

Before The Eagles, Meisner did session work for James Taylor and Waylon Jennings in addition to playing with Poco and Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band. After he left the Eagles Meisner released three solo albums, had a few bands of his own including Randy Meisner & the Silverados and The Roberts-Meisner Band, while continuing to play on various tours until 2008. He also contributed to records by Linda Ronstadt, Danny O’Keefe, Dan Fogelberg and Richard Marx, amongst others.

Reportedly Meisner was not invited to participate in the 1994 “Hell Freezes Over” tour indicating that both group’s dictators-Frey and Henley-were still harboring resentment over their former bassist’s decision to quit the band 17 years earlier. In 1999 Meisner supposedly asked to take part in the group’s New Year’s Eve show & was refused. Even in the statement on the band’s website about Meisner’s death, they fail to list his contributions as a songwriter, only his roles as a bassist and vocalist. With Frey out of the picture since his death in 2016, this puts the onus clearly on Il Duce, a/k/a Henley. (In the group’s 2013 documentary, he and and Frey made it clear they seized their self-appointed leadership roles using the philosophy that a band is not a democracy but rather an entity requiring leadership. So they ran the show-period. But it made an already bad situation even worse because both men were constantly fighting with each other, too.) 

Randy Meisner on stage circa 1970’s. (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

It is not only passive agressive but ironic since Henley is the only founding member who failed to write any of the group’s songs entirely on his own. And after a review of his five solo studio albums, only one track-a filler one at that-on 1984’s Building the Perfect Beast is credited solely to Henley. Despite how famous he became in the group and as a solo artist, I find his need to constantly cause trouble-whether within the band, against his record company, by attacking YouTube’s practices or whomever annoyed him the day before-to be quite distasteful. Add to that Meisner revealed in an interview in 2000 that he & Bernie Leadon (another co-founder) were initially left out of the financial profits for the band’s “Greatest Hits” record. Both men had to formally pursue their share which was not only ridiculous but essentially fraudulent. It left me feeling nothing but disgust for Henley, a singer & musician I once truly admired, especially for his efforts in establishing The Walden Woods Project.

But he or anyone else who might have tried could not stop Meisner’s prescence with the rest of the group at their induction into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame in 1998. And the man who replaced him-Timothy B. Schmit-was all class in his tribute to Meisner that night, recognizing that his predecessor was the man in the “trenches” with the band. Meanwhile, Frey and Henley stayed as far away as possible from where Mesiner was standing. Then Frey rewrote the narrative about the band’s well documented reputation on fighting (including the petty vicious ones between he and Henley) and said the members got along fine, they just disagreed (read: disagreed with him and Henley). And those members who dared to question the two dictators were eventually dismissed and/or robbed of their rightful profits: Leadon, Meisner and Don Felder, who joined the band in 1974. No wonder the two in charge are known as oppressors.

When I went on my first road trip to Vermont in October 2005, I somehow forgot to include my Hotel California cd in my music stash. Within 24 hours I started to have withdrawals. I needed to hear today’s song so badly that I actually went to a record store (remember those?) to buy another copy of it. I listened to this track so much it was as if Meisner was in the car with me. Well, he was but you know what I mean.

His final years were sadly riddled with both physical and mental challenges, but Meisner was one of the good ones. It was all about the music for him, not the fame or the spotlight. And that should have been respected. Rest in peace, Randy. You will be missed.

“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“.

Randall Herman Meisner: March 8, 1946-July 26, 2023.

Randy Meisner circa 1970’s. (Image found online.  Original source unknown.)

The Eagles: “Try and Love Again” (1976, written by Randy Meisner).

Stay safe and well.