One of the watershed albums of the early 1970’s was the release of Desperado by The Eagles. A band put together by Linda Ronstadt’s manager it was originally made up of Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey and Randy Meisner. Leadon named it The Eagles as a tribute to his relationship with The Byrds. It was his country-rock influence from The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers that started the band’s ideology. They needed a drummer so Frey contacted Don Henley, a session drummer.
Desperado was a concept album like a shorter Tommy by The Who. It compared the life of rock stars to those of the old outlaws and although Tequila Sunrise and Outlaw Man were chosen as the singles, the song Desperado became a hit when their greatest hits album came out in 1976.
After Frey and Henley began taking the group toward a more rock sound Leadon and Meisner left the group and were replaced by Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit.
The album contained many soulful songs helped out in a few by Jackson Browne. Lyrics like “. . . Like graveyards full of tombstones, waitin’ for the names.” It also featured the Doolin-Dalton Gang’s exploits and the shoot-outs that led to their demise. The banjo is as haunting as Henley’s voice.
Like Sweetheart of the Rodeo this is an important country-rock album and, when you think of it, two members of The Eagles were either in The Byrds or The Flying Burrito Brothers.