Hated to hear this. He was their bass player and had a fantastic tenor voice on every single album up to and including the Hotel California album. Was lucky to see them four times, three times with Meisner in the band. His Take It to the Limit was always a show-stopper. Godspeed Randy.
He was replaced TWICE by Timothy B. Schmidt in Poco, then the Eagles. Both were bass players who had high vocal registers. And they wrote the first hit during their stay.
Not surprised you can't find "Take It To The Limit" on the Eagles site, except a live version, probably just uploaded. I went to the HOTE tour, and Randy couldn't make it even for an encore, but was going through health issues.
@matt72582 Thanks for posting that version of TiTtL! Great stuff. Yeah, the Eagles, even to this day, are notorious for not wanting their stuff posted on YouTube, and I didn't know they didn't post it on their own site. It's because the main guys, Don Henley and Glenn Frey (God rest his soul) were and are greedy! When they decided to get back together for Hell Freezes Over, Henley and Frey got together with some "money men" and decided $100 a ticket and up was a fair price to see them together again. And people paid! I couldn't believe it. I said at the time, "I don't care if Elvis was found to be still alive and starts touring again, I wouldn't pay $100 too see him, much less the Eagles!" And they were my favorite band for the longest time, especially in my teens. Despite being mega-millionaires, somehow it just isn't enough, they have to have more, more, more money.
Anyway, back in the good old days, when we only paid $20.00 a ticket, this was one of my favorite Randy songs, co-written with guitarist extraordinaire of the Eagles, Don Felder, who was unfairly fired over the phone because he was looking into the money books and Henley and Frey didn't like it, despite Felder being an equal partner in Eagles Ltd. and having ever right to look. He sued and made out like a bandit when he won. Again, I digress---this song, which I thought for years was about a woman, was actually about Earth and the way Meisner thought it was being mistreated by pollution, etc. Meisner sings his heart out on this rocker, the guitars and the beat are phenomenal, and the closing dueling guitars between Felder and Frey are fanstastic (listen on headphones if you can). I give you...
@matt72582 Thanks for posting that version of TiTtL! Great stuff. Yeah, the Eagles, even to this day, are notorious for not wanting their stuff posted on YouTube, and I didn't know they didn't post it on their own site. It's because the main guys, Don Henley and Glenn Frey (God rest his soul) were and are greedy! When they decided to get back together for Hell Freezes Over, Henley and Frey got together with some "money men" and decided $100 a ticket and up was a fair price to see them together again. And people paid! I couldn't believe it. I said at the time, "I don't care if Elvis was found to be still alive and starts touring again, I wouldn't pay $100 too see him, much less the Eagles!" And they were my favorite band for the longest time, especially in my teens. Despite being mega-millionaires, somehow it just isn't enough, they have to have more, more, more money.
Anyway, back in the good old days, when we only paid $20.00 a ticket, this was one of my favorite Randy songs, co-written with guitarist extraordinaire of the Eagles, Don Felder, who was unfairly fired over the phone because he was looking into the money books and Henley and Frey didn't like it, despite Felder being an equal partner in Eagles Ltd. and having ever right to look. He sued and made out like a bandit when he won. Again, I digress---this song, which I thought for years was about a woman, was actually about Earth and the way Meisner thought it was being mistreated by pollution, etc. Meisner sings his heart out on this rocker, the guitars and the beat are phenomenal, and the closing dueling guitars between Felder and Frey are fanstastic (listen on headphones if you can). I give you...
You're welcome... Don Henley testified to Congress that he employed 27 people just to check on YouTube! He's probably responsible for many YouTube accounts being shut down - that third strike could kill years of work (longer than his solo career which I never liked)
I saw them in Michigan, the last show (I think) of the HOTE tour in Detroit, which is near Glenn's hometown, and he passed about five months after. My cousin and brother were trying to find scalpers. I got $75 from my sister because the show was a day before my birthday, around this time in 2015. I kept telling them we should go to the box office, because I assumed they'd rather sell remaining tickets for cheap, than get nothing at all. They kept bullshitting around, my cousin was too busy trying to smoke a roach. After a handful of times of trying to wake the sense into these guys, I went, they followed, and we got FRONT ROW seats for $75 each! Side view, which I really liked, since it was an angle I never saw before - more depth.
… with guitarist extraordinaire of the Eagles, Don Felder, who was unfairly fired over the phone because he was looking into the money books and Henley and Frey didn't like it, despite Felder being an equal partner in Eagles Ltd. and having ever right to look. He sued and made out like a bandit when he won. Again, I digress---this song, which I thought for years was about a woman, was actually about Earth and the way Meisner thought it was being mistreated by pollution, etc. Meisner sings his heart out on this rocker, the guitars and the beat are phenomenal, and the closing dueling guitars between Felder and Frey are fanstastic (listen on headphones if you can).
Yes! I love Don Felder. He brought so much to the band, along with Walsh. I love solo Walsh, too. He and Felder performed together on solo Walsh albums but Walsh stopped being friends with Felder after Felder was fired, even though they had no argument. It's almost like Frey and Henley didn't want Walsh associating with Felder and he went along to keep his place in the band. I got this from Felder's book about his life before, during, and after his time with the Eagles. He strongly implied that that was the case although he couldn't prove it about Walsh. He just couldn't understand why Walsh wouldn't be friendly to him after all they'd been through together.
Anyway, I bought a couple of Meisner solo albums after he left the band and they were pretty great. He had a couple of hits also. I had a chance to go see him in concert in the early 80s but ending up not going for some stupid reason. Regret that now.
^ huge Don Felder fan, who changed the band from country-rock to .... everything, writing some eclectic stuff (and some of their best songs), and his co-writing with Randy on "Too Many Hands" is another 'different' song.
Yes! I love Don Felder. He brought so much to the band, along with Walsh. I love solo Walsh, too. He and Felder performed together on solo Walsh albums but Walsh stopped being friends with Felder after Felder was fired, even though they had no argument. It's almost like Frey and Henley didn't want Walsh associating with Felder and he went along to keep his place in the band. I got this from Felder's book about his life before, during, and after his time with the Eagles. He strongly implied that that was the case although he couldn't prove it about Walsh. He just couldn't understand why Walsh wouldn't be friendly to him after all they'd been through together.
Anyway, I bought a couple of Meisner solo albums after he left the band and they were pretty great. He had a couple of hits also. I had a chance to go see him in concert in the early 80s but ending up not going for some stupid reason. Regret that now.
Yeah, I got a lot of insight from his book, especially the personalities and actions of Henley and Frey. At least Frey didn't try to hide his being a jerk about things, but Henley seemed to be an instigator who didn't argue in public, rather doing things behind the scenes like a total a**hole. That said, I loved both those guys as the great musicians they were and could respect that part of them. One funny thing I remember Frey saying about Henley is (concerning parties and such) that Henley could "suck all the fun out of the room real fast." Because he's so self-serious. I thought that was really funny. Look back through their history of pictures and you'll see that about 90% (my percentage) Henley is not smiling. Look at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction photo where they're holding their awards. Every one of them looks happy except for Henley---he looks like it's a chore just to be there.
Felder was a guitar whiz even at an early age and before he hit it big, he gave guitar lessons to Tom Petty and even helped Stephen Stills with certain guitar playing that he was wanting. Felder is an amazing player.
Here's the pic I'm talking about with Henley looking practically stone-faced at the R&R Hall of Fame:
Yeah, I got a lot of insight from his book, especially the personalities and actions of Henley and Frey. At least Frey didn't try to hide his being a jerk about things, but Henley seemed to be an instigator who didn't argue in public, rather doing things behind the scenes like a total a**hole. That said, I loved both those guys as the great musicians they were and could respect that part of them. One funny thing I remember Frey saying about Henley is (concerning parties and such) that Henley could "suck all the fun out of the room real fast." Because he's so self-serious. I thought that was really funny. Look back through their history of pictures and you'll see that about 90% (my percentage) Henley is not smiling. Look at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction photo where they're holding their awards. Every one of them looks happy except for Henley---he looks like it's a chore just to be there.
Felder was a guitar whiz even at an early age and before he hit it big, he gave guitar lessons to Tom Petty and even helped Stephen Stills with certain guitar playing that he was wanting. Felder is an amazing player.
Here's the pic I'm talking about with Henley looking practically stone-faced at the R&R Hall of Fame:
I presume you’ve seen this, own it? Seen it several times.
Interesting to me that Henley was very influenced by The Beatles. Love to hear this. (It’s ok with me if he doesn’t smile.)
I saw parts of The History of the Eagles as someone I knew had it on when I was visiting. I didn't particularly like the way they (especially Frey) talked about Felder. There's two sides to every story and I guess I believe Felder's, after having read his book.
Now the difference between Henley and Frey, (with Henley never smiling), Frey was always more outgoing and talkative about everything, whereas Henley seemed more introspective...but to the point where he seemed miserable. I remember an interview on 60 Minutes where Frey and Henley were being interviewed by Steve Croft, and even Croft talked about how Henley seemed to not be very happy and how it really showed in his body language. They show Frey all excited and eager during the talk, while Henley is looking up and all around as if he didn't want to be there. I don't know. In all truth, I can only speak to what I've seen and read and I really don't know what's in a person's heart. I've always loved their music and they were, as I've said, once my favorite band of all-time. And they're still up there---that is until Felder was gone, then I pretty much lost interest.
I did try to get into them afterwards. I bought the DVD Eagles Farewell 1 Tour - Live From Melbourne and it was pretty good. But Felder's absence was very noticable. You had session guitarist Steuart Smith over to the side, playing Felder's parts, almost note-for-note, but he was wayyy to the side, and he was never made an Eagle. So, I just started to referring to him as "not Don Felder." During the whole concert, no mention was made of his name at all, which I thought was odd. And then Glenn Frey sang "Take It to the Limit," which, I'm sorry but that's Randy Meisner's song to sing and nobody will ever be able to match that. Their lineup as of now includes Vince Gill and Frey's son, Deacon. I know that Deacon Frey left them for a while and there were rumors that Henley pissed him off for some reason. Didn't get details so it may have been just a rumor at that. But Gill is supposedly the one singing "Take It to the Limit" now in concert. Sorry, Vince, I like you but, no. Anyway, they're on what is supposedly their last tour, and I say, it's about damn time. They should have hung it up when Frey passed away.
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