Many have claimed that Desperado is not a concept album, though it very much is, and while not a rock opera, the songs were designed to loosely flow in and out of each other, in much the same manner as did Tumbleweed Connection by Elton John, with the gunsling desperado theme standing in for the life of musicians, the ultimate anti-hero of contemporary times.
With the concept of the record being one of solitude and aloneness, the Eagles do a masterful job at weaving fantasy and reality together, holding it all in check with perhaps not great lyrics, though certainly with great memorable lines, along with enough musical hooks to keep listeners more than fully engaged. If you’re fortunate enough to have gotten your hands on the 2014 reissue, where even the artwork seems more delightful, you’re in for a real treat regarding the sonic delivery, as the sound stage that’s laid out is both deep and wide, one in which your speakers nearly disappear into an all inclusive embracing immersive atmosphere.
Without a doubt, Desperado is nearly the perfect rock meets country album, one that produced two of the Eagles signature numbers, “Desperado” and the amazingly haunting yet breezy “Tequila Sunrise.” Eerily unnoticed by listeners until it was nearly too late, was the fact that the Eagles were dead set on moving their sound into a world where it could perhaps stand with a boot in both a pop AM atmosphere, and that of the progressive FM radio format … though this was a difficult and precarious avenue for the band to travel, as they were often not taken seriously due to their ballads and all too friendly easygoing hits, where in the movie “The Big Lebowski,” The Dude exclaims “I hate the fucking Eagles, man!” before being dumped curbside, a rather prophetic image, as with the Eagles, one was either onboard, or left standing at the curb, wondering what all the fuss was about.
I’ve always been fascinated as to why so much love was bestowed on CS&N, and not the Eagles, as their harmonies have always been bright, with music that’s entirely inoffensive. So why were CS&N so lovingly embraced, while the Eagles were so completely villainized for doing the same thing. Desperado is fine album that’s stood the test of time, with other brilliant musicians appearing as mysteriously as members of the Dolton Gang, where together they’ve brought forth something musically new and exciting for anyone willing to spend a few minutes with this album.
*** The Fun Facts: This song goes, as do the historical events, a story that the Eagles depict on the album’s cover, and more-so on the gatefold picture, that the infamous Wild West gang Dalton Gang (formed in 1888) was made up of mainly of train robbers in the Oklahoma Territory. This band of misfits included the Dalton brothers, Bill Doolin, Bittercreek Newcomb and several other outlaws. In 1892, after a number of the gang had been killed in an ambush, the remaining five members including some of the Dalton brothers. Bill Doolin, Bill Dalton, Bittercreek Newcomb and Charlie Pierce, the last surviving members, recruited seven more outlaws and formed the Doolin-Dalton Gang to exact revenge on the deaths and continued on with their lives of crime. The song ends here, leaving what happens afterward unknown, but in real life, by 1898, every member had been killed.
With the concept of the record being one of solitude and aloneness, the Eagles do a masterful job at weaving fantasy and reality together, holding it all in check with perhaps not great lyrics, though certainly with great memorable lines, along with enough musical hooks to keep listeners more than fully engaged. If you’re fortunate enough to have gotten your hands on the 2014 reissue, where even the artwork seems more delightful, you’re in for a real treat regarding the sonic delivery, as the sound stage that’s laid out is both deep and wide, one in which your speakers nearly disappear into an all inclusive embracing immersive atmosphere.
Without a doubt, Desperado is nearly the perfect rock meets country album, one that produced two of the Eagles signature numbers, “Desperado” and the amazingly haunting yet breezy “Tequila Sunrise.” Eerily unnoticed by listeners until it was nearly too late, was the fact that the Eagles were dead set on moving their sound into a world where it could perhaps stand with a boot in both a pop AM atmosphere, and that of the progressive FM radio format … though this was a difficult and precarious avenue for the band to travel, as they were often not taken seriously due to their ballads and all too friendly easygoing hits, where in the movie “The Big Lebowski,” The Dude exclaims “I hate the fucking Eagles, man!” before being dumped curbside, a rather prophetic image, as with the Eagles, one was either onboard, or left standing at the curb, wondering what all the fuss was about.
I’ve always been fascinated as to why so much love was bestowed on CS&N, and not the Eagles, as their harmonies have always been bright, with music that’s entirely inoffensive. So why were CS&N so lovingly embraced, while the Eagles were so completely villainized for doing the same thing. Desperado is fine album that’s stood the test of time, with other brilliant musicians appearing as mysteriously as members of the Dolton Gang, where together they’ve brought forth something musically new and exciting for anyone willing to spend a few minutes with this album.
*** The Fun Facts: This song goes, as do the historical events, a story that the Eagles depict on the album’s cover, and more-so on the gatefold picture, that the infamous Wild West gang Dalton Gang (formed in 1888) was made up of mainly of train robbers in the Oklahoma Territory. This band of misfits included the Dalton brothers, Bill Doolin, Bittercreek Newcomb and several other outlaws. In 1892, after a number of the gang had been killed in an ambush, the remaining five members including some of the Dalton brothers. Bill Doolin, Bill Dalton, Bittercreek Newcomb and Charlie Pierce, the last surviving members, recruited seven more outlaws and formed the Doolin-Dalton Gang to exact revenge on the deaths and continued on with their lives of crime. The song ends here, leaving what happens afterward unknown, but in real life, by 1898, every member had been killed.