What a shame. Randy seemed to be one of the nicest people you could be around. And his voice (Take it to the Limit)….wow just amazing. I can imagine his personality couldn't be comfortable around the Henley/Frey machine. And then his difficulties in his later life. If there are such things as angels, Randy should be one.
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Rest in Peace, Randy Meisner.
- Thread starter Mister Magic
- Start date
Thank you and thank you again. I have a store of resentments regarding the relative fates of the two bands. The Randy Meisner-Bernie Leadon Eagles was their best version; I couldn't hang with the subsequent incarnations. Poco, on the other hand, managed to accommodate changes of personnel, the tides of the record industry , and the rise of other country/rock acts in their wake. Like the Eagles.
Yeah. The Meisner-Schmidt link with both bands is interesting. And in my opinion both bands treated Meisner badly. Of course the Eagles (or should I say Don Henley and Glen Frey) treated their guitar players badly as well.
I agree about the Meisner-Leadon line-up. Without Leadon, I expect there would have been no banjo in the break in "Take It Easy," and I remain blown away by the change in the third verse opening from I-V-IV to I-V-IIm. Which most people probably would not notice were it not for the banjo.
An amazing musician and an inspiration to countless bassists around the world. RIP Randy.
I agree that is a great song! I actually met Randy in San Francisco when I worked at the Orvis San Francisco store (1987-1997). I was managing the fly-fishing department and coordinating the Orvis West Coast Fly-Fishing Schools at the time. We talked quite a bit and he asked me to meet him for lunch but later that day he had to cancel. I wasn't sure if it was really him at the time or just someone claiming to be him. This was in the 90's (pre-internet), but I later found a picture of him playing with Eagles and sure enough it was him. Don't know who he was playing with at the time.
I’ll go back even further…
(That last one written by Brewer and Shipley)
I was a Poco fan, along with the Springfield, Byrds, Burritos, Gram solo, New Riders, Commander Cody, Fraternity Of Man, but couldn’t care less about The Eagles. They just annoyed me, way before Lebowski.
I finally came to the conclusion that the Eagles represented the dark side of the California experience, sort of the opposite of the Beach Boys' vision (granting that the Beach Boys had their teen/high-schoolish phase, which the Eagles never did).
They just represented the arrogant, full of themselves side of anywhere, not just LA, taking everything from what those other bands pioneered, and churned out a slick, processed, ready for mass consumption version of that.
Good to read all of the kind words about Randy.
Many of us watched the fascinating Eagles documentary. I had no idea how poorly Don Henley and especially Glenn Frey treated him. I would have never let a heavyweight like Randy leave my band. To hear Glenn tell the story about how he actually aggressively encouraged Randy to quit (i.e., kicked him out) was shocking to me.
For years, I wanted to reach out to Randy and let him know what a fantastic musician I thought he was. But, I didn't.
I forgot to mention in my original post that I thought "Try and Love Again" was one of The Eagles' best songs. I listened to it twice this morning while in bed and it made me a little blue.
Many of us watched the fascinating Eagles documentary. I had no idea how poorly Don Henley and especially Glenn Frey treated him. I would have never let a heavyweight like Randy leave my band. To hear Glenn tell the story about how he actually aggressively encouraged Randy to quit (i.e., kicked him out) was shocking to me.
For years, I wanted to reach out to Randy and let him know what a fantastic musician I thought he was. But, I didn't.
I forgot to mention in my original post that I thought "Try and Love Again" was one of The Eagles' best songs. I listened to it twice this morning while in bed and it made me a little blue.
