♫ Desperado ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

Okay, I just played this one earlier this year … March, I believe … and typically I try not to redux one that I’ve played within the last two years.  But I’m making an exception, for this seems to be the favourite of most of us, myself included, and I thought it was the perfect way to wrap up Eagles Week!  I hope you guys have enjoyed the week-long run of Eagles tunes as much as I have!  Be thinking about what group or artist you’d like to have for our next week-long series!  I’m always open to suggestion, though I make no promises.  Anyway … here’s Desperado to end the 8-day Eagles Week!

You know how some songs get stuck in your head and just refuse to leave?  This one does that to me periodically.  This, and Girl From Ipanema.  And these days, of course, Fool on the Hill.

Don Henley began writing parts of this in the late ’60s, but it wasn’t arranged into a song until his songwriting teammate Glenn Frey came along. It was the first of many songs Henley and Frey wrote together.

Henley explained in the liner notes for The Very Best of the Eagles: “Glenn came over to write one day, and I showed him this unfinished tune that I had been holding for so many years. I said, ‘When I play it and sing it, I think of Ray Charles –  Ray Charles and Stephen Foster. It’s really a Southern gothic thing, but we can easily make it more Western.’ Glenn leapt right on it – filled in the blanks and brought structure. And that was the beginning of our songwriting partnership – that’s when we became a team.”

Desperado is a classic rock staple, but it was never released as a single.  The song has also been recorded by Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Rogers, the Carpenters, Bonnie Raitt, and Ringo Starr, but I prefer the Eagles version.

I love the lyrics to this … yes, there is a certain sadness to them … but … they are poignant and remind me of …

Desperado
Eagles

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
You been out ridin’ fences for so long now
Oh, you’re a hard one
But I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin’ you
Can hurt you somehow

Don’t you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy
She’ll beat you if she’s able
You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet

Now, it seems to me some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can’t get

Desperado, oh, you ain’t gettin’ no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they’re drivin’ you home

And freedom, oh freedom, well that’s just some people talkin’
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

Don’t your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won’t snow and the sun won’t shine
It’s hard to tell the night time from the day
You’re losin’ all your highs and lows
Ain’t it funny how the feeling goes away?

Desperado, why don’t you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin’, but there’s a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you (let somebody love you)
You better let somebody love you
Before it’s too late

Songwriters: Glenn Lewis Frey / Don Hugh Henley
Desperado lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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20 thoughts on “♫ Desperado ♫ (Redux)”

  1. I can only repeat what I said often before: You open my eyes to songs I heard ‚then‘ and never understood a word of – and I very much appreciate your putting the lyrics down too. I for one am glad that the www allows us to go so much deeper in many an interesting theme or discussion. Really liked that song – and naturally, I have no comparisons – which in my case is a good thing!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Thank you, Kiki! I’m so glad you’re enjoying the music posts and learning new things. So am I! Being nearly deaf for all my life, I rarely knew the lyrics to any song, so I’m enjoying that part as much as anyone. And the background trivia is ALWAYS fascinating … I find myself saying, “Who knew???” more than a few times during the week.

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  3. Pingback: ♫ Desperado ♫ (Redux) | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

  5. Something about that title ‘Desperado’
    The first meaning springs up as a kind of Clint Eastwood ‘Man With No Name’, which puts it in the that fine old category of ‘Western Laments’ (that’s what I call them) like ‘Streets of Larado’ or ‘Only the Heartaches’.
    There again I recently learnt it is also used for a person nearly down and out and on the point of ‘going down’
    Or
    Someone who is desperately in need of a relationship.
    Now maybe the song itself caused those last two meanings…I never looked much deeper.

    That all said, it’s one of those songs with a vast amount of meaning and depth. Not one of my favourite listens or sing-alongs, but heck you have to stand back and salute it as a powerful song.

    Good choice there Jill.

    Liked by 1 person

      • I never really got into The Eagles. However bands and singers in that category usually had one song which burrowed deep.
        In the case of The Eagles it was ‘New Kid in Town’, though ‘Hotel California’ had a nice story vibe.
        Whatever your personal tastes, sometimes you just have to admit ‘That band / singer’s got it!’

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  6. Sorry, but I’m going to be a dissenting voice here. This is a long way from being my favourite Eagles song, and I prefer Linda Ronstadt’s version. There: two heresies in one!

    As for suggestions for other weeks, I’d go with some of those I’ve included in my Listen To The Band series. So far, as well as the Eagles this has been The Beatles, The Monkees, Cat Stevens, Jackson Browne, Warren Zevon, and CSN&Y. Food for thought?

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