Celebration of "Desperado"

[GlennLover]

Nope, had a quick check and if Wikipedia is true it's named after a colonel who won a coin toss with a surveyor

Here's an article I found about Colonel James Coffey: http://www.coffeyville.com/index.aspx?NID=342

[Brooke]

Very interesting stuff, guys! Thanks for all of that and to Soda for the pics!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Yep - Lovin' all this history!

[NYC Fan]

Thanks TLR and Soda!

I love all this history. So fascinating and love all the ties to the Desperado album. Thanks for taking the time to share.

[thelastresort]

<Off-topic alert>

The following has nothing to do with the Eagles themselves but one of the towns mentioned where the Daltons robbed a train got my mind thinking back to my favourite Old West tale and probably the most downright unbelievable event ever to occur in that time period, it's just something I think deserves a share:

Back in 1917 (25 years after the Daltons visited) Wharton, TX, appointed a new marshal, WW Pitman, who early on in his days apprehended a local troublemaker by the name of Francisco Lopez. On this one particular meeting Lopez reacted badly to Pitman's peaceful advancement, and like many thousands of other outlaws before him, he drew his gun. Two shots missed Pitman. As he pulled the trigger for his third, Pitman did for his first. Both bullets sounded, Lopez's gun flew from his hand and he was duly arrested. However no bullets could be found and there was no damage to Lopez's hand. What transpired to had happened was Pitman had fired down the barrel of Lopez's gun, just as his third bullet had left the cylinder, causing the two to impact, deform the gun and make Lopez drop it.

I'm not a firearms expert but I'd guess from several paces apart with split second reaction times, hitting the gun with a bullet would be impossible enough. I'd guess the odds of firing down the barrel given the circumstances are several hundred thousand, if not millions, to one.

</Off-topic>

[Prettymaid]

Interesting story!

[UndertheWire]

I've beenreading some old Cameron Crowe interviews that cover the writing for the Desperado album. They make it sound like the concept pre-dates the Eagles by several years.

From a 1974 piece on Jackson Browne. Note that JD refers to "our" Desperado album:

“The first thing we ever tried writing together,” said Souther, “was the stuff that was on our Desperado album. Ned Doheny [another Asylum artist-he'd been part of the Elektra Music Ranch] laid a book about gunfighters on us. It had a chapter in it about the Doolin-Dalton gang. We started talking about it, ranting and raving through the night about the role of outlaw and using that as a metaphor.

From a 1973 interview with Glenn:

Eagles played a lot of new album material during the tour, and I asked Frey if he considered the new album, Desperado, to be a concept album.

“Well, strangely enough, it turns out that way. We’re kind of hesitant to talk about it as a ‘concept album,’ though. I don’t think it’s really…well, overt isn’t the word I’m looking for, but it just isn’t obvious enough to promote it as such. But it has its moments where it definitely draws some parallels between rock ‘n roll and being an outlaw. Outside the laws of normality, I guess. I mean, I feel like I’m breaking the law all the time. What we live and what we do is kind of a fantasy.”

Have you been wanting to explore that subject for a long time?

Yeah. A lot of people, amongst our friends, have been talking about it for years. J.D. (Souther), Jackson (Browne) and Ned Doheny, all of us, have been discussing that for awhile. It just finally..well, I guess you’d say that Eagles were the ones to finally do it. We had all talked about it as a distant project for me and Jackson and J.D. at one point, but it came to be our lot to do it now. The story could always be continued, that’s for sure.

Why aren’t Jackson, Ned or J.D. on the album?

Well, we were recording in England and they didn’t make it. We had all worked out the story-line together. The instrumentation and arrangements had been together for sometime…only thing missing were the lyrics. We all took a hand in that. We’d talk on the phone, or whenever we saw each other, we would discuss lyrical ideas.

“Doolin’ Dalton” has been around awhile hasn’t it?

Yeah. Me, J.D. and Jackson started that song about three years ago when there was till Longbranch Penny-whistle (the duo of Frey and Souther) and there wasn’t a Jackson Browne album and stuff. We wrote it one night, kicked it around, and never got much done on it until that Outlaw concept got to be a serious thing. Then (drummer Don) Henley helped the three of us finish it up. Bernie (Leadon, guitarist) had “Twenty-One” already written and there we had the start of our album. We just took it from there.

“Dooling Dalton,” thought, has a bunch of verses. We might do the whole thing if we ever get a shot at a media piece like television or a movie


...


Desperado seems to be a little more involved musically that the first album. Does that indicate any direction for Eagles?

It sure does. We’re a little more involved musically now as well. It was a natural thing to happen. The thing about writing the songs, too, after the band was really together…all the songs, with the exception of “Doolin’ Dalton,” were written since the Eagles were together whereas on the first album some of those songs had existed for quite awhile…were collaborations. There was much more inter-band communication. The songs were written tailor-made for the talents that we observed in each other.

So the second album is much more of a band effort rather than four individuals playing together.

For sure. This is definitely a band album, Desperado. I’m a very firm believer in group efforts.

[sodascouts]

Love it. I knew that Jackson and JD were in on the whole Desperado concept, and I knew about the outlaw book (I've even seen a copy of it) but I didn't realize they were working on it during the Longbranch Pennywhistle days!

Thanks!

PS I love how in the interviews from 1972 and 1973, the reporters have to explain that Don Henley is the one who plays drums and Bernie Leadon is the guitarist, lol. That wouldn't be necessary for much longer!

[DJ]

Thanks Soda for all the great pictures of the Dalton gang history. I love this kinda stuff!

[sodascouts]

Happy 42nd birthday to my favorite Eagles album, Desperado!