‘Take It to the Limit’: the Eagles song Glenn Frey should have sang
Legitimately, the money and fame that Eagles found may not have been worth the Lynchian nightmare that was the day-to-day life of the band. The music is good, but I’d argue that the band’s place in the public consciousness has more to do with the legend than anything else. This gang of outlaws who composed some of the most beautiful rock music of their time when they weren’t trying to kill themselves with drink and drugs, or each other with fists, guns, knives, whatever was handy.
‘Take It To The Limit’ is a song that has more mythology attached to it than any other Eagles song save perhaps ‘Hotel California’ itself. Even then, the legacy of ‘Hotel California’ is probably there due to it being their masterpiece and one of the best songs of the whole 1970s. ‘Take It To The Limit’ was a big hit and a beloved song, but the story behind it is also jaw-dropping, for good and for ill.
For one thing, a decent chunk of Eagles fans reading this might be scandalised by the very idea that Glenn Frey should take over its lead vocals. This is justified because the song is one of the genuine, lasting legacies of bassist Randy Meisner. He originally conceived the song before finishing up with help from Don Henley and Frey. Once the song was finished, he also crucially decided to sing lead on it.
In a way, this was a very smart decision. The song became a phenomenon, one of the band’s defining mid-70s hits and became one of the most anticipated moments of any Eagles concert precisely because of those lead vocals. The sky-scraping vocal outro, where Meisner hits an extended high F#, would get one of the loudest reactions of the night. Everything you could possibly want, right?
How ‘Take It To The Limit’ became a problem for The Eagles?
The problem was that Meisner never, ever wanted any of this. He was perfectly content to be the bass player of the group, never in the spotlight and more than happy to support his more fame-hungry bandmates. Suddenly, he wasn’t just singing the lead on a song. He was singing lead on the most anticipated song of the night, which all depended on him holding an F#5 for about ten seconds straight.
As time went on, the mental, physical and vocal strain of having to perform the song night after night got to Meisner. The legend goes that at a concert in Knoxville, Tennessee, the band could not for love nor money get Meisner to perform ‘Take It To The Limit’, which they’d been saving as the final song of their encore for the whole tour. The band, obviously talked the issue through calmly and maturely and decided to rework the song to ease the strain on Meisner.
Except they didn’t, Frey physically attacked Meisner and threw him out of the band shortly after. After Meisner’s departure, Frey started performing the song live, which is pretty much the way it always should have been. Frey had always seen himself as the star of the band, so he would have actually appreciated everything that Meisner didn’t like about singing the song.
Had Frey sung the song, then everyone would have gotten the best of both worlds. The song still goes ridiculously hard, so it would have still been a hit. Frey would have been able to hit the high notes, but more importantly, he would have appreciated the attention he’d have gotten for performing them every single night. Meisner remains with the band and at the very least, this specific strain of pressure doesn’t contribute to the insane amounts of bad vibes within the band.
To be clear, the band would have still been a trainwreck, but without one of their biggest hits contributing to it.
