“The ribbon for the package”: The singer Glenn Frey thought was perfect for Eagles
No one in Eagles was willing to settle for anything less than perfection when they first got started. The LA country rock scene was already crowded with countless artists trying to make their mark, and with songwriters like Gram Parsons having perfected the craft, Glenn Frey and Don Henley knew they had to get everything right down to the finest detail. When they found the right singer for the group, Frey knew they’d struck gold.
But Frey and Henley already had plenty of chops to go around. Outside of being the backing band for Linda Ronstadt, Henley had a throat made of sold gold whenever he sang, usually having that perfect blend of smokiness but always with the clearest tone. And while Frey was more by-the-numbers by comparison, he made up for it by having the perfect chord for every track and the occasional witty one-liner to tie up one of Henley’s songs.
When the band was first conceived, Ronstadt suggested that they work with Bernie Leadon, who had come off some time working in The Flying Burrito Brothers. While the dissolution of Gram Parsons would come later, Leadon was the one that gave them credibility, being able to play the banjo and bendy guitar licks that gave subtle hints back to artists like Johnny Cash and Carl Perkins.
There was something missing when they sang, though, and that was that signature high harmony. Despite Henley’s ability to hit massive high notes on later tracks like ‘One Of These Nights’, no one was going to hit them quite like Randy Meisner, especially when he soared on tracks like ‘Witchy Woman’ or the high harmony on the second verse of ‘Take It Easy’.
Even when he came out with songs of his own, Meisner had the perfect register for more openhearted material. Henley could get more than a little bit heavyhanded at times, so hearing Meisner sing tracks like ‘Most Of Us Are Sad’ and ‘Take It To The Limit’ usually helped break up the monotony of hearing a few too many morose tunes at once.
And while Frey would eventually be the one to fall out with Meisner, he admitted that there was some magic behind the way that he sang with the group, saying, “Randy is the perfect ribbon for the package. He adds all the top and all the bottom, singing like a lark and giving that growly, Nebraska r&b-oriented bass feel to the country stuff.”
Then again, that kind of magic is the kind no one realises that they need until it’s gone forever. Although Meisner was justifiably nervous about having to sing songs like ‘Take It To The Limit’ every night, the band’s subsequent ways of playing it in later lineups with Frey taking it down a few keys feels like the easy-listening version of the tune rather than the optimistic ballad that everyone loves.
Eagles were always bound to be dominated by Henley and Frey, but Meisner was the whole reason why the country legends were greater than any one member. It took everyone to get them to Hotel California, but by the time they reached that level of success, they had already broken that signature brotherhood that they had in the beginning.
