Who wrote the Eagles’ 1973 single ‘Outlaw Man’?
There are few acts that define classic rock quite as well as the Eagles. After their formation in 1971, the band played a vital role in bridging the gap between the countercultural rock scene of the 1960s and the genre’s journey into modernised, mainstream success, paving the way for their own major success as well. But they weren’t walking that path alone. Alongside the band’s members, the Eagles were supported by a crowd of the best songwriters and music makers around, including the one who wrote their track ‘Outlaw Man’.
From the very start, the story of the Eagles is intertwined with the stories of a cast of other artists. It all began when Linda Ronstadt was picking musicians to join her backing band, leading to Don Henley and Glenn Frey meeting. When they decided to start their own project, their peers all conspired to help them.
From their early days and throughout their career, the Eagles were surrounded by a “tight-knit community of songwriters and singers” that they said they would turn to “when we would get stuck on a song, or we’d try to start some new material.” It included many of their peers, such as Jackson Browne, who wrote their song, ‘Take It Easy’, and JD Souther, who penned several of their tracks, including ‘New Kid In Town’ and ‘Best Of My Love’.
That attitude of collaboration and shared creativity was a beautiful and enduring streak from the 1960s scene. Reminiscent of the earlier folk and rock crowds, the circle around the Eagles maintained that atmosphere of different artists working together for the greater good of a song. The connection to that past is possibly why the band loved ‘Outlaw Man’ and the songwriter who crafted it.
Who wrote ‘Outlaw Man’?
The 1973 track ‘Outlaw Man’ was written by David Blue. It’s a regular occurrence in music history as names sadly get lost to time despite their impact and despite being right there among the greats. Blue is one of those names as he spent the 1960s as a key part of the Greenwich Village folk scene where acts like Bob Dylan, Bob Neuwirth, Peter, Paul and Mary, Phil Ochs and more were all coming up. Playing the same live music circuit, frequenting the same venues and gathering to socialise and share their songs, their friendship ground played a major role in the folk revival.
It also played a significant role in merging the worlds of rock and folk into a new sound that the Eagles helped to popularise. Their rock sound undeniably had strains of country and folk music in it, greatly supported by the musical education of their collaborators like Blue.
In particular, ‘Outlaw Man’ captured that. As a song about an outlaw on the run, reminiscent of classic Cowboy flicks and Western movies, it deals with the themes of danger, recklessness and freedom that are so common in the genre. Drawing a line of reference between cowboys and rockstars like so many country singers have done, Frey sings on the song, “Woman don’t try to love me don’t try to understand. A life upon the road is the life of an outlaw man.”
The track was put to the band, and they chose to record it for their second album, Desperado, using it as a single. Blue himself also recorded the track for his own 1972 record, Nice Baby and the Angel, which was produced by Graham Nash, but his own take didn’t get the same reach.
