Izdavač: Ostalo
Žanr: Rok, Svetska i Kantri muzika
Poreklo: Strani izvođač

Original, made in EU
Novo, u celofanu

Studio album by the Eagles
Released April 17, 1973[1]
Recorded February 1973[citation needed]
Studios Island (London, England)[2]
Genres
Country rockfolk rock
Length 35:40[1]
Label Asylum
Producer Glyn Johns[2]
The Eagles chronology
Eagles
(1972) Desperado
(1973) On the Border
(1974)
Desperado is the second studio album by the American rock band the Eagles, released on April 17, 1973, by Asylum Records. The album was produced by Glyn Johns and was recorded at Island Studios in London, England. The songs on Desperado are based on the themes of the Old West. The band members are featured on the album`s cover dressed like an outlaw gang; Desperado remains the only Eagles album where the band members appear on the front cover.

Although the title track is one of the Eagles` signature songs, it was never released as a single. The song `Desperado` was ranked number 494 on Rolling Stone`s 2004 list of `The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time`. The album did yield two singles, `Tequila Sunrise` and `Outlaw Man`, which reached number 64 and number 59 respectively. The album reached number 41 on the Billboard album chart and was certified gold by the RIAA on September 23, 1974, and double platinum on March 20, 2001.[3] In 2000, Desperado was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[4]

Desperado was the last Asylum Records album to be distributed in North America by Atlantic Records (catalog no. SD 5068), prior to Asylum`s mid-1973 merger with Elektra Records by Asylum`s, Elektra`s and Atlantic`s parent company, Warner Communications.

Background
Theme
After a commercially successful first album, Frey wanted the second album to be one with which they could be taken seriously as artists, and became interested in making a concept album. The original concept was for songs about anti-heroes; according to Glenn Frey, he was jamming together with Don Henley, Jackson Browne, and JD Souther after a Tim Hardin concert when they had the idea of doing an album about anti-heroes.[5] One inspiration was a book on gunfighters of the Wild West given to Browne by Ned Doheny for his 21st birthday, and Browne showed them the book and suggested the theme.[6] The book includes stories about Bill Dalton and Bill Doolin; from this came the song `Doolin-Dalton`.[7] However, they ran out of ideas after writing `Doolin-Dalton` about the Doolin-Dalton Gang, and `James Dean` about the actor James Dean.[8] The idea for anti-heroes then became the Western-themed Desperado, and the song `James Dean` would be used for the next album On the Border instead.[5]

Jackson Browne himself credited the song `Desperado`, written by Frey and Henley, as the origin of the outlaw theme of the album. Bernie Leadon said that Frey liked the idea of an analogy between outlaw gangs and rock-and-roll: `Glenn sat everybody down and mapped out which characters in the gang could have songs written about them, or encouraged us to write songs about this concept.`[7] As Frey said of the album in an interview in 1973: `It has its moments where it definitely draws some parallels between rock-and-roll and being an outlaw. Outside the laws of normality, I guess. I mean, I feel like I`m breaking a law all the time. What we live and what we do is kind of a fantasy.`[9] Henley also said that the album was to be their `big artistic commentary on the evils of fame and success, with a cowboy metaphor.`[10] However, he admitted: `The metaphor was probably a little bullshit. We were in L.A. staying up all night, smoking dope, living the California life, and I suppose we thought it was as radical as cowboys in the old West. We were really rebelling against the music business, not society.` Part of the reasons for their dissatisfaction and cynicism with the music business was due to David Geffen selling his independent Asylum label to Warner Communications which then merged it with Elektra,[11][12] and the band attributed this as the reason for the lack of interest in promoting the band internationally by EMI.[13]

Compositions
Frey and Henley decided that they should write songs together after they recorded their first album Eagles in London in 1972, and the first songs they wrote together days after they returned to Los Angeles were `Desperado` and `Tequila Sunrise`, both written within the first week of their collaboration.[5][14] The other songs in the album quickly came together after they had decided on the Western theme. While Desperado does not have a specific narrative, and the songs do not all necessarily fit in with the theme explicitly, the album has been described as being `suffused with the atmosphere of the open plains and a tough, peculiarly male kind of loneliness` that can `trick the listener into believing they are` tied to the theme.[7][1]

This album is the beginning of the songwriting partnership of Frey and Henley; in all Frey and Henley were involved in writing eight of the eleven songs in the album. Henley noted: `That’s when we became a team.`[5] The songwriting prowess of Frey and Henley in Desperado also marks the beginning of their dominance in the band. Henley said in retrospect: `That was a real crucial time for us. When we formed the band, it was supposed to be one of those `everybody`s equal` affairs. We`d all sing and all write and so forth. But the fact is people aren`t all going to be able to do everything the same. It`s just like on a football team . . . . Some people quarterback and some people block. So we went through a lot of hassles for a while.`[15]

Leadon wrote two songs – `Twenty-One` and `Bitter Creek` – while Randy Meisner co-wrote `Certain Kind of Fool` and `Saturday Night`. `Twenty-One` refers to the age of Emmett Dalton, the youngest of the Dalton gang, when he was shot 23 times but survived during the raid on Coffeyville, Kansas, in October 1892.[6] Meisner came up with the idea for how someone became an outlaw in `Certain Kind of Fool`, wrote most of it, and said of his contribution: `I kinda started it. And that`s what usually happened – I`d get a verse or two, and I`m done, and they would help fill in the blanks`[16] The only song on the album not written by the band members of Eagles is `Outlaw Man`, which was written by David Blue and chosen because it fit the theme.[7]

Recording
The album was recorded at the Island Studios in London, which took four weeks at a cost of £30,000.[17] The producer Glyn Johns wanted to produce the album quickly and economically, each track was therefore limited to four or five takes, and requests to record more were refused. Henley would later state that his greatest regret was that he did not sing as well as he could on the title track `Desperado`, and would have liked to redo the song.[18] According to the producer Johns, he and Leadon tried to come up with a few musical links in an attempt to tie up the story for an outlaw concept in the album; however, the concept itself dissipated. The band was very happy with the finished result; after Johns had played the album back to them in its entirety for the first time, they carried him on their shoulders out of the control room.[12]

However, the finished recording was received poorly by Jerry Greenberg, the president of Atlantic Records, who said: `Jeez, they`ve made a fucking cowboy album!`[6]

The film director Sam Peckinpah had planned to use the album as the basis for a film, but the plan did not come to fruition.[19

Side one
No. Title Writer(s) Lead vocals Length
1. `Doolin-Dalton`
Don HenleyGlenn FreyJD SoutherJackson Browne
Henley and Frey 3:26
2. `Twenty-One` Bernie Leadon Leadon 2:11
3. `Out of Control`
HenleyFreyTom Nixon
Frey 3:04
4. `Tequila Sunrise`
HenleyFrey
Frey 2:52
5. `Desperado`
HenleyFrey
Henley 3:36
Side two
No. Title Writer(s) Lead vocals Length
1. `Certain Kind of Fool`
Randy MeisnerHenleyFrey
Meisner 3:02
2. `Doolin-Dalton (Reprise)`
HenleyFreySoutherBrowne
instrumental 0:48
3. `Outlaw Man` David Blue Frey 3:34
4. `Saturday Night`
HenleyFreyMeisnerLeadon
Henley with Meisner 3:20
5. `Bitter Creek` Leadon Leadon 5:00
6. `Doolin-Dalton/Desperado (Reprise)`
HenleyFreySoutherBrowne
Henley 4:50
Personnel
Eagles

Glenn Frey – vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, keyboards, harmonica
Don Henley – vocals, drums, acoustic guitar
Bernie Leadon – vocals, electric and acoustic guitars, banjo, mandolin, Dobro
Randy Meisner – vocals, bass guitar
Production

Glyn Johns – producer, engineer
Howard Kilgour – assistant engineer
Barry Diament – mastering
Ted Jensen – remastering
Jim Ed Norman – string arrangements, conductor,[42] piano (`Saturday Night`), electric piano (`Outlaw Man`)
Gary Burden – art direction, design
Henry Diltz – lettering, photography