Musically, which member did what?

[MortSahlFan]

another observation - if you listen closely you can hear Randy (or what I assume is him) in a lot of the harmonies such as in the "my oh my, you sure know how to arrange things" part of Lying Eyes and you can also hear him during the "slowing down to take a look at me" part of Take It Easy.

Well, Glenn was the arranger

I had a feeling Glenn probably started "One of These Nights" after saying it was his favorite song (mine as well), as well as "I Can't Tell You Why"

[chaim]

I had a feeling Glenn probably started "One of These Nights" after saying it was his favorite song (mine as well), as well as "I Can't Tell You Why"

Don Felder has said that Glenn had no chord progression, while Glenn says here that the chord progression came from him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLGTaeh0pYo
I believe Glenn, as Felder's explanation makes no sense whatsoever. He said that Glenn had no chords, and then he (Don) picked up the bass and wrote the bass part. So who wrote the chord progression then? The way Don told the story made it look like he wrote the chord progression, but he didn't exactly say that. Don has made himself look like the main (musical) writer of One Of These Nights many times just because he wrote the bass part. What about the songs written by someone else Randy wrote the bass part for? Was Randy the main contributor? Excuse my negativity, but One Of These Nights was so obviously Glenn's baby, and it irritates me whenever Don F makes it look like he was the main writer musically. Don's bass intro is great, but other than that it's just a darn bass part.

[Funk 50]

I've heard that Randy came up with the iconic piano intro (and I suppose, outro) to Desperado. As nobody else has specifically claimed it, I'm willing to believe it.
I can understand why Randy hasn't sued for a retrospective share of the writing credits but his estate may consider it worthy of a day in court, some time in the future.

[chaim]

I've heard that Randy came up with the iconic piano intro (and I suppose, outro) to Desperado. As nobody else has specifically claimed it, I'm willing to believe it.
I can understand why Randy hasn't sued for a retrospective share of the writing credits but his estate may consider it worthy of a day in court, some time in the future.

I don't remember Randy mentioning the intro. Maybe he did. I think he was talking about the opening melody/chords. But the transcriber may have mentioned the wrong song. Maybe Randy was talking about Certain Kind Of Fool. The Desperado piano intro is based on the vocal melody, and both Don and Glenn have said that Desperado was based on an older song of Don's.

[Jonny Come Lately]

I agree with Toni here, it seems especially odd as it is generally accepted that Desperado was one of the earliest songs that Don and Glenn wrote together and given that I don't think Randy was as involved in the writing for that album as they were. I I would suggest that the reason the intro has not been claimed by anyone else is because the songwriting credits are accurate and that was originated by Don or Glenn, or both. However, I did decide to have a search to see whether I could find anything that mentioned . I have only found one website which mentions Randy coming up with the Desperado intro, and this is on the Songfacts page for the song: http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=458

This is what the page states:

Guitarist Randy Meisner claims that he came up with the guitar intro, but was not given songwriter credit, meaning he does not get royalties from it. The allocation of songwriting credits was one of many issues that caused turmoil within the band.

There are two obvious mistakes in this, both of which are pretty basic factual errors and which I'm sure pretty much everyone here will pick up on. The description of the 'guitar intro' to Desperado - a song which clearly does not have a guitar intro - makes me wonder whether the person who wrote that had actually heard the song, although it's possible that it could have been a different song.

I would be wary of using Songfacts as a source because some of the 'facts' on there are quite dubious, especially for the most popular songs which generate most discussion. For example, the page for Take It To The Limit states that it is 'one of three US Top 40 Eagles songs', with one of these being the non-single In The City, while the facts on the page Hotel California go into some depth about several of the speculative meanings, which are not really 'facts'.

I am therefore not inclined to believe this claim unless a credible source can be found which states otherwise - whether this be Randy, one of the other Eagles, or anyone else who would have some idea. I would be perfectly happy to acknowledge Randy if he did come up with the intro, but the case just don't seem substantial enough to outweigh the evidence against. Also, I cannot help but think that if this was a big issue it would be mentioned a lot more often, as Felder's lead vocal on Victim Of Love is.

[chaim]

And, like I said, Glenn's piano intro was taken from the vocal melody for the most part. The only bit in the piano intro that wasn't taken directly from the vocal melody are the very first notes. If Randy came up with that melody, it means that Don's earlier song, which Desperado was musically based on, was originated by Randy. Has it ever been mentioned by Don or Glenn how old this song of Don's was? If Don had written it before they started writing for the Desperado album, it's impossible that Randy had anything to do with it.

I vaguely remember the Randy quote. I don't think he was talking about a guitar intro on the album, but about something he wrote on guitar. Maybe he was actually talking about Certain Kind Of Fool, but didn't remember that he was credited? Is it possible that he doesn't get royalties for that song for some reason, and that's why he thinks he wasn't credited?

EDIT:

Songfacts.com says that Don's song was from the 60's. If this is true, Randy couldn't have had anything to do with the beginnings of Desperado

[shunlvswx]

Yeah. I read in an interview that Don had been sitting on what would be Desperado since I think either mid or late 60s. I can't remember which one. It probably was late 60s.

Here's what Wikipedia said about Desperado, but I don't know how accurate its information, but some of the stuff I read from it has been said from Don.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_%28song%29

[MortSahlFan]

Yeah. I read in an interview that Don had been sitting on what would be Desperado since I think either mid or late 60s. I can't remember which one. It probably was late 60s.

Here's what Wikipedia said about Desperado, but I don't know how accurate its information, but some of the stuff I read from it has been said from Don.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desperado_%28song%29

When Henley had his Yahoo interview, he said he wish he could re-record Desperado.

It's funny seeing Glenn say "Mine" on the chord progression in 2012. The bass line is really cool, and the guitar solo is great. The high falsettos are great, it's probably my favorite Eagles song.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Great discussions about Desperado and OOTN. ITA with everything that chaim, JCL, and shun wrote regarding the writing of these songs. Their posts accurately reflect all the comments from the band members that I have ever heard or seen.