In His Own Words: Randy On Songwriting

In this second installment of my series, In His Own Words, Randy talks about how he came to write or co-write some of his most treasured songs with the Eagles.

“I never wrote for Poco. The Eagles convinced me to try and write. But still to this day writing is real hard for me. I need co-writers and I wasn’t fast enough, like Henley and Frey became.”
_{Desperados: The Roots Of Country Rock by John Einarson, 1991}

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“[The Eagles are] capable of anything because we all use the band to express ourselves. If I write a song the other guys are gonna influence it in their own little way. It’s a job keeping us together, happy and compromising. But the idea of the band is that everyone can get to do what they want some of the time.” _{Sounds, March 27, 1976}

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“Relating to the new sounds is confusing. I wasn’t used to the idea of punk rock, but I started listening to some and got used to it. But I figured out that all songs turn out the same. A good song is a good song, and you can do it lots of different ways. I think I’ll stick to my guns and write songs the way I always have.”
_{Omaha World-Herald, October 14, 1984}

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“Don had the musical track for “Hotel California.” Don asked me if I wanted to write the lyrics and I kind of started on it but it takes me a long time to get something going because I was writing on my own. I didn’t study English literature so it was harder for me to find words that would go together lyrically. I had a hard time with that. Musically, I could always get an idea or hook line that was good. Later, Henley got a hold of it–and wow! There you go! (laughs). Man, what a great job he did.”
_{Ken Sharp Interview, 2006}

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“Certain Kind Of Fool” (1973)

“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.”
_{History Of The Eagles documentary, 2013}

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“Saturday Night” (1973)

“I was sitting there one night, and I came up with the line ‘What ever happened to Saturday night?’ When I was younger, I would be out partying, and with girls and having fun. And that’s what it was about: Whatever happened to it? And the answer was, ‘You’re older now.’ ”
_{“40 Greatest Eagles Songs,” Rolling Stone, September 19, 2019}

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“Too Many Hands” (1975)

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“Take It To The Limit” (1975)

“The line ‘take it to the limit’ was to keep trying before you reach a point in your life where you feel you’ve done everything and seen everything, sort of feeling, you know, part of getting old. And just to take it to the limit one more time, like every day just keep, you know, punching away at it … That was the line, and from there the song took a different course.”
_{History Of The Eagles documentary, 2013}

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“I was feeling kind of lonely and started singing ‘All alone at the end of the evening, and the bright lights have faded to blue,’ and it went from there.”
“40 Greatest Eagles Songs,” Rolling Stone, September 19, 2019

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“Try And Love Again” (1976)

“I wrote “Try And Love Again” for [Hotel California]. That was the last song I wrote for the band. Joe (Walsh) helped me a little bit with that. I had that song for a long time and never really got it finished. I brought it in for those album sessions, we worked on it and worked on it and it turned out really good. Don and Glenn helped put it together.“
_{Ken Sharp Interview, 2006}

“I sat around one evening and got a little high and started playing something and thought, ‘Is this OK?’ I brought it to rehearsal, and they said, ‘That’s pretty good.’” 
_{“40 Greatest Eagles Songs,” Rolling Stone, September 19, 2019}

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