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.

“There’s no real theory behind it. You experience a lot of pain to write a lot of songs. It’s sad, but that’s the way a musician’s life is.”
  _{Alliance Times-Herald, July 6th, 1983}

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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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“You know, I almost started [“Desperado”]. I remember I was playing the acoustic guitar in the dressing room one night and I was playing the chord…dum, de-dum..which was probably normal, a lot of guys probably played it. But, I remember Henley saying to me, ‘You know, if you don’t do something with that, I’m going to.’ And he did, you know. It was great that he did something with it because I probably wouldn’t have.”
_{Redbeard interview, 1988}

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_{Randy’s first published songwriting credit: “Come Back Baby” by The Poor, 1968.
The track was sung by Allen Kemp.}

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“Certain Kind Of Fool” (1973)

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“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.’ ”
_{Rolling Stone, September 19, 2019}

_{Signed cover of Desperado with a verse from “Saturday Night”:
“The years brought the rail road, it runs by my door.
Now there’s boards on the windows and dust on the floor.”}

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“Too Many Hands” (1975)

“One song I wrote…well, I wrote the lyrics, is called “Too Many Hands.” It’s one that I’m glad I was involved with and able to write because it’s almost coming true now. It’s about destroying our Mother Earth and what I don’t like about destroying it. Maybe that will be a classic someday–when there’s nobody here to play it. (laughs)”
_{May 12, 1988, KZOK radio interview, Seattle, WA.} 

_{Signed cover of One Of These Nights with lyrics from “Too Many Hands”:
“And there’s too many hands being laid on her. Too many eyes will never see.”}

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“Take It To The Limit” (1975)

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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.”
_{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.’” 
_{Rolling Stone, September 19, 2019}

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“I want my writing to be my big strength because I won’t want to do a lot of performances in a few years…I could fulfill my musical yen and make money to retire with. As long as I can push a pencil and think of a melody, I can write.”
^{Scottsbluff Star-Herald, February 24, 1991}

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