Randy Meisner: The Pièce de Résistance (Amsterdam, March 1973)

On March 10th, 1973, the Eagles played the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Below we take a look at the show, plus go behind the scenes with exclusive home movie footage you will only see here.

The Eagles stayed at the Hotel Weichmann in Amsterdam. Randy’s wife, Jennifer, and son Dana, had joined him for this tour of Europe. “First passports Dana and I had,” recalled Jennifer.

She also shared with me some interesting memories of the hotel:

“It was great there. The lobby had a Siamese cat. We all shared a bathroom in the hall. I was the only female! Randy went to raise the window and it fell into the street below…We ate in the little corner restaurant you see in the photo. Randy and I toured the canals along with David Geffen (Dana and the rest of the band were there too.)”

_{Hotel Weichmann in Amsterdam. Photo courtesy of Jennifer Meisner.}

Below: Home movie footage of the Meisners and David Geffen touring the canals in a glass top boat. Filmed with the Meisners’ Super 8 video camera by EMI representative, Jennie Halsall, you see Jennifer and Dana seated together. Randy is next to Ms. Halsall, with Geffen and a friend behind them. The film is silent.

The previous night, the band had performed at the Popgala festival in Voorburg, which was, by all accounts, a chaotic mess riddled with sound problems. Many reviewers who had attended both of the Eagles shows that weekend say the Amsterdam show was the stand-out performance.

“The Eagles performed Saturday night at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Four strong – Bernie Leadon, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner and Don Henley – they regaled the audience with a series of beautiful songs as far as the acoustic part was concerned, much clearer than Friday night at the Popgala.”
–De Tijd, March 12, 1973 (translated)

_{Below: Eagles in Amsterdam, March 10, 1973.
Photo © Gijsbert Hanekroot}

“With the song ‘Train Leaves Here This Morning’, by Dillard & Clark, which was performed in a modest way by Bernie Leadon, the country pop group, The Eagles, started an almost one-and-a-half-hour concert on Saturday night.”
–Trouw, March 13, 1973 (translated)

SETLIST
AMSTERDAM, MARCH 10, 1973

Train Leaves Here This Morning
Tequila Sunrise
Saturday Night
Peaceful Easy Feeling
How Long
Certain Kind Of Fool
Outlaw Man
Out Of Control
Witchy Woman
Tryin’
Earlybird
Take It Easy
Oh Carol
Johnny B. Goode

The Eagles played tunes from their first album, as well as their forthcoming album, Desperado, which they had just completed in London. They opened with a sit-down, acoustic set, similar to the previous night at Popgala, but with a different song arrangement.

Then came the “electric set”:

“The Eagles continued their concert with more electrifying work, drawing particularly from their first album, released last year. Beginning – with not too big a transition – the wonderfully fine ‘song of the desert’ ‘Peaceful Easy Feeling’, which was brilliantly delivered by Glenn Frey. After the unknown ‘How Long’, the same pattern was continued with ‘Desperado’ … and ‘Outlaw Man,’ where the Eagles went at it vigorously. Glenn Frey continued with ‘Out of Control’, with Leadon on the banjo and Meisner in a great bass part. Then ‘Earlybird,’ a Leadon-Meisner song, with the former not shying away from a virtuoso banjo solo at an almost killer pace. From their first album with the same name, the Eagles also performed ‘Tryin’, ‘Witchy Woman’ and finally ‘Take It Easy.’ The first song, in particular, was a chunk of heavy guitar riffs. It all fit together like a glove and one can conclude with pleasure that this group ‘live’ is certainly not inferior to what is put on the record.”
–Trouw, March 13, 1973 (translated)

One reviewer compared Randy’s bass work to Rick Danko of The Band & the vocals during “Tryin'” to a “choir”:

“Meisner, as a bassist, is perhaps even better than Rick Danko of The Band. Don Henley’s drumming was also comparable to that of Levon Helm. The combinations that Leadon and Glenn Frey made on guitar in e.g. ‘Witchy Woman,’ one of their best compositions, were brilliant. Vocally, ‘Tryin” achieved an effect that suggested an entire choir of much larger proportions.”
De Volkskrant, March 12, 1973 (translated)

Then came the “‘pièce de résistance”:

“In ‘How Long,’ a solid Poco-style song, they took the aptitude test in close harmony [but] the subsequent song was, as far as I was concerned, their ‘pièce de résistance’: ‘Certain Kind Of Fool,’ with Randy in the vocal lead. That boy has a chillingly beautiful high voice that would elicit sympathy, even from a regiment of mercenaries.”
–De Tijd, March 12, 1973 (translated)

Randy performing “Certain Kind Of Fool.”
Photo © Gijsbert Hanekroot

This was Randy’s second-ever performance of “Certain Kind Of Fool,” a song he co-wrote with Don Henley and Glenn Frey for their upcoming album, Desperado. The first was the night before at Popgala.

For encores, the band performed two Chuck Berry numbers, “Oh Carol” and a rendition of “Johnny B. Goode.”

“Then the fun was over for the enthusiastic audience, who witnessed one of the best concerts of the year. At least in the country atmosphere. There will undoubtedly have been pure Bluegrass fans who regretted that Leadon no longer reached for the banjo or mandolin.”
–Trouw, March 13, 1973 (translated)

Reviews:
“Cool Country Concert By The Eagles” by Kees De Leeuw, Trouw, March 13, 1973
“Beautiful Music From The Eagles In A Weekend Full Of Pop,” Gertjan Van Ommen, De Tijd, March 13, 1973
“Eagles” by Elly De Waard, De Volkskrant, March 12, 1973