Nearing The End – The Eagles At Fort Worth, July 1977

The Eagles sold out two nights at the Tarrant County Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday, July 7th and Friday, July 8th, 1977. These shows marked the next-to-last tour stop for Randy Meisner as a member of the band. His last show would be at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston on July 9th, which was also the final date of the 1977 Hotel California tour. Jimmy Buffett opened the Fort Worth shows and J.D. Souther made a guest appearance both nights.

On Friday afternoon, the Eagles and their road crew played Jimmy Buffett and his road crew in a softball game at nearby Eagle Mountain Lake. Buffett’s team won.

Many thanks to Bob Jones, who kindly gave me permission to use his photos from the July 8th concert.

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Randy’s departure from the Eagles stemmed not only from an altercation with Glenn Frey in Knoxville a week before, but also the fact that he was singing less with the band. With the exception of a couple of shows early in the tour where he sang “Try And Love Again,” Randy’s only lead performance during the tour was “Take It To The Limit.” ¹ In Fort Worth, Randy performed the song both nights, according to Dallas Morning News music journalist, Pete Oppel. ²

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Below is the setlist for both Fort Worth shows, compiled from reviews from the the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News. The only difference between the sets for both nights was the final encore of Chuck Berry’s “Carol” on the second night, with J.D. Souther making a guest appearance. Souther also joined them onstage for “New Kid In Town” on the 7th. The song was dedicated both nights to Dallas Cowboy Tony Dorsett.

Highlights

The Eagles/Buffett concerts were a major event in Fort Worth with a total of 28,000 people attending the shows.

“Bob Shannon, a disc jockey at KZEW, said the morning after the first concert that he received ‘a million requests for Eagles songs’ during his show. At Six Flags Over Texas during the weekend, Eagle shirts were in evidence everywhere.” (Pete Oppel/Dallas Morning News)

Oppel also noted that the Eagles seemed “looser” on Friday and “more willing to take chances and experiment. It was as if they felt they proved themselves Thursday, but this one was more fun.”

Extra security and fire officials were also on hand after an audience member received minor burns from fireworks at Alice Cooper’s show at the venue the week before. Glenn Frey put the kibosh on fireworks before Thursday’s show even started by announcing: “We aren’t going to tolerate any fireworks during this concert.” He received a long and loud applause.

Also during Thursday’s show, Glenn ran into some problems with busted guitar strings that interfered with a couple of songs. All strings remained intact on Friday.

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Show Stealer

Praise for Randy from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News reviews:

“The crowd went wild for ‘Take It To The Limit,’ and with good reason. Meisner and company do a magnificent job, and were well-deserved for the standing ovation they received for it.”

“Their harmony, with Henley and Meisner leading the way, is better than ever, especially on old hits like ‘One Of These Nights’ and ‘Lyin’ Eyes.’ They make them sound brand new.”

“The Eagles opened with ‘Hotel California’ and Walsh followed with ‘Walk Away’. The band began the show at a high energy level and maintained this level throughout. What followed was every song anyone would want to hear the Eagles perform –‘Victim Of Love,’ ‘Doolin-Dalton-Desperado,’ ‘Lyin’ Eyes,’ ‘Take It To the Limit’ (once again the show stealer, raising the question of why doesn’t Meisner do more of these.)”

“Meisner’s ‘Take It To The Limit’ was a stunner, and earned him a long and well-deserved ovation.”

“Walsh and Felder give life to ‘Victim Of Love’ and other rockers, while Henley and Meisner were in top form vocally on the ballads.”

Photos

More photos from the July 8th show, courtesy of Bob Jones.

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Reviews

Below are the reviews from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning News. Click on each to enlarge.

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Notes

¹ The fact that Randy sang “Take It To The Limit” at both Fort Worth shows further debunks the notion that he was refusing to sing the song during the tour. Both the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Dallas Morning Herald reviews also state that it was performed early in the show, not as an encore as the History Of The Eagles documentary falsely claims. I go into these bogus claims and Randy’s departure from the Eagles in more detail below.

² There are only two known performances of “Try & Love Again” on the 1977 Hotel California tour: War Memorial Auditorium in Rochester on March 19th & the Capitol Centre in Largo, MD on March 21st.

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