Solo Debut at the Golden Bear, 1978

Randy performed two nights at the Golden Bear in Huntington Beach, CA on August 25th & 26th, 1978. This was his first-ever solo performance, following his departure from the Eagles the previous summer. Below you’ll find details about the show, as well as a rare audio recording.

The Golden Bear show kicked off a short, five-venue tour in support of Randy’s solo debut, the self-titled Randy Meisner. The album was produced by Alan Brackett, formerly of the Peanut Butter Conspiracy, who also wrote a couple of songs for the album. This was Randy’s only solo effort on the Eagles’ label, Asylum Records.

The concert also showcased the debut of Randy’s first solo touring band. The seven-member ensemble included:

Steve Edwards – Guitar, vocals
Kerry Morris – Bass
Joel Peskin – Sax & flute
Peter Reilich – Keyboards
Kelly Shanahan – Drums (no relation to Pat Shanahan)
Scott Shelly – Guitar & keyboards
Don Ullstrom – Guitar and vocals

I am unaware of any photos from the Golden Bear show, but these images show Randy rehearsing at a studio on Sunset Blvd in 1978. According to Don Ullstrom, representatives from Nasty Cordless, who created the first wireless guitar transmitter system, attended the rehearsal and gave Randy and his band t-shirts for trying out their product.

The two-night stint at Golden Bear also marked the first time that Randy performed without a bass since he was fifteen. He switched to rhythm guitar because he found it difficult to sing while playing bass:

Randy: “You can’t play bass and sing at the same time. Too many counterparts. Rhythm guitar gives me more freedom.” ¹

He also had took lessons to relearn how to play guitar. One of his coaches was Antonio Mendoza, a classical guitarist, who specialized in Spanish and Flamenco music, in Palm Springs. ²

However, some members of the audience clearly came to see bassist Randy Meisner. In the audio below, you can hear an audience member yell for Randy to “play the bass!” But Randy did not switch to the instrument at any time during the show. In fact, he did not play bass on stage for the next five years.

Setlist

The thirteen-song setlist consisted of numbers from Randy’s debut album, as well as three Eagles-era songs. Randy performed one unreleased number, “Summer Wind,” which was written by Bill Martin, who also wrote “Heartsong” for the album. He ended the show with an encore of the Emotions’ “Best Of My Love,” which was sung by Don Ullstrom and Steve Edwards.

Lonesome Cowgirl
Too Many Lovers
Save The Last Dance For Me
Bad Man
Please Be With Me
Try & Love Again
Every Other Day
Take It To The Limit
Summer Wind
I Really Want You Here Tonight
Too Many Hands
Heartsong
Best Of My Love (Don Ullstrom & Steve Edwards on vocals)

According to the review in the San Pedro News-Pilot, Randy gave an impressive performance despite being understandably nervous. The review wrongly states that he rarely spoke during the set and didn’t even introduce his band. The reviewer doesn’t indicate which night he attended, but Randy can be heard chatting between songs in the live recording (below) and he introduced his band after “I Really Want You Here Tonight.”

Live Recording

As always, I highly recommend headphones or earbuds. The audio quality is not the best, but Randy is in top form vocally. In 1978, he still had his high, distinctive Eagles voice. He had a superb band backing him and the audience seemed enthusiastic. Unless otherwise noted, nine of the thirteen songs performed were from Randy’s solo debut, Randy Meisner.

Randy kicked off the show with the country-western “Lonesome Cowgirl,” written by former Peanut Butter Conspiracy founders, Alan Brackett and John Merrill. The song doesn’t begin until about 1:20.

Next up was “Too Many Lovers,” which Randy states in the intro was written by Bill Lamb. Accompanying Randy on backing vocals was Donny Ullstrom and Steve Edwards.

The Drifters’ hit, “Save The Last Dance For Me,” was a favorite song of Randy’s that he had performed with his first band, The Drivin’ Dynamics, back in the early ’60s. The song also appeared on his solo debut. It was the only song on the album on which he played bass. Kerry Morris is playing bass here.

“Bad Man” was a song Randy knew pretty well. Co-written by JD Souther and Glenn Frey, it had been part of the Eagles’ live repertoire in late 1973 (probably sung by Frey) and was also considered for the Eagles’ third album, On The Border.

“Please Be With Me” was a hit song by Cowboy in 1971, featuring Duane Allman on dobro. Eric Clapton later covered the song on his 1974 album, 461 Ocean Boulevard.

Next was “Try & Love Again,” a song Randy had written for the Eagles’ monster album, Hotel California, his final effort with the band. This is the earliest known live recording of the song. Personally, I could live without the saxophone, but I have a feeling Randy was trying to differentiate his version of the song from the Eagles version. Randy’s vocal here is probably the closest to the way he sounded when he performed it live with the Eagles in 1977 (none of those live recordings have ever been released).

Randy followed “Try & Love Again” with a number that could have been an Eagles song, the “Already Gone”-ish sounding “Every Other Day.” The song cuts off about halfway through unfortunately.

Randy’s performance of “Take It To The Limit” is next. The arrangement is very similar to the Eagles’ live versions. The most glaring difference is the addition of saxophone. Randy performs it beautifully and, as the review above noted, “pushed his vocals to an incredible point.”

“Summer Wind” was written by Bill Martin, who wrote “Heartsong” for Randy’s debut album. It’s a lovely ballad that never made it onto an album. After the song finishes, someone in the audience yells for “Midnight Flyer,” the the Paul Craft tune that Randy sang on the Eagles’ 1974 album, On The Border. Randy, jokingly, starts counting it off, but stops short and says that they had thought about working the song up for the set, but didn’t.

Next was “I Really Want You Here Tonight” or as Randy called it “I Really Want You Here.” At the end of the song, he tells the audience that he wants to introduce the band, “before I pass out.”

This live version of “Too Many Hands” is a favorite. The addition of flute at the end gives it a sound reminiscent of Firefall or Traffic.

Randy ended his set with “Heartsong,” a bittersweet ballad written by Bill Martin. There is a long applause at the end before Randy comes on for an encore. At 5:25, you can hear yells for Randy to play his bass.

Randy teases the audience that they are going to perform “Best Of My Love,” but instead of going into the Eagles song, they perform the Emotions’ hit instead.

The next weekend, Randy performed three nights at the Roxy Theatre in Los Angeles. The tour ended on September 8th at the Universal Ampitheater. Randy went virtually unseen for another two years. He reemerged following the release of his second solo album, One More Song, in October 1980. A tour followed in February 1981. See all of Randy’s solo tour dates in my Concert Archive below:

1. New York Daily News, March 10th, 1981 ↩︎
2. Desert Sun, May 30th, 1984 ↩︎