Random Excerpt

The following excerpt is from Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic & Music Of Laurel Canyon by Harvey Kubernik, published in 2009. Here, Kubernik describes Randy’s arrival in California in 1966 and his introduction to the L.A. music scene. It also features some quotes from Randy himself.

When Nebraska-born Randy Meisner first arrived in Los Angeles, a kid with a high voice who played bass, it was everything he imagined. 

‘It was right out of The Beach Boys. Our group, The Poor, found a house in Laurel Canyon to rent, on Ridpath.¹ It was owned by comedian Jonathan Winter’s brother—boom, [we knew] a star right off the bat. I was always worried because we smoked marijuana and so we were scared. I never had marijuana until I came out here. I drank beer. A friend of mine took me outside and said, ‘Try this.’ ‘What is it?’ ‘Well, I don’t notice any difference.’ Then a little later, yes,’ Meisner laughs.

_{Photo of Randy by Karen Carvalho, 1966.}

‘I never had a car,’ he continues ‘I had to walk. I sold The Los Angeles Free Press on Sunset and Highland. I made about five bucks a day. I took acid twice. And it just blew me away. It was too much for me ’cause I’m a real anxiety kind of person. Where we lived was above Griffith Park. And the first time I took it I thought, ‘this is weird.’ I walked all the way up to the Observatory to see the sunset. Then we walked back down to Tiny Naylor’s restaurant across from Hollywood High School at Sunset and La Brea. I ordered some eggs and they just started spinning on the plate. I thought, ‘God damn. I’ll stick with beer.’

Meisner explored the music clubs on Sunset Blvd. ‘We used to walk on Sunset to Pandora’s Box. I met (singer) Spanky McFarlane and we laughed that it was just a big house with nothing in it. Henry Diltz took our first photograph.  We ended up with the managers Charlie Greene and Brian Stone, who had Buffalo Springfield and more importantly, Joseph, their limousine driver. Stephen Stills would come into the management office on Sunset. Neil Young, too, but he was kind of on his own—very private. I thought Greene and Stone were the funniest guys. Managers are bad in a good way. We hadn’t even made a record and we were in a limo. Those guys had some class. 

_{The Poor, 1967. Probably taken by Henry Diltz.}²
_{L-R: Patrick Shanahan, Randy Naylor, Randy Meisner, John Day, Allen Kemp.}

”We didn’t have much work as The Poor,’ Randy admits. ‘We ran out of money and moved from Laurel Canyon to Hollywood and Sunset, a little bungalow with eight units in it. ³ So it was eighty dollars a month between the five of us; my first bed was on the floor. And I only owned my jacket. Our friend, Bob Garcia,⁴ used to give us vegetables just before the grocery store tossed them out. He felt sorry for us. And macaroni and cheese, everybody had that. When we cut our album at Gold Star, Cher came in. She watched from the control room and gave me a smile. It almost made up for all the mac and cheese.’

_{Randy in the bungalow apartment, c.1969. Photo ©Jennifer Meisner.}

Meisner would see Buffalo Springfield play all the time at the Whisky. ‘When they had that double lead-guitar thing working, good lord, they were so cool. Neil was a bit aloof. He’s kind of a loner. Stephen was pretty aggressive. But he was damn good. I would run into Mark Volman and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles. They were the funniest guys in the world.’

‘Miles Thomas was a roadie with Buffalo Springfield who eventually ran Meisner over to Richie Furay’s house in Laurel Canyon to audition for Pogo.⁵ Timothy B. Schmit, who eventually replaced Meisner in both that band and, later, the Eagles, had just finished auditioning when Randy walked in. ‘Play five notes,’ and they say, ‘This is the guy,’ Meisner recalls. But we had to change the name; Walt Kelly, who wrote the Pogo comic strip, said no, so we changed it to Poco. The world was getting ready for country-rock and we were gonna lead the charge. . . but without me!’

_{Pogo on the roof of the Troubadour, 1969.
L-R: Randy, Rusty Young, Jim Messina, George Grantham, Richie Furay.}

Meisner did not feel comfortable with the band dynamics. ‘I left right after we recorded the first album. I called the studio and wanted to listen to the mixes and Richie answered: ‘We don’t want anybody here.’ That was it, I’m gone. And then along comes Rick Nelson. We were great friends. When he heard I was leaving, John Boylan, his producer, asked if I wanted to put a band together with Rick. We got the band together and rehearsed at Rick’s house up in Mount Olympus, off of Laurel Canyon Blvd. I loved that house . . . so I bought it. That’s where the Eagles rehearsed. There were tiles in the bathroom that Rick and Kris Harmon’s kids painted. [Songwriter] Andrew Gold later bought it from me.” Meisner is heard on the Rick Nelson live from the Troubadour album (Rick Nelson in Concert). ‘It was so much fun. He was one of the best people I’ve ever known—really humble and nice. He never played the star. He was way beyond that. He had a feel for the music. Rick and I were Bob Dylan fans. Our cover of ‘She Belongs To Me’ is on that album.’….

_{Rehearsing with Rick at his Mt. Olympus house, 1971. Photo ©Jennifer Meisner.}

‘I first played with Glenn Frey while working with Linda Ronstadt, just before or just after Rick Nelson,’ remembers Meisner. ‘We worked a place, Chuck’s Cellar, in the Bay Area. Don Henley was there as well, along with guitarist Richard Bowden. He was good. I liked Linda; she was pretty cool but didn’t want me to be too busy on the bass. It’s funny, I met Frey while I was driving in Hollywood and he hitched a ride with me. That’s how I met him. True story. He might have been in Longbranch Pennywhistle then with J.D. Souther. I saw them play live and there was magic between Glenn and J.D. The songs were good.

‘When I first met Don and Glenn, we hung out at the Troubadour and got wild. One night Jim Morrison was hanging over the top of that place just about to fall down. He got pretty wild. ‘Oh, man. Maybe he’s juiced a little too much.’ We were all real tight. Then later, it got a little more political. The Troubadour bar was the place. Everybody went there.’….

_{Eagles and friends, 1971, at the corner of Santa Monica Blvd & Doheny Dr, down the street from the Troubadour. Top row: Ned Doheny, Randy, Don Henley, Bernie Leadon. Bottom row: Jackson Browne, Glenn Frey, J.D. Souther. Photo © Eve Babitz.}

‘Glenn knew David Geffen and that’s what started the whole Eagles thing,’ Meisner discloses. ‘Then I met Elliot Roberts. These managers were way beyond me. I was aware of the music business but all I wanted to do was play. I just let things happen as they happened. My parents taught me to be a good guy and to be honest and don’t lie. If there is a gig, I show up on time. I just let the good times roll. I never thought about money. I didn’t care about the money. In my heart I know what I do best is perform for people and make them happy, you know. It’s better than digging ditches in Nebraska. And the money didn’t go for new equipment. I have my original Fender Dual Showman amp.'”
(Excerpt “The Eagles Have Landed,” Canyon Of Dreams: The Magic & Music Of Laurel Canyon by Harvey Kubernik, Sterling Publishing, 2009)

Notes

1. This first house was located on Walnut Drive, which was off Ridpath. ↩︎
2. This photo of The Poor appears to have been taken outdoors which is a trademark of Diltz’s style. ↩︎
3. The bungalow apartment was located at 1620 North Serrano Ave. The building has since been torn down. Randy doesn’t mention it, but he rented a house on Stanley Hills Drive in Laurel Canyon before the bungalow on Serrano. ↩︎
4. Bob Garcia was a writer and editor for the underground L.A. paper, Open City. He later became an executive at A&M Records. ↩︎
5. Miles Thomas had been a classmate of drummer Patrick Shanahan at Lincoln High School in Denver. He became a roadie for Patrick’s band The Soul Survivors and moved to Los Angeles with them in 1966. He eventually got a job as a roadie for Buffalo Springfield after the Poor opened for them at the Whisky A Go-Go in 1966. ↩︎