The High School Desperadoes Take Chicago

The Eagles landed in Chicago on May 10th, 1975 for what would be a three-day publicity blitz for their upcoming album, One Of These Nights. They played two nights at the Arie Crown Theater, appeared on the radio to debut their next single, were raffled off in a high school contest, and gave a lengthy interview to a music magazine.

_{Eagles, 1975. Photo by Norman Seeff.}

Arie Crown Theater, May 10-11, 1975

The Eagles’ first stop in the Windy City was a two-night, three concert stand at the Arie Crown Theater, with Dan Fogelberg as the opening act.¹ It was their second time playing the venue. The first was as an opening act for Yes in September 1972.

_{Randy backstage and onstage at Arie Crown Theater, May 10th, 1975. Photos by Neal Preston.}

_{The Eagles at Arie Crown Theater. Photos by Neal Preston.}

WCFL Radio

Next, the band appeared on Larry Lujack’s afternoon radio show on WCFL, where they debuted their next single, “One Of These Nights.” Lujack told them over the air: “I read somewhere that the Eagles do the best ooo’s in the business.” Glenn Frey responded: “Ooo’s for bucks, Larry. That’s our motto.” ²

_{The Eagles on WCFL:}

Journalist Cameron Crowe toured with the Eagles for several months in 1975, gathering information for his September 1975 Rolling Stone cover story entitled “Chips Off The Old Buffalo.” He opened the article with a description of the Eagles’ appearance on Larry Lujack’s radio show:

McHenry Community High School

The Eagles last stop in Chicago was perhaps the most interesting. It was a free concert for McHenry Community High School. The school had won the WCFL School Spirit Contest after they submitted the most petitions of any other school in the area–51,000 in total.³ Each petition had to include 50 names, with no name listed twice on one petition. The grand prize was a free concert by the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg, plus $1,000 for their school scholarship fund. It was probably the first time many of the younger students had attended a rock concert. The event was chaperoned by eighty adults, mostly parents and faculty members.⁴ Emceeing the concert was WCFL disc jockey, Larry Lujack.

McHenry Community High School was split into two campuses: the East Campus for 9th-10th graders, and the West Campus for 11th-12th graders. The concert took place at the school’s West Campus gym, which had a larger gymnasium. One section of the gym was roped off for the band. The students sat on the floor in front of the stage or in the bleachers. There were 1,800 students from both campuses in attendance.

Before the show, music journalist, Linda Cain, sat in with the Eagles while they tuned up their instruments in the gym’s weight room. As she recalled, the room was “filled with the odor of dirty socks, sneakers, and the awesome humidity from the swimming pool below.”

_{Bernie Leadon picking his banjo in the gym.}

At one point, Cain ended up interviewing Glenn Frey in the toilet!

“Glenn Frey lingered in the girls’ locker room, waiting for his turn to use the only available toilets in the gym. ‘Any girls in there?’ he asked. ‘Only me, but come on in. Just don’t use the third one, I’m in it.’ He entered two stalls down, carrying on a conversation as he prepared to go on stage…’I never thought I’d be talking to an Eagle while going to the john.’ The things one has to go through to get interviews these days.” (Music Gig, October 1976)

_{Glenn Frey & Don Henley in the weight room. Note Glenn smoking a cigarette inside a school, a true sign of a bygone era.}

Playing a high school gym was nothing to most of the guys, all of whom got their start as teenage musicians. “Since I was 14, I played in high schools,” Randy told Cain.

_{Randy at McHenry High School:}

Among the songs the Eagles played at the high school were three cuts from their upcoming album, One Of These Nights, including the title track, “Journey Of The Sorcerer,” and “Too Many Hands,” written by Randy and Don Felder. Randy most likely performed “Midnight Flyer” as well, since it was a staple of the Eagles’ 1975 setlist.

Randy wore a dark blue shirt with the name “Gauchos” across the front, probably for the UCSB (University of California/Santa Barbara) Gauchos. The Eagles had played the university the previous year.

Linda Cain was not the only journalist to get a crack at the band before the show. A team of student reporters was also given access to both the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg before the doors opened. They were able to ask questions and take photos.

Among the student reporters were Curt Ames and Nancy Preston, students at nearby Johnsburg High School. They wrote about their experience for the McHenry Plaindealer below. Randy was quoted in the piece, saying, “We’re not nervous, and we wanted to come. We were in high school once and wanted to come back and see if it has changed.”

Dan Fogelberg’s band, Fool’s Gold, is misspelled in the article as Fool’s Goal.

Music Gig magazine interview

I feel this post about the McHenry concert would not be complete without including more of Linda Cain’s backstage interview, mainly because she spoke to Randy the most. “Meisner was the easiest to talk to,” she said, “as the others were constantly involved in backstage games.” Therefore, a large chunk of the article centered on Randy’s musical background. I have included these sections below. Note: Although Cain conducted the interview in May 1975, it was not published until October 1976.

Excerpt from “Rare Interview With The High School Desperadoes” by Linda Cain. Music Gig, October 1976:

“It is Randy Meisner who lays down the driving, sensuous beat for the group with his funky melodic playing while adding high-end harmonies with his unique voice. Elvis Presley was his first musical influence and he is the only one in the group who digs the Motown sound, pure ‘funk’ rock and ‘trashy music.’ He spends much of his spare time experimenting in the studio or entertaining friends with new albums he’s discovered.

“When asked if he acts as the ‘father image’ for this somewhat rowdy band, he half-admitted, ‘No, not quite. Well, yes, in a way.’ The eldest and most settled member of the group at 30, he has been married for 12 years and has three children. He and his family live in the small Nebraska town where he grew up. He enjoys living in the isolated, but ‘friendly, typical American, old-fashioned type small town.’

“Like the ‘Doolin-Dalton’ boy who ‘left the peaceful life behind,’ Meisner started his musical career by leaving Nebraska and heading for Denver at age 20. Winning a ‘battle of the bands’ contest and joining a group called the Soul Survivors provided his first big break.⁵ The Denver group (not to be confused with the Soul Survivors who did ‘Expressway To Your Heart’) had a local hit called ‘Can’t Stand To Be In Love With You.’

“‘We more or less cleaned up in Denver because they were real hot when I joined them. So we hit all the stops and pretty much managed ourselves. We made a bunch of money and split for LA.’ Once in California the group called itself The Poor, an all too appropriate name. ‘There was one guy and his wife and four others living in a one bedroom apartment in east L.A.⁶ We slept on the floor. The Poor’s road manager, a friend who came out from Denver, also took on the Buffalo Springfield, the Daily Flash and Sonny and Cher.⁷ ‘But we were like the ones at the bottom of the totem pole. We never really got anywhere.’

“‘The road manager then helped get Poco together by bringing out a steel player and drummer from Denver. Rusty (Young) and George (Grantham) came out to join. And then he thought of me and broke up our group, which had been together for three years and knew absolutely nothing. I mean, we practiced, had original songs and everything but at the time they just weren’t what people wanted to hear. They were good songs, meaningful songs. You know, like a lot of the songs that we (Eagles) do.’

“Meisner’s career as an original member of Poco began successfully at the infamous Troubadour. ‘We started out, practiced for three months and got all the material together. Jimmy (Messina) and Richie (Furay) had put it together. We went to the Troubadour for a ‘hoot night’ an got really great reviews and everything was happening for us and we were really hot. We played there for a week as an opening act.’

“Rick Nelson, who was planning a comeback, went to see Poco perform several times. When he found out that Meisner had quit the group because of fights in the studio, Nelson invited him to join his Stone Canyon Band.⁸ Meisner played on several albums with the group but left before they hit the charts with ‘Garden Party.’ The band was playing in Palo Alto when Meisner met up with the rest of the Eagles.⁹ ‘We played Chuck’s Cellar that’s the place where the group (Eagles) was formed. It’s like a steakhouse and in the bottom there’s a little barn. That’s where Linda was playing, and that’s where I met Glenn and Don. I rehearsed with them for a couple of days.’ The combination was a magic one and Linda Ronstadt’s band soon became the Eagles. …

“Meisner, like George Harrison in the Beatle days, has been labeled the ‘quiet one.’ He admits to shying away from fans, photos and interviews and prefers to stay out of the spotlight. When onstage, he leaves the posturing and audience rapport to Frey. Oddly enough, Meisner was the easiest to talk to, as the others were constantly involved in backstage games. While discussing certain subjects of concern–ecology, government and the music business–it became clear that Meisner and his four partners have a lot in common despite their differences. They seldom hang out together when not working, but shared beliefs and philosophies have served as a unifying force for their diverse energies and musical talents.

“They look to groups like the Beatles and CSN&Y as examples of how personal conflicts and egos can destroy creative unity, and they try to avoid the same mistakes. Referring to the film Let It Be, Meisner commented on one common cause for discord among musicians in a band. ‘When you love someone and the guys in the band don’t like her, or she can’t stand them, it’s hard on you. It’s painful.'”

Read the full Music Gig article here.

Notes

1. See more photos and read a review of the Arie Crown Theater shows here. ↩︎
2. “Chips Off The Old Buffalo…,”Rolling Stone, September 25th, 1975 ↩︎
3. “School Spirit Winners,” McHenry Plaindealer, May 14, 1975 ↩︎
4. “Eagles Soar At West Campus,” McHenry Plaindealer, May 14th, 1975 ↩︎
5. The Dynamics didn’t win the battle of the bands contest in 1966. However, Randy was spotted at the contest by two members of the local Denver band, The Soul Survivors, who were looking for a replacement for their bass player. They later asked Randy to join the band. ↩︎
6. Randy mentioned that a guy and his wife shared the apartment. This was Randy Naylor and his pregnant wife, Sue. ↩︎
7. The road manager was Miles Thomas, a high school friend of Patrick Shanahan and Rusty Young. All three attended Lincoln High School in Denver. Class of 1964. Thomas is still alive and living in California. Patrick Shanahan and Jennifer Meisner have both kept in touch with him. With some help from Patrick, I attempted to interview Miles a couple of years ago, but some personal issues kept him from being able to go through with it. One funny thing he told me when he agreed to an interview: “If you remember the sixties, you weren’t there.” ↩︎
8. Cain gets the story a little mixed up here. Randy did not “join” the Stone Canyon Band, he was a founding member. In fact, Randy helped put the band together by suggesting drummer Patrick Shanahan and guitarist Allen Kemp from the Poor to join. ↩︎
9. The chronology here is inaccurate. Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band played Chuck’s Cellar in December 1970. This was several months before Randy was asked to fill in for Linda Ronstadt’s bass player at Chuck’s Cellar in June 1971. This is the gig where Randy met Don Henley & Glenn Frey. Find the full story here. ↩︎