The Eagles played three concerts over two nights at the Arie Crown. Opening for the band was Dan Fogelberg.
Chicago Sun-Times, May 7, 1975
Backstage
Neal Preston shot these photos of the band backstage at the Arie Crown
Review from the Chicago Sun-Times, May 11, 1975:
The Eagles onstage. Photos by Neal Preston.
Shortly after their arrival in Chicago, the Eagles and Dan Fogelberg appeared on Larry Lujack’s radio show on WCFL. During the show, the Eagles debuted their latest single, “One Of These Nights,” the title track from their upcoming album.
Rolling Stone, September 25, 1975. Photo by Neal Preston.
Journalist Cameron Crowe toured with the Eagles in 1975, gathering information for his Rolling Stone cover story, entitled “Chips Off The Old Buffalo,” published in September of that year. He opened the article with a description of the Eagles’ appearance on Larry Lujack’s radio show:
One day after the Arie Crown Theater shows, the Eagles played a free concert for contest winners, McHenry High School, located just outside of Chicago. Read more below:
The Eagles played four sold-out concerts at The Forum in Inglewood, CA, October 19-22, 1976. Get all the details and hear audio from the shows, plus one complete concert.
The Tucson Daily Citizen reported that the Eagles performed three tracks from their upcoming album Hotel California. Although, not listed, those songs were most likely the title track, “Wasted Time” and “New Kid In Town.”
Tucson Daily Citizen, October 18, 1976
Arizona Daily Star, October 18, 1976
Below: Photos from the 1977 University of Arizona yearbook.
In February 1973, the Eagles spent a month in London recording their second album DESPERADO. They also taped an appearance on BBC’s IN CONCERT and played a handful of shows in and around London. Get the full story here, plus never-before-seen home movie footage.
This excerpt from CANYON OF DREAMS: THE MAGIC AND MUSIC OF LAUREL CANYON by Harvey Kubernik describes Randy’s arrival in California in 1966 and his introduction to the L.A. music scene.
“Coming Into Los Angeles: The Story Of The Eagles” by Pete Frame
This article from the British music magazine, Zigzag, includes a lengthy interview with Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner (mostly Bernie) by Zigzag‘s founder and editor Pete Frame. The piece also includes one of Frame’s famous “family trees,” charting the origin of the Eagles. Randy is referenced in another of Frame’s family trees charting the history of Poco (Zigzag, December 1971). See it here.
The article is not without a few discrepancies and some liberty-taking with quotes. But it is a nice, early introduction to the band from its original stars, Bernie and Randy.
The Eagles, along with Melissa Manchester, The Temptations, John Sebastian and Sly & the Family Stone performed at the Schaefer Music Festival in New York City’s Central Park on August 1st & 2nd, 1973. Both nights were filmed for a TV special called ‘Good Vibrations from Central Park,’ which aired on August 23rd, 1973.
The Eagles played the Richmond Coliseum on May 25th, 1975. Linda Ronstandt opened.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 25, 1975
Photo courtesy of Joan Shaver
According to the review in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the highlights of the evening were the two songs on which Randy sang lead: “Too Many Hands” and “Midnight Flyer.” The author of the latter, Paul Craft, was in the audience.
“The high points were a sizzling ‘Too Many Hands’ and Paul Craft’s churning ‘Midnight Flyer,’ the author, in the Coliseum audience, is not likely to hear his song done that well again.”
C.A. Bustard, Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 27, 1975
Using private home movie footage, shared exclusively here, we’ll follow Randy Meisner and the Eagles from LA to Oakland where they played Day On The Green on August 3rd, 1976.
The Eagles performed their last concert of the Hotel California tour at Jeppesen Stadium in Houston, TX on July 9th, 1977. Jimmy Buffett was the opening act. This was Randy Meisner’s final concert as a member of the Eagles.
Houston Chronicle, June 5th, 1977
The reviews below mention Randy’s performance of “Take It To The Limit,” which proves that he performed the song right up until the end of the tour. This further discredits the claims made by Glenn Frey and Don Henley in the History Of The Eagles documentary that Randy was refusing to perform the song on the tour. It was also performed early in the concert, not as an encore. The encores that evening were “James Dean,” “Take It Easy,” and Chuck Berry’s “Oh, Carol.” The latter would mark the final song Randy performed as a member of the Eagles.1
Beaumont Enterprise, July 13, 1977
“Especially memorable from the impeccably-performed set were ‘Already Gone’ and ‘Life In The Fast Lane’ with the flying fingers of Glenn Frey, Don Felder and Joe Walsh trading guitar lines. But the crowd was no less enthusiastic about Randy Meisner’s rendering of ‘Take It To The Limit’ or the long and haunting version of ‘Witchy Woman.'” (Pete Churton, Beaumont Enterprise, July 13, 1977)
Houston Post, July 10, 1977
“But, from then until I had to leave some 50 minutes later, it was a typical Eagles-set, one old favorite after another, including ‘Doolin-Dalton,’ ‘Desperado,’ ‘Lyin’ Eyes,’ and ‘Take It To The Limit,’ along with an occasional, lesser-known album cut, such as ‘Victim Of Love.'” (Bob Claypool, Houston Post, July 10, 1977)
After the show, the Eagles were named honorary citizens of Texas by Governor Dolph Briscoe and received a Texas state flag that had flown above the capitol on July 4th.
Ft Worth Star-Telegram, July 22, 1977
Get the real story about Randy’s departure from the Eagles below: ↩︎
Leon Russell was the headlining act at Holiday Jam ’74 at the Orange Bowl on July 7th, 1974. The Band, The Eagles, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Sons of Champlin also performed. It was the first rock concert ever at the Orange Bowl.
The photos below were taken by John Gellman, who recalled attending the festival:
“The Eagles were the highlight of the day. They just killed. I remember their final encore song was Out Of Control, which they dedicated to President Richard Nixon, who resigned from office less than a month later. After the Eagles played, Alan Walden, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s manager, was extremely upset backstage yelling, ‘I’m NEVER gonna let one of my bands follow that band ever again!’ Alan was right to be upset. Following the Eagles onstage was not a good place to be. The Eagles left the Orange Bowl field with a 3 touchdown lead. Skynyrd played well, but never even got close. I enjoyed the Band’s set, but did not think they played nearly as well as they did earlier in the year when I saw them with Bob Dylan. I do not remember a single thing about Leon Russell. After a hot July day in the Miami sun, I was fried by the time he hit the stage. Or maybe it was the refreshments.” -John Gellman, “Random rock shots – The Eagles in 1974,” jgphoto.com, December 22, 2012
On July 6th, 1975, the Eagles, along with Trapeze and Montrose, opened for the Rolling Stones at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. The Stones were on their legendary Tour Of The Americas.
Dallas Morning News, July 6, 1975
With temperatures in the upper 90s, it was a hot afternoon in Dallas. The Eagles hit the stage around 5:00pm. In keeping with previous outdoor concerts on the Stones’ Tour of the Americas, the bands performed under a tent-like dome (see Kansas City and Milwaukee).
Photo via Rockin’ Houston.
The Eagles’ set lasted for a little over an hour. They kicked it off with “Take It Easy,” and ran through a string of hits, including “Witchy Woman” and “Desperado.” They closed with encores of Chuck Berry’s “Carol” and “Best Of My Love.” Although Randy’s lead-singing performances were not mentioned in any review, it’s likely that he performed “Midnight Flyer” and “Too Many Hands,” which were part of the Eagles’ setlist in the Summer of 1975.
Randy at the Cotton Bowl.
Most reviews of the Dallas concert focused on the Rolling Stones since they were not only the headliners, but one of the most popular bands in the world in 1975. The Houston Post review below did the best job at detailing at least a few of the songs that the Eagles performed (see second column).
The Eagles played two sold-out nights at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York. It was the second stop on the first leg of the 1977 Hotel California tour. Jimmy Buffett was the opening act.
Newsday (Nassau), February 13, 1977
The two shows at Nassau Coliseum were the first of four concerts in New York. The Eagles’ next two stops were at Madison Square Garden on the 18th, then the War Memorial Auditorium in Rochester on the 19th The band made the Drake Hotel in Manhattan their home base for their entire New York visit until March 21st, when they departed for Washington, DC. (see itinerary below):
Band itinerary on the right:
Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Irving Azoff, and road manager, Richie Fernandez outside the Drake Hotel, March 21st, 1977.
Photos exist for both Uniondale concerts, however I’m not sure which photos are from which show. Glenn Frey wore a New York Islanders jersey both nights. The Islanders are a hockey team from nearby Elmont, NY. In the 1970s, Nassau Coliseum was their home base.
Glenn in his Islanders jersey:
In this first set of photos, Randy is wearing a blue hoodie, possibly the same blue jacket from the Tour of the Pacific from January-February 1976:
Photo by Stuart Liben
Photo by Stuart Liben
In this second set of photos, Randy is wearing a gray sweatshirt. Glenn is once again in the Islanders jersey.
