Randy Meisner: A Retrospective

Randy Meisner (1946-2023)

Eagles

Photo Archive: Eagles, Miami, June 24th, 1976

Photographer: David Alexander

These images were taken in Miami while the Eagles were recording Hotel California at Criteria Studios. They are dated by the June 24th, 1976 issue of the Miami Herald Don Henley is reading in the third photo. The photos were meant to show what life was like on the road for the band: arriving at the airport, hanging out at the hotel, sitting in a restaurant having breakfast (with several glasses of milk, perhaps a hangover cure), driving to the venue. Several of the photos include their road manager, Richie Fernandez. However, these are not real photos of the band on tour (they were not touring in June 1976), but were staged by Alexander and eventually used in the 1977 Hotel California Tour Book and the Hotel California Songbook.

The page Henley is reading from in the Miami Herald is dated June 24th, 1976

The car mirror photo shows the faces going the wrong direction. Here is the flipped version.

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Photo Archive: Eagles, HOTEL CALIFORNIA Cover, 1976

Photographers: David Alexander/Norman Seeff

The cover photos of the Beverly Hills Hotel at sunset, taken at Will Rodgers Memorial Park, and the back cover and gatefold, taken in the lobby of the Lido Apartments in Los Angeles, were taken by David Alexander. The cover was designed by Kosh and Don Henley.

A poster insert was included with first issues of the album. It showed the band posed on a bed. According to photographer, Norman Seeff, this photo was a composite (multiple photos combined to create one image).

“Soon after commencing this session, the band walked out. I had no idea why at the time. A week later, I showed them a poster design I had created by combining a number of individual shots. They loved it and all was forgiven. It became a poster insert for the HOTEL CALIFORNIA album.”

Norman Seeff

Below are outtakes from this session.

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Photo Archive: Eagles, ONE OF THESE NIGHTS Cover, 1975

Photographer: Norman Seeff
Location: Los Angeles, CA

This was the band’s first session with photographer Norman Seeff, a former medical doctor who emigrated to the United States from South Africa in the late 1960s to pursue a career as a rock photographer. One of his first assignments was the cover of the The Band’s Stage Fright.

An image from this 1975 session with Seeff appears on the back cover of the Eagles fourth studio album, One Of These Nights. Seeff described the session in an interview with Rolling Stone in 2013:

“This session for their ONE OF THESE NIGHTS album resulted in some striking images where each member of the band was being themselves in a confident way. Creating a moment with several artists at once can be challenging. When you work with 5 artists, if you don’t create a simultaneous relationship with every single person and someone loses eye contact, then they’re not all present.”

Photos

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Photo Archive: Eagles, early 1974

Photographer: Henry Diltz

First band photos with new member, Don Felder. These were possibly taken during the recording of On The Border since producer Bill Sczymcyk appears in one of the photos. Randy is wearing a t-shirt for the Joe Walsh & Barnstorm album, The Smoker You Drink, The Player You Get (also produced by Sczymcyk.) He is also wearing the same yellow chamois shirt worn in the photos from London in March 1973 & the Topanga Canyon session in September 1973.

One photo from this set was used for ads and publicity for the Eagles’ upcoming 1974 tour in support of their album On The Border. The purpose of this session was probably to get a band photo with Felder since he was not included in the photos that were initially taken for the album.

Photos

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Photo Archive: Eagles, September 1973

Photographer: Henry Diltz
Location: Bernie Leadon’s home in Topanga Canyon. Another set of photos were taken at Bernie’s home by Ethan Russell in 1972
Photos from this session were used in a rare insert which were only found in original first issues of On The Border (1974).

Watching the photo shoot from the sidelines were Randy’s wife, Jennifer, and their three-year-old daughter, Heather. Jennifer took these photos of the shoot while it was happening, including a photo of Heather with the band in the background.

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Meisner. Shared with permission.

One wardrobe change happened during the session. Don Henley changed into the tan shirt Randy was wearing and Randy changed into a yellow chamois shirt. Glenn Frey switches from a denim shirt into a denim jacket. Bernie Leadon switches to a white shirt.

Photos

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Photo Archive: Eagles, November 13th, 1973

Photographer: Peter Mazel
Location: Photos were taken prior to the Eagles’ concert at the De Doelen in Rotterdam either backstage or at Mazel’s studio in The Hague.

Randy’s shirt is a nod to his hometown of Scottsbluff, Nebraska. The Frank Implement Company was owned by the father of one of his friends. Randy worked there for several months in 1970 between stints touring with Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band.

Photos

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Photo Archive: Eagles, July 6th, 1972

Photographer: Gary Elam
Location: Backstage at Community Concourse/Golden Hall in San Diego, CA.

This early photo of the band was originally published in November 1972 in an article by Cameron Crowe in the underground magazine The San Diego Door. His friend, Gary Elam, took the photo. Crowe mistakenly recalled in 2015 that the photo was taken at the San Diego Civic Theater when the Eagles opened for Procol Harum, but the venue was actually Community Concourse.

L-R: Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner, Don Henley, and Bernie Leadon.
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