Photo Archive: Randy Meisner by Henry Diltz, 1980
Photo Archive: Eagles by Henry Diltz, circa late 1974
The band is photographed with Don Henley’s 1936 Ford.
Photo Archive: Eagles by Henry Diltz, August 1974
Taken around the same time as another series of photos by Diltz from August 25th, 1974. The same September 1974 issue of Playboy can be seen in both sets.
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Photo Archive: Eagles by Henry Diltz, August 25th, 1974
These photos were taken on August 25th, 1974 en route to and at the airport in Norfolk, Virginia, where the Eagles were opening for the Beach Boys at Scope Arena that evening. Diltz shot another set of band photos around the same time (click here). The same September 1974 issue of Playboy appears in both sets.
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Photo Archive: Eagles by Henry Diltz, early 1974
This photo session was the first with new member, Don Felder. It took place at Record Plant studios during the recording of On The Border. One photo includes producer Bill Sczymcyk.
The purpose of the session was most likely to get a photo with Felder to use for ads and publicity for the Eagles’ upcoming 1974 tour in support of On The Border (below).
The photos show Randy 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.
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Eagles by Henry Diltz
Topanga Canyon, September 1973
This series of photos were taken at Bernie Leadon’s home in Topanga Canyon, CA. Another set of photos were taken at Bernie’s home by Ethan Russell circa 1971.
Photos from this session were used in a rare two-sided poster insert, found only in original first issues of On The Border in 1974.
Front and back of poster insert:
Present at the photo session were Randy’s wife, Jennifer, and their three-year-old daughter, Heather. Jennifer took these rare snapshots of the session as it was happening, including a photo of Heather with the band in the background. Photos courtesy of Jennifer Meisner. Shared with permission.
There were a couple of wardrobe changes 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 switched to a white shirt (see photo here). Randy wore the yellow shammy shirt in two other photo sessions: London, March 1973 and another Diltz session in early 1974.
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Photo Archive: The Poor by Henry Diltz, c.1966
L-R: Pat Shanahan, Randy Naylor, Randy Meisner, John Day, Allen Kemp.
Photo Archive: Eagles by Henry Diltz
Desperado Cover Shoot, December 18th, 1972
Location: Paramount Ranch, Agoura Hills, CA
Photos from this session were used on the front and back cover of Desperado, released in 1973. Additional photos were published in the Desperado Songbook the same year.
“The original concept was to depict The Eagles ‘gang’ alive on the front cover and dead at the hands of the posse on the back –with pictures of the bank robbery and ensuing shoot-out in which they met their grisly fate displayed across a double spread in the middle. ‘Then, at the last minute, without telling anybody, David Geffen scrapped the centerfold,’ Diltz says. ‘He was always doing stuff like that to save three cents on the production costs.'”
Uncut, May 2007
Diltz also filmed the session and a short film showing the band members in a staged gunfight was later shown during the Eagles’ performance of “Doolin-Dalton/Desperado (reprise)” on Don Kirshner’s Rock Concert in 1974.
In 1989, Randy told radio personality, Redbeard, some funny stories about the making of the short film and the horses here:
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Photo Archive:
Eagles by Henry Diltz
Joshua Tree National Park, March 1972
Photo shoot for the Eagles’ debut album cover.
Photography by Henry Diltz. Art direction by Gary Burden.
The Eagles wanted the cover of their first album to have a “California” vibe, so Diltz suggested a “secret mountain top” in Joshua Tree National Park “where certain Hollywood actors would take psychedelics.” (Uncut, February 2022)
Bernie Leadon sets the scene:
“We met at the Troubadour at one in the morning and just drank our faces off, smoked all the pot and dope we could find and went out in my Toyota jeep and somebody else’s car and drove off to Joshua Tree. We arrived at four in the morning, before dawn, to the secret spot of all the old time dopers, way out in the back overlooking Palm Springs. They had this old barber’s chair way at the top of the mountain… you could sit there and it was great. We carried some guitars and all the camera equipment in the middle of the night, stumbled up this fucking mountain… made a fire and a camp and began making peyote tea and trying to eat peyote without throwing up… and the peyote was starting to come on and keep us awake… gave you that acid-like speed effect… those pictured are well stoned.”
The Story Of The Eagles: The Long Run by Marc Shapiro, 1995
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‘Teen Magazine Interview, 1981
Randy Meisner was interviewed by Teen Magazine for their February 1981 issue. He talked about taking piano lessons as a kid, his early struggles in California, and his departure from the Eagles.
