Randy Meisner: A Retrospective

Video

The Merv Griffin Show, August 3rd, 1982

Randy performed two songs on an episode of The Merv Griffin Show called “Top Music Makers,” which aired on August 3rd, 1982. Also featured on the program were Melissa Manchester, Ray Parker, Jr., and T.G. Sheppard. The show was co-hosted by Kal Rudman, a former DJ and longtime publisher of the music trade magazine, The Friday Morning Quarterback.

Dressed in a tie and playing an electric guitar (a vintage Gibson Les Paul Junior), Randy sang two songs from his latest album, the self-titled Randy Meisner, which had just been released on Epic: “Playin’ In The Deep End” and his then-current single, “Never Been In Love.” He was also interviewed (per Reelin’ In The Years Productions, who currently owns the footage).

via Reelin’ In The Years Productions

This was Randy’s second appearance on The Merv Griffin Show. He also appeared on July 21st 1981 in an episode called “The Hit Makers.” Again, he performed two songs, “Hearts On Fire” and “Gotta Get Away,” and was interviewed.

1981 Merv Griffin appearance information via Reelin’ In The Years Productions

Neither of these episodes of The Merv Griffin Show have ever been released.* A short 15-second clip of Randy’s performance of “Playin’ In The Deep End” was included on an episode of American Journal in 1994, which featured an interview with Randy about the Eagles’ “Hell Freezes Over” tour. The short clip shows a woman onstage with the band, possibly a backup singer. I’m not sure of her identity.

*Reelin’ In The Years Productions makes it clear on their website that they do not sell their footage to fans or collectors. It is only available to “clients in the entertainment industry,” documentaries, TV shows, etc.

PHOTOS

Randy was also photographed backstage.

Author

Jessica Buxton

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The Eagles on The Helen Reddy Show,
July 12th, 1973

The Eagles appeared on the third episode of The Helen Reddy Show on July 12th, 1973. Also featured were Mac Davis, Gladys Knight & the Pips, and Cheech and Chong. The Eagles played two songs: “Witchy Woman” and “Tequila Sunrise.” It was their U.S. television debut.1

On the heels of Reddy’s hit, “I Am Woman,” her friend Flip Wilson offered her his primetime NBC time slot while the Flip Wilson Show was on summer hiatus. The eight episodes were billed as Flip Wilson Presents The Helen Reddy Show.

In addition to appearing on her show, Mac Davis also appeared in concert with Reddy numerous times in 1973. She had also recorded one of his songs, “I Believe In You,” for her 1971 debut album I Didn’t Know How To Love Him. Ironically, Reddy and Davis died on the same day (September 29th, 2020) at the same age (78).

Deseret News, July 12, 1973

Short clips of the Eagles’ performances of “Witchy Woman” and “Tequila Sunrise”:

(Sources: 2018 promo video for Eagles Legacy Box Set. History Of The Eagles documentary, 2013)

Randy’s wife Jennifer, their 9-year-old son, Dana, and Jennifer’s 13-year-old niece, Bobbi, were present at the taping, which took place a month or two earlier at NBC Studios in Burbank. Jennifer remembered that the filming was a long process, with the groups stopping and starting to make sure their performances were perfect. Gladys Knight & The Pips took the longest, she remembered. “They made me insane.”

Below is an article from the Scottsbluff Star-Herald, Randy’s hometown paper, announcing The Helen Reddy Show appearance. Included with the article was a photo of Jennifer posing with a poster from the Eagles’ concert at London’s Royal Festival Hall in March 1973 (the poster would later end up on the wall of their apartment in Studio City). Unfortunately, the article is riddled with misspellings, the most glaring is Randy’s last name. Near the bottom, the paper quotes Jennifer as saying the Eagles had finished taping a show with the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. This would have been the 90-minute In Concert special on ABC, which aired August 3rd, 1973. When the Helen Reddy Show aired in Scottsbluff, Randy was home and able to watch it with his family.

Images

  1. In March 1973, the Eagles made two European television appearances on Popgala ’73 and BBC’s In Concert. Although the Reddy show marked the Eagles’ U.S. television debut, it was not Randy’s first stint before television audiences. His group, The Poor, appeared on episodes of Ironside and The Name Of The Game in 1968. Poco (then Pogo) appeared on local L.A. television also in 1968. He also made a number of TV appearances with Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band between 1969 and 1971.  ↩︎

Author

Jessica Buxton

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The Eagles In Nashville, 1977

The Eagles played the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville on June 23rd, 1977.
The day before, the band played a game of softball against radio and record company personnel.

The Eagles onstage in Nashville. Andrew Gold opened.

Review from the Nashville Tennessean.

The day before the concert, the Eagles, aka “The Party Plane,” played a softball game against Elektra-Asylum personnel and local radio celebrities. Randy is in the background in the top right photo.

Randy’s yellow and white “Party Plane” shirt (photos courtesy of Jennifer Meisner):

Playing for the opposing team was slide guitar aficionado, Mac Gayden. Below Gayden recalls (via Facebook) the softball game and mentions that he was initially considered as Bernie Leadon’s replacement before Walsh was added.

In 1976, when the Eagles were recording Hotel California at Criteria Studios in Miami, Gayden was in an adjacent studio at Criteria recording his album, Hymn To The Seeker. Gayden asked Randy to sing background on the song, “Someone Whispered.” It’s an overlooked gem in the Meisner canon of guest appearances. Check it out.

Footage of the Nashville softball game from the History Of The Eagles documentary.
©Alison Ellwood, Jigsaw Productions, 2013

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Author

Jessica Buxton

The Eagles on ABC’s IN CONCERT, 1973

The Eagles appeared on ABC’s In Concert series on August 3rd, 1973. The 90-minute show also included Ike & Tina Turner and Jim Croce, among others. It was taped on June 20th, 1973 at UCLA’s Royce Hall.

UCLA Daily Bruin, June 21, 1973

Soundcheck

At the soundcheck, Randy wore an unusual knit shirt covered with faces. His ex-wife, Jennifer, recalled that he purchased the shirt at L.B. Murphy’s, a department store in his hometown of Scottsbluff, NE.

Eagles during their soundcheck:

IN CONCERT

The Eagles performed “Tequila Sunrise,” Early Bird,” and “Witchy Woman.” Randy wore another shirt with a Scottsbluff connection for the taping: a yellow Frank Implement Company shirt. Frank Implement was a John Deere dealership in Scottsbluff, which was owned by the father of a friend. Randy worked there for a brief time in 1970. His only real job.

Footage

In 1974, The Who’s drummer, Keith Moon, hosted an In Concert second anniversary special, which revisited performances from the past two seasons. Below is his introduction to the Eagles segment.

Below are the three songs the Eagles performed on In Concert in 1973. Apologies for the low quality.

“Tequila Sunrise”

“Early Bird” (co-written by Bernie Leadon and Randy Meisner)

“Witchy Woman”

Author

Jessica Buxton

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EAGLES
California Jam, Ontario, CA
April 6th, 1974

The Eagles played to 200,000 at the music festival, California Jam, held at the Ontario Motor Speedway outside of Los Angeles. The concert was produced by ABC and simulcast on TV and radio on May 10th, 1974. Jackson Browne filled in on several songs with the band in the absence of Don Felder, whose wife went into labor on the day of the concert.

Ad from the Los Angeles Free Press, March 22, 1974


Two stages were used that were perched on 600 feet of railroad track. As one band played, the other stage was set up for the next act, then rolled onto center stage. The stages can be seen under the striped canopies. The semi-circle of trailers behind the stages were the bands’ dressing rooms.

Photo by Mark Sullivan.

The Eagles played a 45-minute set (only 20 minutes was televised)
(Not in order of performance)

James Dean
Blackberry Blossom
Midnight Flyer
Already Gone
Take It Easy
Tequila Sunrise
Witchy Woman
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Early Bird
Outlaw Man

Below is a clip of the Eagles’ intro from the radio simulcast on ABC’s KLOS-FM in Los Angeles:

Heading to the stage:
L-R: Glenn Frey (behind the door), Don Henley, Randy Meisner, Bernie Leadon, and road manager, Richie Fernandez.

Bernie, Randy (blue shirt), Glenn and Don

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


Randy’s blue shirt with the hand-embroidered eagle was a gift from a fan named Terri “Woody” Smith. She also gave him a yellow shirt with the cover design from On The Border, also hand-embroidered (see it here).

Photos by Jeffrey Mayer.
Photos by Julian Baum.

Randy performing “Midnight Flyer” from On The Border, which had just been released:


The footage below includes the five songs that aired in the televised concert on May 10th, 1974:

“James Dean”
“Blackberry Blossom”
“Midnight Flyer”
“Already Gone”
“Take It Easy”

Eagles Full Concert

Below is a post-show interview with Bernie Leadon that appeared in the San Diego Door, May 14th, 1974. Although Bernie talked mostly about the band’s music and albums up to 1974, he did voice his frustration to interviewer Greg Leonard about the band’s mid-day performance at Cal Jam:

“Bernie had just returned from what he felt was a frustrating performance in the mid-day heat. When I met him he was nursing a glass of champagne trying to relax after the tension of playing outdoors, with no prior soundcheck, before nearly 200,000 people.”

Reviews and further reading.

Daily Report, Ontario, CA, April 7, 1974
USC Daily Trojan, April 22, 1974
Circus, August 1974 (includes review of On The Border as well as California Jam.) Love the author’s description of Randy as “impish.”
San Diego Door, April 24, 1974
“The Eagles played the most aesthetically satisfying set of the day.”

Author

Jessica Buxton

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Eagles
Art Show For Boyd Elder
Venice, CA, April 2nd, 1972

The art show was called “El Chingadero” (Elder’s nickname) and was arranged by fellow artist John Van Hamersveld. The event took place in Venice at a garage that was converted into an art studio. Elder’s artwork was later used on the cover of three Eagles albums: One Of These Nights (1975), Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975 (1976) and The Very Best Of (2003).

This art show is often touted as the first public performance by the Eagles. This is simply false. Please see my post about the shows in Aspen and Boulder in November and December 1971. These were all advertised gigs in front of an audience. Other articles claim the band was “unsigned.” This is also untrue. The Eagles signed with Asylum in September 1971. They had just finished recording their debut album a couple of months before the art show.

The poster for the El Chingadero, which also served as an invitation.
The poster was created by Rick Griffin, who later designed the unique lettering for the Eagles’ third album, On The Border:

In Marc Eliot’s biography To The Limit, Elder recalled that the band stood in a corner and played the same songs over and over because they were nervous and didn’t seem confident in their material. Perhaps this is true, but it seems unrealistic. A couple of weeks later, they would set out on a short tour as an opening act for Joe Cocker. So, it seems unlikely that they wouldn’t have had a setlist already worked out. Plus, they had just finished recording their first album. It’s possible that they were nervous to be playing for the first time in front of an audience of their peers.

Below: Jackson Browne watches as the Eagles perform (Randy at left). ©Henry Diltz.

Bernie Leadon, Jackson Browne, Joni Mitchell, David Geffen, and Ned Doheny at the opening. ©Henry Diltz.

The Eagles paid homage to “El Chingadero” in the song “Visions” from One Of These Nights with the line: “Play on, El Chingadero, Play on.” The song was co-written by Don Felder and Don Henley (and sung by Felder). In his autobiography, Felder recalled the line and its meaning:

At one point in the lyrics, Don and Glenn sing, “Play on, El Chingadero, play on.” I learned later that chingadero is Spanish and loosely translates to ‘motherfucker.'”

Don Felder, Heaven and Hell: My Life In The Eagles (1974-2001)

Hear the line at 2:02:

The Eagles – “Visions” (1975)

Henry Diltz shot footage of the opening, which was shown in the documentary, History Of The Eagles. You can hear the band singing “Tryin'” as well as “Get You In The Mood,” a non-LP track, written by Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne, that later appeared as the B-side to “Take It Easy.” Henley’s narration makes it seem as though this footage was filmed in Colorado in 1971, but it was actually filmed at the art show in April 1972. You can see the artwork on the walls at :26, plus Jackson Browne, who is wearing the same clothing as the photo above. More footage from the event can be seen here.

Footage from History Of The Eagles ©Alison Ellwood, Jigsaw Productions, 2013.

Read more about the opening here.

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EAGLES
The Summit, Houston, TX
November 6, 1976

The Eagles played The Summit in Houston, TX, November 6, 1976. J.D. Souther opened. A bootleg film of the concert exists. Watch it below.

Houston Chronicle, November 1, 1976

J.D. Souther later joined the Eagles onstage for “Best Of My Love,” which he co-wrote with Don Henley & Glenn Frey. He also wished Glenn a happy birthday. The concert was filmed using the Summit’s in-house video system. Footage of Randy’s lead-singing performances, as well as the full concert, are included below.

The Summit had a four-sided video screen called a “Telscreen” which hung from the ceiling. The screens displayed concerts in real-time for audience members who were not close to the stage. Any band who came in to perform paid a flat fee for use of the Telscreen and received a videotape of the concert in return. These Telscreen performances were often bootlegged, hence the existing footage of the Eagles Summit show, which has never been released officially.

According to a March 5th, 1978 article in the Houston Chronicle, the Summit’s Telscreen production crew were known to add graphics to their video footage as it was happening. During concerts, they focused mainly on whoever was singing. This explains the footage of the Summit show, which included graphics between songs and very few camera angles.

At the show, Randy and Joe both wore white t-shirts bearing the logo for Criteria Studios in Miami where the band was finishing up Hotel California at the time. In fact, the previous night’s show in Baton Rouge was held up for two hours because the band was late arriving from Miami.

In 2006, Randy recalled the grueling touring and recording schedule from this period:

“We had to go out on the road while we were doing that album and then go back to Criteria Studios in Florida to finish it…We went back and forth a lot…wanted to get the tracks right and mixed right. We knew the album was special.“

Interview with Ken Sharp, 2006

The less-than-complimentary review in the Houston Chronicle noted that the band looked and sounded “frayed around the edges,” this was perhaps due to their touring/recording schedule from the time period:

Houston Chronicle, November 7, 1976

More flattering reviews were found in the Houston Post and the University of Houston’s Daily Cougar newspapers. The Post proclaimed Randy’s performance of “Take It To The Limit” to be “one of the true crowd-pleasers of the evening.”

Houston Post, November 7, 1976
Houston Daily Cougar, November 9, 1976

Video

“Take It To The Limit”

“Midnight Flyer”

Complete Film (This is not the full concert)

The song order in the video does not follow the actual setlist for the Summit concert. The Eagles opened with “Take It Easy,” not “Hotel California.” The performance of “Take It Easy” is not included in the film, neither is “Doolin-Dalton,” which was also played, according to the Chronicle review.

Footage setlist:
Hotel California
Lyin’ Eyes
Wasted Time
Take It To The Limit
Desperado
Midnight Flyer
Turn To Stone
Already Gone
One Of These Nights
Funk 49
Good Day In Hell
Rocky Mountain Way
Witchy Woman
James Dean
Best Of My Love (with J.D. Souther)
Walk Away
Tequila Sunrise

Author

Jessica Buxton

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RICK NELSON & THE STONE CANYON BAND
Bitter End, New York City
August 22nd – September 1st, 1969

Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band played an eleven-night stand at the famous Bitter End nightclub in Greenwich Village. It was the first stop on a month-long tour of the East. Although the Stone Canyon Band had been together since the Spring of 1969, they had only played one live date–a week-long stand at the Troubadour in April. The subsequent months were spent rehearsing and recording. Among these recordings was Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band’s first single, a cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me,” which was released in August 1969 to coincide with the tour.

Village Voice, August 21, 1969
New York Post,August 22, 1969

Below: watch their performance of Fats Domino’s “I’m Walkin'” filmed by David Nelson at the Bitter End, August 1969. This was the first song Rick sang on The Adventures Of Ozzie and Harriet back in 1957. Notice at 1:44 that Randy is playing a red Gibson bass, a switch from his usual gold Fender Precision from this period.

Although we hear pedal steel, there is no steel player on stage. The Stone Canyon Band was only a foursome at this point (Rick Nelson, Randy Meisner, Allen Kemp and Pat Shanahan). The audio here is from Rick Nelson In Concert, recorded at the Troubadour a couple of months later in October 1969, with Tom Brumley on pedal steel.

“I’m Walkin'” – Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, Bitter End, NYC, August 1969

Author

Jessica Buxton

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Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band
JD’s, Phoenix, AZ
October 24-25, 1969


Rick Nelson & the Stone Canyon Band performed two nights at JD’s.

Arizona Republic, October 25, 1969

The Arizona Republic noted that Rick was “sharing the spotlight” with a “longhaired bass player”:

Arizona Republic, October 25, 1969

Here’s Rick and the band performing their cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me” from the Easy To Be Free documentary, directed by David Nelson. At the 1:34 mark, the footage moves from JD’s to their appearance at The Troubadour in Hollywood a week later. The footage is less than perfect. Rick and The Stone Canyon Band’s recorded a cover of “She Belongs To Me” during the summer of 1969. It was released as a single in August to coincide with their tour and became a Top 40 hit.

At the time of the JD’s appearance, the Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band was a four-piece with Randy on bass, Allen Kemp on guitar, and Pat Shanahan on drums. Tom Brumley was added on pedal steel for the Troubadour shows.

Read more about Randy’s tenure as an original member of Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band here:

Travelin’ With Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band
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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

via Henry Diltz Photography – Facebook

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:

“In The Studio With Redbeard” – 1989

Photos

Author

Jessica Buxton

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