Sam Amico
Randy Meisner, one of the founding members of the Hall of Fame rock band the Eagles, is credited with their trademark sound. That’s despite the fact he left in 1977, five years after their debut album.
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Meisner has died at the age of 77, the band announced Thursday.
In bringing the band together as the Eagles in 1972, Meisner played bass and shared lead vocal duties, with his high-pitched crooning responsible for belting out the lyrics on their 1975 hit Take it to the Limit.
Originally performing as Linda Ronstadt’s backing band at Disneyland in July 1971, Meisner, Glenn Frey, Don Henley and Bernie Leadon formed the Eagles later that year. As time went on, Meisner provided harmonies on their many other mid-1970s hits, such as The Best of My Love and Take It Easy.
“Randy was an integral part of the Eagles and instrumental in the early success of the band,” the Eagles said in a statement. “His vocal range was astonishing, as is evident on his signature ballad, Take It to the Limit.”
Meisner hailed from Scottsbluff, Nebraska, moving later to Los Angeles, where the Eagles were formed. But he eventually became torn between touring and family life, and seemed to grow weary of the bickering between bandmates.
Per the AP: “His objections during a Knoxville, Tennessee, concert in the summer of 1977 so angered Frey that the two argued backstage and Meisner left soon after. His replacement, Timothy B. Schmit, remained with the group over the following decades, along with Henley, Walsh and Frey, who died in 2016.”
Meisner said that he no longer felt like part of the band after the confrontation. “That was the end,” he once said. “I really felt like I was a member of the group, not a part of it.”
He later went on to perform on records by Joe Walsh, another one-time Eagles member, as well as James Taylor and Dan Fogelberg. Meisner was succeeded in the band by Timothy B. Schmidt.
But without question he left his mark. as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said in a statement, Meisner’s “high harmonies are instantly recognizable and cherished by Eagles fans around the world.”
It has been that way since the start of the Eagles and will continue to be for forever.
