For a while, at the dawn of the 1970s,
Randy Meisner looked to be one of California rock's also-rans -- a prodigious talent on vocals and bass, he moved up through the ranks of '60s bands and was poised for a big break as a member of
Poco, only to exit that band on the eve of the completion of their debut album. And then he got a second bite of the apple as a member of
the Eagles, only to quit in the wake of their biggest album,
Hotel California. Born in Scottsbluff, NE, in 1946,
Meisner co-founded a band called the Dynamics (later the Drivin' Dynamics) in 1961, in which he served as lead singer and bassist. By late 1962, they'd made their first record, produced and released themselves, which included a rendition of
Sam Cooke's "You Send Me," sung by
Meisner.
In 1966, following three years in which the Dynamics saw their audiences and fandom grow steadily from Nebraska to Oklahoma and Texas,
Meisner had left the group to join another Midwestern band called
the Soul Survivors, who later moved to Los Angeles and changed their name to
the Poor -- their other members included
Allen Kemp and
Patrick Shanahan. They were a serious enough outfit to attract the attention of the Warner Bros. subsidiary Loma Records and also of the Decca label, both of which released several folk-rock-influenced sides by
the Poor without success.
By 1968,
Meisner had begun moving away from folk-influenced rock and into a more country-oriented vein, following a transition that was sweeping across California. He joined a band that was initially called
Pogo, later changed to
Poco, organized by
Richie Furay and
Jim Messina out of the collapse their earlier band,
the Buffalo Springfield.
Poco looked to be one of the hottest new bands heard in Los Angeles in years, doing killer live performances, and were part of the corporate game of contractual chess orchestrated by David Geffen to get
Crosby, Stills & Nash onto Atlantic -- they were that hot, and
Meisner looked to be in on the ground floor of a major enterprise, with the chance to be the next
Chris Hillman. But friction developed between him and
Messina and
Furay, and he ended up quitting before the original group was properly captured on tape.
Poco made its debut as a quartet, with
Meisner succeeded by
Timothy B. Schmit.
Meisner moved to
Rick Nelson's
Stone Canyon Band, where his former
Poor bandmates
Kemp and
Shanahan had ended up, and he participated in the rebirth of the 1950s rock & roll legend's career in country-rock. He also played lots of sessions with other artists, and during this period began playing with
Linda Ronstadt's backing band in the studio and on-stage. This proved to be
Meisner's second chance, as that band -- which included
Don Henley,
Glenn Frey, and
Bernie Leadon -- became
the Eagles and left
Ronstadt's orbit in 1972. They went on to become twice over one of the most successful bands of the 1970s, racking up major sales across their first three years (with
Don Felder adding another guitar), and then, with
Leadon's departure and his replacement by
Joe Walsh, ascending to even greater heights, including a greatest-hits album that remains one of the biggest-selling records of all time.
Meisner's high harmony singing and bass (along with some guitar) were at the core of their sound, and his songwriting figured on all of their albums, starting with the haunting, impassioned "Take the Devil" and the soaring, high-energy rocker "Tryin'." Although
Frey,
Henley, and
Leadon had the biggest claim on their hits for the first three years,
Meisner's songs were widely heard as the sales of the band's LPs rose into the hundreds of thousands and then the millions, and he got his own claim on a hit with "Take It to the Limit" in 1975. Over the next two years, he became increasingly disenchanted with the group, however, and in 1977, following another tour,
Meisner took his leave of
the Eagles (he was replaced on
The Long Run album by the man who had succeeded him in
Poco,
Tim Schmit).
He returned to Nebraska for a rest and then resumed his music career with a very good self-titled solo album. "Bad Man," off of that LP, was also used on the soundtrack of the movie FM (1978), which also included an appearance by his one-time employer
Linda Ronstadt.
Meisner enjoyed hit singles with "Hearts on Fire" and "Deep Inside My Heart," and has continued to work solo, as well as playing as a member of the country-rock outfit Black Tie, who had a hit with their version of
Buddy Holly's "Learning the Game." More recently, he has played with the World Classic Rockers, a generic '70s-oriented outfit similar to what
Ringo Starr has done with his
All-Starr Band. In addition to his music with
the Eagles, he has played on records by
Joe Walsh,
Dan Fogelberg,
Richie Furay,
Richard Marx,
Bob Welch, and
James Taylor, among numerous others.
In 1989, he also let the other shoe drop on his career by reuniting with
Poco and recording the album
Legacy, which finally revealed the range and beauty of that original lineup in all of its glory, although the reunion also opened up numerous older tensions that prevented it from having any semblance of permanency. He didn't participate in
the Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" tour, but did reunite with his former bandmates -- alongside
Bernie Leadon -- for a performance on the occasion of the group's 1999 induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Meisner will probably always be best known for his work with
the Eagles, but his solo material has shown a solid commercial edge of its own, and in 2002 and 2003, his two self-titled albums, from 1978 on Asylum and 1982 on Epic, respectively, were reissued on CD by Wounded Bird Records. Both albums were later packaged together and re-released (again) by the Arcadia label in 2007. ~ Bruce Eder