Desperado

Since no group did more to create the mythos of the Los Angeles cowboy troubadour, it was fitting that the Eagles designed their sophomore effort as a concept record based on the Dalton gang and the Old West. You needn’t look any farther than the cover of Desperado to know that the group was more interested in the costumed romance of outlaw culture than the actual history, but rock ’n’ roll was in search of new images and the Eagles wore the Western theme well. Desert atmosphere abounds on “Tequila Sunrise” and “Bitter Creek,” a moody ballad about love and peyote. The group loves the idea of the lone cowboy, an image that drives “Certain Kind of Fool” and “Outlaw Man,” but reaches its culmination with “Desperado,” a piano-and-string-laden ballad that would go on to become a standard and influence country songwriters like Garth Brooks. Sure, the cowboy theme was far-fetched and superficial, but it’s easy to see why the Eagles felt like a gang in 1973. The group’s four founding songwriters share equal space on Desperado, and a genuine all-for-one spirit is written into the beautiful, bittersweet harmonies of “Saturday Night.”