Post by erik on Aug 12, 2023 19:28:36 GMT -5
The late and former Eagles bassist and vocalist Randy Meisner is in this week's Pop Music Hits Spotlight with his biggest solo hit.
HEARTS ON FIRE (Randy Meisner; Epic: 1980)—Although known for his reluctance to share the spotlight, Randy Meisner nevertheless became one of rock’s most prominent bass players and vocalists during the heyday of the 1970’s California country-rock movement. A native of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Meisner went through various second-tier bands during the 1960’s before joining the burgeoning country-rock band Poco. But while he did backing vocals and bass on the group’s seminal 1969 album Pickin’ Up The Pieces, the refusal of band leaders Richei Furay and Jim Messina to let any other band members have a say in the album’s mixing led him to quit. In the interim, he joined Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band and played on a number of Nelson’s country-rock albums and singles, including Nelson’s 1970 hit cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me”. Again, however, personal issues led him to quit; and in 1971, producer John Boylan got him to join a burgeoning back-up band for Linda Ronstadt that included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Bernie Leadon. Though this exact line-up performed with Linda only once, at Disneyland in June 1971, they were deemed good enough by both Boylan and Linda to form what became The Eagles. During Meisner’s tenure with the band, the Eagles became one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all times; but issues over money, publishing, drugs, and Meisner’s distinct and extreme reluctance to be in the spotlight on the band’s 1976 hit “Take It To The Limit” led him to leave the band following the year-long tour in 1977 for Hotel California. Meisner thus embarked on a solo career that, like those of most of the Eagles (Henley excepted), was not really all that great commercially. On his 1980 album One More Song, however, he did achieve his biggest solo success with the minor country-rock classic “Hearts On Fire”. This was to be his biggest solo hit, reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending March 14, 1981. Following that, he reunited with Poco in 1989 for their two surprise hits “Call It Love” and “Nothing To Hide”; but after that, and with the exception of his reunion with the Eagles for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1998, his solo career kept being undistinguished; and his mental and substance abuse problems became more erratic, especially following the death of his wife Lana in March 2016 due to an accident with a shotgun. Meisner later suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulminary Disease (COPD) at his Los Angeles home on July 26, 2023 at the age of 77.
HEARTS ON FIRE (Randy Meisner; Epic: 1980)—Although known for his reluctance to share the spotlight, Randy Meisner nevertheless became one of rock’s most prominent bass players and vocalists during the heyday of the 1970’s California country-rock movement. A native of Scottsbluff, Nebraska, Meisner went through various second-tier bands during the 1960’s before joining the burgeoning country-rock band Poco. But while he did backing vocals and bass on the group’s seminal 1969 album Pickin’ Up The Pieces, the refusal of band leaders Richei Furay and Jim Messina to let any other band members have a say in the album’s mixing led him to quit. In the interim, he joined Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band and played on a number of Nelson’s country-rock albums and singles, including Nelson’s 1970 hit cover of Bob Dylan’s “She Belongs To Me”. Again, however, personal issues led him to quit; and in 1971, producer John Boylan got him to join a burgeoning back-up band for Linda Ronstadt that included Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Bernie Leadon. Though this exact line-up performed with Linda only once, at Disneyland in June 1971, they were deemed good enough by both Boylan and Linda to form what became The Eagles. During Meisner’s tenure with the band, the Eagles became one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all times; but issues over money, publishing, drugs, and Meisner’s distinct and extreme reluctance to be in the spotlight on the band’s 1976 hit “Take It To The Limit” led him to leave the band following the year-long tour in 1977 for Hotel California. Meisner thus embarked on a solo career that, like those of most of the Eagles (Henley excepted), was not really all that great commercially. On his 1980 album One More Song, however, he did achieve his biggest solo success with the minor country-rock classic “Hearts On Fire”. This was to be his biggest solo hit, reaching #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending March 14, 1981. Following that, he reunited with Poco in 1989 for their two surprise hits “Call It Love” and “Nothing To Hide”; but after that, and with the exception of his reunion with the Eagles for their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction in 1998, his solo career kept being undistinguished; and his mental and substance abuse problems became more erratic, especially following the death of his wife Lana in March 2016 due to an accident with a shotgun. Meisner later suffered from Chronic Obstructive Pulminary Disease (COPD) at his Los Angeles home on July 26, 2023 at the age of 77.