Desperado (song)

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“Desperado”
“Desperado” cover
Song by Eagles
Album Desperado
Released April 17, 1973
Recorded Early 1973
Genre Rock, country, bluegrass
Length 3:33
Label Asylum
Writer Glenn Frey and Don Henley
Producer Glyn Johns
Desperado track listing
Tequila Sunrise
(4)
Desperado
(5)
Certain Kind of Fool
(6)


"Desperado" is a song by the rock band Eagles, written by Glenn Frey and Don Henley. It first appeared on the 1973 album Desperado, and has later appeared on numerous compilation albums.

Don Henley stated in the notes written in the booklet to Eagles' 2003 "The Very Best Of" compilation, that Desperado was a piece of a song that he had written in 1968. He said,

It was called something else, but it was the same melody, same chords. I think it had something to do with Astrology [Chuckles].

Accompanied by Glenn Frey on piano, the lead vocalist, Don Henley, begs the subject of the song, a "desperado", to return home, implies that this deperado is using pleasure to avoid dealing with his pain, and tells him that these pleasures will hurt him eventually.

While this is one of the Eagles' signature songs, it was never released as a single. "Desperado" was voted #494 in the List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

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[edit] Popular culture references

  • In an episode of Seinfeld, "The Checks", Elaine Benes dated a man who called "Desperado" "his song": he would ignore Elaine whenever it was played. Elaine tried to come up with a song to share. She chose "Witchy Woman", another Eagles song also sung by Henley. He stuck with "Desperado".
  • Woody Harrelson quoted from the song "Desperado" ("You've been out riding fences for so long now / Oh, you're a hard one / But I know that you've got your reasons") while thinking of breaking up with girlfriend Grace Adler on a 2001 episode of the NBC sitcom Will & Grace.
  • The professional wrestler Terry Funk used "Desperado" (both the Eagles' original as well as Clint Black's cover version) as his entrance music in Extreme Championship Wrestling.

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