Hidden Hills
November 3, 2024
We likely know this song by the Eagles from 1973. I heard it today on the radio (performed by Clint Back). I was carried back to my bedroom at 353 Mimosa Circle listening to this album and song on my Fisher stereo. Fifty years ago. I felt the yearning and longing that I felt so strongly as a disoriented 15 year old boy listening to Don Henley sing these lyrics. All kinds of mixed-up emotions to feel those same feelings today. Some of the lyrics strike just too close to home.
As I read somewhere, any song sung by Linda Ronstadt is the best version of the song. And with all due respect to the Eagles, she proves that statement true with Desperado. As Henley said:
"That vocal was not my best work, and I wish I had the chance to do it again. But that's OK ... Linda Ronstadt did it just fine."
The lyrics:
Desperado why don't you come to your senses?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now
Oh you're a hard one
I know that you got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow
Don't you draw the queen of diamonds boy
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet
Now it seems to me some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones that you can't get
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home
And freedom, oh freedom well, that's just some people talkin'
Your prison is walking through this world all alone
Don't your feet get cold in the winter time?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the night time from the day
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you, before it's too late
Comments