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Eagles · S3 E5
The Reviews
Critics call it overambitious. Sales disappoint. The band knows they need to get harder or get left behind
Rolling Stone magazine, May 1973. Glenn Frey reads the Desperado review twice on the tour bus, jaw tight, then folds the magazine shut and does not speak to anyone for the rest of the day.
Stevie Wonder, Superstition (1972). While Eagles were making a cowboy concept album, Stevie Wonder was making Talking Book. This is what dominated the charts in 1973: funk, soul, groove. Eagles looked around and realized the world had moved on from gentle country-rock.
The Verdict
The critics are not kind. Rolling Stone gives it a mixed review. The Village Voice calls the outlaw concept pretentious. Even sympathetic writers say the band has overreached, that the concept weighs down songs that would have been better standing alone.
“The critics didn't get it. They thought we were playing dress-up. But we were dead serious. Maybe too serious. That was probably the problem.”
— Glenn Frey, History of the Eagles documentary, 2013
Superstition, Stevie Wonder (1972)
That clavinet riff changed everything. When this song hit number one in January 1973, the same month Eagles were finishing Desperado in London, it announced a new reality in American music: rhythm was king. Eagles heard this on the radio and understood the problem. Their acoustic country-rock harmonies sounded polite next to this. Frey in particular took note, and the next Eagles album would have electric guitars and a rhythm section that actually pushed.
TAP TO REVEAL: What did Glenn Frey privately tell the band after reading the Desperado reviews?
Where did Desperado peak on the Billboard 200?
Out of Control, Eagles
The hardest-rocking track on Desperado, and a preview of where Eagles are headed. While most of the album leans into country-folk storytelling, this one pushes toward straight rock. Listen and you can hear Glenn Frey's frustration with the acoustic approach already leaking into the music.
Desperado has stalled, the critics are circling, and Glenn Frey is ready to burn the country-rock playbook. Next: a turning point, a decision to get louder, and the moment Eagles stop being a folk band and start becoming the biggest rock act in America.
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