Desperado is the second studio album by the American rock band the Eagles, released on April 17, 1973, by Asylum Records.

[5] Jackson Browne himself credited the song "Desperado" written by Frey and Henley, as the origin of the outlaw theme of the album.

"[9] Henley also said that the album was to be their "big artistic commentary on the evils of fame and success, with a cowboy metaphor.

We were in L.A. staying up all night, smoking dope, living the California life, and I suppose we thought it was as radical as cowboys in the old West.

Part of the reasons for their dissatisfaction and cynicism with the music business was due to David Geffen selling his independent Asylum label to Warner Communications which then merged it with Elektra,[11][12] and the band attributed this as the reason for the lack of interest in promoting the band internationally by EMI.

"[15] Leadon wrote two songs – "Twenty-One" and "Bitter Creek" – while Randy Meisner co-wrote "Certain Kind of Fool" and "Saturday Night".

The band was very happy with the finished result; after Johns had played the album back to them as an entity for the first time, they carried him on their shoulders out of the control room.

On the back of the album is an image of all four members of the band together with Jackson Browne and JD Souther lying dead and bound on the ground.

A posse stands over them, including the producer Glyn Johns (far right in a white hat), manager John Hartmann, road manager Tommy Nixon, artist Boyd Elder (who would be responsible for the skull artwork of Eagles' later albums), roadies, and Gary Burden (far left).

[7] The photo shoot took place at the Paramount Ranch, an old film set for Western movies in Malibu Canyon.

[24] Henley described the promotional film, like the album itself, as "a commentary on [their] loss of innocence with regard to how the music business really worked".

In conclusion, he wrote: "Desperado won't cure your hangover or revalue the dollar, but it will give you many good times.

"[30] Robert Christgau, however, took the view that "with its barstool-macho equation of gunslinger and guitarschlonger, its on-the-road misogyny, its playing-card metaphors, and its paucity of decent songs, this soundtrack to an imaginary Sam Peckinpah movie is "concept" at its most mindless.

"[26] AllMusic editor William Ruhlmann praised that Henley had more involvement with the album, but wrote that it "was simultaneously more ambitious and serious-minded than its predecessor and also slighter and less consistent.

[35] Ultimate Classic Rock critic Sterling Whitaker rated both "Tequila Sunrise" and "Doolin-Dalton" as being among the Eagles' 10 most underrated songs.

[40] It was certified Gold on September 23, 1974 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) after the release of On the Border, followed by a double platinum certification on March 20, 2001, indicating shipment of 2 million copies in the United States.