Desperado – The Eagles

The wistful notes of this melancholic cry for a wanderer to come home work well on the uke, and we can even play it in the original key (harder to sing than play). Most of the chords should be familiar, and even the unfamiliar ones aren’t too hard – the Cm6 sounds scary, but is just two fingers, and the rhythms are fairly straightforward. The chords are mostly G, G7, C, Em, and D – and although they change a lot, it’s really not as hard as it might seem… You can skip out the B7 and the quick Ds if preferred.

I’ve even tabbed out the intro and outro as played on piano – they can really sound good on the uke. Keep it steady and not too fast, and even the quick chord changes at the end should prove doable. It’s often voted one of the finest songs of all time (494th in the All Time List according to Rolling Stone – I think it should be higher).

A gem of a song to play around a campfire when the mood is right.

I’ve added tab for the verse and chorus in case you fancy having a go at the fingerpicked twiddles I put in on the performance…

If you don’t want to sing – then Ukulele Hunt have an excellent instrumental arrangement (I borrowed the intro from here!) – it’ll stretch your fingers more than your vocal chords https://ukulelehunt.com/2020/09/29/eagles-desperado-tab/

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