The county-ish sad saga of the lost love; the title is the suggested immediate solution to the problem…

It was the first single out of the Desperado album.
There were a few songs with cowboy-Western motif, such as Desperado.

It was one of the first songs co-written by both Frey and Henley.

Don Henley about Glenn Frey and the songrced here:

“I believe that was a Glenn title. I think he was ambivalent about it because he thought that it was a bit too obvious or too much of a cliché because of the drink that was so popular then. I said, ‘No-Look at it from a different point of view. You’ve been drinking straight tequila all night and the sun is coming up!’ It turned out to be a really great song”