“Midnight Flyer” by Eagles

The way the lyrics read is as if the titular “Midnight Flyer” is actually a train.  And the singer is looking forward to boarding this vehicle in search of his destiny. That is to say he is presented as someone who is not interested in the limited lifestyle options made available to him by his immediate environs.  He feels that staying put and accepting what is readily available to him is tantamount to playing the fool. So he wants to go away, far away, in search of a more-interesting life.

A couple of destinations he mentions specifically are “Santa Fe”, New Mexico and “San Antone”, which is probably a reference to San Antonio, Texas. So it can be said that he is most likely going west.

In fact this song, as others the Eagles have dropped, may actually be in a set in the past, i.e. a time when people were more compelled to use locomotives to traverse great distances as opposed to airplanes. And that being established, the narrator has absolutely, positively no intentions of ever returning to his point of departure. 

So it can be said, as alluded to earlier, that he sees the “Midnight Flyer” as the means to a new, more-fulfilling life. And in an attempt to be even more specific, his fantasy seems to be based adopting a lifestyle similar to those idealized in the American Old West such as, judging by some of the Eagles’ other works, a cowboy.

Facts about “Midnight Flyer”

This song was written by a musician named Paul Craft (1938-2014). Don Henley of the Eagles was happy to record it as he felt it showed the band had more versatility than the Country Rock genre they were cast under.

The producer of “Midnight Flyer” is Bill Szymcyzk.

This track came out on 22 March 1974 as part of the Eagles’ third album “On the Border”, which is a product of Asylum Records.