Eagles - Desperado Lyrics Meaning

The song's meaning is stated plainly in the last line. The singer is telling his friend:

"You better let somebody love you before it's too late."

The lyrics in the rest of the song paint a compelling picture of the friend who has withdrawn from other people, describing him as a character from the Old West: a desperado in hiding, a cowboy patrolling the distant fencelines, a gambler trying to choose a winning strategy in a card game.

The verses discuss how the friend's choice to be a loner hurts him rather than helps:

"These things that are pleasin' you will hurt you somehow."

Rather than enriching his life, the isolation dulls it:

"Don't your feet get cold in the wintertime?
The sky won't snow and the sun won't shine,
It's hard to tell the night time from the day.
You're losin' all your highs and lows,
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes away?"

It's not too late to reverse his decline, but he must change his priorities, and soon:

"Now it seems to me some fine things
Have been laid upon your table,
But you only want the ones you can't get."

"Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home.
And freedom? Oh, freedom. Well, that's just some people talkin'.
Your prison is walking through this world all alone."

The singer counsels his friend to pursue love rather than riches, using the symbolism of queens in a pack of cards:

"Don't you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy,
She'll beat you if she's able.
You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet."

There is still hope:

"It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you."