Felder's "Heaven and Hell" Discussion Thread

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Well, I have said before that I do think Felder brought something to the live performances that is lacking now. Sadly, I never got to see him live, but in all of the video I've watched (which, yes, is a LOT), the way he and Joe played off one another was something special to watch. Steuart's stage presence is much more low key, but in fairness, that may be intentional since he is not an official Eagle.

I don't consider the band all Frey and Henley either, although I think it's safe to say the band would cease to exist without either of them. However, the analogy I've used before is that the Eagles are like a cake recipe. Some ingredients are more important than others, but if you leave anything out, you can tell the difference. And some ingredients can be substituted for others without much degradation in quality, but not all of them. At this point in the band's history, if is doubtful that any of the remaining four members would be replaced.

Regarding if Felder could have been as successful without the Eagles, I can only go by what he's done before and since he left the band, and, of course, the answer is no. But, again, in trying to be fair, I think that is true of all the band members. Even though Henley, Frey, and Walsh all were pretty successful on their own, they didn't have the success they had in the Eagles, which goes back the point that it's the combination of their talents that makes the Eagles so special.

As far as Frey and Henley tossing good songs that the others wrote, I can only say, look at their track record. Maybe the Eagles wouldn't have been as special if they had recorded those discarded songs instead of the ones that they did. It's hard for me to argue with their success.

[Topkat]

Quote from VAisforEagleLovers:

As for the question on how well Felder would have done without the Eagles, according to his own book, he was stuck in a farmhouse in rural NY with no prospects and apparently lacking the gumption to go somewhere where he could get back on track. Then Bernie called.

In all fairness, this was in the early 70's & Felder had just gotten married to a girl from the east coast. Bernie called and told him to come to LA. I have no doubt that if he hadn't hooked up with the Eagles, he would have hooked up with some other band. There's no telling where he would have gone. Bernie was a friend of his, so he eventually ended up in the Eagles, but I think he could have been successful elsewhere. He also knew Tom Petty.

[Lisa]

Don Felder's such a wonderful guitarist. That is a long time ago.

[shanelle lee]

I finished reading Don's book last weekend. It took me half a day. I just couldn't put it down. I have read another couple of books about the Eagles and was interested to hear what Felder had to say. It's good to compare all the comments and articles that have been written about the boys and their music. I have to say I think no matter what, Don Henley comes across to me as being something of a gentleman. I think that Henley's lyrics say a lot about him. He is an educated person [I'm not sure that he graduated from University but I know he did a lot of study]. Also, I think he mustn't be too bad as a person because he wouldn't have been as successful as a solo artist. Karma?

I think that Felder's book presented a lot of sour grapes on his part and a lot of a victim mentality. The good thing is that we, the public, have this information now and can make some perhaps halfway accurate judgements about the Eagles by reading between the lines of Felder's story. What got me was that apparently Felder and Joe Walsh were going to form a band with Randy but after Randy left, Don and Joe backed off. Then, who is the first person Felder runs to after he's fired? Randy Meisner! I found that information very interesting. Something that won my ongoing respect for Don Henley [I always liked and respected him but more after this]. Don found out that Don Felder and Joe backed out of forming a band with Randy - Joe must have had a lot to do with this - Don called Joe a big trouble maker [not verbatim] but I don't think Don Henley is a fool or without compassion. I'm sure he and Glen would have been disappointed to lose Randy especially after everything they had been through over the years.

[shanelle lee]

I really like the comments made in number 13 in this thread. I concur!

[sodascouts]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Wow, I can't believe that in a few months, it will have been five years since Felder's book came out!

[shanelle lee]

I only became aware of Don Felder's book a couple of weeks ago. The next door neighbours were playing The Eagles Greatest Hits and I thought I would search the web to see what the band has been up to the last couple of years. I lost interest when Hell Freezes Over resumption happened because I felt it was a big cop-out by the Eagles.

[chaim]

I've been rereading this book again. I don't remember this being discussed, but once again I found myself wondering what Don's talking about when he mentions On The Border containing fifteen songs. Or was it fourteen? Anyway, he says that Don and Glenn were credited in nine of them.
I've only ever seen a ten-song version of the album. Has there been a version with more songs released?

[Freypower]

I've just looked at the book & that is a major error, because there has never to my knowledge been a '14 track' version of On The Border (that's the number of tracks Felder quotes). He says that Henley sings 'five' tracks & Glenn 'four'. Henley sings lead or co-lead on four tracks, Glenn also four. Where he got this I have no idea.

And if you add up his number of lead vocals - Henley five, Frey four, Meisner two, Leadon one - guess what; that adds up to 12.

As for the writing credits on the actual album, Don & Glenn are credited on five tracks as writers either with others or in the case of GDIH just the two of them (interestingly that, my favourite song on the album, is the only song with the classic Henley-Frey credit).

Sadly this whole thing speaks volumes about the way Felder disregards basic facts in order to demonise Henley & Frey, despite the praise he lavishes on Henley's BOML vocal (there is of course, to counter this, not a word about Glenn's contributions).

[whitcap]

I know of four songs (Randy's Wait and See, Bernie's Georgia Peach, Glenn's Bad Man, and an unknown song written by Richie Furay) that didn't make the final cut of On the Border. Those songs would've made the album 14 songs long.