I am a massive fan of Felder and Walsh, but even I admit it, the original 4 were the best in terms of harmonies.
The chemistry... nuff said
Yes by far the orginal four because they sounded so full and yet could divide up the parts so well and make the most of them, suh as Bernie doing the main harmonies on PEF or three part blend on saturday night. THey never really did the two part harmonies like during the second verse of TIE in later incarnations.
The best harmonies post the fab four was probably on Wasted Time whne the big AAAhhhs come in on the line I think "I remember what you told me,when you run out on your own.. keep it together you go tto leave it alone" bit was extroadinary
Same Dancers in the Same Old Shoes
Don & Glenn do some great two part harmonies on the song LROOE. Once again this album is overlooked.
I must say though, the harmonies in both Wasted Time & The Last Resort (brief though they are in the latter song) come as a relief as Henley has dominated both songs so completely until they arrive.
It also should be said that some of the harmonies on The Long Run are barely worthy of mention, and The Disco Strangler has no backing vocals at all. It does seem that as they moved away from country rock, they moved away from layered harmonies & towards more emphasis on the lead vocal, which is most glaringly obvious on the Hotel California album, despite the glorious harmonies of NKIT, PMIAR & TALA.
Last edited by Freypower; 05-19-2018 at 12:20 AM.
I’m referring to the chorus where I struggle to hear that lowest part. I have listened to this again a few times and this is what I hear.
1st chorus at 1:34 - Don and Timothy singing, no low part detected
2nd chorus at 3:02 - Don and Timothy again, this time I hear a low voice punched in at ‘settle’ and ‘town’ then Don sings solo again at 3:37 (‘you’re swinging on the top...’)
‘aaahs’ at 3:55 - no low part detected but Glenn could be singing higher here
3rd chorus at 4:46 - more punched in low parts at ‘fall’ ‘tides’ then Timothy breaks away to sing the answering part (‘waiting in the weeds’ ‘floating on the breeze’ ‘keeping to myself’) as Don continues the chorus mostly by himself. Another punched in low part at ‘changing.’
‘Oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ at 6:33 no low part but again Glenn could be singing here (as I have said before when previously discussing this song).
After carefully listening I do hear some low notes at certain parts of the chorus but they are quite subtle. Since I’ve never heard Glenn sing that low, I can’t identify the voice as his or rule out it being Joe (although I doubt it). It could be Henley himself dubbing in those parts or maybe even Steuart Smith given he co-wrote the song. There also seems to be some kind of voice effect like reverb going on during the chorus. At any rate, it still seems to be a 2-part harmony which dominates the chorus, at least to me.
Do the liner notes say who sings bgv on this song?
Right or wrong, what’s done is done
It’s only moments that you borrow...
I hear Glenn in the parts which you claim are 'punched in', the low parts, particularly the word 'changing' and also in the last chorus, 'the tide's eternal tune' etc. During the section where Tim is doing the answering, I think he's singing with Don, although he's not easy to hear. His voice deepened as he got older; see the title track. He isn't very prominent & he is hard to pick out, that's true. He may not be there in the 'ah ah ah' part although I find it hard to see why he wouldn't be.
The credits on LROOE are notorious for their lack of information. They do not list backing vocals credits. I should mention, however, that none of the backing band receive any credits for vocals.
Last edited by Freypower; 05-19-2018 at 03:35 AM.
I have to go with the original lineup as well!
I checked the first chorus and I definitely hear a harmony below Don's main melody throughout the chorus - not just on certain words. And I hear two parts above the main melody. So I hear four parts in all. The lowest part may be hard to hear in places, because it blends with the instruments in terms of frequencies?
Last edited by chaim; 05-19-2018 at 08:52 AM.