Don Felder and the Eagles

When the Frey tribute comes on, I'm going to listen to Victim of (self) Love in headphones.

 

They were NOT fine at all before OTB/OOTN came out, in fact they were in a pretty bad place. Check this interesting article out : 40 Years Ago: Eagles Release 'On the Border' »

Without Felder it can be argued that no one would be talking about the Eagles today, well not more than say the Flying Burrito Brothers. And they all know that, hence how hard it was for him to be treated like crap by Henley and especially by Frey (the whole "Fingers", political benefit concert, "would you believe he went into real estate", etc...).

 

There is no evidence for that whatsoever. Successful, yes, they'd already achieved mid-level success, but not the stratospheric heights afforded the platinum selling Hotel California. A group usually grabs that brass ring once and everything else hangs off of it. Nothing they did after Hotel California achieves that level of success. It was the Eagles pinnacle of achievement.


Cat

 

we'll never know.

 

it wouldn't be about what I wanted...

 

(sings) "The grammar police are inside of my head. The grammar police come to me in my bed".

 

One Of These Nights was written by Henley and Frey, so the track would have existed with a different lead guitarist. The album still would have made a huge impact without Visions.

Hotel California was loaded with great material. Clearly, Hotel California was an epic title track and the album would not have been what it was without it, but the some of you guys insinuate that the band would have been playing bars if not for Don Felder being one of three lead guitarists with a hand in co-writing just a handful of tracks.

Again, most people are not trying to diminish Felder's contributions to the band, but let's not overstate his importance either.

 

And Felder co-wrote two tracks on it. The album was loaded with great material from start to finish. Even without the title track, there would have been a very good album in the making. The Long Run, while not at the same consistent artistic level of greatness, was a very good album that sold millions and maintained the band's audience. Their stature grew through radio over the next 14 years, and then ironically, the Hell Freezes Over tour was bigger than anything that came before, so in that sense, HFO was a greater level of success.

 

Are you Felder's publicist? That is an astonishing statement. Wow, just wow.

 

Biggest selling album of the 20th Century. Seems like a stratospheric highlight to me.

 

sorry i do not buy into that, songs like Desperado and Take it Easy and a fair few others sans on the border would already given them a higher profile than the Burritos, and the Eagles had enough talent without Felder to progress, but were they a better band with Felder, unquestionably, until Walsh arrived then he becomes less of a miss imho

 

I don't ever draw that parallel. Maybe they were the Paul Stanley Gene Simmons lol

 

True, but the sales were catapulted by the next release, Hotel California. A greatest hits album by itself isn't a fair barometer, and besides, Felder played on four of those tracks which apparently didn't hurt sales.


Cat

 

The majority of that album's sales were achieved during the band's post-1980 hiatus and post-1994 resurgence; if it was all about Felder and Hotel California, 30-40 millions copies would not have been sold because there is little Felder on the album, and more noteworthy, there is no Hotel California on the album. Greatest Hits Vol. 1 stands on its own because of all the huge hits it contains: Take It Easy, The Best Of My Love, Peaceful Easy Feeling, Take It To The Limit, Desperado, Lyin' Eyes, etc.

 

"... If he isn’t Duane Allman reincarnate, I don’t know who the f— is. I feel better than ever since he’s joined. It’s much fuller onstage now.”

Read More: 40 Years Ago: Eagles Release 'On the Border' | 40 Years Ago: Eagles Release 'On the Border' »

 

Oh, I've been seeing the connections since the beginning of the thread!!

 

A the start of the Hell Freezes Over tour the band came refreshed and the equipment for live shows was much better. They were in there early forties older and wiser. It could be said that technically they were the live band ever. All that practice from the "circle of fear" rehearsals fine tuned their sound and their shows sounded like great studio recordings. They were often criticized for never ad-libbing but that wan't their style. It's very difficult to sound technically perfect live and Glenn Frye should get lot credit for that. People were lining up to up to $200 per show and quickly sold out the venues. It's funny but for me now that Glenn's gone he's becoming more of a sympathetic figure. Although he was a task master it paid off after all is said and done...

 

This only serves to make my point. The lion's share of sales from their first Greatest Hits album was post-Hotel California, ...after the huge success and tours supporting their magnum opus. This was after Felder walked and the group ceased touring. But by itself, their first Greatest Hits album isn't a good barometer of the strengths that brought fame to the group, ...it's merely a means of their new fans catching up on earlier, more modest hits that continued to get radio air play after Hotel California catapulted the group to super-star status.


Cat

 

I'm not much of an Eagles fan, and don't have a dog in this fight, but I don't care if Felder wrote 90% of Hotel California or 9%. Without Felder, that song wouldn't exist, and it turned out to be the Eagles best (IMO) and most iconic song. So I don't dismiss Felder's contribution to the group as easily as some here. The Eagles were a better band musically with him than they were without him.

And I get the impression Henley and Frey were a wee bit prickly to work for, so I give Felder some benefit of the doubt for that.

 

You guys are discussing the Eagles like they're important or something, I dismiss that premise.

 

Now you're really rewriting history!

 

He spent 20 years doing reunion tours of a band he was only in for a year in the first place!

 

Then, you are dismissed.

 

Nope. Felder walked after Glen Frey threatened him with bodily harm at that last Long Beach performance. Essentially, Felder smashed his acoustic guitar and split at the end of the show. The group didn't perform again on stage until the early 90's and creatively turned into a greatest hits cover band fronted by Frey and Henley. If you have another take on this, please feel free to share it.


Cat

 

I dismissed you first, you were part of the premise.