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glenneaglesfan
10-12-2007, 01:22 PM
It was only the fact that I was travelling by train today which made me buy a paper, and look what I found!

http://www.donfelderonline.com/

From The Times
October 12, 2007
How The Eagles took it to the limits
Born with a love for country rock and sweet harmonies, the Eagles fell apart in a welter of sex, drugs and bad vibes, recalled in this extract from a new book by their guitarist, Don Felder.

There was considerable rivalry between bands over which of us was having the most fun on the road. Led Zeppelin were considered to be the masters, with bands like the Rolling Stones and The Who close behind. By comparison, we were Little League, but the one area we did excel was in attracting women. We were young, famous, good-looking and rich. We were right up there on the list of rock-star scalps the groupies wanted to add to their belts.
Glenn [Frey] once publicly described our life on the road as: “Got crazy, got drunk, got high, had girls, played music and made money.” He challenged Led Zeppelin to the claim of supreme party animals, maintaining: “We threw the greatest travelling party of the Seventies.” He was right.
As a band, we had a policy of only ever doing two two-song encores, and after we released the album One of These Nights (1975) that was used to our advantage. While we were onstage, the road crew would scout the audience for willing participants and offer them backstage passes for what became known as the Third Encore – the party after the show.
Later, Don [Henley] and Glenn took the system to a higher level of sophistication. Laminated passes were done away with – too indiscreet – and little buttons, with “3E” written on them in yellow English Gothic print on a black background were passed out by the handful. The message was that the Eagles were having a party and would like to invite these women back to their hotel suite. No boyfriends were invited.
Despite the “relief” on offer, the tensions within the band continued to deepen. Everything from facial expressions to talking too much became an issue, and nerves were frayed. Don and Glenn decided they were going to take control of every aspect of the Eagles, and a lot of emotion was vented – in between the drug-taking.
In March 1976 our record company, Asylum, released a greatest-hits album. None of us had a say in the decision. A week after its release, Eagles – Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 had sold a million copies on its way to becoming one of the biggest albums of all time (41 million sold worldwide, and counting).
The trappings of success were ours by now, especially when we went on the road again for a 26-city tour. We took Lear jets the way other people took taxis. We drank champagne and snorted cocaine. Groupies were a common feature of the early parties, but Don Henley’s discrimination and discretion increased with his wealth. He began dating high-class, high-profile women and would arrange to have them come out on the road one after another, because the quality of groupies for the 3E parties was very inconsistent from town to town. During what he considered the weakest part of the tour he’d import girls from LA. Glenn did this too.
After two serious relationships ended with the woman leaving him, Don began a two-year on-off relationship with Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, who were on the road as much as we were. He began paying for her to be flown between Eagles and Fleetwood Mac gigs, engendering the band’s new catchphrase: “Love ’em and Lear ’em.”
I blame the drugs more than anything for what happened with the Eagles. We went from a bunch of young guys hanging out together to five men who couldn’t stand each other. Not that I was going to complain at the time. I honestly didn’t know how much I had in the bank back then. I was a rock’n’roll star, and the business managers could see to the cash flow.
The final recording and editing of the Hotel California album took place at Criteria Studios, Miami. Fresh rifts began to open up. In the words of Glenn Frey, “No one can suck the fun out of a room faster than Don Henley.” But his perfectionism undoubtedly worked; thanks to Don and his insistence on doing everything just so, we produced probably our most brilliant studio album. But the process was sometimes difficult to live with.
In between takes, Don had become a prolific letter-writer. In one he composed to the studio maid, he insisted that the floral toilet paper be put on the roll the other way around so it rolled off the top, pointing out that if it was meant to come off the bottom, the little pink flowers would have been printed on the undersides of the sheets. Where you would see them.
We endured seven quarrelsome months in Miami, broken only by a concert tour. After what seemed like an eternity, we finally delivered an album that continues to dominate the hearts of America. On January 14, 1977, three weeks after its release, we kicked off a world tour. Aside from snatched moments of happiness, however, the gruelling nature of what we were doing took its toll. In Montreal, when there was a screw-up on a hotel reservation, Don blamed our long-time road manager, Richie Fernandez, and ordered him to be fired. This led the rest of the crew, already unhappy with the atmosphere, to dub it the Prison California tour. “The Gods”, as Glenn and Don were called behind their backs, were taking the reins, and those that opposed them were either expelled or driven out. In 18 months I’d lost my two best friends in the band – Bernie [Leadon], that fiery streak of brilliance [who left after One of These Nights], and gentle Randy Meisner, the sweetest man in the music business [who quit after the release of Hotel California].
In the summer of 1979 we were back to the grindstone in Miami. In September our album The Long Run was released. It took 18 months to record, almost a year longer than Hotel California, and it nearly killed us. It debuted at No 1, but the critics savaged it. Instead of resting, as we should have done, we played Japan, Hawaii, the East Coast and the Southern states, before embarking on another world tour. In Japan, I bought my wife Susan a beautiful kimono, hand-embroidered, in heavy material. Don Henley bought 20.
The new decade began with us at the top of the charts. But nonstop touring was getting us all down. After each show, we’d head off to our individual hotel rooms. Only when the stage lights came on were we a unified rock’n’roll band.
Then Glenn committed us to playing a benefit gig at the Long Beach Arena on July 31, 1980, for the reelection of the liberal California senator Alan Cranston, a night that would become known as “Long Night at Wrong Beach”.
Glenn knew I wasn’t comfortable with a rock band doing a show for politicians. His hostility was compounded when Mrs [Norma] Cranston walked up to me backstage to say hello just before we went onstage. “Hello,” I replied. “Nice to meet you . . .” As she walked away, I added, under my breath: “I guess.”
Glenn heard this. He found me in the dressing room and started yelling at me. I don’t know if it was the drugs, or the fact that we’d been on tour for so long, but he just blew up. Just before we stepped onstage I turned to him and said: “You know, Glenn, what you just did back there? You’re an asshole for doing that.”
He replied: “That’s an honour, coming from you.”
We walked onstage, and he came over while we were playing The Best of my Love and said: “F*** you. I’m gonna kick your ass when we get off the stage.” Neither of us really wanted to be there that night, and for me it was one gig too many. As the night progressed, we both grew angrier and began hissing at each other under our breath. The sound technicians feared the audience might hear our outbursts, so they lowered Glenn’s microphone until he had to sing. He approached me after every song to rant, rave, curse – and let me know how many songs remained before our fight.
When we came offstage and were waiting to be called back for the first encore I stayed by myself, trying to calm down. Then I remembered something [the Eagles’ multi-instrumentalist] Joe Walsh would do to release tension. I told my guitar tech, Jimmy Collins: “Take that s***** acoustic guitar I play on Lyin’ Eyes and put it by the back door.”
When the gig finished, most of the band took off in their limos – anything to get away from the atmosphere between Glenn and me. I thought I’d be the last to leave the building. I towelled myself down and headed for the back door. Seeing the guitar Jimmy had put out for me, I took a deep breath, picked it up – and smashed it as hard as I could against a concrete column.
By the time I’d finished it was kindling on the floor. I turned and saw the Cranstons standing right behind me, their mouths agape. A few feet away stood a stony-faced Glenn. This had had little or nothing to do with the Cranstons, but Glenn thought I did that right in front of them to drive it up his butt.
“Typical of you to break your cheapest guitar,” Glenn told me after the Cranstons had hurried off to their car. Afraid of what I might do if I opened my mouth to respond, I jumped into my limo and sped off.
Within a few days, I’d cooled down. The phone rang. It was our producer, Bill Szymczyk. “What’s the schedule for the band?” I asked.
A small silence fell. “There is no band at this time,” he said. It was 1980, and the Eagles were history.
© Don Felder, 2007
Extracted from Heaven and Hell by Don Felder, to be published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson on November 1 (£20) A new album by the Eagles, Long Road out of Eden, is released by Polydor on Oct 29
10/12/2007

Sexy Girl
10-12-2007, 01:30 PM
Got that on a google alert, too - but I hadn't looked at it so far.
Thanks for posting that GEF (and reminding me)!!

Anyway ... I think that can only be a rough summary, I mean what else is new??? This is Eagles from '74 to '80 in a hurry, this couldn't be much more than a blurb.

Ive always been a dreamer
10-12-2007, 03:18 PM
Thanks for posting that GEF. Well - I hate to be negative, but I am not surprized reading this. I didn't learn anything that I didn't already know! Hopefully, there will be more insight in other parts of the book.

Freypower
10-12-2007, 06:20 PM
Surely this is a precis, not a verbatim extract. If it's verbatim he's crammed the four biggest years of the band's career into about a page and a half.

Assuming it's a precis.... what is with telling the hoary old 'Don and the toilet paper' story yet again? I first read that in 1979. Felder was there. Surely he could have come up with something more interesting or varied than that. Then he quotes something Glenn said in an interview. Again, can he not do better than that?

His account of the breakup gig is reasonably honest. I can see, however, why Glenn was so angry with him. Perhaps it was wrong for Glenn to carry on the way he did on stage, but I think he'd had enough. Felder appeared to start it by being rude to the Cranstons and then by what he said to Glenn. No, no, NO.

It's been rehashed from both the Shapiro and Eliot books. As I say, I sincerely hope that this is just to give a 'feel' for it and has not been lifted direct, because if it has, it is not worth the effort, and it is almost impossible to see that Felder himself has had any input into it.

Maleah
10-12-2007, 09:48 PM
I think it's fair to say that quite possibly the only innocent Eagle in the whole breakup was probably Timothy. lol Possibly Joe......not a whole lot seems to be said about him. :lol:

EasyFeeling
10-13-2007, 05:17 AM
Thanks for posting this, GEF. An "interesting" read, at least for me who don't know much about "behind the scenes" back then. For instance I've never heard the story about Don and the toilet paper. :wink:

Brooke
10-13-2007, 02:10 PM
Thanks for posting that gef. Most of it we've heard before, so I hope, like everyone else, that he has more to say than this rehashing of old news.

So, can we here in the US order this through Amazon UK? How does that work?

Ok, anyone with a "3E" button, raise your hand! :wink: :rofl:

Freypower
10-13-2007, 10:34 PM
Ordering through amazon.co.uk is exactly the same as ordering through amazon.com. The order will be in pounds but on your credit card statement it will be in American dollars.

I have had two emails from them telling me my delivery date has been pushed back to the end of October, but after reading that 'extract' I really am not bothered.

And yes, I know that not everyone has heard the 'toilet paper' story but I was around at the time, and I speak for myself, and I give a very loud yawn.

EasyFeeling
10-14-2007, 04:40 AM
I know FP, that must be very boring for you to read since you and others here are fans for many many years.

Ive always been a dreamer
10-14-2007, 12:34 PM
Yeah - I also pre-ordered the book from Amazon.uk.com, but I haven't gotten any emails about a change in delivery date. However, when I track the item, I notice my estimated delivery date has been changed from Oct. 18 - Oct. 22 to Oct. 22 - Oct. 25. I'll have to keep an eye on it to see if the date changes again. Oh well, unless it's really horrible, I'll probably read it anyway even if it is the same old crap. After all, how will I know it's the same old crap if I don't read it. :wink: :wink: I am hopeful that he has some new stuff to tell though, especially about things after the resumption. There's not a lot of information out about that time period.

EasyFeeling
10-14-2007, 01:27 PM
Hmmmm... I'm still thinking about to order that book, not sure yet. It would be my first book in English language so I think it takes a while until I'm finished with it. Meanwhile it's been discussed to death here while I'm still reading. :wink:

sodascouts
10-14-2007, 01:35 PM
I daresay, as FP speculates, that this is not a verbatim piece from the book. It is just a few things stuck together that were probably picked by the publisher and not Felder. And while the toilet paper story is old hat to some fans, people who are trying to decide whether or not to buy it may find it interesting and funny, and buy the book hoping for more amusing anecdotes.

Certainly I will wait until I read the book to judge it.

glenneaglesfan
10-14-2007, 03:39 PM
It's more or less a rite of passage to read this now. I'm not sure it will tell us much new.

Ive always been a dreamer
10-14-2007, 04:00 PM
Another thought I had that I meant to mention earlier is regarding the comment that Glenn made in the 70's that no one could suck the fun out of a room like Henley. I wonder if Felder will be fair and quote any comments from Glenn later when he says that Henley is a fun guy, and has a great sense of humor.

And OBTW, Brooke - I can't believe that I never showed y'all my 3E button. :oops:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Molly
10-14-2007, 05:01 PM
And OBTW, Brooke - I can't believe that I never showed y'all my 3E button. :oops:

:lol: :lol: :lol:

And I would show mine, but considering how underage I was then-I don't want to get anyone in trouble! :twisted: :wink:

Freypower
10-14-2007, 07:56 PM
I daresay, as FP speculates, that this is not a verbatim piece from the book. It is just a few things stuck together that were probably picked by the publisher and not Felder. And while the toilet paper story is old hat to some fans, people who are trying to decide whether or not to buy it may find it interesting and funny, and buy the book hoping for more amusing anecdotes.

Certainly I will wait until I read the book to judge it.

Perhaps some people will find that anecdote interesting and funny until they've been assured that it was first aired in 1979. Not to mention the 'Don had Richard Fernandez fired' bit which is straight from Eliot. The point is that Felder was a member of the band and one would have expected to be told something different instead of regurgitating the same old stuff.

People who were fans of the band in 1979 as I was have every right to feel that from what we have seen, not a great deal of effort appears to have gone into it. I don't want to prejudge it either, but this is supposed to be a 'taster' which is supposed to engage our interest.

And no, I don't think that very many positive comments will be quoted about Henley and Frey either about them or regarding what they said about each other.

EasyFeeling
10-15-2007, 01:00 PM
What is a 3E button? :?

Brooke
10-15-2007, 01:13 PM
It was here in the article:

While we were onstage, the road crew would scout the audience for willing participants and offer them backstage passes for what became known as the Third Encore – the party after the show.
Later, Don [Henley] and Glenn took the system to a higher level of sophistication. Laminated passes were done away with – too indiscreet – and little buttons, with “3E” written on them in yellow English Gothic print on a black background were passed out by the handful. The message was that the Eagles were having a party and would like to invite these women back to their hotel suite. No boyfriends were invited.

I guess you don't have one EF?! :lol:

EasyFeeling
10-15-2007, 02:08 PM
What... a boyfriend or that button? :twisted:

Ah yes, I've read it but didn't realize http://www.cheesebuerger.de/images/smilie/konfus/n015.gif the meaning of "3E". It's the "third encore".

Ive always been a dreamer
10-15-2007, 03:40 PM
Okay - If you guys insist, I'm going to share my 3E button with you. Molly, I assume you still have yours, too.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b296/kay8342/3Ebutton-1.jpg

Brooke
10-15-2007, 04:30 PM
:rofl: Oh dreamer, too funny!

tbs fanatic
10-15-2007, 05:30 PM
OOOOOOOOOOOOH! Okay, you had better spill the beans - or else!!!

Molly
10-15-2007, 05:36 PM
Okay - If you guys insist, I'm going to share my 3E button with you. Molly, I assume you still have yours, too.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b296/kay8342/3Ebutton-1.jpg

Of course, though mine is in a hermetically sealed case within a room I had specially built in my house with 3 foot steel walls and locked and bolted door with a guard standing outside of it 24/7. :wink:

Maleah
10-15-2007, 05:39 PM
OOOOOOOOOOOOH! Okay, you had better spill the beans - or else!!!

It's ok my friend..........a little birdy tells me they're fibbing ;)

sodascouts
10-15-2007, 05:50 PM
lol! you guys are so bad.

Ive always been a dreamer
10-16-2007, 10:53 AM
Oh well - I guess I'm busted! The 3E button is indeed a fraud. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to be a groupie back in the day. I was a very poor, struggling college student in the early 70's, and probably even poorer in the late 70's when I got my first job, and had moved out on my own. However, missing out on being an Eagle's groupie has always been one of my biggest regrets. :wink: :wink:

Molly, however, will have to speak for herself. I don't know how poor she was, but she was awfully young to have gotten 3E button, even from the Teen King. :D :D

Brooke
10-16-2007, 04:39 PM
Don't feel bad, dreamer. Being from the boondocks of Missouri I certainly had no way to get to California to become a groupie either! :cry: But that was a very believable 3E pin! Good try! :hilarious:

And you guys have talked me in to buying this book. :pace: Just placed my order and am anxiously awaiting delivery. They say it will ship the 18th and I should have it between the 25th and 29th. I can't wait! :blueblob:

Molly
10-16-2007, 07:16 PM
Molly, however, will have to speak for herself. I don't know how poor she was, but she was awfully young to have gotten 3E button, even from the Teen King. :D :D

Much to young in the 70's for the Teen King! Good grief -someone would have needed to explain to me what the button meant. :? :shock:

Ive always been a dreamer
10-17-2007, 09:32 AM
Wow Molly - You REALLY were too young to be a groupie back then! :D :D

And OBTW - I got an email from Amazon.uk.com this morning that my book has been dispatched. The expected delivery date is 10/25. Should be really interesting!

Perfect Little Sister
10-17-2007, 03:57 PM
Yes, well, back then I thought Life In The Fast Lane was about race cars. And they needed an ambulance cuz they crashed the car. And they didn't have insurance so they had to pay cash. :roll:

Molly
10-17-2007, 05:22 PM
Wow Molly - You REALLY were too young to be a groupie back then! :D :D



Glenn would have had to change his nickname to the Pre-teen
King -so we won't even go there!!

PLS, you mean that's not what LITFL is about? :blush: :wink:

Freypower
10-17-2007, 08:01 PM
My copy of H&H has been shipped. Goody. I can hardly wait. :?

Freypower
10-22-2007, 06:11 PM
OK - I now have Felder's book and I want to say a few things. To make it easier I will refer to the guys by their surnames. I skimmed through it to get to the 'juicy' bits and only now have I started reading it properly. I won't quote anything directly because as long as it doesn't have a US publisher, that could be problematic.

Overall it's interesting. The 'private' descriptions of his childhood, relationships with his parents, older brother and Susan, his first wife, as well as some musicians like Bernie and Stephen Stills, works quite well. You get this sense of someone trying hard to become a success and always somehow missing out.

When it gets to the Eagles Felder becomes disenchanted from Day One and that just continues. I will summarise some of his thoughts.

Henley gets off fairly lightly, I think, apart from the 'obsessive perfectionist uptight moody humourless' bit. Felder praises his singing and songwriting. Any excesses Henley practices are normally lumped in with Frey under the name 'The Gods'. However, there is an appalling photo of Henley, 'sneering' to quote the caption, which makes one question Felder's motives. You can dislike someone without being as petty as that. The similar photo of Frey, while unflattering, is not as horrible to look at.

Frey is painted as the villain of the piece. The arrogance, the bluster, the determination to get his own way, come through. The charm and certainly the talent do not. Felder follows Eliot slavishly in having not a word to say about Frey's vocal or musical skills. The confrontations with Leadon, Meisner and finally himself depict Frey as a man who could not tolerate dissent. He also apparently used humour as humiliation. The 'random victims' thing was about him humiliating people to make himself seem superior, all the time that Henley was becoming more musically prominent. Yet Felder does say that on a few occasions Frey tried to be conciliatory towards him, before the mask came down again and they returned to hating each other.

A peculiar claim is made about the instrumental piece of music which was played during the HFO interval. Felder claims this was written by Timothy Drury and it was to be on the box set, and Drury was delighted to think he'd get a songwriting credit. Of course it was pulled. But I have always thought that music was Frey's instrumental Silent Spring, which predates the reunion.

The 1990 reunion seemed all set to go until Frey did not show up. Henley then said to the others 'without Frey it would be Don Henley and his backing band'. Frey apparently sent several 'cease & desist' messages. The Travis Tritt thing was nearly derailed because Henley kept everyone waiting. This is abou the worst criticism of Henley which Felder makes, that he was always late. I have a vague memory that in 2001 Frey issued an edict that no-one was to be late in future.

Felder claims that the reason he didn't think Frey and Henley should be paid more than the others was that they didn't 'promote' the Eagles any more than the other members during the solo years, but only the solo work. On the contrary - Frey and Henley's solo years kept the name 'Eagles' alive. Felder also says that Frey said that he and Henley were like the big guns in a sports team who were brought in to provide the team with extra firepower. In that case, Felder says, wasn't it ME who was brought in? I haven't really dealt with this part yet.

The account of his firing is rather sad. Azoff rang him in February 2001 to tell him he was fired. He demanded to speak to Henley. Azoff refused to put him in contact with Henley. His efforts failed. As a last resort he rang Frey's studio. Frey answered the phone. Felder, who hated Frey so much, begged 'Roach, please take me back'. Frey answered that he didn't want any more letters from Felder's lawyer and that Felder should 'move on' (I am paraphrasing here). He hung up. Felder's subsequent phone calls to Walsh and Schmit (both of whom are shadowy figures in this book) were also unpleasant.

I will leave it there, but it hasn't changed my mind about Frey, Henley and especially Felder himself.

Molly
10-22-2007, 07:04 PM
I received my book today. I wasn't expecting it for another week-so I was quite surprised when I opened my mailbox this evening.

So far, I've refrained from skipping ahead to the "juicy parts". I'm still reading about struggling Don back in Gainesville, FLA.

I chuckled, though when I flipped forward to look at the photos that are included. Sweet photo of Tim , jovial photo of Joe. A photo of Don H. that makes him look like Satan, and a photo of Glenn that makes him look like a complete lunatic. Subtle!

Brooke
10-22-2007, 07:58 PM
I got mine today too! I was surprised it made it here so quickly coming from across the pond and all! I don't believe it would have made it here this quick coming from NYC or LA or anywhere in the US for that matter!

I have scanned the photos too. The one of Don H really is terrible! I'm planning on starting on reading tonight.

What about having a Border book club discussion online? I don't know how to do it, but maybe some of you would have a suggestion? I thought about reading and discussing 1 or 2 chapters a week or something like that?

Just an idea.

sodascouts
10-22-2007, 09:26 PM
Thanks for the summary, FP. I had a bad feeling Glenn would get the brunt of the criticism. He and Felder never got along. I'm jealous of those who've got the book already. While I eagerly await it because I want to read an insider's perspective, I'm not in any hurry to read disses of Glenn.

sodascouts
10-22-2007, 09:27 PM
Brooke - the "Border Book Club" discussion sounds like a good idea. How does that work?

Brooke
10-23-2007, 09:24 AM
Brooke - the "Border Book Club" discussion sounds like a good idea. How does that work?

I really don't know! Chapter 1 was only 1 or 2 pages, but I've read for an hour or so last night and am still in Chapter 2.

I guess everyone would just comment on anything that interested them here. The part I read about last night was mostly about his childhood, which was pretty boring and I was like "who cares?".

But we need to wait to start till everyone gets the book.

Freypower
10-23-2007, 09:06 PM
So do you not want me to say any more? I had a lot of time yesterday and I finished it. I will say that the book length disparaging of 'The Gods' suddenly changes when he's fired and then it's all 'they were my family' and 'remember all the good times'? I found that very, very hollow, especially when he says that he is 'proud' that he 'stood up' to them. Basically it appears that he thought they were no better or worse than any other musicians and he utterly fails to appreciate their talents, except for Henley's in a grudging sense. He also fails to appreciate that they were keeping him in the position to which he became so accustomed.

I won't go on, if we're going to discuss it further, but another interesting point is his apparent lack of interest in virtually EVERY Eagles song except, of course, Hotel California ('my song') and strangely, Seven Bridges Road.

Sexy Girl
10-24-2007, 02:40 AM
I didn't have any time to read the book, no way to do that now :evil:
(however I think spending the little time I had to rather listen to Capitol Gold was a good decision).

Anyway, it's interesting that Felder seems to appreciate several Eagles songs (apart from Hotel California) enough to perform them live nowadays.

Brooke
10-24-2007, 09:34 AM
Finished it, Fp! You are fast girl!

I didn't have any time to read on the book last night, but from what I have read, he talks like he was the only one involved in the writing of HC! :roll:

sodascouts
10-24-2007, 11:56 AM
I got the book yesterday and stayed up late last night to finish it (I'm a fairly fast reader). Frey really does get the major brunt of the criticism. I don't think the book is very fair to him.

I do think we might want to talk about the book while the iron is hot, though... how long should we wait, Brooke?

Brooke
10-24-2007, 01:06 PM
Wow, Soda!

Well, it sounds like most of us have it, so I say go ahead and discuss!
:D

glenneaglesfan
10-26-2007, 04:19 AM
Amazon is giving me a dispatch date for mid December. :?