Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
New Kid In Town
I agree Chaim. I can see why it was not included on OOTN album. They were not going to include a song about the birth of Don F's son. Although it was a beautiful and special time for him, it was not suitable for the album. Sounds like he still has a grudge all these years later ! And, this part of the article shocked me : "Don Felder wrote 16 or 17 songs for Eagles ‘Hotel California’. Only two, ‘Hotel California’ and ‘Victim of Love’ were used. He has not gone back and listened to the ones that weren’t used on the label but says they still exist. “As a matter of fact I was just thinking the other day that I should get back to my storage lockers and find those cassettes that they were on. I should give them a listen. There may be some interesting stuff on there”.
Do they mean he wrote the music to 16 or 17 songs or the lyrics too ? Just wondering....
The way I've always understood it is that he had recorded istrumental tracks (the amount may vary from interview to interview). No lyrics and not necessarily even vocal melodies. Just how much structure they had (verse, chorus etc.), I have no idea. Could have been complete song structures or just riffs. I don't remember Don ever mentioning how complete the other ideas were. But they certainly weren't "songs". They were "song ideas". HC and VOL as well.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
And yeah, they certainly weren't going to include a song about the new guy having a baby. But even with different lyrics it could have been a bit too laid back and sunny for the band at that point. Not enough edge. (Not that IWYP had edge!)
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
I agree with both of your above posts, chaim. The original 'First Glimpse of My Son' was definitely not right for the One of These Nights album, especially since they already had IWYP. If you recall, Frey and Henley didn't want to include that song either, but acquiesced to mollify Bernie. Although, I like both songs, I also agree that neither was edgy enough for the direction the band was taking at the time.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Yeah I agree that this song wouldn’t have been a good fit for the album. Though I do wish that it would have been recorded at some point because I think would have been a good harmony song for them especially when they still had Bernie and Randy
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
sodascouts
I read this the other day and that item did catch my eye. At any rate it was sweet he wrote a song about his newborn son back then.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
New Kid In Town
Sounds like he still has a grudge all these years later!
Don Felder is the king of holding grudges. Don never accepted the fact that he wasn't a singer/frontman. He still isn't, despite recording solo records and touring as the lead singer. He wasn't much of a lyric writer either. He wasn't going to be even as successful as Joe Walsh solo, who could sing and is a far better songwriter and lyricist than Felder. Hence why Joe has had songs on HC, TLR, HFO, and LROOE. Felder should consider himself lucky he got to sing on Visions on the OOTN album. I don't like that song. I think Felder is a great guitarist, but that's where his talent ends, unlike Joe Walsh or Glenn Frey. They could do it all.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
The latest issue of Planet Rock has a brief feature on Felder, I think spliced from various sources and interviews, about how he wrote 'Hotel California'. It doesn't tell us anything we didn't know already, though he says his contribution to the album was '15 or 16 demo songs', having been told by Bernie Leadon that 'full songs' were Frey and Henley's job. The only bit that was new to me was that he thought it was too long but was delighted to be proven wrong by Henley's insistence.
They also reviewed American Rock'N'Roll in the same issue, calling it pleasant but unmemorable.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
thelastresort
The latest issue of Planet Rock has a brief feature on Felder, I think spliced from various sources and interviews, about how he wrote 'Hotel California'. It doesn't tell us anything we didn't know already, though he says his contribution to the album was '15 or 16 demo songs', having been told by Bernie Leadon that 'full songs' were Frey and Henley's job. The only bit that was new to me was that he thought it was too long but was delighted to be proven wrong by Henley's insistence.
They also reviewed American Rock'N'Roll in the same issue, calling it pleasant but unmemorable.
He tells the "too long" story in his book, where he also implies that it was the first single from the album.
Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
chaim
He tells the "too long" story in his book, where he also implies that it was the first single from the album.
Fair enough, it has been a long time since I read Felder's autobiography - as I said, it seemed cut and pasted from various sources so could well just be a rehash of what he said in H&H.