Felder's Role in Writing Hotel California

[WalshFan88]

Sounds about like Jethro Tull taking credit for the intro and progression of HC. I blow it off as nothing worth my time.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Ditto, Austin.

[thelastresort]

However, Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull itself has said he sees no copying at all of their song, so I'm not sure who would bring such proceedings? Management?

[Ive always been a dreamer]

tlr - Jethro Tull and/or Ian Anderson never pursued any legal action because by his own admission, it would have been virtually baseless. Speaking for myself, this reminded me of it because it sounds like this claim may be equally as baseless.

[Geminitiger]

Listening to Keith Richards playing the intro to Angie has a very strong flavour of the intro to HC.

[sodascouts]

I never noticed that. Welcome, Geminitiger.

[chaim]

And this one is pretty close too (came out in 1974): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2L0XN4I1hw

It also has that descending chromatic line within the chord progression that Don F thinks is so unique in Hotel California. The chromatic line isn't actually played in Let It Grow, but it's there - you could easily play it on top of the chords. It's the same b, a sharp, a natural, g sharp, g natural. Hotel California continues one half step further to f sharp (D major chord), but so what.

[Freypower]

Regarding Angie, not that it matters, but it's older than HC. The Goats Head Soup album was released in 1974. The intro to that song gives me chills. As for Let It Grow, if that is what that chord progression is, wow. I love that song too.

[chaim]

Let It Grow doesn't have the same chord progression, but you could do the same (Don called it "unusual", "weird" or something) descending chromatic voice leading with it. In HC two electric guitars play the descending harmony line in the verses. One of them descends one half step at a time, chromatically. The other guitar, of course, can't do that, as the chord progression doesn't allow it. So it has to sometimes stay on the same note and sometimes descend a whole step.

Here are the chord progressions. The descending chromatic "melody" line is in brackets. In HC it's actually played. In LIT it's not played, but the chord progression - although not exactly the same - contains that possibility:

Bm (b), F# (a#), A (a), E (g#), G (g), D (f#), Em, F# (Hotel California)
Bm (b), F# (a#), D (a), E (g#), G (g), A (Let It Grow)

I have to say that for me the songs do have the same vibe. I think it reminded me of HC when I heard LIG for the first time. Maybe it's the 12-string guitar. I think there's one on LIT as well.

[UndertheWire]

I found a comment from Irving Azoff from 2005 which I assume is the official Eagles/Henley postion on the song. It's close to what Henley said in the documentary, so doesn't add anything new other than to show he';s held that view for some time.

The fact is that Mr. Henley prefers to work with "rough tracks" — that is, tracks that are in an unfinished state. Often, they are just chord progressions with a beat. An example would be "Hotel California," which, when Mr. Felder gave it to Mr. Henley, was a basic chord progression set to a simple drum machine beat. There were no yrics; there was no melody, no guitar solos and no serviceable arrangement.

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.p...of-the-matter/