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Thread: "Heaven and Hell" exclusive in The Times today

  1. #31
    Stuck on the Border
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    Quote Originally Posted by Ive always been a dreamer
    Wow Molly - You REALLY were too young to be a groupie back then!
    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?

  2. #32
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    My copy of H&H has been shipped. Goody. I can hardly wait.

  3. #33
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    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.

  4. #34
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    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!

  5. #35
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    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.
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  6. #36
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    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.

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  7. #37
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Brooke - the "Border Book Club" discussion sounds like a good idea. How does that work?

    Always in our hearts, Never forgotten

  8. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by SodaScouts
    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.
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  9. #39
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    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.

  10. #40
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    I didn't have any time to read the book, no way to do that now
    (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.
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    We'll build a fire and make love by candlelight

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