Don Felder videos on YouTube and other video sites

[thebagels]

Maybe he couldn't do those high wails in the middle of Witchy Woman, but they don't have to be there.

Don actually can do them live (they're somewhat out of tune, but he's capable of hitting the notes).

https://youtu.be/VzO6KHm2MBk?t=116

His voice is not the best, but its range is somewhat impressive. He can go all the way down to a low D on the Seven Bridges Road bass vocal and then do these high wails in (somewhat) full voice. I really think he could have been a good singer if he worked on his voice. He certainly has an ear for singing as evidenced by the vocal way in which he phrases a lot of his guitar playing.

I definitely agree with what you said about rather hearing live vocals. Joe Walsh sings out of tune frequently--so much so that I think they took his voice out of the mix in more recent Eagles shows. You can hear Joe singing his harmonies flat in the 1970s; he apparently often doubled with Felder on songs like Lyin' Eyes, etc. which had only 4 vocal lines in the chorus, but apparently Joe and Don were singing the same part.

https://youtu.be/6NGnIBYBCPg?t=85

Yet, when Joe does solo concerts, he sings live, and no one really seems to mind. Glenn sang extremely out of tune towards the end of his life and still apparently did solo shows without pitch correction on his voice. Deacon doesn't sing any better to my ear. Now Henley is starting to sing out of tune too.

Lest people think this criticism is undue, I love the Eagles, and would probably have not learned to sing harmony if it were not for them. In the '70s, they really could sing wonderfully in tune together (for example, the Seven Bridges Rd. video in the Eagles doc.). So as a musician, but also as a fan, I'm disappointed that their vocal standard both individually (except Tim can still sing well in tune) and together when they sing harmony has gone down to the extent that they have to use live autotune and have backing musicians doubling their vocal parts (you can clearly hear the live autotune in the Forum 2018 concert).

Then again, I too hope to be able to sing somewhat in tune if/when I reach my mid-70s...but, on the other hand, Ray Charles, Billy Joel, Styx, etc. could still manage it at that age, so...