Felder's Involvement on "Already Gone"

[Shadowland07]

so i know for sure he played the harmonizing solo with Frey, and am pretty sure he played the no so distorted guitar on the end solo. I think Frey played the riff during the chorus and the other guitar on the end solo.

anyone else have any ideas

[chaim]

Bernie is playing rhythm in the left channel and Glenn in the right. In the middle there's a guitar playing riffs. Before this song there weren't, I think (I don't have the albums with me at the moment), that many guitar overdubs during verses and choruses in Eagles songs. There were pretty much the basic guitar parts that were probably recorded at the same time with the drums and the bass. But this song features a third guitar right from the beginning. That could suggest that it's Don Felder. On the other hand, the lead guitar in the middle (that is doing leads during verses and choruses) seems to lead straight to Glenn's part of the solo. And when I compare the solo sounds of Don and Glenn, Glenn's seems to be a lot closer to the sound that's been heard up until then. In fact Glenn's solo sound sounds exactly like the leads that have been heard earlier, to my ears. Also, after the "heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free" line we hear a lick that contains pinch harmonics. Glenn played pinched harmonics all the time in the early 70's. So MY guess would be that it's Glenn playing the "non-solo" leads before the actual solos. But I could easily be wrong. On the other hand, the lick that comes after the line "And we never even know we have the key" is, if I remember correctly, also in "Too many hands" (during the guitar duel at the end) and there I think it was played by Don. So who knows!
There are two lead guitars during the fadeout. The one that is panned more to the left sounds more like Don's part in the actual solo part and the guitar that is panned more to the right sounds more like Glenn's part in the actual solo. I think it's Don panned to the left and Glenn panned to the right during the fadeout. But again, I could be totally wrong!
I don't have the record with me at the moment, so I listened to this song in YouTube..

[chaim]

I must add that I've always wondered why they didn't do something with Bernie's rhythm track in this song. Listen to his part in the verses (left channel). He's playing the boogie riff for every chord, but when his root moves to the A-string (D major chord), he not only plays the "a, b, a, b" (I mean notes, not chords) boogie riff, but his little finger touches also the high e-string on the 5th (where his root is) and 9th (when he plays the b note on the D-string) frets, and because he doesn't mute the e-string, we hear the irritating "a, c#, a, c#" notes, that sounds horribly wrong. I've seen this written in some guitar book as an individual guitar part (just the "a, c#, a, c#" notes)!! But they are in fact part of Bernie's rhythm part, because he didn't mute the damn e-string!

[sodascouts]

Wow, thanks for the expert info and educated guesses, chaim. Your knowledge is impressive!

[chaim]

Wow, thanks for the expert info and educated guesses, chaim. Your knowledge is impressive!

Since the day I started listening to the Eagles I've been a huge Glenn fan. Everything I say here I've seen through my "Glenn glasses", so my views are not totally objective!

[Shadowland07]

chaim you're my new bestfriend!!!

[Prettymaid]

But they are in fact part of Bernie's rhythm part, because he didn't mute the damn e-string!

Now I'm going to be listening specifically for that!

[chaim]

chaim you're my new bestfriend!!!

Haha, well, I'm only trying to see things so that Glenn is going to look great. :hilarious: But seriously...I DO think that Glenn played most of the lead work in the verses and choruses of "Already gone", like I think he played most, if not all of the harmony guitar parts (which were all overdubbed anyway) in "One of these nights".

[sodascouts]

I was wondering - has anyone tried to send Felder a message through his official MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/donfelder) asking some of these questions? He's responded to fan messages via his MySpace before and I wonder if he'd do the same here. Might be worth a shot. I'd suggest using the "send message" feature rather than posting to his main page, though. He has an official Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#%21/donfelder?ref=ts) as well but he's said he checks that less frequently. Don't know if that's changed, though.

[GettheLeadonOut!!]

Don't know if this answers anything but here's the band playing it without Felder (his wife was having a baby) at Cal Jam '74:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzwUCwZDUlo

[chaim]

I was wondering - has anyone tried to send Felder a message through his official MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/donfelder) asking some of these questions? He's responded to fan messages via his MySpace before and I wonder if he'd do the same here. Might be worth a shot. I'd suggest using the "send message" feature rather than posting to his main page, though. He has an official Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/#%21/donfelder?ref=ts) as well but he's said he checks that less frequently. Don't know if that's changed, though.

Wow! I didn't know about his MySpace thing. Must check it out.

[chaim]

Don't know if this answers anything but here's the band playing it without Felder (his wife was having a baby) at Cal Jam '74:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzwUCwZDUlo

This video supports the theory I had about a couple of licks. I said that the lick after the words "set me free" sounds very much like Glenn. He plays the lick here too. Then I said that the lick after the word "key" sounds more like Don Felder. And Glenn doesn't play that lick here! :-D In this video, where Don's solo part with sustained notes is missing, you can really hear how smoothly the chorus lick leads to Glenn's part of the actual solo. So I think the chorus licks are Glenn's in the original version too. But who knows!

[sodascouts]

What can I say chaim, you're good!

[chaim]

What can I say chaim, you're good!

This "who plays what" stuff is part of everyday conversation with something like KISS, who have played each other's main instruments in the studio almost since the day one, and have sometimes used outside players for whatever reason. With Eagles it's usually more clear who plays what, because they have given a lot of this information in their album sleeves. Also, I asked Bernie about this in his website and he said that they were very consistent as to who played what instruments. So with Eagles it wasn't like with KISS; Simmons playing a lot of rhythm guitar in the studio and just about everyone in the world playing bass in their albums in the 80's! But still, also with the Eagles, beyond the official credits and what we've seen live, it's all guesswork when it comes to guitar parts, and can easily be 100% incorrect!