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2017, apparently. Honestly, that clip didn't necessarily make me feel like Don was an inferior singer. It just impressed upon me as to how good of a guitar player he is even when he's playing with a pickup band of musicians he's likely not played with much or at all.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
I’m not sure if this was posted already, I tried to search it, but didn’t have any luck. Apologize if it has. Don Felder, John Stamos and Mike Love (tambourine only) performing “Pride and Joy”. The mix is off in my opinion, bass too loud and his guitar sounds like it’s in a tin can. Unfortunate because he was playing some great stuff. His voice sounded good! I think it’s from 2013 but unsure. Enjoy.
https://youtu.be/hNhsozrkoyM
Don singing “Take it Easy” in 2014. Despite the pickup band and nearly inaudible first verse, his vocal actually sounds really good compared to his usual singing.
https://youtu.be/o1FPh6jgd2Q
I didn't even hear autotune. That was a nice one.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebagels
This one just made me laugh.
"1, 2, 3, up!"
"1, 2, 3, down!"
"And go up; oh, here we go!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tc46UKsG0gI
Here's his life story in less than 3 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2Rh8RkVXCk
That's basically his book with the dirt left out. (Sorry, couldn't resist! 😁 )Quote:
Originally Posted by WalshFan88
True! :hilarious:Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
I didn't listen to the whole thing. I assume it's the same story as always; like describing Tom Petty's hair and teeth and getting the "wow!"s and the "hahaha"s when he says his name. But I found the "we didn't have the internet, iPhones or iPads..." a bit weird. I wonder how many in his audience had those as a kid. 😂
Hahaha, yeah probably not many! I mean I was born in 1988, and I didn't even want a cell phone until smartphones became a thing, and the first iPhone came out the year I graduated high school. So do the math. And I would be one of the youngest at a Felder show. I know I was when I saw him a few years back with Styx and REO Speedwagon.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
I did have my own computer growing up in Junior High. I've always been an Apple geek and so I had one of those fruit colored egg shaped iMacs back in Junior High. And then I had different iterations of iMacs until I was done with school and decided I wasn't a desktop computer person anymore and switched to MacBook laptops. I did however have the first year iPad, which came out in 2010, so I had an iPad and Macs way before I ever got an iPhone because they weren't tied to a carrier and just ran off of the home WiFi.
I didn't get an iPhone until the iPhone 6 came out because we use a really small regional cell carrier called US Cellular as they are the only ones who work here at the house out in the boonies, and they didn't carry the iPhones until the iPhone 6 came out. Before that I had a BlackBerry and then Samsung Galaxy's. I hated the Galaxys and Android in general, but the BlackBerry being my first smartphone way back in 2008 made me think I was cooler than those of my age at the time. :lol: I think the iPhone 6 was in 2014. I got the BlackBerry after a trip to New York City on vacation with my folks, and seeing so many men in suits and ties walking around I said maybe I will get a cellphone after all! Of my age group of the people I knew I certainly was the last to get a cellphone. I never wanted the dang flip phones or any of that. I was uncool for that reason at the time.
Peaceful Easy Feeling at Batavia Downs this past Friday.
https://www.facebook.com/rob.hausrat...19205515881965
Rough performance; hopefully he plays better as the tour extends.
He's started using new vocal tracks too. They're more autotuned than before, but his vocal tone actually sounds better on them, oddly. I wonder if there's more reverb on the tracks now.
An interesting thing about this performance is that he apparently did "Best of My Love." I'm curious to see how he pulled it off or if he rearranged it as I've never heard him do that song.
Haven't listened to it yet, but are you sure he's using vocal tracks there? Would be a bit strange if he's recorded new ones.
I'm fairly certain that he is (and someone can correct me if they can deduce otherwise). Don's natural voice is fairly raspy and cracks quite a bit. Sometimes, he does actually sing decently in tune (I posted some links a few months ago to videos of a fundraiser he did in 2014 where he sang uncharacteristically well), but it's never as note-perfect and compressed as it is here.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
The thing with these new vocal tracks is that they're more cleverly recorded than the ones he was using before. They're not so compressed that they make Don sound like a little boy (listen to the AXSTV Vegas concert with Styx and Foreigner if you think this assessment is a too severe), and they've preserved a couple of voice cracks (like on the word "know" in "you don't already know how to go"). Seems like a page out of Kevin Cronin's book, as Kevin's vocal tracks include some goofs and spaces between the lines for him to adlib (they're probably meant to be red herrings).
Sometimes I wish that the people shooting these Felder concerts would focus on the computer screens in the sound booth or Timothy Drury's laptop screen. ;-)
I guess we'll know for sure if his voice cracks everytime in the same places. Would be cool if he decided to sing live. Paul Stanley finally started started lip-syncing - what a sad way to go out. Roger Waters barely sings live...
Interesting! I *love* REO, and I've seen then more than any other band at this point (4x). Some really don't care for Kevin's vocal mannerisms and haven't from the beginning.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebagels
And to the best of my recollection, it's been probably 2/2.5 years since I've seen the guys last - Kevin wasn't using vocal tracks or lip syncing. It was painfully obvious on Keep On Lovin' You and Take It On The Run as I remember. On those high notes it was cracking and very frail sounding. Other lines he would "whisper sing" to try to hit those notes. And hey, I'm not complaining - aging is an inevitable process that sadly affects some more than others. At least Kevin Cronin could sing well at one point, unlike Don Felder. :grin:
I need to see them again though! They always put on a good show and I like all of their music from the earliest more hard rock numbers right up through the power ballad era. Then again, maybe I won't enjoy myself as much if he's lip syncing the whole time. I guess I'd rather have the realness warts and all from a singer like Kevin. Felder, eh...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPjagdjW9hgQuote:
Originally Posted by WalshFan88
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnwUJlj_l8k
If you sync these two videos, you'll hear that his vocal is tracked, but his adlibs between lines ("you sing it!") are different.
I like REO as well. Kevin always had an interesting timbre to his voice, but his vocal tuning is really precise. Despite the frailty in his voice that you mention (which I agree with), I'm happy he's apparently keeping himself physically active. And when he sings songs in lower keys, they're still enjoyable to me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-Ou6-s3zcQ
Pretty obvious lip-syncing in those two clips, yeah.
I dunno - JMHO, but I think some of these older rockers who have lost their vocal prowess should just go ahead and hang it up. I've never been a fan of lip-synching. When someone can no longer perform live, that should be their cue that their time in the spotlight is over. Or to quote Kenny Rogers again ... "You got to know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em".
Don could just hire a singer since he's never been a singer to begin with. People like Paul Stanley should indeed hang it up instead of repeating all over again that they're going out on top and bashing former bandmates' (Frehley & Criss) ability to perform. I'm sure Paul's decision to lipsync killed Gene, who can still sing.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ive always been a dreamer
That is disappointing.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebagels
I just realized I meant to say I hadn't seen them in 2.5 years as if COVID hadn't happened yet. So 2.5 years from the last time I saw any kind of live music (2019) would be late 2016/early 2017. I've seen them a bunch, and maybe will again but I certainly will be looking at more 2021 live footage to decide if I feel like maybe I should end things on a good note and remember it how it was when I saw them last.
That almost definitely is lipsynced. And he wasn't doing that when I saw them. Instead, he barreled through Keep On Loving You and Can't Fight This Feeling warts and all. I'm guessing his pride got hurt along the way and felt like the better thing to do is sing with tracks or lipsync to save face because most people wouldn't know any better (or so he thinks). Too proud to quit, too proud to sing in a lower key.
Agreed Dreamer. Either lose the ego and sing (real live singing) in a lower key, or hang it up. Don't just lipsync or use autotune to try to keep going. If you are too proud to sing in a lower key, then taking the high road and retiring is the right move. If the rest of the guys in your band don't want to quit yet and you feel like letting them continue under a new singer, great. Or if your band existed in a prior incarnation before you came along, even though your era was more successful, they have every right to continue without you and your permission to continue with you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ive always been a dreamer
Austin, it has amazed me how easily big names in rock music get away with lip-syncing in the YouTube era. Kiss tested it in one of their cruises. In one of the videos, shot from somewhere above the stage, you could see the little screen before Paul on the floor. You could see the lyrics there and the font had a different color when the words came from a track and when Paul sang them live. Only little phrases here and there had the "live color". Obviously those colors helped Paul memorize which little bits he actually was going to sing.
When the actual tour started, there were videos on YouTube where people had put FOUR performances playing simultaneously and they all had exactly the same vocals. In Paul songs, that is. The Gene songs were live. Even with tons of evidence on YT people don't care. Even lots of Kiss fans who KNOW Paul lip-syncs, started saying "I still enjoyed the show". So it's a bit strange...
Paul should change his makeup to a mime! Lol
So Don actually did do Best of My Love (go to 7:25).
https://www.facebook.com/10000095607...25195585922732
I wonder where the pedal steel sound is coming from. One might think that it's coming from the keyboards (and maybe it is), but I've never heard of a keyboard that can change chords the same way a pedal steel will (different notes slide to different places); yet, that's exactly what's happening here.
This is a song that I really wonder whether or not Don can sing in real life because "go on sleeping" and "I guess it wasn't enough" require large vocal leaps. These are hard to sing; even Henley doesn't always do both in recent Eagles performances of the song.
Don's up and down bowing didn't work too well this time. In my opinion, he didn't have to do it as the show's subtle ending up until then fit the mood of BOML pretty well.
I think for the band who screams the loudest from the rooftops about putting on the best bombastic show possible and not liking bands who are boring, choreographed, or aren't real enough and all of that, the idea that KISS is using vocal tracks is a bitter pill to swallow that reeks of irony and hypocrisy. Couple that with them saying that Peter isn't able to play anymore to the band's standards of musicianship (I mean this is KISS not the damn Philharmonic Orchestra!!!) and that while Ace can still play great, his "unpredictability" and so called lack of professionalism is a liability to the band for putting on consistently great shows, well that's just a bit too bitter to swallow at that point.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
And here's the thing, I like Paul Stanley. I actually like him better as a person than Gene Simmons. Like not even in the same stratosphere better. :grin: But it's time to "Face The Music", Paul. Your vocal cords are shot. That's ok. It happens. A life of rock and roll plus aging can do that. It doesn't detract from your classic recordings or place in the band's history. IMO to not seem hilariously hypocritical or ironic you have 2 choices, maybe 3 as far as how to continue on or not with KISS. This goes for Gene, Tommy, and Eric too.
1) KISS calls it quits and actually mean it. Finish this leg of shows and put your money where your mouth is.
2) Let Ace and Peter play with the group again, and realize that Peter Criss can drum about as well as you can sing and that you using tracks in your band can't be any more demeaning or embarrassing than anything Ace might say or do and that he isn't even as reckless as you think he is.
3) Start seeking a replacement for yourself.
Not that they give a hoot, but I choose option #1! :hand:
It’s crazy how things seem to collide. I have been a KISS fan since I can remember. My walls as a teen had Eagles Hotel California insert poster (over my bed :smitten:) and next to that KISS, among other various groups. I am an Ace fan and it always bothered me how Paul and Gene constantly trashed Ace and Peter. Reading this thread, it’s nice to hear others feeling the same way. How Paul can lip sync and then put Ace and Peter down is a head scratcher. I’m going to see Alice Cooper and Ace in Sept….can’t believe it! Very psyched, never saw either live except for YouTube.
Nobody’s perfect and as others have said I’d rather have warts and all, rasp, cracks, maybe not hitting the note perfect than have a lip synced performance, especially nowadays at the price tickets are now!!
as far as REO goes, they just opened the brand new Amphitheatre in BRidgeport, CT with Styx. (same place I’m going for Alice and Ace) and I heard some saying they seemed like something missing whereas STYX had a lot of energy. Who knows I wasn’t there, but peeps were Calling in Radio station mentioning it….maybe it has to do with lip syncing idk……
Apparently, he's not even trying to hide it anymore.
https://youtu.be/IR5gJgoGNaY?t=168
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcZ2I9jqxx8
"This next song is about the rest of my life!"
Oh really Don, I wasn't aware you wrote this about how your life would be in your 70s. I could have sworn it was wrote by Don Henley and Glenn Frey and that their basis for the song *wasn't* about how you'd be living the rest of your life right now. Gee, thanks for the correction! Ok, sarcasm aside - the nerve! The nerve! This is not "I call this the credit card song" or "I dedicate this". It's "this song is about the rest of my life". At least this song was written during your Eagles tenure so I'm not even more mad that you weren't even in the picture then, but I guarantee you Don and Glenn did not think about Felder's senior living arrangement when they wrote this track in 1978! Just a hunch. ;)
Felder has truly almost never taken the high road. Instead of repenting, he's doubled down. He only has himself to blame for his misfortunes in life, Eagles and otherwise. No one wants to be around a perpetual victim who really isn't a victim but rather a passive-aggressive narcissist who overvalues himself and when someone tries to bring him back down to planet earth, he cries foul play. I honestly just cannot believe I supported him as a person for so many years. I was wearing some thick rose colored glasses. Although I do think he's become more insufferable with time. As much as Henley can weigh on my nerves (and irregardless of the 3.0 situation I might add!), when Geffen called Henley a malcontent (which I don't deny) I kinda wish I was there to say "hey, have you met Don Felder yet?". :lol: Henley at least could back it up with immeasurable talent and success, even outside of the group as a solo artist. Which is to say he didn't need the other guys to do really well. Don Felder has not shown that to be the case yet.
Pretty brazen, Don. Pretty darn brazen....
Agreed, Austin, if that's what Don actually said. I've heard other times when he's said "this song is the story of my life," which I don't mind as much, but it's far from clear.
Another lip-sync fail. This one is absolutely baffling because there's no good explanation for it other than he walked right into it.
https://youtu.be/JiDK7oAuh3c?t=2091
What happened there? Did the sound guy mute Don's vocal track after a couple of words when he noticed Don's not even near the mic?Quote:
Originally Posted by thebagels
EDIT:
I see he's been using the same track for years at least for LITFL. Listen to all these performances phrase by phrase from "She said listen baby..." to the chorus. It's so obvious.
From 2:51 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8pJNQADIiY
From 34:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiDK7oAuh3c&t=2091s
From 2:50 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chApuGnLloU
Not sure I'd even mind him lip-syncing if people knew it. But it's always been irritating to see comments like "His singing sounds great. Don Henley isn't what he used to be blablabla."
I think that introducing The Long Run with the comment about his life might be a tongue-in-cheek thing.
To say something positive for a change, he's still got it as a player. That soloing at the end was very tasty. And he's always a very tasteful dresser!
Still a great player, chaim. But that's why I've felt his ability is pretty much wasted in his current group.
This is the worst one, fwiw. I'm actually shocked that he let this happen because it's just so obvious.
https://youtu.be/wcZ2I9jqxx8?t=323
Perhaps the sound guy's supposed to mute the vocal track whenever Don's not near the microphone during a vocal section, but he failed to do so here. There was that one HT performance where Don's vocal part was several beats off during the intro.Quote:
Originally Posted by thebagels
I wonder if the backing vocals - or at least some of them - are/have been live in Don's performances. When Don does Seven Bridges Road, it's quite a performance if every singer lip-syncs!
I think that's what's going on based on the TIE video as you speculated earlier. We hear Don's vocal cut off suddenly in the TIE video, and it's muted until he gets back to the mic.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
I'm fairly certain the backing vocals in TIE aren't live because there are only two other vocal parts, yet three people are singing. Also, the last "ooo" was inaudible, but we could see the guys on stage singing "ooo" into the mic.
I would be willing to bet that everyone is actually singing, but the audience does not hear what is going into the mics. There are performances of SBR and other songs where I can distinctly hear Kasim Sulton or Jeff Coffey's vocal.
Such obvious lipsyncing really makes me wonder why there's no real controversy over what Don is doing. Similar allegations of lip-syncing almost killed Journey until they found Arnel Pineda.
It looks like Don might have a new keyboard player. Who is it?
Perhaps, but it just seems so icky. If it was a joke, perhaps he needs to work on his delivery! I love a good joke. But this fell flat with me, even watching it again now. Or else he might want to just stick to the music part of the entertainment business and stay in his lane which is playing the guitar (ie, not comedy!). :lol: Maybe it's just lost on me...Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
It's like how he will inadvertently take credit for the ICTYW solo if someone compliments him on a great solo by not correcting them. You have to literally pin him down and ask who actually recorded it to get him to say it was Glenn's solo. But if you just assume it was Don, and praise him for it, he's all in. Of course his retort might be "well, I assumed they meant how well I executed it live...". I find Don's narcissism while calling Glenn and DH narcissists very ugly and not at all appropriate for a man in his 70s. Be humble!
He's certainly never let me down in that department. Still consider him a guitar hero and an inspiration. He can play as good as ever. Walsh had a greater impact on me as a hero but Felder was right there behind him.Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
It's Felder the person that has left me feeling more than disappointed.
It's probably more like wishful thinking on my part. He certainly doesn't seem like a guy who can make even a little bit of fun of himself.Quote:
Originally Posted by WalshFan88
EDIT:
Watched it again. He did sort of laugh after saying that.
He's about as dry as the toast I had two mornings ago. :hilarious: With the charisma of a wet mop to boot. And honestly maybe that's selling wet mops short a bit. :grin:Quote:
Originally Posted by chaim
Man oh man if he'd only just play his damn guitar and get a singer for his band. Or better yet, do a 180 and perhaps look into doing some guitar clinics, instructional videos, TrueFire courses, Skype lessons (yes, they'd be the most expensive ever, but...), or doing some session work or something. He clearly can play guitar. The singing and the MC'ing need serious work and is not doable IMO. Best use those strengths to their fullest. Maybe do some videos for guitar brands again, tour and do clinics, etc etc. Or if you are committed to live shows, invest in a singer. Please put a little bit of ego aside and do that much. You can still stand in the center like you always wished you could have in the Eagles, and do the talking (although I'd prefer not :lol:), but get a great singer who can do DH material very well. And surely one of the other band guys is a competent singer.
I'd love to see Felder PLAY like this again live. Not as a frontman talking to the crowd, and certainly not singing the music. As great of a player as he is, I don't think I can sit through another show of his and deal with the singing and off-putting stage presence enough to be able to hear it. I don't regret going to see him once, so I could see him play. But I think it might be different the second time around.