Felder on Facebook!

[Ive always been a dreamer]

I've got to disagree with you, I believe felder is the opposite of a narcissist, I believe felder is as humble as he can be, despite the way he got treated so poorly by Henley and Frey. I mean if you wanna talk about someone being a narcissist, then... i think you would have to give that to Henley. I mean was it really necessary to crop out Felder out of the new La Forum 76 vinyl album ?? I mean come on now Felder basically made that song. I mean henley acts like the Hotel California album was his and Glenn's album, which it was NOT , they themselves together only wrote two of the songs on that album, the rest either included the other guys or did not even include Henley and Frey, plus I mean really Henley are you really going to give yourself the most song credit for hotel california How narcissistic can you be to change the song credits and put Felder last when he wrote 95% of that song. Even in Felder's concerts which i have been to, he gives props to the guys and gives credibility and no where does he ever take full credit for anything, unlike Glenn and Henley and who do the complete opposite. Go ahead and listen to any of their HFO audio bootleg concerts, whenever they perform lyin' eyes and one of these nights at the end of their first set , they always give commentary on those two songs and how they are from their OOTN album. Yet in every concert the same phrase is said by Glenn " Here is a song created by me and Henley" " Heres a song that Don (Henley) and I made in 1975" "Here is a song from Don (Henley) and I satanic rhythm and blues period" No where does he ever mention felder who helped come up with one of these nights and he even created that iconic opening bass sound in the beginning that everyone loves, so in reference to your comment on felder, i think he is as humble, thankful, and respectful as a human can be, Even though he deserves a lot more credibility and respect.

While I personally agree that the topic of Felder vs. the Eagles is very tiresome after all these years, I think that the issue is still discussed amongst fans because a lot of the personality traits that led to Felder's dismissal carry over to his current behavior. I normally avoid most of the discussion these days, however, edward19 made several claims that I feel shouldn't be left unchallenged.

First of all, I think the Felder, Henley, and Frey songwriting credits are appropriate for Hotel California; however, I believe it is a huge misrepresentation to claim that Felder wrote 95% of the song. He wrote most of the music. Joe had major input into the guitar outro. Felder did not write any of the lyrics and did not arrange the song.

With regard to One of These Nights, Felder came up with the intro to the song. Just as Joe did not receive songwriting credit for his contribution to Hotel California, neither did Felder receive credit for OOTN.

Lastly, I think whether or not Felder is viewed as humble is very subjective given that we do not really know him. However, fans can surely speculate on their observations. Based on everything I've read, heard, and seen, I don't view him as humble. That's not to say he doesn't have his moments, but in reading his book and seeing him in interviews, I think he has a big tendency to believe he deserves more credit than he receives for his musical contributions e.g. Victim of Love.

[WalshFan88]

While I personally agree that the topic of Felder vs. the Eagles is very tiresome after all these years, I think that the issue is still discussed amongst fans because a lot of the personality traits that led to Felder's dismissal carry over to his current behavior. I normally avoid most of the discussion these days, however, edward19 made several claims that I feel shouldn't be left unchallenged.

First of all, I think the Felder, Henley, and Frey songwriting credits are appropriate for Hotel California; however, I believe it is a huge misrepresentation to claim that Felder wrote 95% of the song. He wrote most of the music. Joe had major input into the guitar outro. Felder did not write any of the lyrics and did not arrange the song.

With regard to One of These Nights, Felder came up with the intro to the song. Just as Joe did not receive songwriting credit for his contribution to Hotel California, neither did Felder receive credit for OOTN.

Lastly, I think whether or not Felder is viewed as humble is very subjective given that we do not really know him. However, fans can surely speculate on their observations. Based on everything I've read, heard, and seen, I don't view him as humble. That's not to say he doesn't have his moments, but in reading his book and seeing him in interviews, I think he has a big tendency to believe he deserves more credit than he receives for his musical contributions e.g. Victim of Love.

Agreed, dreamer.

Felder did have the first impetus and the musical idea that lead to it becoming a song. But even he overplays that part most of the time, insisting that Walsh basically just parroted his solo part that "he created for him". Only on one interview I've seen did Felder actually admit that Walsh came up with the ending triad licks that finish the song. I'm sure parts of Walsh's solo were replayed if Henley did really want it just like the Malibu demo - but that duel added at the end certainly is credited to Mr. Walsh! And Felder had nothing to do with the writing and arranging of the song, without such would be nothing more than a cool instrumental. I don't care much about lyrical depth, but I also do not like instrumental music. I have to have some words and a memorable chorus. A 7 minute long instrumental was never going to be on the Eagles' agenda - that I can tell you. I agree with the Felder/Henley/Frey - just not this belief that he was responsible for the bulk of the song or that he alone or in a major way was responsible for it's success. It's just not honest. I honestly believe part of the success of Hotel California was in it's mystifying lyrics!

And I agree entirely with your interpretation of Felder's personality.

[chaim]

It would be so interesting to hear Don's initial demo! (Why can't he realease it when he still talks about it all the time?) Personally I don't rule out the possibility that a lot of the structure and instrumentation was already there.

[WalshFan88]

It would be so interesting to hear Don's initial demo! (Why can't he realease it when he still talks about it all the time?) Personally I don't rule out the possibility that a lot of the structure and instrumentation was already there.

I think the solos would be different. We know the ending duel was created on the fly by Joe, and then Felder learned it. But it's possible the individual solos were as they were on the demo if Henley was that stringent. But I think it would be a different thing on the solos to not have that triad ending. I think it's all but likely that the arpeggiated intro and chord progression were laid out on the demo but transcribe to Bm as the original demo in Em didn't fit Henley's voice. Felder does it in Am. Henley and Co now do it in Bbm.

[FreyFollower]

As seen on HOTE, Felder regularly sent Henley and Frey tapes full of instrumentals to hopefully write lyrics to. Frey said that they were mostly unusable because being so full of licks, there was no room for lyrics. Felder apparently at the time did not see the song as any better candidate than the rest of them, only Frey and Henley immediately saw the potential. Felder didn't even remember how he had initially played it, Henley insisted on the original version.
So, while the spooky lyrics are what drew me in, and for some the music, I contend that without Frey & Henley's interest, what became Hotel California would still be lost in a pile of forgotten recordings.

[WalshFan88]

Agreed FF.