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Thread: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

  1. #91
    Border Rebel SilverMoon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by Freypower View Post
    I try to stay away from commenting on Felder these days but his ego & his complete lack of modesty or ability to accept that any of his bandmates have any talent (except Henley) will always put me off.
    Don Felder often praises his former bandmates in interviews. On the other hand, they don’t praise him very often.

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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by SilverMoon View Post
    Don Felder often praises his former bandmates in interviews. On the other hand, they don’t praise him very often.
    Give me an example of him praising Walsh & Schmit then, because I canot recall one. There is no point in asking for an example of him praising Frey, because it has never happened. Never. I should stress that this is hardly surprising because it is obvious the two of them loathe each other, but if you are going to claim that he does praise them, you must automatically exclude Frey from his praise.

    Why his former bandmates should now start praising him, on the other hand, after the acrimony he caused, I am sure I don't know. Their policy seems to be not to discuss him at all.

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    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    Actually, he does praise Joe when asked about him, saying he'd love to play with him again, that kind of thing. As far as Timothy goes, well, he doesn't really talk about him too much. However, in his recent chat, he said he missed playing with all of them, even Glenn... although he felt compelled to add "when he's in a good mood" as a qualifier for Glenn. It came off to me as if he were somewhat reluctant to say he missed Glenn, although perhaps I'm reading too much into his hesitation before adding Glenn to the list of band members he missed. You can make of it what you will.

    That said, I really don't blame the Eagles for not bringing him up in their interviews. I know I'd probably be loath to sing the praises of someone who'd sued me and written a book that painted an ugly picture of me. However, in the documentary, they did talk about how talented he is.

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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    Quote Originally Posted by sodascouts View Post
    Actually, he does praise Joe when asked about him, saying he'd love to play with him again, that kind of thing. As far as Timothy goes, well, he doesn't really talk about him too much. However, in his recent chat, he said he missed playing with all of them, even Glenn... although he felt compelled to add "when he's in a good mood" as a qualifier for Glenn. It came off to me as if he were somewhat reluctant to say he missed Glenn, although perhaps I'm reading too much into his hesitation before adding Glenn to the list of band members he missed. You can make of it what you will.

    That said, I really don't blame the Eagles for not bringing him up in their interviews. I know I'd probably be loath to sing the praises of someone who'd sued me and written a book that painted an ugly picture of me. However, in the documentary, they did talk about how talented he is.
    In my view he would have done better not to have mentioned Glenn at all (after all, he normally doesn't). It would have been more honest than the good mood comment which isn't even damning with faint praise. We all know his opinion of Glenn. He probably felt obliged to say it.

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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    When he started listing band members he missed, I wondered if he was going to add Glenn. I'm sure I wasn't the only one wondering. He must've known many of us were waiting to see what he'd say.

    The thing is that he's said many times he wishes he could be friends with them all again, so if he'd deliberately left Glenn off, he would've looked like a hypocrite.

    On the other hand, it's obvious that Glenn's the one he had the main problem with, so to praise Glenn too highly would have made him look like a hypocrite as well.

    He kind of painted himself into a corner with that one: damned either way. That's the danger in these chats for the celebs. They can't craft their answers carefully.

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  6. #96
    Border Rebel SilverMoon's Avatar
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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    Here are some interviews in which Don Felder praises his former bandmates:

    http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/don_felder/
    Songfacts: When it comes to discussing the Eagles, unfortunately, your name is not the first one that people usually think of. They think of Don and they think of Glenn. But can you tell me a little bit about what it was like when you were recording with the Eagles as far as creating the songs? It seems like you contributed a lot of the music but weren't always noted in the songwriting credits.

    Don: Well, I'll just say we all contributed to every song. No one made up the guitar parts that I played but me. Everybody brought their particular talent to each recording. And it was really an unusual circumstance to have five people in a band that every one of us wrote, sang, and played. And any one of us could have and had previously fronted their own band.

    It was an unusual amount of talent, that we had five singers, five songwriters, and five musicians. And so what a novel idea to have everybody be able to write, sing, and play in the same band. So we had an abundance of talent and we used everyone's strong suit. Joe and I were the primary guitar arrangers, and wrote a lot of the music. But Henley was obviously the strongest lead vocalist, was a great lyricist. The team of Henley and Frey have written some amazing songs. I think they're the American version of Lennon and McCartney as far as songwriting goes.

    So we had just an abundance of material, an abundance of talent, and an abundance of singers in the same band.
    http://popcultureclassics.com/don_felder.html
    PCC:
    Your vocals are so expressive and assured on the new album. Were you always confident, stepping up as the frontman and lead singer, once you started going out with your own band?

    FELDER:
    When I was in The Eagles, I deliberately and gladly took a back seat vocally to such great singers as Don Henley and Glenn Frey. To me, Don Henley could sing the New York Times phone book and I’d buy it. He’s a great vocalist with a lot of expression. The timbre in his voice is just delicious. And he’s a brilliant lyricist. So we would take everyone’s aspect and strongest suit that they brought to the table and feature that element of their talent. Obviously mine was guitar and arranging and songwriting and that sort of stuff, where Henley’s was lyrics and vocals. So everybody brought their strongest suit and the combination of everybody’s addition to that project really made something greater than any one of us has been able to obtain or achieve since then.

    I never had a lot of apprehension about singing. I wish I had been allowed to sing more in The Eagles. But I was more than happy to take a step back and feature the strongest vocalist of the band, which was obviously Don Henley. So when I started fronting my own band, I didn’t really have any apprehension. My only concern was that I’d be compared vocally to Henley. But he has no comparison, in my opinion [laughs]. There’s only a couple of people that can sing that great. So, if people thought I didn’t sing as good as Don, they’re probably right. But I don’t have a problem with that.
    http://www.getreadytorock.com/rock_stars/don_felder.htm
    'Road To Forever' contains all those things we associate with you from your signature guitar sound to rich harmony singing. Was it difficult to go back and find your own style outside of your long tenure in The Eagles?

    No not really because this album is totally different from what I used to do with The Eagles. When I was writing for the band it was a situation in which you are writing for a select group of people - a cast of characters with a particular style.

    So I would have to think about how Don Henley would sing for example, or keep the music fairly simple, think about Tim's dexterous bass playing, or Joe's particular guitar style etc. So I ended up writing in a particular way to suit their style. This album is much more of a liberating process for me and I'm writing about myself for the most part.
    http://popdose.com/the-popdose-inter...th-don-felder/
    Correct me if I’m wrong, but from my perspective, in reading your book, the biggest betrayal was when Joe Walsh and Timothy B. Schmit threw you under the bus after you fought for equal rights within the band.

    I don’t think they threw me under the bus at all. I understand the way that organization works, and it’s one of those things where you’re either with them, or you’re an enemy. So they had to make a decision one way or another on what camp they were in, and they chose to stay in the band, and they’re still in the band. I don’t hold anything against them. I love Joe, he’s a great guy, great player. He and I were probably the closest in that band of all the people that were in that band. And Timothy’s a really nice guy, a great singer, great player. I don’t have any hard feelings against anyone in that band, to tell you the truth.

    That’s good to hear. From reading the book, I felt betrayed on your behalf, because you’re standing up for Joe and Timothy, and it seemed tragic that they chose the meal ticket over what I consider to be the right thing.

    Well, what they chose was the right thing for them, so I was happy for them. That year-and-a-half, cathartic process I went through was so I would not carry that baggage forward, so I wouldn’t carry that anger or frustration or sense of betrayal. I wanted to be free of that, and released from all that, and enjoy the rest of my life, play other music and have a good time. There is life after the Eagles. [Chuckles]

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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    I have read all the praise of Henley before. That isn't new to me. The only comment that wasn't familiar to me was about Tim's 'dexterous' bass playing.

    Glenn when mentioned at all is lumped in with Henley as being part of a great team or as an amorphous part of a great band. I do note the part about 'great singers like DH AND GF' but then, as usual, it goes on with all the cliched phone book stuff about Henley and how Henley was 'the strongest vocalist' (and 'probably' better than Felder! Wow)! NB: I am sure his praise of Henley is genuine.

    We know that in his show he does sing a couple of songs which were sung by Glenn. How does he feel about how Glenn sang those songs? He has never said. It would not surprise me at all to learn that he 'probably' thinks he sings them better than Glenn.

    He doesn't like Glenn. I understand that (and Glenn doesn 't like him, but during the 14 year vacation went out of his way to praise Felder). I guess for the most part as we said yesterday, when he does talk about the band it is probably best for him to leave Glenn out, which begs the question of why he wanted to be in the same band for so long.

    But as I have said before, he completely exaggerates the amount he claims to have written which the band actually used. I notice he lumps Joe in with that (primary guitar arrangers who wrote a lot of the music). This again seems to minimise Glenn's contribution.

    The 'standing up for Joe & Timothy' stuff has been discussed at length elsewhere. All I will say is they are grown men who are perfectly capable of standing up for themselves.

    I suppose I shouldn't nitpick so much but there is so much here that should be addressed because of the half truths & inaccuracies, not to mention level of fairness.

    The sycophantic tone of the last interview can be discerned from those questions you quoted. You didn't quote this response, however:

    When I wrote that book, I really just wanted to tell my story. I didn’t want to hang any dirty laundry out, I didn’t want to point the finger any anybody or describe them in unflattering terms, because as a group, we did some amazing stuff together. We made great records, we toured the world numerous times. There were some great times involved in all that, and there’s nothing to be gained in attacking people in a book like that – it’s a small human being that does that, and I didn’t want to do that.

    Anyone who has read this book can decide for themselves how truthful this is. Now I am out of this discussion. I have spent too much time on it.
    Last edited by Freypower; 07-25-2014 at 07:07 PM.

  8. #98
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    I missed that... wow. Does he really not think he painted anyone in an poor light?! Is there seriously even one person who read that book who doesn't think he makes Glenn, Don, and even Joe and Tim look bad in it? He paints Glenn as a bipolar sadist, Don as a petty egomaniac, Joe and Tim as spineless cowards who abandoned Felder when he needed them. Now he says in this interview he doesn't feel that way about them... well, sure could have fooled me. Even the obsequious interviewer got that impression from the book, as you can see from the questions he asks.

    It's nice that he throws some compliments their way now. It would have been nicer if he hadn't disparaged them in his book in the first place. And yes, he did disparage them; to pretend otherwise is disingenuous at best.

    I'm honestly stunned he can say with a straight face that his book doesn't "describe them in unflattering terms." Wow, just wow.

    I think I have a new question to submit to his next chat!

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  9. #99
    Administrator sodascouts's Avatar
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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    So, I decided to go get out my copy of Heaven and Hell and see if my memory was playing tricks on me, because I sure as heck thought I remembered some unflattering descriptions in that book.

    I started by looking at the index, where I found a subcategory with the following title: "Glenn Frey - victimization by." Yes, that's right folks. A whole subcategory is dedicated to how horrible Glenn Frey was. Do we even need examples after that? However, since it's possible Felder didn't write the index, I pressed on.

    After just a few minutes of thumbing through the book, I found these choice quotes. You can decide for yourself whether or not they are unflattering.

    About Glenn:

    "From one day to the next, [Glenn would] pick someone at random then humiliate them in order, I suppose, to make himself feel superior" (196).

    "Some of [Glenn's] victimization was done in the name of humor, but it was usually done at someone else's expense, allowing him to play his power card and keep everyone around him subservient. It was an emotional problem that should have been addressed with therapy of some kind, and maybe Prozac, not more cocaine" (196-197).

    "Glenn seemed to delight in mimicking people in a humiliating way" (197).

    About Don:

    "[Randy was] the sweetest-natured, gentlest of men, he was not someone to be easily riled, but every day in the studio, Don in particular seemed to find some reason for criticizing him" (176).

    "One word best describes Don at that time: castigating" (177).

    "In Montreal, when there was a screw-up on a hotel reservation, Don blamed our long-time road manager, Richie Fernandez, and ordered him fired. [...] Poor Richie, who'd been a devoted member of the crew from day one, was given his papers" (183).

    "Don [Henley] always resented Joe [Vitale], who was a far better drummer" (284).

    About Joe:

    [After the firing] "I'd never been more in need of my old buddy Joe, but he wasn't there for me anymore. [....] Now, when push came to shove, he was going with the rest of the band and the money. He wasn't even going to try to fight for me. I felt betrayed" (319).

    About Tim:


    [After the firing] "The last conversation I had with any of the Eagles was with Tim, whom I'd also considered a good friend for many years. To my utter dismay, his response was similar to Joe's" (319).

    --------------

    Those are just a few examples it took me about 15 minutes to find. It's not a comprehensive list of the digs he takes by any means. Yes, there are nice things, too, but when you slice someone with a knife, giving them a candy bar afterwards doesn't make the scar go away.

    Felder is free to write about his personal experiences and judge his bandmates based on his perceptions of their behavior, but for him to say he never wrote anything "unflattering"... come freaking on. Felder can be such a nice guy, but when I read stuff like that, I get really disappointed in him.

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    Default Re: Don Felder in the Press/Blogs/etc.

    I'd guess that Don hasn't read his book recently and so has forgotten some of the things he's written. Looking at the quotes that Soda's pulled out, it doesn't seem so bad but what was a problem for me was the lack of context and balance. I'm inclined to believe him that Glenn could be unpleasant to work with (there's enough hints from other sources) but he doesn't do too well at explaining why people put up with it. That would require writing something positive.

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