Felder's "Heaven and Hell" Discussion Thread

[sodascouts]

Here's another review of the Felder book:

"This Might Be Heaven, This Might Be Hell"

[Freypower]

Well, that was an interesting and objective take, but there goes that 'body language' stuff again. From what I can see the band get on a lot better these days. Remember how Glenn said that it became fun to do sound check and rehearsals again? The reason it 'became fun' was because the 'disruptive element' (Don Henley's words) had gone.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Yep - that was an interesting read. Thanks for the link, Soda.

[sodascouts]

Another Felder interview:
"'Gods' Set Eagle Free"

It's pretty much more of the same. Apparently the latest tidbit is a scolding over shoes by Don Henley.

Felder, phoning from his Los Angeles home, said it became impossible to be musically creative with The Gods calling all the shots.

"I mean, I wore the wrong shoes on stage one night, and Henley berated me for it," he said.

Man, how did Felder survive such trauma? lol

[Brooke]

Interesting! Thanks Soda!

At least this time they state that Felder wrote the music for HC and don't lead you to believe that he wrote the whole song!

And who knew The Don Felder Band played shows anywhere?

[Freypower]

I certainly didn't know about the Don Felder Band (nice modest name, no)?. And excuse me but isn't playing corporate shows about.... money? This 'it's all about the music, MAAAN' stuff is crap. This is the man who did nothing but complain that he didn't get his 'fair share'. Please.

The 'tears spurted from my eyes' stuff is just funny. Sorry, but it is.

As for being 'berated' by Henley for wearing the 'wrong shoes'.... storing that sort of stuff up for years and years and being so bitter about it is not helping Felder. If I ever see even the slightest indication that he may possibly think he may have been at fault on occasion too, I will shout it from the rooftops. Until then I'm afraid I can't 'relate' to him at all.

[Brooke]

I just about choked on my iced tea when I read that about the "tears spurted from my eyes" part, too!

And I hear ya, Fp!

[samo]

Hold on a minute everyone....let me get him a tissue for his spurting tears

Yes, that is sarcasam you hear

[Freypower]

Just to give a bit of perspective on all this - the Eagles aren't the only band to have had what appeared to be bitter, perpetual feuds. We watched a Rock Family Trees program on Deep Purple last night. To put it mildly, the relationship between Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan is icy. I said to Mike 'I thought Frey & Felder hated each other' and he said 'amateurs'! Blackmore also once got into a fight with Gillan's replacement, David Coverdale. The constant lineup changes in that band and formation of offshoots (Whitesnake, Rainbow, Paice Ashton Lord) is pure soap opera.

I honestly believe, as Henley said in Rolling Stone, the best bands don't have one dictator but two (with Henley being Frey's second in command in the Eagles). The other really great bands are as follows:

Beatles (Lennon-McCartney)
Rolling Stones (Jagger-Richards)
Led Zeppelin (Page-Plant)

And that is it, unless you wish to include the Who (Townshend-Daltrey, and I'm dubious about that, because Townshend wrote all the songs). Possibly Queen (Mercury-May).

It could be argued that other great bands with one dominant force, like my beloved Dire Straits, aren't really BANDS in the proper sense. Pink Floyd had two dominant forces (Waters, then Gilmour). Even the Byrds basically boiled down to Roger McGuinn. REM have tried to be democratic and in my opinion never became the great band they could have become. I don't know how U2 operate because I don't like them.

[Mrs Frey]

FP, your "feuding duos in bands" information is very interesting. I don't know much about '70s rock bands (my main interests, until I discovered the brilliant Eagles, have always been '50s and early '60s music), so I learnt a lot from that.

I'd like to add to your list of one-person dominated bands, Creedence Clearwater Revival. Apparently the Fogerty Brothers didn't get along very well, because Tom resented John's dominance. IMHO, however, John Fogerty WAS CCR. He sang all the songs, he played lead guitar and he wrote almost all their recorded material (of those that I know). No John Fogerty - no CCR.

By the way, your hubby's "amateurs" comment really amused me!