Discussion about Felder's contributions in the Eagles

[New Kid In Town]

Well, I have to say I pretty much agree with what everyone has said. I personally do not particularly care for Don's voice. Not the worst in the world but nothing to write home about-lol. However, he is an amazing guitar player - one of the best, and he should be proud of that. Austin, I agree with you - he needs to hire a lead singer and then just do what he does best - his amazing guitar playing. I think Don has always wanted to be a lead singer and resented Don and Glenn that they would never give him a lead song after Visions. He was hired for his amazing guitar playing, not his voice. In fact, if you watch You Tube videos from the 70's he rarely sings. He contributed a lot to the sound of the Eagles and helped take them to super star status. It's a shame that he could never accept that he was not a lead singer and just be happy that he was in one of the biggest bands in rock history. His constant complaining and passive/aggressive behavior would have got on my nerves big time.

[chaim]

Indeed, Joe has a unique voice. If it's a funny song, his voice sounds hilarious. If it's a beautiful song, his voice sounds lovely.

[thebagels]

I haven’t seen Don live, (besides YouTube) but with him playing so many Eagles tunes I wonder how many in the crowd think he actually had a part in writing many of them? Just wondering.

I'll start by saying that I think Felder really did have a hand in the arrangements/instrumental parts of the songs they did, even the early ones like TIE and PEF as they were performed in the '90s.

For example, the current version of the Eagles still plays Don's arrangement of PEF right down to the same lick after "I've got a peaceful easy feeling" in the chorus and the chord change after "I know you won't let me down."

Of course he wrote many parts to songs in the '70s that he wasn't given songwriter credit for (iirc Randy said in an interview that Don wrote the bassline to OOTN even though he's not credited as a writer on it).

So I really have no problem with him performing the songs he does currently especially since he always says before PEF and TIE "this song is from 1971."

To respond to your question directly, it depends, I think, on how knowledgable the fanbase is as well as how much they care about such things. I saw Steve Augeri (Steve Perry replacement in Journey who recorded a few albums of original material with them) perform. Small crowd, and the setlist was about 80% Perry songs. I was a bit surprised at how off-key Augeri sung years after he left Journey as he did well on a few tracks he recorded 2-3 years after he left Journey and had let his voice rest. But no one really cared about the flat vocal or medleys of Perry song after Perry song, and everyone (mostly drunk iirc) had fun.

On the flipside, kpop fans will absolutely flip their shit if certain members are missing from concerts or if certain songs aren't performed.

[chaim]

Ray Wilson performing Genesis songs from different eras is weirder than Don performing Eagles songs he played for years, that's for sure. Ray did one album and, as far as I know, not too many gigs with them.

Although he doesn't have to, it's great that Don makes it clear that some of the songs he performs were recorded before he joined. I remember when he said in an interview several years ago that "Originally, when we first started, there five guys in the band"...

[KingWalsh]

Just to clarify, not saying he shouldn’t perform them, but I wonder that about a lot of performers who have come and go from various bands when they do solo gigs and perform previous groups works. It is true that songs often have input from various members of bands yet they don’t get Songwriting credits. I think that is true in most bands, that’s what bands do.... they come up with little bits and ideas as the song develops.

[chaim]

Just to clarify, not saying he shouldn’t perform them, but I wonder that about a lot of performers who have come and go from various bands when they do solo gigs and perform previous groups works. It is true that songs often have input from various members of bands yet they don’t get Songwriting credits. I think that is true in most bands, that’s what bands do.... they come up with little bits and ideas as the song develops.

True. Btw, I've never understood why many people, including Don himself, have said that Don came up with the OOTN bassline, "although he isn't credited as a songwriter". When was Randy credited as a songwriter for coming up with a bass part?? Writing a bassline is not songwriting. Or do they mean the OOTN intro?

Gene Simmons wrote the main riff for a few early Stanley tunes, but he's not credited. Black Diamond, Love Her All I Can, Firehouse.. Those riffs were basslines Gene wrote for himself to play, but Paul and Ace decided to play them too, so they became the main riffs.

[thebagels]

True. Btw, I've never understood why many people, including Don himself, have said that Don came up with the OOTN bassline, "although he isn't credited as a songwriter". When was Randy credited as a songwriter for coming up with a bass part?? Writing a bassline is not songwriting. Or do they mean the OOTN intro?

Gene Simmons wrote the main riff for a few early Stanley tunes, but he's not credited. Black Diamond, Love Her All I Can, Firehouse.. Those riffs were basslines Gene wrote for himself to play, but Paul and Ace decided to play them too, so they became the main riffs.

He came up with the intro too if I'm not mistaken. I should have made that clear.

It's difficult to know imo when to draw the line regarding credit for songwriting. Joe gets songwriting credit for the "Life in the Fast Lane" lick, but Don doesn't get songwriting credit for the "Already Gone" lick although they are both played in the intros and choruses. I also suspect (based on what I heard Don playing on his pre-Eagles recordings and his guitar playing in general) that Don probably came up with significant portions of the NKIT arrangement (really complex harmonically, structurally, chordally, etc. compared to all of the early Eagles stuff), but he's not credited for that. Yet he gets credit for HC (which is fair considering he apparently wrote all or almost all of the music except for Joe's guitar parts and the descending harmony guitar line at the end).

[chaim]

Don came up with the Already Gone lick, not Glenn?

Anyway, I wasn't referring to just your post. I've seen it mentioned quite often that Don wrote the bassline for OOTN, but wasn't credited as a songwriter. People always say "bassline", but I assume they must mean the bass lick that starts the song.

[chaim]

And IF Don had something to do with the NKIT chords, he has my respect. That song is a monster in terms of chords and modulations.

[Ive always been a dreamer]

Yeah - Songwriting credits can get sticky since each band draws their own lines about who gets credited for what. I always wondered why Joe didn't get credit for his significant contribution on the Hotel California outro. TBH, I don't recall ever hearing anything about any significant contributions by Felder on NKIT. If my memory serves me correctly, Felder doesn't mention anything about it in his book and here is what Glenn and Don said about the song in The Very Best of the Eagles booklet ...

NEW KID IN TOWN

GLENN: We won a Grammy® for Best Vocal Arrangement for "New Kid In Town." I'm quite proud of that.

DON: J.D. Souther started the song. It's about the fleeting, fickle nature of love and romance. It's also about the fleeting nature of fame, especially in the music business. We were already chronicling our own demise [laughs]. We were basically saying, "Look, we know we're red hot now, but we also know that somebody's going to come along and replace us -- both in music and in love." We were always doing that double entendre thing, between the music business and personal relationships. But that song was J.D.'s baby -- he was the father of that song.