Discussion about Felder's contributions in the Eagles

[thebagels]

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

Maybe Glenn came up with the lick, but if that's the case, it would really surprise me if he's playing that lick and all of the guitar fills on the record simply because the tone/timing of the guitar sounds more similar to Don than Glenn to my ear. The tone of the guitar is also consistent from the chorus licks to the Felder part in the solo, but Glenn's part in the solo sounds a bit different tonally to me. Also, Don would play all of those fills and the lick live and sounded much the same as the record imo.

Of course, it's ultimately speculation on my part. Taking apart the arrangements and trying to determine how the instrumental/vocal parts are laid out is generally pretty instructive to me, so any info about who actually did what is always cool to learn.

To respond to I've always been a dreamer, what sets NKIT apart from earlier Eagles releases imo is the way it's laid out. There aren't many fills during the vocals, but they happen in the gaps between them. afaik that's a Felder tendency as Bernie tended to play fills a lot more frequently than Don in the early Eagles. Also, many of the chords use the open B and E strings and walk up and down to different chords using arpeggios. Signature Felder tendency to my ear; he did that all throughout his time with the Eagles and afterwards.

I'm willing to buy that JD or Glenn could have contributed a lot more to the arrangement than I'm aware of, but NKIT doesn't sound too much to my ear like the way Glenn arranged songs (it has some of his tendencies, but the structure is unlike his solo stuff imo).

Desperado had a fairly complex arrangement too, but it was played more chordally, and you didn't really see the same tendencies of very clear walkups, walkdowns, emphasis on suspended chords and open strings, etc. All that is how Don arranges songs, however.

[chaim]

I'm sure it was Don's idea to play those pre-chorus chords in NKIT as arpeggios, but the actual chords probably came from JD or Glenn. (?) And Don probably did come up with all the guitar fills. I thought you were talking about the actual chords.

As for the Already Gone riff, I trust your ear. I have a lousy ear when it comes to sounds. I've always felt that the riff leads logically to Glenn's part in the solo playing-wise, but I haven't played attention to sound. There's a video clip on YouTube where Glenn plays those licks, because Don missed the gig (was it when his first child was born?). I've always thought that Don's only contribution to the studio version was the high sustained notes above Glenn's solo. But I've been terribly wrong about Eagles guitar parts!

[chaim]

Adding to my NKIT comment above....Didn't Glenn strum those ascending pre-chorus chords as well?

[thebagels]

Adding to my NKIT comment above....Didn't Glenn strum those ascending pre-chorus chords as well?

He did, but played a full closed chord on the F#m and (if my ear isn't wrong) and didn't change from a suspended chord to a straight major on G#.

So yeah; I could probably agree that Glenn and/or JD wrote the chords.

As for the Eagles show at Ontario Motor Speedway (yeah; iirc that was within days of the birth of Don's kid if not the same day), Glenn plays the basic lick, but doesn't do any takeoffs on it like Felder did.

What gives me a bit of pause is that in the last verse, Glenn does the same lick that's on the record in the spot after "heaven knows it wasn't you who set me free."

This makes me think that Glenn may have played more lead guitar on the record than I previously believed, but even that lick has a pinch harmonic on the record. I have never heard Glenn do a pinch harmonic anywhere else, but that doesn't mean he didn't do it on the record.

[chaim]

I have heard Glenn do several pinch harmonics in the early performances. Don't remember if all of them were successful. 😃

[chaim]

Trying to remember where I've heard Glenn do pinch harmonics...The only example I can recall right now is a short jam between Glenn and Bernie before WW, but that performance doesn't seem to be on YouTube.

[UndertheWire]

With Already Gone, the story was that it was recorded without Felder but after he was invited to join, he recorded the additional guitar part.

[WalshFan88]

The lick thebagels is talking about in the last verse sure sounds like a Glenn-ism to me. That just sounds more like Glenn to me. I think Don played it in a lot of the shows because while it's just a simple blues lick, it is too funky to pull off and sing at the same and come back in at the right time. Ask me how I know that. I've since delegated that lick and some of the fills to the other electric player in the band seeing as I also sing Already Gone. I do Glenn's solo and I also end up playing the Bernie intro. The other guy plays the main line and fills and Don's solo.

My belief is that Bernie came up with the Tele country thing on the intro that he always played and then Joe took over. Glenn played the more audible solo on record. The Felder solo that was overdubbed is buried in the mix but if you've heard Felder play it live, it's easier to hear in the dense mix of a record and it's definitely there. As far as that main repeating line, it's really a toss up between Glenn and Don. It could be either of them. That lick doesn't have a lot of personality (don't get me wrong, it's a great line!), or any identifiable stylistic things that make me say definitively who it is. It's not just a simple lick, but it's one that everyone sounds the same playing it. I would maybe lean towards Don. Especially on the fill bits that get added to the back half of it.

One reason that Glenn probably didn't play the takeoffs that are tailed onto the main repeating lick goes back to what I said about the other lick. It's hard to do that and sing and be in time. If they were Don's licks, Glenn could have played them, they aren't anything technical, but probably not while he's singing. So that Cal Jam version does sound a little bare to me but it's hard to do both and obviously being in time and singing in tempo is more important than replicating every single fill.

[chaim]

Speaking of Already Gone....I saw the band in 1996, and I remember a funny moment between Glenn and Don F. Glenn was playing a solo (probably Already Gone) and Don came to "adjust" one of Glenn's tuning pegs, to "help" him get back in tune. Glenn laughed and I could read his lips saying "thanks".

Now, sometimes I wonder if my head created a memory, but I'm sure that did happen. Was it a planned thing they did at every concert or a spontaneous joke from Don?

[thebagels]

Speaking of Already Gone....I saw the band in 1996, and I remember a funny moment between Glenn and Don F. Glenn was playing a solo (probably Already Gone) and Don came to "adjust" one of Glenn's tuning pegs, to "help" him get back in tune. Glenn laughed and I could read his lips saying "thanks".

Now, sometimes I wonder if my head created a memory, but I'm sure that did happen. Was it a planned thing they did at every concert or a spontaneous joke from Don?

They didn't do in Buffalo in 1994 or at Christchurch in 1995. That doesn't mean that it was a spontaneous moment though as it does seem like the Eagles shows from the 90s and later were more theatrical in nature than in the 70s.