Don Felder, Joe Walsh, and the Eagles

Recently we caught Don Felder in concert at the Nikon at Jones Beach Arena, at Jones Beach, Long Island.  Felder was opening for a double bill of Styx and Foreigner.  I had never seen Felder or the Eagles (or Styx) before this, but I had seen Foreigner back in 1985.  Mick Jones is the only remaining original member of that band.

The tickets were extremely reasonable, and a good way to see Eagles material performed by Felder, who was a major member of the band in the late 70s and originally part of their 1990s “Hell Freezes Over” reunion.  Now he’s off on his own but still playing Eagles songs, most notably “Hotel California” – for which he breaks out the Gibson doubleneck guitar (12 & 6 string), which we usually associate with Jimmy Page, Led Zeppelin, and “Stairway to Heaven”.  Fortunately we also enjoyed hearing one of his contributions to the Heavy Metal (animated film) soundtrack, “Heavy Metal (Taking A Ride)”, which he joked, “you may remember that film depending on how stoned you were at the time.” 

I read his book, Heaven & Hell, written back in 2009 after he finally settled his differences with the Eagles.  Naturally he comes off as the good guy and Henley and Frey are the assholes.  Of course, you have to take the source into account when assessing this, but my gut reaction is that he is in fact the hero in this scenario (see below). 

Don Felder was born in 1947 in Gainesville, Florida.  As an amateur musician in Florida he worked with Stephen Stills (of CSNY) and Bernie Leadon, the original lead guitarist for the Eagles.  He also helped teach Tom Petty how to play guitar.   Up until joining the Eagles in the mid-70s, he worked with various semi-pro bands but really had no appreciable commercial success prior to the Eagles.

Because of his friendship with Leadon, he also got to know the rest of the Eagles.  In particular, Don Henley (drummer, vocalist, lyricist) and Glenn Frey (guitarist) are the major two forces in the band; Randy Meisner was the bassist.  They were impressed with Felder’s talent and pulled him into the band as it moved in a “heavier” direction than the original bluegrass/country sound they started out with.  Ironically, it was Felder’s friend Leadon who got pushed out when this happened.

The Eagles had two albums before Felder’s arrival, Eagles and Desperado.  Felder contributed to On The Border, then joined full time for One Of These Nights.   In the process of working on material for their next album, Felder came up with a chord progression and the basic structure for an epic song.  He brought it to Henley, who rapidly came up with lyrics, and “Hotel California” was born.  The album itself finally broke the Eagles into the big time.  The stress of trying to follow it up, with The Long Run, broke up the band in 1980.  When asked about a possible Eagles reunion after that, Don Henley – often quite a bitter and cynical bastard – would joke, “sure, when hell freezes over.”

Joe Walsh.  Before the Eagles, Walsh was in a band called The James Gang, with Dale Peters and Jim Fox.  They had three albums, Yer Album, James Gang Rides Again, and Thirds, of which the most popular songs are “Walk Away” and “Funk #49”.   This material is fairly standard 70s blues-rock, similar to Bad Company and Grand Funk Railroad, with some jamming that doesn’t show up on “best of’s” or the radio. 

It’s certainly heavier than the Eagles were, which Walsh joined for Hotel California and The Long Run.  Felder talks about the Eagles getting “heavier” with his own, then Walsh’s, addition, but having grown up on Black Sabbath, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Deep Purple, Rush, and other 70s bands, I’d say “heavy” is a very relative word here.  “Hotel California” approaches “Freebird” and “Stairway to Heaven” in heaviness but represents a peak, whereas all those bands have heavier songs than those.  From Felder’s account, much of Walsh’s “heavy” contribution was to the on-the-road excesses, e.g. attacking hotel rooms with a chain saw and throwing stuff out the window.  You know, the kind of stuff we think of with Led Zeppelin and The Who. 

Trouble.  The original breakup in 1980 was a mutual affair.  Everyone was worn out, burnt out, tired of trying to top Hotel California.   The band members went their separate ways and attempted solo careers, of which Walsh and Henley were the most successful.  Felder put out an album, Airborne, in 1983, and contributed two songs to the Heavy Metal soundtrack, which are much heavier than his other material.  

            In 1994 the Eagles reunited, including Felder.  By 2000, Felder saw problems going on.  “Where’s the money?”   According to Felder, Henley and Frey essentially looted most of the band’s profits to themselves and evaded embarrassing questions, whereas Walsh’s attitude was to keep his mouth shut, not ask questions, and cash his paychecks.  Finally, Henley and Frey fired Felder, which is something you can’t do with a partner.  Lawsuits flared back and forth, only resolved by a settlement in 2006.  My impression is that the settlement didn’t do much to resolve the mutual antipathy between Felder and his comrades.          

            As of 2014, Felder tours on his own and still plays 80% Eagles material, which as noted above includes “Hotel California”.  The Eagles still have Henley, Frey and Walsh, and tour as The Eagles.  They play Madison Square Garden and charge $200-$400 for seats.  Mind you, these are the box office prices, not scalper prices.  When Felder asked the Eagles’ manager about the high cost of reunion tour tickets in the late 90’s, the response was, “we’ll charge whatever the market will bear.” 

            We enjoyed the Don Felder concert and got to hear the best of the Eagles material.   My advice to Eagles fans out there is to boycott the Seagulls (as Felder calls them) and help Felder headline in his own right.  Money well spent, for a worthy cause.