Don Felder & Bernie Leadon vs Don Felder & Joe Walsh

Depends on what you want - if you want country rock or banjo, Felder and Leadon are the only way to go.

If you want rock and roll, Felder and Walsh.

And, if you want the truth, Felder could do it all on a guitar, the entire range, country, folk, slide, rock, metal - whatever you would want, he could deliver at least competently, and probably a whole lot better.

I wish Randy Meisner wouldn't have lost his mind.
Timothy B Schmit creeps me out.

quote:

---

Felder wrote the chords for Hotel California

---

Uh - Felder wrote all of the music for the entire song. There was a key change (which is arrangement, not songwriting), obviously Henley added drums (not songwriting) and there were additional arrangements made before the final recording - but they (Henley/Frey) were so obsessive that instead of Felder and Walsh just jamming and working out new solos for the recording session, Henley made Felder get his maid to play the original demo over the phone so the solo on the record was exactly like the one Felder recorded for the demo.

So, regardless of what Henley and the late Glenn Frey said about "chord structure" (which is laughable, that's about 85% of songwriting, as it is), Don Felder wrote 100% of the music as that term is defined and accepted by songwriters. Henley wrote most/all of the lyrics with however much input Frey gave (which I've always suspected was little to none - beyond the broad story concept and the "Steely knives" bit) - due to their agreement they split the lyrics credit.

Period.

quote:

---

Henley could barely acknowledge any use to the progression.

---

To add insult to injury, they required Felder write a new, classical, acoustic intro to Hotel California for the Hell Freezes Over television program (VH1, I believe, and ultimately the DVD), which he did the night before, rehearsed and played it beautifully. Sure, that's just additional arrangement, but when the liner notes were released, it was flipped from written by: Felder, Henley and Frey (as it is on Hotel California) to Henley, Frey and Felder.

Traditionally songwriting credits are in order of who contributed the most to the song, unless there is another, previously agreed upon arrangement among band members (the aforementioned, Henley and Frey partnership, and more famously, Lennon McCartney.)

Long story short: Don Henley is a major league a-hole. Brilliant lyricist and one of the best rock singers, but just a huge, huge a-hole.

quote:

---

What is a good rule of thumb for what is and isn't songwriting?

---

I'm not an expert, but this is a hotly contested/heavily litigated area of the creative arts. Basically - the building blocks of a song are the chords, the changes in and out of chords, and the musical progression of the melody are generally going to make up the bulk of work required to claim songwriting credit.

Things like tempo, key, "voice" (changing a banjo part to a flute, for example), and even things like instrument solos, bass lines, drum parts - virtually all of this will be considered arrangement - now songwriters do most/all of this, too, at different times, but if that's all you do, you're not "songwriting" - you're arranging and/or producing.

I knew Ace would knock this out of the park.

The best part of the Eagles documentary from Showtime or whatever it was is the Henley/Geffen feud. Things went bad with Geffen and the Eagles, yet Henley was dumb enough to go back there for his solo stuff. Geffen said something like Henley is the worst egomaniac he has ever known. Think about all of the a-holes Geffen has worked with to earn that honor. Oh, and while Henley/Frey were huge douchebags, I don't think Felder was an angel. As Frey said, dude you are not singing, we have Don Henley.

I always felt bad for Randy Meisner. He just seemed to have to have some anxiety issues or whatever. Weirdo Schmidt was kind of an appropriate replacement.

Schmidt was a weirdo?
Other than coming from Poco I don’t know anything about him

quote:

---

I knew Ace would knock this out of the park.

The best part of the Eagles documentary from Showtime or whatever it was is the Henley/Geffen feud. Things went bad with Geffen and the Eagles, yet Henley was dumb enough to go back there for his solo stuff. Geffen said something like Henley is the worst egomaniac he has ever known. Think about all of the a-holes Geffen has worked with to earn that honor. Oh, and while Henley/Frey were huge douchebags, I don't think Felder was an angel. As Frey said, dude you are not singing, we have Don Henley.

I always felt bad for Randy Meisner. He just seemed to have to have some anxiety issues or whatever. Weirdo Schmidt was kind of an appropriate replacemen

---

Henley is so unapologetically condescending that it's borderline endearing.

I've always understood that almost any substantial contribution (lyrics, music, chord structure, arrangement, musical hook) in a band is recognized with a writing credit.

On the other hand, studio guys are the ones who get the shaft on this type of thing. A good example would be Pete Carr's guitar intro on Bob Segar's "Main Street." That guitar intro is a HUGE part of that song and yet he's not credited with any of the writing credit. He basically made "scale" to help write one of the more iconic rock tracks of all time.

Saw Don Felder last year and I was impressed. He mostly played eagles songs, but they were pretty much on point. Enjoyed the show.

quote:

---

Don Henley is a major league a-hole

---

Who managed to skate after a teenage prostitute was found at his house, high as frick.