The five best guitar solos Joe Walsh and Don Felder performed together with the Eagles
The Eagles were never known for being the world’s most dangerous rock and roll band. Compared to Black Sabbath, who seemed genuinely frightening whenever they took to the stage, the soothing sounds of Glenn Frey and Don Henley were enough for people to pop open a beer and get out their best dad attire whenever turning up to their concerts. They still had some muscle behind them, though, which came from their two-guitar attack when they got Joe Walsh and Don Felder in the band.
Looking at both styles, though, Felder had the guitar front covered throughout their time together. Despite joining while Bernie Leadon was still in the group, his nickname of ‘Fingers’ wasn’t done by accident, leading to many moments where he went all over the neck and rarely let up for a second.
But Joe Walsh didn’t need the Eagles to become a superstar, either. He was already doing fine as a solo act, but the minute that he signed on for Hotel California, things kicked into high gear for him, whether that was working on his own ballads or giving their live show a kick in the ass while the rest of the group were practically glued to their positions onstage.
Even though Walsh has been known for his reckless behaviour, everything that he played opposite Felder was a thing of beauty. It’s hard to capture the magic of their harmonies, but by having two guitar heroes in the mix, the Eagles somehow found a way of translating that vocal magic to the guitar licks as well.
Joe Walsh and Don Felder’s best guitar solos:
5. ‘Those Shoes’ – The Long Run
Most Eagles fans could practically hear the fatigue setting in when the band got to making The Long Run. All of their creativity had been sucked dry on Hotel California, but the music machine doesn’t feed itself, so the next phase of their career was about going into different realms that no one had asked them to go down. They did have a few good ideas kicking around, though, and ‘Those Shoes’ featured a guitar duel for the ages.
Whereas Walsh was the one that was the master of the talkbox whenever playing ‘Rocky Mountain Way’ live, this was the first time that most people heard a duelling talkbox solo, with each guitarist playing in tight harmony with each other throughout the entire tune. While the song itself is far from the best piece of writing Henley ever created, it’s nice to know that they could still compete with Peter Frampton’s style if they wanted to.
4. ‘Learn To Be Still’ – Hell Freezes Over
Nowhere has there been a more apt title for a reunion than Hell Freezes Over. Bringing each of the California rockers back together felt like the stuff of nightmares, and yet they seemed as refreshed as they could ever hope to be when they decided to return to the stage in the mid-1990s. It wouldn’t be a true reunion without some new material, but while ‘Get Over It’ is a better version of what they stood for, ‘Learn To Be Still’ is where those heavenly harmonies come back.
Whereas most of the song feels like a leftover from Henley’s album The End of the Innocence, it doesn’t come alive until the guitar solo in the middle of the tune. Playing opposite each other, each part could have been a fine guitar solo on its own, but hearing them play off one another is like hearing The Everly Brothers being reborn as guitars instead of singers. It’s nothing too flashy, but in this case, the understated approach is exactly what this kind of song needs.
3. ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ – Hotel California
Part of the reason why Walsh worked so well within the group is because of his edge. Much like Neil Young was the dangerous side of CSNY, Walsh ensured they were still a rock band rather than a bunch of guys who wanted to play country-leaning rock and roll. So when he came up with the bad-boy riff to ‘Life in the Fast Lane’, most people knew a standard guitar solo would not suffice.
Looking through the rest of the songs on Hotel California, the solo in this track feels like a conversation between the guitar players, with each lick answering the other the minute that one of them ends. Felder may have been known as the more precise guitar player, but sometimes it takes the right song to realise that cutting loose in the studio isn’t always the worst idea.
2. ‘King of Hollywood’ – The Long Run
The beauty behind any good songwriter is making the most out of the bare essentials. Even though most of the greatest rock songs in the world have only three chords, it takes a genius to twist them around in a way that makes them feel new. Since ‘King of Hollywood’ is based around only two chords, though, Walsh and Felder had to get creative, and thus was born a guitar symphony.
As the tune starts off, the thematic lick that kicks everything off sounds good on its own, but with every verse, more pieces are layered onto it to the point where it sounds like five different guitars being harmonised at once. This should be the definition of excess, but in the song’s context, it’s a lovely bit of tone painting. For a tune all about losing innocence and doing whatever it takes for fame, each guitar line may as well be another layer of makeup covering the raw wound of creativity.
1. ‘Hotel California’ – Hotel California
Before Hotel California ever graced anyone’s speakers, Frey and Henley knew they needed something good. One of These Nights had done great, but if they wanted to be considered legends, this was supposed to be the album that catapulted them into the stratosphere. Walsh still needed to get broken in, but when they started sculpting this story of the broken-down nature of Hollywood, Felder and Walsh turned in one of the greatest guitar battles to ever come out of rock’s golden age.
Compared to most guitarists who like to show off their chops, each player’s personality comes out whenever they play their licks on this song, from Walsh’s reckless behaviour bending the life out of the strings to Felder’s different finger rolls and ability to crisscross different strings. Even though most guitarists like to improvise, Henley insisted on keeping the solo exactly how it was, almost like he knew of the gold he had on his hands. And, really, when those harmony guitars come soaring, it’s like the singer didn’t have a point.
