The album that Don Felder said shouldn’t have been made
It’s never easy trying to be in the typical lead guitarist slot like Don Felder was in Eagles.
He clearly had a lot of talent and was more than happy to write whatever he could to satisfy Don Henley and Glenn Frey, but there were many times where he seemed to be blocked out of the room and not allowed to contribute the way he wanted. But if there’s one thing that’s worse than having to deal with being stifled, it’s trying to come up with the greatest material you’ve ever written on demand.
Artists simply aren’t built that way when they’re writing their masterpieces. The greatest records of all time all have somewhat serendipitous moments that lead them to becoming some of the most celebrated records of their time, and by the time the California rockers made records like Hotel California, there was no way for anyone to look at them and expect them to make the same thing all over again.
And now that they didn’t have any kind of break between records, everyone showed up to the studio high out of their minds and trying their best to scrape together something that resembled one of their classics on The Long Run. While the cocaine certainly didn’t help, it was most likely a nightmare for Felder having to sit on many of his tunes while he saw the rest of his bandmates struggle to get anything done.
Then again, this kind of position would usually be a great opportunity for Felder to fly solo. After all, Joe Walsh managed to put out a record on his own during his run with the band, so why not try his hand at making his own solo album? In theory, it made sense, but when looking back at his discography, Felder felt that a lot of what turned up on his solo album felt like it was too much too soon.
The riffs were certainly there, but Felder said that he would have much rather recharged his batteries than being strongarmed into making it by manager Irving Azoff, saying, “I put out a solo album because while we were making, I think, The Long Run, Irving Azoff thought it wise that when we were negotiating to do that album, everyone in the band should have an individual solo deal. So I was obligated to do a record. I went into my studio, did a record, put it out – but I never toured behind it. I don’t think I ever played a single show. I really didn’t want to.”
But the fact that they even included that as part of the deal should have triggered some alarm bells for Felder. The band may have been hitting a lull in their discography, but given how cutthroat Frey and Henley could be when it came to individual songs, that deal wasn’t a case of them taking care of everyone. It was them ensuring they would have a security blanket in case the whole thing fell apart.
And while Felder’s contributions did give them a bit more edge than the average California rock band, a lot of his solo work made him try to run before he could walk. ‘Heavy Metal’ was a fine one-off track, but it makes a lot more sense why he would focus on soundtrack work before he was finally ready to break his vows of silence in 2012 with a record like Return to Forever.
Because no matter how bad it could get within Eagles, Felder never wanted the band to break up by any stretch. He loved the idea of playing music with his friends, and even if things could get testy, he didn’t want to be thrown to the wolves and left to his own devices once everything imploded so quickly.
