What was Eagles guitarist Don Felder’s first band?
Don Felder was the final piece in the jigsaw that led to the Eagles’ greatest single achievement, their fifth studio album, Hotel California. His contributions, both as a guitarist and as a songwriter on the record, can’t be overstated.
For one, without Felder, there would be no title track, plain and simple. Don Henley and Glenn Frey may have finished off the song, with Henley contributing the main lyrical theme. But it was Felder who built the basic structure of the song, and he and Joe Walsh who elevated to celestial heights with their twin guitar solos spiralling into the southern Californian night.
Secondly, across the album as a whole, Felder was responsible for adding a more muscular rock sound to the band’s lush vocals and country overtones. With him and Walsh adding more meat to the bones, the Eagles soared to levels of popular recognition they previously hadn’t thought possible. And then their newest member really came into his own as a musician, showing just what he could do on different string instruments during the group’s gigantic second world tour.
Felder’s abilities didn’t develop overnight. They were nurtured in the musical hotbed of Gainesville, Florida, alongside the likes of Duane Allman, who taught him how to play slide guitar, and Tom Petty. Felder, Allman and Petty would regularly compete in rival groups at local battle of the bands competitions, where, according to the former Eagles guitarist, the Allman Brothers “always” won. It was at these competitions that he honed his craft, leading the band that he started in 1961 at the age of just 13.
So, what was the name of the band?
After several lineup changes, Felder’s band became known as the Maundy Quintet and released their only single under that name in 1967. It featured two songs: ‘2’s Better Than 3’ and ‘I’m Not Alone’.
Incredibly, some of the lineup changes included the arrival of legendary singer-songwriter Stephen Stills for a brief period in 1962 and Stills’ replacement by future Eagles guitarist Bernie Leadon—the man that Felder himself would, in turn, go on to replace in the Eagles 13 years later.
“It was kind of a garage band,” Felder told Premier Guitar in 2020. “My mom would drive up to the gigs. We got into all sorts of trouble together at fraternity parties, that we were way too young to be doing.” The original name of this garage outfit was the Continentals, and they started out playing a mix of surf rock and R&B standards.
Despite the comings and goings in the band, Felder kept them together for eight years, during which time their music evolved with the decade that spawned them. The songs they released in the second half of the ‘60s are psych-inflected folk rock numbers, which bear the unmistakable influence of the Byrds. They also point the way towards the band both Felder and Leadon would later join.
Eventually, Felder set his sights on the big time and moved up to New York. He joined a band called Flow, which was the first act to get him noticed by a serious record label. Still, his stint in the Continentals is what turned him from a kid aspiring to play rock and roll to a guitarist and songwriter on the path to becoming an Eagle.
