Quotes

Here are quotes from Don and others about his career.

Hotel California

1. What happened with Hotel California was Don Felder, the under rated genius guitar player in our band and he did not have the name of Joe Walsh, but definitely just an incredible player. He used to make instrumental demos at his house and on a tape of about seven ideas, was what was to become the track of Hotel California. And Don and I heard the tape and said gosh... this is like a Spanish Reggae Rock, this is really a bizarre mix of musical influences, this is great. At the time we were also quite fond at Steely Dan and listening to a lot of their records. And one of the things that impressed us about Steely Dan was that they would say anything in their songs and it did not have to necessarily make sense you know, they would just, sort of...they called jokes sculpture. And well we thought of this Hotel California, we started thinking of there would be very cinematic to do it, sort of like the Twilight Zone. You just have a ..., one line says there is a guy on the highway, you know the next line says there is a hotel in the distance, then there is a woman in there and she walks in. You know it is sort..., it is just all one shot, not necessarily you know, just sort of strong together and you sort of draw your own conclusions from it.

So we are sort of trying to expand our lyrical horizons and just try to take out something in the bizarre as Steely Dan did that. 

- Glenn Frey

In His Own Words

Growing Up

1. I grew up in Gainesville in north central Florida, home of the Fighting Gators, and, when I was about 14 or 15, I snuck into a bar to hear B.B. King. He impressed me so much in the way that he was able to effect the audience with the way he was playing.  There were people crying and women hollering out and just really getting it on. I went backstage after it was over  it wasn't much of a backstage  and when I talked to him he was just the nicest guy. I was working in a music store at the time trying to build up enough credit there teaching guitar and selling guitars so I could order a guitar for myself. After seeing B.B. King, I ordered a new cherry red Gibson 355, and I guess I about a year or a year and a half saving up the money and waiting for that guitar to come. It finally came and I was probably the happiest kid on the block.

2. Poverty was the reason I picked up the guitar in the first place. [Laughs] Like I said, I grew up in Florida on a dirt road and in a white clapboard house. I think a lot of the attraction was just the fun and thrill of playing music to begin with. My father loved music. He bought a Voice of Music tape recorder, since we couldn't afford to buy records at that time. He'd take it over to people's houses and copy their records and he'd have all this music in the house. I think his influence on me, just how much he about music, led me to pursue music, and when I started playing he encouraged me and helped me along.

How the songs were made

1. That was a guitar, a Les Paul with a flanger, and echoplex, an Ibenex chorus--mono--and a tweed Deluxe cranked up. It was recorded on two tracks, which is a trick we use a lot: one mike is placed close to the speaker as usual, and another mike is set back in the room to get that fat room sound. You can then crossfade between the room track and the tight-miked track.

We recorded the acoustic, 12-string line in "Hotel California" on three tracks. There was a regular mike on the acoustic as usual, and we ran a pickup--Takemine 12s have great pickup--to an amp and split the output of a stereo Leslie left and right. It's like you're inside a 12-string guitar when you listen to that on headphones.

- The instrument  that was used to produce that bizarre solo near the end of 'Teenage Jail'

2. It's very simple. If you pick up a guitar and tune it and it stays in tune, you buy it. No matter how good the sound and the action are, if the intonation isn't good, the guitar isn't good.

- How Don choses his guitars

3.  We really prefer to create in the studio. Szymczyk is a genius at combining takes. We'll do eight or nine passes on a solo, then he'll take three bars from one, a bar and a half from another, and so on. Then we'll either keep the compiled track or learn it from the tape and cut it again. Glenn has written some great guitar licks just by singing parts to us.

4. That was a unique situation. I added those parts after the record was done. It was originally a piano-based song, and we cut it with Glenn playing piano; he also did the harmony guitar parts in the beginning. But the song just didn't groove, so [producer] Bill Szymczyk figured out how we could make the thing scream a little. We added a couple of rhythm guitar parts.

- Coming up with those interlocking rhythm guitar parts on 'One of These Nights'

Quotes from others

1.  Don was always the best guitar player in town.

-Tom Petty [Who also grew up in Gainesville and was taught guitar briefly by Felder.]

2. Q: You like playing with other guitarist?

A: Yeah if they are good. The trouble with most lead guitar players is that they can't play rhythm. I know about five and they all play real good rhythm; Eric [Clapton], Donny..... Donny Felder and I played in a band in high school in Gainsville, Florida in '62.

Q: What about Townshend?

A: Townshend's great, but he's into a whole other bag. I love to play with Joe Walsh, Don Felder, Eric and George Terry, the guy that plays with Eric. Somehow the best guitar players I know can play really good rhythm.

- Stephen Stills