Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
by Don Felder
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Book Summary Information
Author: Don FelderContributor: Wendy Holden
Edition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-21
ISBN: 0470289066
Number of pages: 352
Publisher: Wiley
Book Reviews of Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
Book Review: The quiet Eagle has his say at last
Summary: 5 Stars
While this is superbly written, I can only recommend it as a companion piece to Marc Eliot's "To the Limit," which provides a more well-rounded portrait of The Eagles as a whole. But that book's strength - the fact that Eliot was an outsider and relatively disinterested in the he-said-she-said world of rock and roll - is also its weakness. Felder makes up for that unavoidable shortcoming and then some.
It is important to note that the book's subtitle is "My Life In The Eagles." That's exactly what you get: Felder's perspective on the wild ride that was The Eagles in their heyday. The other Eagles (with the exception of Bernie Leadon, who was already an old friend of Felder's when he came on board) are for the most part presented as shadowy bit-players in the saga, which is why I recommend Eliot's book if you want a more well-rounded portrait of the band as a whole. What Eliot could not offer is an insider's look at what life inside the band was like. It is probably impossible for any of us to appreciate that fully without actually having actually partied with a best-selling band in a drug-infested hotel suite circa 1976, but Felder's vivid descriptions offer a remarkable look at the wonderful-yet-terrible experiences he had in that era. While one can tell that it's tempting to gloss over the excesses he himself went to in that time, he resists that temptation - albeit barely - and deals honestly with what life as an Eagle was really like.
Even more vivid are Felder's heartfelt memories of growing up in Florida in the 1960s, poor but determined to succeed, rubbing shoulders with future superstars like Stephen Stills and Tom Petty along the way, and surviving the pitfalls of the Woodstock era. Once his persistence and talent lead to his joining The Eagles literally on the eve of their emergence as the biggest band of the 1970s, there are plenty of great behind-the-music stories to share. I have read numerous other accounts of how "Hotel California" came to be, some of them essentially verbatim transcripts of interviews with Felder, but the one presented here is the most detailed I've seen. He also shares interesting stories I had not heard before about the emergence of classics like "One of These Nights" and "Victim of Love," but has surprisingly little to say about "Visions," the only Eagles song he ever sang lead on. (Tellingly, he does admit that he doesn't care for it all that much.) There is also a surprisingly candid insider's take on the frequent criticism of the Eagles sound as being too slick.
And then there is all the dirty laundry (sorry, couldn't resist) about The Eagles' last few years and the aftermath of the breakup. It is undeniably one-sided, but it also fits in well with most of what the public already knows about Don Henley and Glenn Frey and their less-than-charitable outlook on who and what The Eagles were (not to mention on each other). One comes to understand all too well why their name became synonymous with the term "corporate rock" and to see a classic divide-and-conquer story at work. It's a tale as old as rock and roll itself and then some, but in light of most of their solo works compared to the best Eagles material, it is all too clear that Felder has a point: Glenn and Don did not build the empire on their own.
At least he - and we - will always have the memories. If those memories include blasting "Already Gone" on the morning after a nasty breakup or putting on "Hotel California" and dancing both to remember AND to forget, you've got to read this. For fans of Scotty Moore, George Harrison, Mary Wilson, Richard Manuel, John Cale, John Paul Jones - or for that matter, if you even know who they are - this will tell you what you already know about the music business. Read it anyway!
Summary of Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
The Eagles are the bestselling, and arguably the tightest-lipped, American group ever. Now band member and guitarist Don Felder finally breaks the Eagles? years of public silence to take fans behind the scenes. He shares every part of the band?s wild ride, from the pressure-packed recording studios and trashed hotel rooms to the tension-filled courtrooms, and from the joy of writing powerful new songs to the magic of performing in huge arenas packed with roaring fans.Music Books
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