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Eagles · S4 E3
Don Felder
A slide guitarist from Gainesville, Florida. He walks into a rehearsal and his guitar tone changes everything. Eagles become a five-piece
Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, March 1974. A guitarist Bernie Leadon grew up playing with in Gainesville, Florida plugs a sunburst Les Paul into a twin amplifier and plays a slide part so electric that Glenn Frey turns to Don Henley and mouths one word: him.
Duane Allman, Layla (with Derek and the Dominos, 1970). Before Don Felder, the gold standard for slide guitar in rock was Duane Allman. Felder grew up in the same Southern scene, studying the same blues vocabulary.
TAP TO REVEAL: What was Don Felder doing the day before he joined Eagles?
“I walked in thinking I was doing a session. I walked out thinking I might have just joined a band. Nobody said anything official. I just kept getting called back.”
— Don Felder, "Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles," 2008
The Audition That Wasn't
Nobody tells Felder he is being tested. He thinks he is a session player, hired for one song. But from the first slide guitar note on "Good Day in Hell," every person in the control room knows the band just found its missing piece.
Don Felder: The Profile
Where did Don Felder grow up?
Midnight Flyer, Eagles (On the Border, 1974)
One of the first tracks to feature Felder as a full band member. Listen for the way the guitar work has expanded since Desperado. There are now two distinct electric voices weaving through the arrangement, Felder and Leadon, each occupying different territory.
Eagles are a five-piece for the first time, and the new guitars are changing everything. Next: "Already Gone," guitars cranked, and the announcement that Eagles are now a rock band.
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