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Title: Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles (1974-2001)
ISBN: 0470289066
Author:
Don Felder
Publicate Date: 2008-04-21
Publish: 2008-04-21
List Price: $25.95
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Hardcover
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $14.42
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $14.67
Amazon Merchant Price: $17.13
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| Customer Review: |
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1: A Life Worth Reading About
Reading this book is like having Don Felder at your kitchen table or in your living room talking about a great Rock Band. He goes into great detail about his early life growing up. How he got interested in music, specifically the guitar. The Bands before the Eagles and his life after the Eagles. He is brutally honest why he allowed himself to be a minion of Glenn Frey & Don Henley. He discusses his marriage and what made it disintegrate. He held nothing back. It is was a very quick read. If you are a Eagles fan you got to read this book!!!!
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2: Rather annoying to read...
I am a HUGE Eagles fan since the late 70's.
I thought this book would be better written, considering he had the help of a professional. It is so repetative!
Don Felder doesnt come off as very saavy, but rather naive. Hes a superb guitarist, but, I couldnt stand all of the "Heres a picture of me writing Hotel California at my beach house" lines...
Glenn and Don Henley deserve more. Bottom Line. I cant see how Don Felder could have thought otherwise. Felder was self destructive.
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3: Sour grapes, and for fans only
...and there are probably plenty of fans out there. This rather ordinary (and probably mainly ghost-written, not to mention -ridden) book is The Eagles According To Don Felder. While one (this one anyway) can feel sorry for Mr. Felder in his various tribulations, he unfortunately has failed to comprehend a major fact of life, namely that pop/rock music is, above all, a money-making business, which long ago lost the purely music-making innocence for which Mr. Felder seems to hanker. Popular music is just another commodity to be marketed in the most efficient way possible, with an eye to profitability.
With a modern business ethic goes hand-in-hand corporate greed, in which chief executives get an inordinate amount of the cream. Thus, Messrs Henley and Frey get the cream. That Messrs Henley and Frey were as thoroughly unpleasant individuals as depicted here is not surprising - young successful rock musicians lack the maturity to handle it all and tend to acquire monstrously inflated egos. In addition, there's the fact that you're only as good as your last hit, and the recent products bearing the brand name "Eagles" have been distinctly mediocre, forcing them to rely on older product lines. However, there's no doubt that Henley and Frey have been the major innovators and producers of the business, and can therefore, in modern business terms, be said to merit a larger slice of the cake. And it becomes plain that Mr. Felder's only substantial product was "Hotel California", a major product to be sure, perhaps even the major product, but only one, and after that, essentially nothing. He mildly castigates the other Eaglets, Joe Walsh and Tim Schmidt, for not supporting him, but they at least seem to have grasped on which side their bread was buttered.
In addition, there's something rather bizarre about a multi-squillionaire, who has earned more in a year than the vast majority of us will earn in a lifetime, writing a book like this. Mr. Felder seeks to come across of a man of integrity, severely shafted by unscrupulous business associates. While there's certainly a substantial element of truth in that, this is the way of the modern business world, and Mr. Felder comes across to me as somewhat pathetic and na??ve.
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4: Easy to read, insightful bio...
I thoroughly enjoyed this bio...being a bit of an Eagles fan, I gained some new insight into the band's history and where they are at today...at times I had wished for more 'details', but in the end, the 'details' didn't really matter...I felt that Don Felder shared some fairly intimate feelings with the readers - something not always heard from men in general, let alone a rock star...I put this book down after reading it in mere days, and wishing for more - but knowing that there really wasn't more for Don Felder to give us - I had a new respect for Don Felder, the band and his contribution to the band, which really was not fully known...
If you are even a minor Eagles fan, but love bios and music history, I completely encourage the reading of this book...
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5: Not your average Rock biography - but in a good way.
I really enjoyed reading Don Felder's biography "Heaven and Hell". I really enjoyed his description of his early life in Gainesville, Florida; his time spent in his early bands; and his time in the Eagles. He manages to express himself as a man with the common touch and a conscience, rather than as some spoiled rock star. I also think Don Felder shows great maturity in describing the Eagles' inner bickerings, and the circumstances that led to him being fired from the band. He tells the reader enough to let the reader know what was wrong between himself and Glenn Frey, Don Henley, and Irving Azoff without resulting to low blows against them. And he also mentions what he feels are positive things about Frey, Henley, and Azoff although they are obviously not his favorite people.
All in all, I get the feeling that he wrote a pretty even handed account of his time in the Eagles; when in reality, one couldn't have blamed him if he had wanted to take up a 'literary axe' against the others.
A quite informative, enjoyable read!
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