The Don Felder Site » books

Meet Joe Vitale @ The Winchester

Felderfans — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:53:38 +0000

Veteran songwriter, musician and all-around good guy Joe Vitale will make a book signing appearance at the Winchester Music Hall in Cleveland on January 6th starting at 9 pm.

We first got to read Joe’s book BACKSTAGE PASS back when the ink was still wet. It’s a collection of stories from his years on the rock and roll road, with tales from tours with Ted Nugent, Joe Walsh, the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, among others. Our favorite: Joe’s foiled plan to declare Charlie the Tuna chief spokesfish for the Save the Whales campaign.

Event info via artsinohio.com.

“Booking” the Eagles

Felderfans — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 14:46:09 +0000

Entertaining interview via Mr. Media with Ben Fong-Torres, author of a new book entitled Eagles: Taking It to the Limit, published earlier this month to coincide with the Eagles’ upcoming 40th anniversary.

Danny Seraphine & Chicago’s Old Days

Felderfans — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 21:09:15 +0000

Danny Seraphine’s autobiography comes out next week, his reflections on a twenty-some-odd-year career with Chicago back when they were “horny.”

We haven’t read the book yet, so we can’t influence your decision to do so by offering some obscure, snobby and abstract literary criticism nobody really understands but pretends to.

We’re going to read it solely based on our observation that in vintage band footage Danny always looks like he’s cranking on a toy drum kit. Cool guys don’t need to hide behind their equipment.

The Eagles: An American Band

Felderfans — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 18:43:15 +0000

Eagles fans have got the untold story, Don’s version of events and as of last week, a brand-spanking new illustrated history of the band courtesy of Nashville author Andrew Vaughan.

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Ladies Gaga

Felderfans — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:57:08 +0000

It’s no news that, ever since Eve’s influence on visitors to the Garden of Eden was put in writing, women have been a chief source of inspiration to authors, poets and songwriters throughout history.

Pop culture author Michael Heatley’s “The Girl in the Song” (October 2010 release) reveals the female sources of inspiration to the songwriters of rock music’s signature tunes. Who is the Hollies’ “Carrie Ann?” Which “Uptown Girl” is Billy Joel singing about? Where did “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” hang out? This handy reference should help clear up the meaning behind song lyrics you’ve probably misunderstood since day one.

If the the author doesn’t get around to it this time, perhaps volume two will shed some light on those “Bad Girls” Don immortalized back in 1983.

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The Little Guitar That Could

Felderfans — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 14:15:02 +0000

We’ve been Gordon Lightfoot fans for a long time. Even back before it was hip.

But asking us to name our favorite from his 250+ song catalog is like, well, asking us to choose a favorite child. We can, however, easily place “Canadian Railroad Trilogy” in our top five without having to second guess, simply because THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR ARRANGEMENT AND PERFORMANCE OF THIS TUNE IS AWESOME, whether it’s a studio recording or live version. The song demonstrates how Gord basically put the word “song” in “songwriting.”

So what do we care that the Trilogy, which Lightfoot was commissioned to write by the CBC for a 1966 television documentary commemorating the railway’s centennial, will be made into an illustrated book for release later this year?

Because the lyrics are damned awesome as well. You see, Lightfoot was also responsible for putting the word “writer” in “songwriter.”

Travelin’ with Bob Seger

Felderfans — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:55:58 +0000

Bob Seger fan alert: A new book about Seger’s life written by former Seger manager and tour photographer Tom Weschler and music journalist Gary Graff entitled Travelin’ Man: On the Road and Behind the Scenes With Bob Seger is due out October 15. Travelin’ Man is “a photo-driven insider’s look at Bob Seger’s career from the early days to his breakthrough as a world-famous musician.”

And now for our latest Felder trivia question:
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Jam! Amp Your Team, Rock Your Business

Felderfans — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 12:47:25 +0000

There are a couple of Don mentions in Jam! Amp Your Team, Rock Your Business, a new book penned by former .38 Special lead guitarist and songwriter Jeff Carlisi and co-author Dan Lipson. Like the title suggests, the principles behind reaching a collective goal by orchestrating individual members’ efforts hold true for rock bands as well as businesses.

According to book contributor Jay Busbee, Don was “interviewed in the emergency lane of [the] I-4 in Florida on the way to Daytona.”

That’s what we call life next to the fast lane.

Backstage with the Vitales

Felderfans — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:28:37 +0000

Joe Vitale’s new biography, Backstage Pass, ships this week, hot on the heels of his new album Speaking in Drums which was released in mid-December.Backstage Pass is a compilation of road tales gleaned from Joe’s four decades in the music business big-leagues, as told to Susie Vitale, his wife of 35 years. His experiences filled over 20 sixty-minute tapes and resulted in over 488 pages of text, including some 750 personal photographs (96 of which are in color), each one selected and sorted for publication by Joe himself.

It’s a real-life inner sleeve spanning a playing, recording, writing and producing career shared with the likes of Joe Walsh, the Eagles, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dan Fogelberg, Peter Frampton, Ted Nugent, John Entwistle, Rick Derringer and Boz Scaggs among many, with the stories continuing up to the most recent tour with Stephen Stills in October 2008. Stills, along with David Crosby and Graham Nash, penned the book’s forwarding page.

“I hope everybody enjoys reading the book as much as I did writing it,” Susie Vitale tells us, “and when you finish it, you’ll feel like you had a really great time. There are many things in the book that even his friends don’t know, and I hope the fans of all of the stars Joe has played with will get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of their personalities and how sweet and kind – and funny and crazy – they are.”

“The guys have always been really wonderful to Joey and me, so I have tremendous affection for all of them,” she continues.

The project itself was, in fact, a family affair. Susie was responsible for transcribing and texting a year’s worth of recordings, while son Joe Vitale Jr. provided the graphics and technical assistance, even down to shooting the photo for the dust jacket.

“Joe Jr. and I sat and formatted the book, choosing and inserting each of the black and white photos in the stories and sizing each one to fit the layout, for what seemed like forever,” Susie explains. “His computer and graphic skills were a really important part of making this all happen.”

“It sounds ironic, but the worst part was seeing the book actually be put up for sale in August. I wasn’t nearly finished! That really put the pressure on,” she admits. “But I couldn’t rush – it had to be right. And we’re really pleased with the result.”

>Book and CD signing: Jan. 23rd at the Blue Olive Jazz Club in Canton, Ohio from 8-11 pm
>Product information: Hit records
>Joe Vitale Jr.

Don auf Deutsch: Mein Leben mit den Eagles

Felderfans — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 20:22:31 +0000

German-speaking fans interested in Don’s life story can now read Heaven and Hell: My Life in the Eagles in German instead of having to Babelfish our site’s excerpt.

Mein Leben mit den EAGLES 1974-2001: Durch Himmel und Höllehas now been released by Hannibal Verlag, an Austrian publishing company specializing in German-language adaptations of recent music and pop culture books.

The German edition can be ordered from the Hannibal site or from Amazon.de