In an age where it’s too easy to spend too long obsessing over the fine details and effectively achieving nothing, it’s always heartening to hear recording tales from an age where engineers would let the tape roll first, then just let the lightning strike…
Case in point being the recording of The Eagles’ immortal Hotel California, a track that while meticulously written and expertly played, kept something back for the moment. And, as you’d expect and hope for such an iconic song, rather than simply reading from a score or following a pre-agreed plan, its legendary solo really was lightning caught a bottle.
As revealed by Joe Walsh in conversation in Paul Reed Smith of PRS Guitars for his Long Distance podcast, both Walsh and fellow Eagles guitarist Don Felder had worked out all the basics – including the tracks’ famous duelling descending guitar lines, but had mutually agreed to hold back their exact plans and keep a little secret for the solo.
“Don Felder and I sat down and we worked all the descending lines and after the basic track was done and Don [Henley] had sung it, it was our turn,” Walsh explains. “That was the first set of overdubs. We agreed on who was going to play at the end – at the big solo – and we tried to compliment each other and to build it up to that very last part.
“The solos were not planned. They were spontaneous. Playing off of each other. We were really good at that,” says Walsh before heaping the praise on his Felder. “He’s brilliant. Before I joined the Eagles he had a body of lead guitar work and he’s brilliant. He was a joy to play with.”
And for his ongoing live performances, Walsh continues to have his own take on when to plan ahead and deliver that ‘record perfect’ sound and when to let the night and the mood take the lead instead.
“We used to play it like the record, and that’s how we did it at first, but a couple of years later I like to take a few liberties,” he explains.
“I like to leave spaces so it’s different every night, I like to improvise. Like in Rocky Mountain Way I leave everybody to play whatever they want… Just make sure that I like it.”
That’s some great advice.
