Music Monday: Victim Of Love (Eagles) 1976
For the New Year, I will be doing some blog-housekeeping. I have a tendency to stretch myself thin with headings and posts. I will be doing some consolidating. Song Sunday, News of the Day (NOTD) & Word of the Day (WOTD) are gone. I jettisoned some other headings about a year, ago. On to the show…~Vic
Returning to my Samsung playlist, submitted for your approval…
“Tell me your secrets, I’ll tell you mine…”
The second track, on side two, from the album Hotel California, Victim of Love was never released as a single. It was the B-Side to New Kid in Town, released December 7, 1976 and did get some airplay as an album track over the years.
By the time the Eagles reached the mid-1970s, they were on top of the world. They had been sorting their way through every rock trope they could think of and the album One of These Nights spawned three different singles. With success also comes pressure, though and the band had their backs against the wall when it came time to make Hotel California. When talking about making the concept for the album, Don Henley mentioned wanting to say something about the state of Hollywood, saying, “There’s a fine line between the American dream and the American nightmare.” The rest of the band were more than willing to comply, with Joe Walsh coming up with the original lick for Life in the Fast Lane on a whim.
Walsh had claimed to use the lick as a warm-up exercise but, it turned into its own piece once Glenn Frey got the title for the song. While guitarist Don Felder came up with the main chord progression for the title track, he had his sights on another song that he wrote for the album. Midway through recording, Felder said that he wanted to sing the track Victim of Love, which he claimed to have written by himself. As Henley remembers, what Felder presented the band with was just a collection of riffs, which was then turned into a song by Frey and J.D. Souther.
After one butchered take after the next, the band told Felder that it would be better if he didn’t sing the song, only for Felder to put his foot down. The band acquiesced and let Felder do his own take on the song but, they were also keeping a close eye on their manager as well. As the sessions were winding down, the band gave manager Irving Azoff a job…take Felder out to dinner while they re-recorded the entire track. When Felder found out that he was being erased from the song, he mentioned feeling betrayed…”It was like Don was taking that song from me. I had been promised a song on the next record.”
While Henley, to this day, disputes that there were no promises made to Felder, this started the dividing line between the band. As the touring got bigger and bigger, Felder started to get more resentful towards Frey and Henley for getting all of the songwriting royalties. By the time the band pulled into Long Beach for a benefit concert, Felder took it one step too far after making an off-handed remark to Senator Alan Cranston about the free show. Compared to the petty squabbling behind the scenes, there was audio taken of the infamous gig, which led to Frey and Felder threatening to kill each other onstage. When the house lights went out that night, Felder took his guitar, smashed it and drove off, never to be heard from again.
Once bassist Timothy B. Schmidt called Frey about the next rehearsals, he confirmed the worst. The band was history. The Eagles’ music may have reeked of California sunshine but, their final days ended with plotting, resentment and some of the worst drama a band could ask for.
Victim Of Love: The Song That Broke Up The Eagles
Tim Coffman
Far Out Magazine UK
February 12, 2023
♦The Treacherous Feud (Far Out Magazine UK/Arun Starkey/September 24, 2022)
Cosmic-Observation 
January 2, 2024 at 9:56 AM
Lulu: “Our Dada says no wonder they called their live album ‘Hell Freezes Over’ when they all finally went on tour together again.”
Java Bean: “Ayyy, maybe they needed to call the members of Fleetwood Mac for some relationship advice!”
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January 2, 2024 at 10:52 AM
Lulu, I agree with your Dada.
Bean, that would have been a very interesting conversation.
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January 2, 2024 at 11:15 AM
Aw, The Eagles….always a favorite!
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January 2, 2024 at 1:55 PM
Great music but, oh the fighting.
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January 2, 2024 at 5:03 PM
Sad really
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January 2, 2024 at 8:39 PM
I agree but…egos.
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January 2, 2024 at 11:56 AM
Good stuff. While I dig music from throughout the Eagles’ career, when it comes to picking an album, “Hotel California” remains my favorite. Joe Walsh gave them a nice rock vibe.
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January 2, 2024 at 1:57 PM
It is a stellar album. Background music for three generations of folks.
I preferred the Eagles without Leadon.
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January 2, 2024 at 7:43 PM
I do love the album and the song and did not recall the story.
In the second video here, the live intro rather stuttered, and the vocals don’t seem terrible to me, but they somehow miss the mark, like not really telling a story or speaking to someone but singing a song he knows, like a coverband feel. We all do our own thing, I guess.
The woman with the heavy slow clapping out front caught my eye too–musical direction and pacing? Her own form of playing along…? Unsure–
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January 2, 2024 at 9:07 PM
I had no idea about the background until I started digging. All I knew, back when it happened, was that the Eagles had split and, suddenly, Henley & Frey were solo artists. Walsh had been solo and with the James Gang. I had no idea how bad things were.
I have to say that, the Henley/Frey royalty credits were nearly as dirty as the Jagger/Richards royalty credits. Everyone else was blocked out.
I wasn’t paying any attention to the woman in the video. Sorry.
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January 6, 2024 at 2:04 PM
Too many alpha males in the same place – there’s only one outcome. Though Hotel California is a sublime piece of work.
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January 6, 2024 at 8:01 PM
Exactly…on both accounts.
I will say that Randy Meisner wasn’t all that “alpha.”
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January 7, 2024 at 1:40 PM
Don Felder should have been singing lead on this song. That bullshit…”but Don has a better voice” so the hell what? Ringo was singing With A Little Help… but everyone got a shot. I’m so happy Felder won in the end and recieved a mountain full of cash. Well you know how I feel about these guys…or no that is not fair… Henley and Fry…were awful people. They made a vow when they started the band that at no time will it be one and a backup band…they broke that when the money started to roll in.
Meisner had a great voice…I like it better than Fry’s…or Henleys for that matter.
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January 9, 2024 at 4:34 PM
Henley & Frey reminds me of Jagger & Richards. They want ALL the money and all the fame.
Felder got shafted, badly and I’m glad he got paid for his work.
I agree. I like Meisner’s voice a lot. He just didn’t do much singing.
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January 9, 2024 at 8:37 PM
I do wish Meisner would have done more…but usually as you know…I separate the art from artist…it’s hard with them…I do like Take It To The Limit of course with Meisner singing.
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January 10, 2024 at 2:56 PM
Me, too.
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February 1, 2024 at 5:08 PM
Honestly, wasn’t a big fan of Felder until he made the soundtrack for Heavy Metal. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mewu2IxAlLw.
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February 2, 2024 at 1:16 AM
I did not know that.
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