(Wikipedia) “Almost Cut My Hair” is a song by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, originally released on the band’s 1970 album Déjà Vu. It was recorded at Wally Heider Studios on January 9, 1970.

The song describes a real-life dilemma faced by many hippies: whether to cut one’s hair to a more practical length, or leave it long as a symbol of rebellion.[3] It was written by David Crosby, and features solo vocals by Crosby, with the rest of the band joining in on instruments rather than on vocal harmony, as in many of their other songs. […] It was one of only two songs from the album that Neil Young joined in on, despite not writing.

Although the notion of long hair as a “freak flag” appeared earlier, notably in a 1967 Jimi Hendrix song “If 6 Was 9”, Crosby’s song has been credited with popularizing the idea of long hair as a deliberate and visible symbol of the wearer’s affiliation with the counterculture, and opposition to establishment values. The song also evokes the singer’s “paranoia” at seeing the police; James Perone writes that, “more than any other song of the entire era”, it “captures the extent to which the divisiveness in American society … had boiled over into violence and terror”.

It became one of Crosby’s signature songs, and “probably his most important political song”.Crosby himself stated “It was the most juvenile set of lyrics I’ve ever written … but it has a certain emotional impact, there’s no question about that.”

Chen is one of the daughters in a “family band” from the Philippines. She —and what I assume are her two sisters and father— perform amazing covers of hit songs. The still to the right is from a 2 1/2 minute video of her playing the guitar solo from The Eagles’ Hotel California. A couple of things about this short video grabbed me. Her obvious proficiency with this guitar solo but even more was the blissed out concentration that you see in the faces of the best guitar players. In the zone?

A couple of questions popped into my head: How long did it take her to master this iconic solo… followed by, Who wrote and first performed it. I went to Perplexity for the following, including reference sources:

According to interviews and accounts from Don Felder and others involved, the iconic guitar solos and dueling guitar parts on “Hotel California” by the Eagles came together in the following way:

• Don Felder originally composed the music and recorded a demo for “Hotel California” at his home studio in Malibu in 1976. On this demo, he improvised and recorded sample guitar solos and parts that he envisioned for himself and Joe Walsh to play on the final recording.
• When it came time to record the guitar solos and leads in the studio in Miami, Felder and Walsh initially started improvising new parts together. However, Don Henley stopped them and insisted they learn and play Felder’s original demo solo parts note-for-note.
• The problem was Felder didn’t have the original demo tape with him in Miami. He had to call his housekeeper back in Malibu, have her find the cassette, play it over the phone, and Felder re-learned and transcribed his own improvised guitar parts from the demo.
• Felder estimates that over half of the iconic guitar solos and dueling parts on the final “Hotel California” recording came directly from the original demo he recorded at home, with him and Walsh splitting up and learning those parts.
• Specifically, Felder played the first half of the ending guitar solo, while Walsh played the second half. They then combined for the harmonized finale section.

So in summary, while Felder and Walsh did collaborate and split the guitar solos, a significant portion was actually Felder improvising alone on his original demo, which Henley insisted they recreate faithfully in the studio.