Please give your interpretation of this song -- what is it really about? On a dark desert highway Cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas Rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light My head grew heavy, and my sight grew dim I had to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway I heard the mission bell And I was thinking to myself This could be Heaven or this could be Hell Then she lit up a candle And she showed me the way There were voices down the corridor I thought I heard them say Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place Such a lovely place (background) Such a lovely face Plenty of room at the Hotel California Any time of year Any time of year (background) You can find it here You can find it here Her mind is Tiffany twisted She's got the Mercedes bends She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys That she calls friends How they dance in the courtyard Sweet summer sweat Some dance to remember Some dance to forget So I called up the Captain Please bring me my wine He said We haven't had that spirit here since 1969 And still those voices are calling from far away Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely Place Such a lovely Place (background) Such a lovely face They're livin' it up at the Hotel California What a nice surprise What a nice surprise (background) Bring your alibies Mirrors on the ceiling Pink champagne on ice And she said We are all just prisoners here Of our own device And in the master's chambers They gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives But they just can't kill the beast Last thing I remember I was running for the door I had to find the passage back to the place I was before Relax said the nightman We are programed to recieve You can check out any time you like But you can never leave
I've heard two theories. One is that "Hotel California" is a metaphor for "Cocaine Addiction" The other is that in 1969 there was a satanic cult that operated out of an old abandoned mission in California, and the locals called it hotel california. And I've been told if you look hard enough on the cover of the album you'll see satan, which would support the second theory.
Aphie, Most of the songs of that era are metaphors for drug use. It was just really fashionable then. Sigh....
It is talking about how the MAN is trying to hold us down, and not let us realize our true potential. And how we have to rise up and give power to the people for the world to survive... OR Some people snorting coke and cannot quit the habit.
When I was a kid, rumor was that Hotel California was a "house of prostitution". And we spent a lot of time looking at that little figure of Satan on the cover . Good luck figuring out 70's lyrics! These people were all on the other side of the Looking Glass where it was fashionable to say nothing decipherable and where crytic is king. Somehow it was more intelligent or "artsy" to just string together a bunch of imagery and phrases w/o any reference to reality!
Yup, this is what I found as well. And it seems to fit pretty nicely (even with some humor thrown in to make for better reading). I once played golf with Glen Frye and asked him this same question. He laughed and said something to the effect that if I came up with a really good explanation, he would use mine. From that comment, I inferred that the song's lyrics sort of evolved and there was no real clear cut meaning. Dreamlike continuity (I always thought it was a song about a dream myself). Anyway, I don't think he was being glib when he made that comment. Great guitar solo. Why they pretty much deleted it from the live recorded version is one of the great musical mysteries to me. Not a difficult solo, but a perfect and creative solo with great touch. (think it was Joe Walsh on the original...not 100% sure). Peace, RS
Like many musicians, they wrote and sang about life at the time they were living it. When I listen to Hotel California, it just reminds me of what living in California during that time frame was, with all the drug use and decadent living that the Eagles thrived on. Same thing with listening to the Beach Boys in the early 60's, or the Doors in the beginning of the drug phase in L.A. (L.A. woman is a classic representation of the times they lived in), or Bruce Springsteen in Jersey, John Cougar Mellencamp in Indianna, etc.. Just slices of Americana during particular periods of time. I think you have to listen to the entire album Hotel California to really get a feel for the song "Hotel California." Hotel California (6:30) (Don Felder/Don Henley/Glenn Frey) New Kid in Town (5:04) (J.D. Souther/Don Henley/Glenn Frey) Life in the Fast Lane (4:46) (Joe Walsh/Don Henley/Glenn Frey) Wasted Time (4:55) (Don Henley/Glenn Frey) Wasted Time (Reprise) (1:22) (Don Henley/Glenn Frey/Jim Ed Norman) Victim of Love (4:11) (Don Felder/J.D. Souther/Don Henley/Glenn Frey) Pretty Maids All in a Row (4:05) (Joe Walsh/Joe Vitale) Try and Love Again (5:10) (Randy Meisner) The Last Resort (7:25) (Don Henley/Glenn Frey)
GF said the following about the song and the album in general: At the time we were also quite fond at Steely Dan and listening to a lot of their records. And one of the things that impressed us about Steely Dan was that they would say anything in their songs and it did not have to necessarily make sense you know, they would just, sort of...they called jokes sculpture.. And well we thought of this Hotel California, we started thinking of there would be very cinematic to do it, sort of like the Twilight Zone. You just have a ..., one line says there is a guy on the highway, you know the next line says there is a hotel in the distance, then there is a woman in there and she walks in. You know it is sort..., it is just all one shot, not necessarily you know, just sort of strong together and you sort of draw your own conclusions from it. So we are sort of trying to expand our lyrical horizons and just try to take out something in the bizarre as Steely Dan did that..... The concept of the album came about when we started on the song Hotel California. You know.. we had been called the quintessential California Country Rock band. And as soon as Don came of with the title Hotel California, we knew that that should be the blanket you know, for the whole concept. You know basically that record explores the under belly of success, the darker side of Paradise. Which was sort of what we were experiencing in Los Angeles at that time. So that just sort of became a metaphor for the whole world and for everything you know. And we just decided to make it Hotel California. So with a microcosm of everything else going on around us. Hotel California and the last Resort and a few of these songs we could not write on, all the sudden, you could not write any song for this record. Once we had a couple of tunes, each other song had to fit in some way you know, the way that was Hotel California. http://www.eaglesmusic.com/HotelCal/hotelcal.html And Error - guitar solo was Joe Walsh and Don Felder.