But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce."Ī demo of the song's instrumental was created by Don Felder in a rented house on Malibu Beach. It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. Henley once said: "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. Other interpretations of the song include heroin addiction and cannibalism. 'Colitas' means 'little tails' in Spanish, while in Mexican slang it refers to buds of the cannabis plant. The word 'colitas' in the song has been interpreted as sexual slang or a nod to marijuana. Other claims suggested that the Hotel California was the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. In the 1980s, the Reverand Paul Risley of Cornerstone Church in Wisconsin claimed that 'Hotel California' referred to a San Francisco hotel bought by Anton LaVey and converted into his Church of Satan. The character of the story in the lyrics has inspired several other conjectural interpretations by listeners. In the Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings, Volume 1, Steve Sullivan theorized that the "spirit" that the Hotel California hasn't had since 1969, refers to the spirit of social activism of the 1960s. It has been interpreted as a metaphor for hedonism, self-destruction, and greed in the music industry in the late 1970s. The song has alsp been described as being "all about American decadence and burnout, too much money, corruption, drugs and arrogance too little humility and heart." What other interpretations of the song are there?.Theuse of the word "steely" in the lyric, 'They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast', was a playful dig at the band Steely Dan, who had previously included the lyric 'Turn up the Eagles, the neighbours are listening' in their song 'Everything You Did'. Meanwhile, some of the lyrics, such as 'Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz / She got a lot of pretty pretty boys she calls friends', were based on Henley's break-up with girlfriend Loree Rodkin.
Read more: Watch the most incredible vocal harmonies by The Eagles Henley wrote most of the lyrics based on Frey's ideas, and also looked for inspiration by driving out into the desert, as well as from films and theatre. a picture of a guy on the highway, a picture of the hotel, the guy walks in, the door opens, strange people." We wanted to write a song just like it was a movie."įrey described the song as a cinematic montage, "just one shot to the next. Speaking to Cameron Crowe, Frey said he and Henley wanted the song "to open like an episode of the Twilight Zone", saying: "We take this guy and make him like a character in The Magus, where every time he walks through a door there’s a new version of reality. However, he entered "a weird world peopled by freaky characters", and became "quickly spooked by the claustrophobic feeling of being caught in a disturbing web from which he may never escape." In a sentence, I'd sum it up as the end of the innocence, round one."įrey also came up with a story of a person who, fed up of driving a long distance in a desert, saw a place to rest and pulled in for the night. In that sense it became something of a symbol, and the 'Hotel' the locus of all that LA had come to mean for us. Beverly Hills was still a mythical place to us.
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He said of their personal and professional experience in LA: "We were getting an extensive education, in life, in love, in business. Henley chose the theme of the song, pointing out how The Beverly Hills Hotel had become a literal and symbolic focus of their lives at the time. In 2013, he added: "It's a song about a journey from innocence to experience."ĭon Henley and Glenn Frey wrote the lyrics. It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about." In 2007, Don Henley said: "I know, it's so boring. California is used as the song's setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America and beyond. In general, the song is about materialism and excess. The song was written for the band's 1976 album of the same name. Writing credits for the song are shared by Don Felder (music), Don Henley, and Glenn Frey (lyrics). Don Felder came up with the instrumental demo.