Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget…
The Eagles’ enigmatic Hotel California has to be one of the most beautiful and thought-provoking songs I’ve ever heard – which, of course, makes the fact that I didn’t get around to looking up its lyrics and history until yesterday just downright weird. If there was ever a song destined for gross misinterpretation and “misheard” lyrics, Hotel California is that song! From the Interpretation section of the song’s Wikipedia page:
The lyrics weave a surrealistic tale in which a weary traveler checks into a luxury hotel. The hotel at first appears inviting and tempting, but it turns out to be a nightmarish place where “you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave”. The song is an allegory about hedonism, self-destruction, and greed in the music industry of the late 1970s. Don Henley called it “our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles” and later reiterated: “It’s basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about.” In 2008, Don Felder described the origins of the lyrics:
Don Henley and Glenn wrote most of the words. All of us kind of drove into L.A. at night. Nobody was from California, and if you drive into L.A. at night… you can just see this glow on the horizon of lights, and the images that start running through your head of Hollywood and all the dreams that you have, and so it was kind of about that… what we started writing the song about. Coming into L.A…. and from that ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ came out of it, and ‘Wasted Time’ and a bunch of other songs.
I urge you to at least read that section of the page, as it’s just chock full of “eye-opening” revelations. At any rate, it is with profound gratitude that I present this awesome video MetalGuruMessiah has created for this wonderful song:
Video via MetalGuruMessiah – YouTube
Featured at Such a lovely place….such a lovely face! New video for The Eagles “Hotel California”!
on MetalGuruMessiah’s Musical Paintbox Blog
As for my own “personal” interpretation, I just can’t resist associating the song’s final lines…
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 night man, “We are programmed to receive.
You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!”
With this scene from Stephen King’s The Stand…
Which ties into my deeply rooted fear that I will not die until after I’ve witnessed the destruction of everything, and everyone, that I’ve ever cared about… 🙄
I want ice water.
More from the Just Vibes volume
I Want Ice Water! 
Interesting. I never really analyzed the lyrics. Just had an overall impression of the general meaning. Is that lengthy Wikipedia analysis typical? If so, I may have to start looking up songs …
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That was one of the better ones PT, though Wikipedia has been really helpful in the past as well. 😀
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had no idea what was behind these lyrics, shock! 🙂
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I knew those guys were brilliant, but I didn’t know how brilliant until I read that Wikipedia article! 😀
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I can tell you what else was happening that was a very formative influence on many. That would be cocaine on the table; a line as long as your arm. Soon to be chemically tweaked into crack. This combined with gang culture and lots of guns changed the mellow vibe of the sixties into a kind of personal hell that snuk up on many. There were a lot of wasted years and my generation never did recover. I do like the Eagles.
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From a generational perspective, I suspect our experiences have a lot in common Phillip. We had so much we wanted to escape from, and that “brave new age” provided many tools with which to do it. The Eagles are easily in my top 5 of favorite bands, and the extra background I got from putting this post together has helped me understand why! 😀
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