Submitted by Zeke Speak on
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Have you ever wondered about this song?
FYI - Hotel California by The Eagles, was written by Don Felder, Glen Frey and Don Henley. People have often interpreted this as a song for Anton LaVey and Satanism. Note: “This could be heaven or this could be hell”, “but they just can’t kill the beast” and “We are programmed to receive, you can check out any time you like. But you can never leave.”
Other speculation has it as a psychiatric hospital, an inn run by cannibals or Aleister Crowley's mansion in Scotland. It's even been suggested that the "Hotel California" is the Playboy Mansion.
Don Henley in the London Daily Mail November 9, 2007 said: "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce." He went on to say in November of 2007 on 60 Minutes, "It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about." He offered yet another interpretation in the 2013 History of the Eagles documentary: "It's a song about a journey from innocence to experience."
Glenn Frey offered this take: "That record explores the underbelly 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." **
However there are other interpretations for the lyrics that are more penetrative and titillating and even darker. One of the most interesting ones is that whole song is a metaphor for a drug trip and The Hotel California (THC) spells out the principal components in grass which needless to say was extremely popular in southern California at that time. So if you listen at the beginning of the song “on a dark desert highway cool wind in my hair warm smell of colitas rising up through the air” Colitas in America could be a codeword for grass. Then a woman appears out of nowhere “There she stood in the hallway I heard the mission bell I was thinking to myself this could be heaven or this could be hell” So this could be a whole initiation into drugs.
The third and more somber interpretation is that the Eagles at the height of their success have been lured in the church of Satan under the auspices of the great satanic priest Anton LaVey and that they did not dare to speak about Satan publicly but wrote this song and masked the lyrics inside the song. When you open the original album you will see the inside of the hotel lobby and in the back window you will see a man dressed in black robes and a shaved head. If you zoom in on it that figure it’s Anton LaVey. The church of Satan was established in 1969 in California and basically its tenets were hedonism, living to the hilt, disregard of traditional morality and indulging fully in the senses and particularly the sensual senses. Also in the song “I was thinking to myself this could be heaven or this could be hell” an indication of something sinister. At the end of the song “You can check-out anytime you like but you can never leave” as it is known that if you sell your soul to Satan it belongs to him forever even if you try to redeem yourself afterwards. But the lyrics that are indisputable in the eyes of something related to Satanism are “So I called up the captain please bring me my wine he said we haven’t had that spirit in here since 1969”–the spirit of Jesus has left this church since the church of Satan had been established.
Don Felder had rented a beach house on Malibu beach; he was sitting on the couch and just started playing guitar and out came that chord progression. Then he ran back to the bedroom where he had set up a reel to reel recording studio and recorded the progressions 5 or 6 times so he wouldn’t forget it. His 1 year old daughter was sleeping in that same room. Later Don was compiling song ideas and felt he needed to finish this particular song. Don Felder then sent the song to Don Henley and Glenn Frey where they added the lyrics. Glenn Frey said “Don Felder used to send Henley and I instrumental tapes, so Don and I were listening to one of his cassettes when this song “Hotel California” came up when we both said this is kind of interesting”. Frey added” The first working title, the name we gave it, was Mexican Reggae”. Joe Walsh added tunes to the last part of the song.***
The intent was to have the song open as representative of an episode of the Twilight Zone. There was a bit of controversy over the lyric, "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast" which wa actually a refernce to the band Steely Dan. The bands shared the same manager (Irving Azoff) and had a friendly rivalry. The year before, Steely Dan included the line "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening" on their song "Everything You Did."
"Hotel California" was featured in the first episode of the TV series American Horror Story: Hotel, which is about a haunted and horrifying hotel run by Lady Gaga. Other TV uses include:
The X-Files - "Beyond the Sea" (1994)
Absolutely Fabulous - "Poor" (1994)
The Sopranos - "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood" (2001)
Entourage - "Adios, Amigos" (2007)
The League - "The Bachelor Draft" (2013) **
All seven past and present members of the Eagles performed "Hotel California" in 1998 when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
"Such a lovely place."
BTW - It's not a real place.
Posted for educational and informational purposes only.
References:
* https://rockpasta.com/the-true-meaning-of-hotel-california-most-get-this-wrong/
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