What's the meaning of the song" Hotel California" by Eagles?

Question

Is it a fantasy? Or is it a real hotel?

Answer 1

You want me to think back to 1975? I'm so forgetful nowadays I forgot your question. But as a retired rock disc jockey, I bet I had a half a dozen calls over the years (all of them women) whereas people wanted to know what a "coletus" is. It is, by the way, a desert flower, but I used to get a kick out of telling them, "Ain't that a woman's joy button or something like that?" I usually got ad embarassed, but a definte, NO!"

What's the meaning of the song" Hotel California" by Eagles?
Is it a fantasy?

From the first time I heard it, many, many, many, many, many, many moons ago, I thought it was a song about a guy that actually stopped by a hotel, but like an Alfred Hitchcock movie, the last line of the song is the one that's like an unexpected dynamite explosion that really made me go "what the...??"

Now, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many moons later, I think the first couple of lines is the end of his life, "My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim...I think this where our hero bites the dust. Asleep at the wheel, middle of nowhere, middle of the night, rollover accident. (did one of those myself) After the accident......"when off in the distance, I saw a shimmering light......" they say you see this bright light when you grow hard as a carp. So, perhaps that's his beacon. He's dead, and now on his way to his final destination, disposition, whatever. "Please bring me my wine...." was this dude drinking?

Or I could be totally off and the Eagles made it up with a bad idea from an Olliver Stone movie.............but that's just me.

I used to like playing this song on the air, since it was rather longer than your usual song, this gave me a few minutes to smoke a cigarette, visit the John, whatever. But then again, other great songs for buying me time were Do You Feel Like We Do - Frampton, Freebird - LIVE -Lynyrd Skynyrd, and of course Stairway to Heaven - L.Z.

I'm sorry, what was your question again?

I eventually left radio when my memory started failing me in mid-sentence while on the air. Now THAT was embarassing as heck.
But I probably never left more than five seconds of dead air......as I tried to remember what I was saying or find something else to talk about. Probably after-effects from something I did in the 70's.

BTW, my on air handle was "Rollover Mikey" One of the other jocks coined that one when I rolled my car over two and a half times, get this, coming home from a concert that featured openers, .38 Special, Peter Frampton and the main headliner...
Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Yes sir, can I help you? This is an answer board, did you have a question?

Answer 2

The song really isn't about anything according to Glenn Frey. His quote from a radio interview a few years back was: “we were listening to a lot of Steely Dan records at the time and were impressed with the way that they could make ‘junk sculpture' lyrics about nothing and make them work into a song.”

The song is a great narrative tale about decadence (pink champagne) and mysticism (a spooky dungeon-like house) and even botany (the smell of colitus!), but it certainly has no realm in fact.

Don Felder brought the rough guitar track to Henley/Frey and asked them if they could do anything with it. This is unusual in that songs by them were typically written the other way around. It serves as an interesting note that further proves that they did some serious ad-libbing and probably got the booze and drugs flowing before they wrote this song.

The album on the whole is all about the southern California lifestyle at that time (Life In The Fast Lane, Last Resort) and shouldn't be looked at in any other way.

Answer 3

this song.. (infact the album) delves deep into the international of drugs and prostitution.. the inn he stops at has those possibility free searching those who're lost contained in the darkish international of drugs, funds and prostitution.. its so undesirable that folk dont drink wine anymore.. wine is something of the previous.. The time period "colitas," contained in the first stanza of the song is a Spanish time period for "little buds" and theory to communicate with marijuana. the spectacular line says... you could checkout any time you want, yet you could under no circumstances go away... meaning once u fall into those habit.. that's the position u will proceed to be trapped.. there is yet another version to this .... The lyric "They stab it with their steely knives/yet they purely won't be able to kill the beast" replaced into broadly believed to be a nod to Steely Dan's lyric "take position the Eagles, the acquaintances are listening" of their song "each and every thing you probably did" (and contained in the lining notes of Eagles: the best of, Glenn Frey shown this). "inn California" replaced into rumored to were the nickname for the the Camarillo State psychological well being facility. The well being facility replaced into closed in 1997 and reopened in 2002 as "California State college, Channel Islands". and yet another version to this which replaced into shown to be incorrect... Others state that "inn California" easily refers to Church of devil which occurs to be placed in a switched over church on California highway. some trust that the lyrics, " ... kill the beast," and "... that spirit right here" communicate with black magic. also, others trust on their interior cover of the inn California album, searching down on the festivities, is both devil or Anton LaVey, the founding father of the Church of devil. those rumors, besides the undeniable fact that, were shown pretend

Answer 4

The entire song is a metaphor for drug addiction. You can check out, but you can never leave. In other words, you can quit drugs, but that addiction will always be in you somewhere.

Answer 5

the song is about heroin use and what it does to your mind and body.so to answer your question it would be both ..there is also an actual "hotel california" in new orleans

Answer 6

this is what i've heard. others said that it is actually a song about satan worship and the song is a metaphor pertaining to hell (???). dunno...it might be right...it might be wrong.

Answer 7

it really is a hotel
my dads been there, and hes got pics