what is the deep meaning in the song "Hotel California" , by the Eagles?

Question

In your opinion, of course.

Answer 1

First, hard-to-believe-as-it-is, you must realize that during the 70's, members of The Eagles were known devil-worshipers. Antwon Levay wrote the Devil's Bible..... If you open up the vinyl album cover, you'll see him standing on the balcony looking down over the band. This was several years after his death. As a matter of fact, he died in 1969 ("...we haven't had that spirit here since 19-69..."). Also, Antwon's church was in the desert and was called CALIFORNIA HOTEL. So the title is a play on this. The Eagles broke up because of the friction between former best friends, Glenn Frey & Don Henely. Seems Glenn still liked the dark side and Don was finding light that took him away from devil worshipping. This split the Eagles right into and they said they would never perform together again, at least not until 'hell freezes over'... That's why Don called his 2nd solo album "Building The Perfect Beast"... When the Eagles DID get back together, they called it the "HELL Freezes Over Tour" lol On Don Henley's Great Hits album, he does a new song called 'The Garden of Ahyla' that he calls a semi-sequel to Hotel California... It's about the devil coming back to Los Angelas after all these years and finding that people no longer need the devil. People have replaced the devil with commercialism. So getting bord, the devil leaves again...LOL! FYI I'm NOT a devil worshiper, I've just done alot of research on the subject concerning music and backward messages. Hope the info is fun for ya! :-) There so much more about the song, HC, and it's connections with the occult. Too much to go into here. Ironic though that Black Sabbath turned out to NOT be devil worshipers and The Eagles did... don'tchathink ;-)

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

Hum... Yep, drugs. Though the ending does suggest that the singer has gone through it and has decided it is too scary and perhaps cleans up, so if you take the song from beginning to end:

At first the singer casually stops in, not really wanting or looking for anything but some relaxation. The scene is so comfortable and welcoming there is no immediate desire to leave, but after a while it starts to become obvious to the singer that he is trapped in a diamond studded nightmare. Since the singer talks about 'the last thing I remember' we have to assume the song is relaying past events and the singer is no longer trapped, though this is not obvious. Our last impression is the desperation of the singer believing there is no way out. At this point there is one jamming guitar solo that still makes my soul sing :-) Where is my copy of that song....

Answer 4

On the surface, the song is a tale of a weary traveler who becomes trapped in a nightmarish hotel that at first appeared tempting; as a metaphor the song may be commenting on drug addiction or simply the decadent lifestyle the hugely successful band had been caught up in.

Answer 5

Losing chunks out of your life to drugs. Not that it isn't a great song. It's a great song. But that's what it's about, to me.

Answer 6

its obvious... they stayed in a hotel in California called Hotel California and loved the stay so much that they made a song about it.

Answer 7

i think it means, you can either spend your life doing it right, or wrong. do drugs, sex, party, etc etc youre sending yourself down the wrong road, even though it seems good at first.

Answer 8

Deep? Gimme a break...
(I hate that song)

Answer 9

Drugs - cocaine specifically.

Answer 10

Drugs cocaine