Someone told me that there's a sinister meaning behind the song....?

Question

Hotel California by the Eagles. I'd like your input.

Answer 1

Yeah, there's a bunch of alternate meanings. One of the more superficial ones is drug addiction, the slightly deeper is the songwriter's dis-enchantment with his attendence of a Black Mass, i.e a "congregation" of the Church of Satan.

It has all the standard cultic references:
1)a beautiful, rich and seductive woman
2)a luxurious mansion used for religious mass, in contrast to the simple, minimalistic puritain protestant aesthetic, the mansion itself is a possible reference to Sharon Tate's mansion, Sharon Tate was murdered by Charles Manson's "Manson Family" his followers and executioners, see point 6
3)rich boys seduced by the woman
4)orgiastic dancing
5)alcohol and drug consumption to achieve mental stupor
6)references to malevolent spirits: "we haven't had this spirit here since 1969", i.e the spirit of Statan himself or of some other important demon, implied as the cause for the Manson Murders
7)orgiastic feasts, sexual and culinary, while in a drugged-out stupor
8)mentions of "master-figures", a fixture in occult theory where the "master" is believed to be some master manipulator who has learned to control the weak-minded through various methods including:
i)drug use
ii)sexual-gratification
iii)drug-laced food, food laced with aphrodisiacs
iv)fear-conditioning, i.e instilling in people the belief that they cannot leave the confines of the group: "You can check-out any time you like,
But you can never leave", and that leaving or betrayal will lead to some form of unpleasantness, like a long painful death.

Ultimately, the "hero" runs-out of the mansion, and we can expect that he's no Satanist. The meaning could be construed as "sinister" for its time because it's still intellectual, or heady, as opposed to say Death Metal and its derrivatives. Ultimately, they probably saw some spooky house and said to themselves: Oooh! Let's write a song and get people to think it's about Satan! Satan sells records! Which the song did, since it did stir-up controversy at the time.

So eternal praises to the dark lord Satan and his wretched minions (Micorsoft programmers)!

Answer 2

I'm sure you could squeeze out a sinister meaning if you twist it hard enough! lol The song is nothing more than a commentary on the trappings of materialism and addiction, which is sinister enough, if you ask me. The "spirit" refers to wine ("please bring me my wine...."). The "beast" is the addiction, which could certainly seem like the devil, I'm sure. The song sounds a bit sinister because it uses mainly minor chords, which are "creepier" by nature. If you played "Amazing Grace" using minor chords it would sound creepy, but that doesn't mean that the song is suddenly "evil" or anything. The subject matter of Hotel California is dark, so the minor chords suit it well, nothing more. As for the backwards business, my buddies and I wasted several evenings playing albums bacwards when all the "bacwards masking" accusations were flying around in the 80's. It's true that you make yourself hear all sorts of stuff, but it's absolutely no different than if you were to record yourself saying the lords prayer or the pledge of allegience and playing it backwards. You'll still hear words and phrases that are purely coincidental. Sure, some artists do backwards stuff for effect or to be silly, but it's so time-consuming that I really can't see artists taking the time to learn to pronounce a phrase forward in just a way that it's an intelligible phrase backwards, like some people accuse them of doing, in hopes that someone will "discover" it someday. Sure it can be done, but what's the point? Just say what you want to say forward. Use metaphors and euphamisms and it will work better, because it will be left to interpretation.

Answer 3

According to Glenn Frey, the song isn't about anything

Answer
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 4

History
Hotel California was the Eagles' fifth album of original material and became a major commercial hit; since its release in late 1976, it has sold over 16 million copies in the U.S. alone, and is their best-selling album of original material. The album was at #1 for eight weeks between late 1976 and early 1977 (non-consecutively), and included two tracks which became #1 hits as singles on the Billboard Hot 100: "New Kid in Town", on February 26, 1977, and "Hotel California" on May 7, 1977.

In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Hotel California the 38th greatest album of all time. Hotel California was ranked 95th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 37 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.


[edit] Themes
Hotel California touched on many themes, including innocence (and the loss thereof), addiction to drugs, death, the dangers, temptations, and transient nature of fame, shallow relationships, divorce and loss of love, the end results of manifest destiny, and the "American Dream".

Members of Eagles have described the album as a metaphor for the perceived decline of America into materialism and decadence. In an interview with Dutch magazine ZigZag shortly before the album's release, Don Henley said:

Answer 5

I see nothing sinister about a dark desert highway..nor does a cool wind in my hair sound creepy. But the trials and tribulations described in many songs of that era lead me to one conclusion...Just Say No...And be careful where you lie down to catch some sleep!

Answer 6

I never thought there was a sinister meaning to the song, I never heard that before. I just love that song!

Answer 7

Supposedly it also talks about the start of the Satanic church in America.........Have a great day.

Answer 8

Ive heard that but there just rumors

Answer 9

it was about the soiders who served in vietnam it has nothing to do with drugs

Answer 10

i heard if you play it backwards it says some kind of satanic stuff