what does the meaning of the eagles song "Hotel California" mean?

Answer 1

Let L&M tell you what Hotel California is not about.

It's not about Satanism
It's not about a mental hospital
It's not about a hotel in Mexico
It's not about a drug rehab center.

In a nutshell, it's about America in the 1970s.

Answer 2

Hotel California is written about just that: "The Hotel California". The Hotel is located in Todos Santos, which is about an hours drive north of Los Cabos. It's a small quaint Mexican town, and right in the middle is the Hotel. There is a small open air boutique shop in it, as well as a resteraunt and ofcourse, rooms. My husband and I visited the location in 2005. It's neat to know we were there, but not much else going on there to tell you the truth.

Answer 3

Hotel California is an allegory about hedonism and greed in Southern California in the 1970s. At the time of its release, the Eagles were riding high in the music world, experiencing material success on a frightening level. Though they thoroughly enjoyed the money, drugs, and women fame threw their way, they were disquieted by it all and sought to pour that sense of unease into their music and to warn others about the dark underside of such adulation.

In a 1995 interview, Don Henley said the song "sort of captured the zeitgeist of the time, which was a time of great excess in this country and in the music business in particular." In another interview that same year, he referred to it as being about a "loss of innocence."

The album has as its underlying theme the corruption of impressionable rock stars by the decadent Los Angeles music industry. The celebrated title track presents California as a gilded prison the artist freely enters only to discover that he cannot later escape.

The real Hotel California is not a place; it is a metaphor for the west coast music industry and its effect on the talented but unworldy musicians who find themselves ensnared in its glittering web.

Answer 4

This is a very interesting question.
Don Henley says that it is about the excesses of life in the big city. However classes have been taught at universities to try to decipher its meaning.
It has been said to be Dante's Inferno, Plato's parable of the CAVE, about dying and reaching purgatory plus many other interpretations. Including one that it is about a real Hotel in Mexico where Henley spend time.

I like to suggest that like any other great lyric ot poem that it is what the listener.reader wants it to be.
It is a great lyric because it is so full of imagery and because it flows so well. I'd say let it be what it is for you, and take pleasure from the images it evokes in your mind.

People want it to be what they believe it is, to support their fantasy.

Like all great pieces of poetry, all interpretations are valid.
Just enjoy it.

Personally I think it's one of the greatest lyrics of rock & roll along with Jim Morrison and others. The acompanying melody helps to conjure images as well, i believe that Joe Walsh was greatly responsible for the melody.

Answer 5

This is about materialism and excess. California is used as the setting, but it could relate to anywhere in America.
Don Henley: "We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.
"Colitas," in the line "Warm smell of colitas," is often interpreted as a flower or a sexual reference. It is a Spanish word translated to Henley by The Eagles Mexican-American road manager meaning "Little Buds," and is a reference to marijuana.

: )

Answer 6

Yes, like every other bimbo that has answered this question, I answer that it is about drugs. Sheesh, I thought everyone knew that! I've known that since I was, like, 12. No offense to anyone. xD Just so you know. Whoo. The Eagles. <333 "Mr. Robot-o."

Answer 7

Synchronisty again ! I have just purchased the book you'll find referenced below. Let me quote :

"... the album was dominated by its bewitching title track. Born of a cod-reggae guitar riff cooked up by Don Felder, 'Hotel California' was as creepy as it was catchy. The hotel in question stood as a metaphor for Hollywood itself, a place haunted by the ghosts of movie idols. 'We never glorified California,' Henley said in 1989. 'We were running it down from the beginning."

I hoped this helped.

Answer 8

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".

Answer 9

I think it's a song about a woman. The Hotel California is a woman that once you're with you're not getting out alive. She's beautiful, inviting, and psycho.

Answer 10

Basically the Eagles ranting about the excessive lifestyle of the music industry. The Satanist overtones are coincidental and unintended.......or so the band says.