What do the lyrics to Hotel California by the Eagles really mean?

Question

There are loads of different theories, a Satanic church, a mental institute, the lifestyle in LA in the 70s etc etc. What do you think?

Answer 1

I would go along with the "the lifestyle in LA in the 70s" theory. For me the key line to the song has always been "We haven't seen that spirit here since 1969." The Hotel is a refuge where time stood still, and the wayward traveller is seduced into staying, but ultimately decides to leave that comfort and splendour.

Answer 2

Pamisis, What I get from this song is a trip on heavy drugs ! I listened to this song a billion times as a teen in the late 70's My friend and me all asked the same question about the song to one another back then and I still feel it's about drugs and getting high taking a mind trip if you will . By the way the end of the song inturpts adiction meaning you can die from it but you can be free from them just my ideas of it ..... post script: Whe he sings of lighting the candle well some know it as chasing the dragon... It's cocaine on tin foil a lighter is held under it to desolve the drug and it is snorted . And in the master's chambers, They gathered for the feast Thats Heaven the master is God Or it could be Hell and the master is Satan...... Famous Rockers often met this fate and still do . It's really very sad...................

Answer 3

I've heard it has to do with good vs. evil, but not a "satanic church" per se.
I've also heard it has to do with drugs, or that it has to do with the perils of the music industry and the path to fame.

I think I'd go with the industry/fame/celebrity theory, since they're kind of trapped in a place which is pleasant, but inescapable once you get there. I think Don Henley actually said what it was about in an interview, and when I found it, I was pretty close: it's about hedonism and greed (which are abundant in the music industry in CA).

Answer 4

I've always thought it was about drug/alcohol abuse myself. Looking on the internet, there seem to be many theories like you say. Here is one who thinks it is a metaphor for a mid life crisis...
In the song "Hotel California," by the rock band, the Eagles, the issues of a typical mid-life crisis are addressed. Almost every man in America comes to a point where he feels all alone and that the whole world has turned against him. Then the man chooses a way out, something to free him from life. How the man feels about himself after he chooses a path of escape determines whether or not he will conquer his crisis or be conquered by it.
In the first stanza, the persona of the song, an average American man, comes to a dead end. He can no longer find any meaning in his boring, mediocre life. He seems to be heading down an endless road, "on a dark desert highway, "but he can't seem to find an exit. He is utterly and completely alone. But, then something begins to entice him out of his loneliness, the "warm smell of chaletas." At first he tries to ignore the enticement, but it keeps calling him. The final enticement, the "shimmering light," causes him to give up his fight. He is tired of fighting against himself and the world. He must "stop for the night," so he advances to find out if he can find refuge in the Hotel Calfornia.
The man thinks he has found something that can help him escape. But, he stops to reconsider his intentions, thinking that "this could be heaven or this could be hell." He isn't sure if what he's doing is right, but it is too irresistible, so he gives in "she" shows him "the way." He has found refuge in the "tiffany twisted" world of drugs and materialism. He sees others that have also found in drugs a refuge, where "some dance to remember, some dance to forget." He is doing drugs to forget about his problems, but he sees some others using them to remember the good times. He has divested himself in this endeavor. His drug dealer, the "captain" has enticed the man into addiction, and it seems that he cannot function without this drug. He has returned to the days of peace and love, the "spirit [ ] of 1969 and believes that he if "free" of all responsibilities. But he begins to realize that the drug has taken over his body, since their "voices" still call him from "far away."
The man's intended path to salvation has now led him elsewhere. He begins to understand what he has done to himself, that he has become one with the others, all "prisoners of [their] own device." And so he takes the wrong path, all the way to addiction. He and the others know they are trapped, but try as they might, they "just can't kill the beast" of drug dependency. He ends up "running for the door," to find his "passage back to the place [he] was before," but there is no escape. The drug dealer informs him that "you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave," which translates to mean that he can stop his habit whenever he wants, but inevitably his addiction will call him back. The man's escape route has been cut off, and so he his back where he started, with bigger problems than he ever had before.
This song was written during the 1970's, which fact is crucial to the theme of the work. Many men during that time found refuge in drugs, but they eventually paid for their actions. In the song the man comes to a dead end, finds refuge in drugs, and then regrets his actions. The man has not solved his mid-life crisis, but only made it worse. The Eagles probably composed these lyrics in the hope of deterring others from making similar costly mistakes in their lives.

Answer 5

I know what this song is about, not a cult it's about drugs.

"Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way " That's not a candle she's lighting up.

"Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" Some people do them do remember good memories, some people do them to forget bad memories.

'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device" That is basically what drug users are

"The stab it with their steely knives But they just can't kill the beast" The beast being the addiction

"You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!" You can always say you aren't addicted or that you can quit anytime you want, but you'll always end up going back to them.

Pretty basic clear meaning, there are other metaphors in there to decipher but that's tha basics.

Answer 6

I would have to say the California lifestyle or L.A. in the 70's

Answer 7

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 8

I thought it was a reference to the decadent lifestyle in California. There is pretty much everything you want or need in California, good and bad. Once you are there - its hard to leave.

Answer 9

I think it is to do with alcoholism and trying to give up. take the lyric, 'you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave'. Same with alcoholics.

Answer 10

The interpretation I always believed is that the lyrics referred to all of the immigrants who swamped into California in the 70s. (Vietnamese boat people, and both legal and illegal immigrants from Mexico.)