2007-03-01 05:03:20 · 12 answers · asked by Holly Golightly 4 in Entertainment & Music ➔ Music
The lyrics of the song describe the title establishment, a hotel where "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave". 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. Another theory is that the song is about a mental hospital or a federal prison. The expression "check out" is also considered a metaphor for dying
The term "colitas," in the first stanza of the song is a Spanish term for "little buds" and thought to refer to marijuana.
The lyric "They stab it with their steely knives/But they just can't kill the beast" is widely believed to be a nod to Steely Dan's lyric "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening" in their song "Everything You Did".
"Hotel California" was rumored to have been the nickname for the the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. The hospital was closed in 1997 and reopened in 2002 as "California State University".
Others state that "Hotel California" actually refers to Church of Satan which happens to be located in a converted church on California Street. The Eagles mananger, Larry Salter admitted in the Waco Tribune-Herald in 1982 that they were involved with the Church of Satan.[citation needed] Some believe that the lyrics, " ... kill the beast," and "... that spirit here " refrers to black magic.[citation needed] Also, others believe on their inside cover of the Hotel California album, looking down on the festivities, is either Satan or Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan
2007-03-01 05:14:15 · answer #1 · answered by Sabres Fan 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
thats such a good song
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
this could be heaven or this could be hell
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...
Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here
Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
So I called up the captain,
please bring me my wine
He said, we havent had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...
Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin it up at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis
Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said we are all just prisoners here, of our own device
And in the masters chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just cant kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
relax, said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!
------- i think that sicne most of ther songs have to do with drugs
mabey in the song they died and whent to a better place or something or mabey hes in a coma
2007-03-01 05:21:01 · answer #2 · answered by xXnevetsx360Xx 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Heard a rumor -- don't know if it's true -- that it's actually about devil worship. But check this out: I have a friend who lives in central California and drives a truck for a living, and one time he made a delivery to Santa Barbara (which is where Don Henley is originally from, and he wrote the song) and he said that he felt "drained" when he was unloading the freight, and when he got done he could hear people chanting "Hail Satan...Hail Damnation" inside. Makes me wonder...
2007-03-01 05:08:54 · answer #3 · answered by sarge927 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
who did you hear that from cause i heard the same thing. um im not quite sure because i think that the hotel california is just a hotel where there are cute guys and everything is free. that would be my hotel california paridise and i would never want to leave
2007-03-01 05:09:08 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
it's more abstract than that. it's about the idyllic, self-indulgent, tempting, fleshy paradise of the west coast in the 70s. and the strange, ephemeral undercurrent that courses through it all.
2007-03-01 05:13:33 · answer #5 · answered by Super G 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's about being in a WHORE HOUSE!!!
"Mirrors on the ceiling. . .the pink champagne's on ice" "bring your alibis"
The lyrics are all about about going into a whore house to do the bang thing.
2007-03-01 05:07:10 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it's a place where you go when you die where you have to wait until you are judged before you go to your final place,so you can't leave until your finished
2007-03-01 05:15:40 · answer #7 · answered by MARY ann 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The truth is it's about a church of devil worship. But I feel it's about heroin addiction.
2007-03-01 05:10:24 · answer #8 · answered by Tha Most Shady 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think it is about drugs but you may be right. You can find on on wikipedia.com i think.
2007-03-01 05:07:17 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
ITS NOT ABOUT THAT IS ABOUT BEING TEMPTED BY SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN ESCAPE FROM
2007-03-01 05:08:39 · answer #10 · answered by jewl42207 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋