Hotel California

"Hotel California"
Song
B-side	"Pretty Maids All In A Row"

"Hotel California" was the title song from the Eagles' album of the same name, and was released as a single in early 1977. It is one of the best-known songs of the Album Oriented Rock era.

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 original version of the song is performed in slow rock style, opening with a long, repeated electric guitar motif. During the verses, guitar and bass provide melodic counterpoint to the vocal. The end section of the song consists of a series of guitar solos building to a multi-layered variation on the opening theme with multiple guitars in chorus. The song is also well known for its guitar solos, which are performed by both Joe Walsh and Don Felder.

Writing credits for the song are shared by the group's three main songwriters: Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Don Felder.

"Hotel California" won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year in 1978.

It is rated by many polls to be one of the greatest songs of all time: Rolling Stone magazine, for example, states it is the forty-ninth greatest song of all time.

As one of the group's most popular and well-known songs, "Hotel California" has been a concert staple for the band since its release; performances of the song appear on the Eagles' 1980 live album and, in an acoustic version, on the 1994 Hell Freezes Over reunion concert CD and video release.

A few cover versions of "Hotel California" have been released, notably by flamenco band the Gipsy Kings. In 2004, it was recorded by American Idol reject William Hung. Australian band The Cat Empire recorded a version of the song in French (L'Hotel Californie), for Triple J's Like a Version segment and subsequent CD compilation. Marc Anthony has often sung the song live. Brixton (England) based band Alabama3 also covered the song on their 2000 album "la peste".

The song may have been influenced by the 1969 Jethro Tull song "We Used to Know", from the album Stand Up. The chord progressions are nearly identical, and the bands toured together prior to the release of the song. While recording in Miami, Don Felder had to phone home to California to have his maid send him a copy of the demo in order to reproduce the introduction and end solos, which may have accounted for the words "copyright in dispute" in the liner notes and the use of compulsory license, as noted by the EU copyright designation. Additionally, fans have noticed thematic similarities with Don Henley's solo single "Sunset Grill".

Cultural References

• At Camp Nama, a secret detention and interrogation facility outside of Baghdad International Airport operated between mid-2003 and mid-2004 by U.S. Army unit known (then) as Task Force 6-26, high-value detainees were housed in a separate area of 6-by-8-foot cubicles known as Hotel California, suggesting a new sense of poignancy to the some of the song's darker lyrics. [1]

• In popular television show, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation episode Pirates Of The Third Reich, the song is referred to in a comparison to a clinic. Greg Sanders says "This clinic is like the Hotel California. You can check in anytime you like but you might never leave." [2]

• In an episode of Family Guy, Peter and Lois separate to date other people. Peter moves in with Mort Goldman and when asked what they do for fun. He replies that they watch old films and listen to Hotel California to see if it links up in a significant way. He then proceeds to claim that it hasn't yet.

• In an episode of My Name Is Earl that features events taking place in both America and Mexico, Hotel California is played as background music for a montage juxtaposing main characters Earl Hickey and his brother Randy with two Mexican brothers that humorously resemble Earl and Randy in their demeanor, behavior and appearance. The original version of the song plays during the segments showing the American brothers, and the Gipsy Kings cover plays during the segments showing the Mexican brothers.

Trivia

• 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". Indeed, Glenn Frey confirmed this in a 2003 interview.

• "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. Some believe that the lyrics, " ... kill the beast," and "... that spirit here " refrers to black magic. 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.

• The version of this song in the live album "Hell Freezes Over" is performed by 8 guitars in total.

• The term "colitas," in the first stanza of the song is a spanish term for "little buds" and thought to refer to marijuana. Others have stated that it is a reference to a flower or a women's vagina.

• An internet rumor states that the "captain" as refered to in the song is Daryl Dragon and the unnamed "she" is Toni Tennille both of the Captain and Tennille fame and who were contemporary artists at the time.

• Misunderstood lyrics: "We are all just visitors here of our own demise" is , "We are all just prisoners here of our own device."

External Links

• Snopes.com article debunking the Satanic myth
• Schmitt, Eric (2006). "Task Force 6-26: In Secret Unit's 'Black Room,' a Grim Portrait of U.S. Abuse". New York Times. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
• Cecil Adam's "Straight Dope" article: In the song "Hotel California," what does "colitas" mean?

Hidden message

Allegedly, there is backmasking within the song,

"...in the middle of the night just to hear them say"

When played backwards, it sounds like "Satan hears this. He had me believe" [3]