What do you think Hotel California means?

Eagles: Hotel California Meaning

Album cover for Hotel California album cover

Song Released: 1977


Hotel California Lyrics

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...

  1. anonymous
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    Jul 17th 2008 !⃝

    I believe any song can have a different meaning depending on the influences you have surrounding you at the time. Me personally for the longest time have believed this song to be about a Satanic church and the slow progression into satanism. But reading the other interpretations has made me doubt my own opinion. Seemingly enough, if the song is about drugs or the age of materialism both of which are temptations of the dark prince so in a way it could very well be all of the above. The fact is I own 2 of the albums and I know it is The Beverly Hills Hotel in the photos. The strange thing is in one of the album jackets on the inside cover there is a man standing in the shadows of the balcony. He does not appear in the other copy I own nor on my CD Cover. I had heard it was Anton Lavay and believe it to be after viewing photos of him and examining the jacket. But could be my mind playing tricks. I've also been told that the Eagles spent so time at a Satanist retreat to get inspiration for some songs. Witchy Woman is another subject I'd like to read about but that's later. I guess that's what makes a great song is the meaning it could have.

  2. anonymous
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    Jul 5th 2008 !⃝

    This song is LITERALLY about the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles (note the photo on the album cover is a good clue folks) -- IT is NOTORIOUS to native Angelenos (and naive foreigners who come to LA seeking fame) that if you are "CHOSEN" for this industry -- you will ultimately end up at the BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL to "broker your soul" LITERALLY, and NOT FIGURATIVELY. These people out here in the business LITERALLY are engaging in SATANIC and MASONIC works, and if you are not willing to be "indoctrinated" you WILL NOT enter the business of MUSIC or HOLLYWOOD FILM - PERIOD. SEX RITUALS, MURDER and RAPE go on at that hotel -- LITERALLY (I don't really care if you think I'm crazy -- I've got 4 generations of family here and I have experienced this first hand -- that is what it is about folks -- why do you think "they" would give ANYONE the opportunity to have such wealth -- there is a PRICE (and a HIGH ONE -- YOUR SOUL - LITERALLY).

  3. anonymous
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    Jun 25th 2008 !⃝

    Most people have no idea this song refers to the Church of Satan, which happens to be located in a converted HOTEL on CALIFORNIA street!

    On the inside of the album cover, looking down on the festivities, is Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan and author of the Satanic Bible! People say, the Eagles aren't serious, they're just selling records. That's what you think! The Eagles manager, Larry Salter, admitted in the Waco Tribune-Herald, (Feb. 28, 1982) that the Eagles were involved with the Church of Satan! Not surprisingly, one of the Eagle's songs is titled "Have A Good Day in Hell."

    1st Corinthians 15:33 clearly teaches that it is dangerous for us to allow ourselves to be influenced by the wrong crowd. The Greek word for "communications" means "communion" (or, sharing one's thoughts and feelings). "Corrupt" means to "defile and destroy." The Greek word for "manners" means "moral character." Thus, the influence of the wicked will destroy our moral character.

    God adamantly forbids us as Christians from yoking up with the ungodly. Many young believers think that it is ok to listen to the music of the ungodly, just so long as they don't actually associate with them. Nothing could be further from the truth. If you're listening to their music, they are sharing their feelings and thoughts with you. You ARE being corrupted! Just as Satan wanted to sift Peter like wheat, so does he want to destroy you as well.

  4. anonymous
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    Jun 4th 2008 !⃝

    It's about the exploitive nature of the music industry and Hotel California is a reference to LA, as stated by the band.

    NOT drug addiction (although it does intertwine with the lifestyle), a cult, or a whorehouse (LOL).

    Case closed.

  5. HeatherlyG
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    Jun 2nd 2008 !⃝

    I think the song verses relate to heroin addiction. "She stands in the door way..."; heroin the evil seductress. Hotel California to sounds like a heroin den. "You can check out anytime you like..but can never leave". Addiction is life time struggle. "Stabbed it with their steely knives....just can't kill the beast". The constant hunger for a fix? Anyway, that's what I get. It's a classic regardless.

  6. anonymous
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    Apr 21st 2008 !⃝

    Don Henley said in an interview he was blown away by all of the myriad interpretations to Hotel California. He and other band members said it was about the excess of American culture, especially California. It is fun to read the other interpretations, though! That's what so great about music, it speaks to us all differently.

  7. anonymous
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    Mar 20th 2008 !⃝

    According to an interview on 60 minutes with the band, this song is about "the excesses that come along with fame"

  8. anonymous
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    Feb 23rd 2008 !⃝

    There's this part of the song that refers to a book The Lord of the Flies , the part about the beast "They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast" which refers to a corrupt government (if you read and understand the book)
    But that phrase isn't the whole song.

  9. anonymous
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    Jan 21st 2008 !⃝

    Hotel California is about the progression of drugs...starting with less hard drugs, like weed, and then moving on to harder drugs. Then eventually addiction to them

  10. anonymous
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    Dec 17th 2007 !⃝

    This song is simply about the band members on their tour bus. They are on a serious acid trip. Their bus comes up to a hotel.

  11. anonymous
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    Nov 24th 2007 !⃝

    I don't know if anyone has said this already but I think this song is about the glamour and celebritism which was centred around them in late seventies. "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave" is referring to the addictive life style they had in the LA music scene. LA is in fact the "Hotel California" as it is the "shimmering light" in the middle of the desert.
    Once you start looking at it like this, need I say anymore, the girls, parties, greed, wealth, drugs they all help explain the song.

    I prsonally think it is magnificent song as it has really captured the mood of the time.

  12. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 20th 2007 !⃝

    Well guys,
    if you think about it
    the most likely evidence
    is that the person is addicted to/is using drugs

    and knows they should stop, but they keep on.

    here you go..





    On a dark desert highway
    Cool wind in my hair
    Warm smell of colitas
    Rising up through the air
    [person is already strung out]
    ------------------------------

    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
    [person is coming off of their high]
    -----------------------------------

    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
    [person is being presented with a new drug, but has doubts]
    ------------------------------------------------------------

    Then she lit up a candle
    And she showed me the way
    [candle=lighter other person offering drugs shows person how to take them]
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

    There were voices down the corridor
    I thought I heard them say
    [beginning of the high the drug welcoming him]
    ----------------------------------------------------------



    Welcome to the Hotel California
    [hotel california is actually being high, compared to a sort of retreat]
    --------------------------------------------------------------------

    Such a lovely place
    Such a lovely place (background)
    Such a lovely face
    [how great the drugs seem, how inviting they are]
    --------------------------------------------------

    Plenty of room at the Hotel California
    Any time of year
    Any time of year (background)
    You can find it here
    [implies that anyone can get high at any time of the year]
    --------------------------------------------------------

    Her mind is Tiffany twisted
    She's got the Mercedes-Benz
    [she=drugs shows how much money is made off of drugs]
    ----------------------------------------------------------

    She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys
    That she calls friends
    [tells how lots of people who are addicted either don't know or don't admit it]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------





    How they dance in the courtyard
    Sweet summer sweat
    [they=drug + user the courtyard would be the process of smoking, shooting, etc]
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------.
    Some dance to remember
    [some use drugs to remember how good it feels to be high]
    -----------------------------------------------------------

    Some dance to forget
    [some use drugs to forget their problems]
    -----------------------------------------

    So I called up the Captain
    Please bring me my wine
    He said
    We haven't had that spirit here since 1969
    [person saying he will use alcohol as an alternative to drugs to help him stop]
    or
    [person hasn't used alcohol at all since 1969, as opposed to drugs]
    or
    [they just ran out of wine]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------







    And still those voices are calling from far away
    [even after person stops, they still have slight calling to the drugs]
    -----------------------------------------------------------------

    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 Place (background)
    Such a lovely face
    [drug craving are so bad that you can't sleep, and have to get high]
    -------------------------------------------------------------------

    They're livin' it up at the Hotel California
    What a nice surprise
    What a nice surprise (background)
    Bring your alibies
    [shows how person either realizes their addicted and makes excuses and is in denial]
    or
    [person is enjoying drugs, but family and/or friends find out that person is addicted and person makes excuses]
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Mirrors on the ceiling
    Pink champagne on ice
    [hallucinations while high/being strung out]
    ------------------------------------------



    And she said
    We are all just prisoners here
    Of our own device
    [people are addicted to different drugs and can't stop]
    ------------------------------------------------------

    And in the master's chambers
    They gathered for the feast
    [people gather to get high]
    --------------------------

    They stab it with their steely knives
    But they just can't kill the beast
    [people shoot up drugs as much as they can, but can't get rid of the addiction]
    ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Last thing I remember
    I was running for the door
    I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
    [person wants off his high]
    --------------------------

    "Relax," said the nightman
    We are programmed to recieve
    You can check out any time you like
    But you can never leave
    [finally says that you can never get rid of a drug addiction, and to accept it]

  13. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Nov 19th 2007 !⃝

    I think it is all about the AFTERLIFE . I think our spirits go to the other world and cannot come back. There we can have a different life . The afterlife or life after death is a generic term for a continuation of existence after death, typically in a spiritual or ghostlike afterworld. Deceased persons are usually believed to go a specific region or plane of existence in this afterworld, often depending on the type of person they are and the life they lived. Some believe the afterlife includes some form of preparation for the soul to be transferred to another body (reincarnation).

    The major views on the afterlife derive from religion, esotericism and metaphysics. There are those who are skeptical of the existence of the afterlife, or believe that it is absolutely impossible, such as the materialist-reductionists, who state that the topic is supernatural, therefore does not really exist or is unknowable.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afterlife

  14. anonymous
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    Nov 15th 2007 !⃝

    This song has nothing to do with hell and only a little to do with drugs. In the early seventies a lot of young people, especially women were attracted to the glitz, glamour and party scene of California. The addiction was to the lifestyle and and the women would go crazy for material things (Tiffany twisted, Mercedes Bends. The partying brings the reference to drugs - cocaine chopped with a blade (steely knife). Girls meeting 'pretty boys' in the 'in' crowd - but they can only call them friends. They get so caught up in the scene that they can't get away. The girls have changed themselves so much that they can hardly remember their past. They are all look alike blonded, California girls now.
    The state of california is the hotel.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. anonymous
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    Nov 14th 2007 !⃝

    I have it on good authority that "colitas" means a certain part of the female anatomy. It's Mexican slang.




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