What's the true meaning behind "Hotel California"?

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

Originally Posted by HereOnMars

I never met him but I never got the impression he was any type of gigolo. Had he been in any other industry, other than country music, his indiscretion with Amy may not have even gotten a blip on radar. Geez, when you compare back then to what happens today, that was nothing. It did hurt his career, though. When that happened, he was on top and then he dropped out of the limelight for awhile. Really sad because I love his music. He and Amy have been married for what like close to 20 years now, isn't it? Hardly a "fling" lol.

I think Vince is having a ball performing with the Eagles now. Their Hotel California 2020 tour is something I'd love to see.

Yeah, I'll have to look into that tour. That would be fun!

[CA4Now]

I didn't even realize that the Eagles were touring.

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/eagl...-tour-us-2022/

“Hotel California” holds the title of being the second best-selling studio album of all time, behind only Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” But even with that statistic, its impact can still be underplayed. The fifth album of the Eagles’ storied, debauchery-filled run, “Hotel California” was the culmination of years of momentum they had been building, and served as the celebratory banquet for the entire Southern California soft-rock sound that they had adopted and perfected. (Henley and Frey were from Texas and Michigan, respectively.)

“I’ve learned over the years that one word, ‘California,’ carries with it all kinds of connotations, powerful imagery, mystique, etc., that fires the imaginations of people in all corners of the globe,” Henley explained in a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone. He told of a time when he was in “a remote village in a mountaintop jungle in Honduras,” without plumbing or electricity, and a local approached to show his “Hotel California” tape. “The song got around,” Henley said.

Today, 45 years later, Henley and the Eagles are hopscotching the country, playing the album in its entirety to sold-out arenas, in a multi-year tour that could likely continue indefinitely, if they wanted it to. When he sat down to write the words for the album on yellow notebook pages (based on concepts developed between him and Frey), it was a moment that changed the course of popular music.

https://www.latimes.com/entertainmen...len-don-henley

[NORTY FLATZ]

Eagles played Wednesday night.

Beatles are tomorrow night. (I have front row!)

[ccm123]

Hotel California, to me refers to the quintessential California lifestyle. Movie stars, warm beach weather, entertainment, fast cars, balmy summer nights, Hollywood, etc.

I first heard this song in 1976/1977 and rushed out to buy the LP. Played the h*ll out of it for many years and wore it out. Ended up buying a CD version in the ‘90’s. This is such a classic album.

[Astral_Weeks]

The Eagles themselves have given various explanations about the song's meaning over the years.

Don Henley who wrote the lyrics said the following:
"It's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about."

Henley also said: "Lyrically, the song deals with traditional or classical themes of conflict: darkness and light, good and evil, youth and age, the spiritual versus the secular. I guess you could say it's a song about loss of innocence."

On another occasion he said:
"On just about every album we made, there was some kind of commentary on the music business, and on American culture in general. The hotel itself could be taken as a metaphor not only for the myth-making of Southern California, but for the myth-making that is the American Dream, because it is a fine line between the American Dream, and the American nightmare."

[Astral_Weeks]

The hotel on the album cover is the Beverly Hills Hotel on Sunset Blvd at Crescent.

The art director who was in charge of creating the album cover was Albert Kosh who also did the Abbey Road cover. In a 2007 interview about the album cover Kosh said:

“For the album cover, Don (Henley) wanted me to find and portray the Hotel California—a hotel which would best exemplify a classic ‘California hotel’, and to portray it with a slightly sinister edge. The shot of the Beverly Hills Hotel against the golden sunset was deemed the favorite.”

After the album was released, The Beverly Hills Hotel management learned that it was their hotel on the cover. The hotel initially threatened legal action but as album sales skyrocketed and bookings at the hotel increased all was forgotten.

https://americansongwriter.com/hotel...s-album-cover/

[CA4Now]

In the mid-1970s, the Eagles were working on a spooky, cryptic new song.

On a lined yellow pad, Don Henley, with input from band co-founder Glenn Frey, jotted thoughts about “a dark desert highway" and “a lovely place” with a luxurious surface and ominous undertones. And something on ice, perhaps caviar or Taittinger — or pink Champagne?

The song, “Hotel California,” became one of rock's most indelible singles. And nearly a half-century later, those handwritten pages of lyrics-in-the-making have become the center of an unusual criminal trial set to open Wednesday (2/21/24).

Rare-book dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski are charged with conspiring to own and try to sell manuscripts of “Hotel California” and other Eagles hits without the right to do so...

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/...ssic-107357235

[KathrynAragon]

What a terrific song. I actually feel like it's a commentary on the California lifestyle (and also the American lifestyle), excess, the music industry, etc.

I played that song at my husband's funeral because it was one of his very favorites. Mine too. The pastor said he would never think of that song without thinking of my husband (they were friends, and it had to be a difficult funeral for him, and of course me).

[NORTY FLATZ]

HC got over played when it was new. Now that it's been around for 50 years, it's a bit better. I think the best rendition (for me) is the live "Hell Freezes Over" version. The opening guitar work is Mark Knoppfler level.

As far as the "meaning" of the song? I was told it was what a woman experiences as she's having an abortion...

Listen to the lyrics sometime. Better yet, read them...

[njbiodude]

It’s about the seedy underbelly of American success and how Hollywood is full of such fake shallow vampires that will suck your blood dry for money. I always thought the line at the end “you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave” is about the seduction of California and that no matter how bad you were treated in the state you try you may always long to come back.