Hotel California (The Eagles)- What is it about?

[Egiam]

I usually enjoy the music and ignore the lyrics, but I just tryed really paying attention to them. What do you all think is the message behind Hotel California?

[The_JJ]

I think it's something about the whole celebrity culture going on out in California.

But I dunno.

[Sneak]

Ask Wikipedia! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_California_%28song%29#Interpretation)

[TSGames]

Ask Wikipedia! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_California_%28song%29#Interpretation)

And Songfacts (http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1121)!*


*Only about as reliable as Wikipedia.

[Soras Teva Gee]

Its a lonely place, such a lonely place, that you can check-in anytime you want but you can't ever leave.

Obviously its about the duality of women in the empty space of the seventeenth century BC. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TrueArtIsIncomprehensible)

[Lupy]

It's about drugs. Go listen to it again and tell me I'm wrong.

[Egiam]

It's about drugs. Go listen to it again and tell me I'm wrong.

I prefer your interpretation. But almighty wikipedia says you're wrong.

:smallfrown:

Thanks for actually googling it for me (Or Topeka'ing :smallbiggrin:) so I didn't have to waste a few precious seconds.

I use google next time.

[someonenonotyou]

i always thought it was about hell:smallconfused: hmm interesting i got to go listen to it again

[Vaynor]

Well, if you want to go about it literally, it's about an insane asylum here in California. The asylum has been renovated and is now the campus of the California State University at Channel Islands, I live fairly close to it (about 15-20 minutes).

[Serpentine]

Well, if you want to go about it literally, it's about an insane asylum here in California. The asylum has been renovated and is now the campus of the California State University at Channel Islands, I live fairly close to it (about 15-20 minutes).
Other bizarre rumors suggested that the "Hotel California" was referring to... the Camarillo State Mental Hospital... These claims have been consistently refuted by the band.
Wiki says no :smalltongue:

[Vaynor]

Wiki says no :smalltongue:

Bah, Wikipedia. Everyone knows Wikipedia is inaccurate, and that all information should be based on here-say. Here-say, I say! :smalltongue:

[Serpentine]

Follow their references to snopes (http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/hotel.asp), which has its own references at the bottom, and the writer's own words (http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/6595894/hotel_california).

[RabbitHoleLost]

It's about drugs. Go listen to it again and tell me I'm wrong.

You're wrong :smalltongue:

Well, partially. As others have said, its about hedonism and self-satisfaction in celebrity-types in Hollywood.
I suppose you could expand that to a tendency for drugs.

[Mewtarthio]

i always thought it was about hell:smallconfused:

Of course it's about Hell. If the writers say otherwise, its because that's exactly what Hell wants them to believe!

[chiasaur11]

Of course it's about Hell. If the writers say otherwise, its because that's exactly what Hell wants them to believe!

Oh, you mean Steve Hell?

In accounting?

Yeah, he did used to run a hotel for a bit. Had real sticky floors from a strawberry jelly spill.

[Quincunx]

General rule for the late '60s/early '70s: popular sub-culture had discovered that the meaning of the individual words leaving one's mouth did not necessarily have to align with the meaning one wanted to convey. The more psychedelic the band, the more pronounced the dissonance.

I agree with someonenotyou about the feeling of damnation to the lyrics, above and beyond the story they tell.

[Deca]

Wiki says no :smalltongue:

But Barthes has told me that the intentions of the creator of the text has no place in the meaning that I, the listener, place in it!

Therefore Hotel California is clearly about the immigration situation.

[Serpentine]

Therefore Hotel California is clearly about the immigration situation.Which one?

[Deca]

Which one?

Every one.

[Athaniar]

I stand by my opinion that every song with odd lyrics is a reference to Tolkien's works.

[Maelstrom]

Random lyrics drawn from a hat?

[Tirian]

Hotel California is about
six and a half minutes long

[ThePhantasm]

its about the affects of coffee grounds on hyperactive giraffes, and how this caused the fall of the 3rd French Republic.