Eagles: Hotel California Meaning

Song Released: 1977

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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.  

   Amy

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   Jan 4th 2007, 04:54 report

   
   

   I agree with the mental asylum theory. I actually heard this song played on guitar while I was in a psych hospital...and I totally connected to it. You can check out any time you like but you can never leave made me think of how you can never leave a mental ward cause you're locked in, but you can "check out" any time you like by going into your own little delusional world.

   
   
   
   

2.  

   anonymous

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   Dec 12th 2006, 22:39 report

   
   

   The only person who got the interpretation right was F.T.R. Well someone else got it too, but the name is unknown. The song has NO real meaning. Don Henly, the composer, said in an interview that everyone was meant to create their own interpretations.

   
   
   
   

3.  

   anonymous

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   Dec 10th 2006, 10:40 report

   
   

   Hahaha! I had to comment to this. I love all the theories here, even the ones I disagree with, but please, get the basic details correct.
   
   It's "The Church of Satan," not "The Satanic Church." It's "The Satanic Bible," not "The Demonic Bible."
   
   Your credibility completely goes out the window when you make statements like this. And the Church of Satan was founded in 1966, not 1969. 5 seconds of research blew your whole theory.

   
   
   
   

4.  

   hayven247

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   Nov 24th 2006, 06:24 report

   
   

   i almost died in laughter upon reading some of these hypothesis. some of you are really imaginative but oh so very off with the idea of what this song is really all about. the guy a few interpretations down below nabbed it right in the butt.
   this song is about a prison in california... for instance "we haven't had that spirit here since 1969" and this was when alcohol was no longer served to prisoners and that is exactly what it means. he's right and I'm surprised that no one else knew that! im 25 and my dad raised me on music and he loved the eagles. he knows everything and im 100% sure that he was right about this one.
   no one was high and performing any type of satanic rituals... you just got some really good shit and scared me too!

   
   
   
   

5.  

   TSMUnro

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   Oct 22nd 2006, 21:16 report

   
   

   I must say some of these interpretations are just crap. Kyoryu is correct the widely accepted interpretation of the song is that about Los Angelas and cesspool that it is. When the band arrived there they could not believe what they saw - drugs, etc. It a theme that runs through the album including the last resort which depicts man's destruction of the natural beauty of California.

   
   
   
   

6.  

   anonymous

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   Sep 8th 2006, 11:01 report

   
   

   Sorry, but isn't it mercedes benz, not bends?

   
   
   
   

7.  

   anonymous

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   Sep 7th 2006, 21:06 report

   
   

   I think this song was made so evry 1 could create their own interpretation no one right no one wrong it is all correct. I personally think it is about drugs...

   
   
   
   

8.  

   anonymous

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   Aug 22nd 2006, 00:37 report

   
   

   I can't believe you have all heard this song and have such a hard time figuring out what it's about! It's really very simple. It's about hell. Not satanic, yes probably drugs. The entire concept of the song is so easily understood. I think it's easy to believe the main character doesn't know he is dead. But it is about his journey into hell.

   
   
   
   

9.  

   anonymous

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   Jul 20th 2006, 19:48 report

   
   

   I've heard so many times it's about drugs. Which it does have some reference too. But the song truly is about struggles of show business.

   
   
   
   

10.  

    anonymous

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    Jul 3rd 2006, 16:26 report

    
    

    There is only one interpretation that I have seen close to right. The song is about a mental hospital called "Hotel California" in Ventura county. as far as the drug addictions and all I guess some of the lyrics could be interperated in such a way and not all lyrics have to make since but I know for a fact the song is about a mental hospital. Listen to the lyrics and a lot of it will make sence.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
    
    
    
    

11.  

    anonymous

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    Jun 21st 2006, 18:08 report

    
    

    In the 1st verse of the song where it says ... "warm smell of colitas rising up through the air"... I have 2 thoughts.1st About 3 or so blocks from the most popular hotel califoria is or was a fireworks factory ( not to sure if its still ther today) but anyhow ther was a big fire and the fireworks factory blew up.Ive heard that one of the guys working there at the time was from greece imparticular Colitas, his name was Wurn Snell, who didn't make it out alive.When members of the press were interviewing people who survived one reporter asked a certain worker what was the last thing he saw when running for his life? The man replied, Wurn Snell of Colitas...rising up through the air. True or False? Thats what I herad.
    2nd Ive heard its some sort of food coverd in some sort of gravy or sauce forgotten what country though.
    
    Im not gona bother with the rest of that verse for now .
    
    
    Where the song says "her mind is tiffany twisted she got the mercedes benz..."
    I believe that is refering to Tiffanys jewlery want more money for jewels and for flash cars after all they had just moved to beverly hills and you have to keep up with the jones's.
    
    You no what just forget I said anything if Don Felded or Don Henley,Joe Marsh can't be botherd giving an interpretation then everything here is just guess work.

    
    
    
    

12.  

    nortycorty

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    Jun 15th 2006, 01:56 report

    
    

    It's not about the Satinic Church, One of The Eagles said so in a interview.
    I got to a christian school and we were all warned against it but when I did some digging I discovered that in an interview he definatly said that it had nothing to do with any Satinic Church. I'm not sure which one it was though.

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13.  

    ringo

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    Jun 13th 2006, 23:03 report

    
    

    It is about a Bordello... that is a whorehouse for all you idiots who think it is a song about hell.

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14.  

    KoldFront

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    Jun 13th 2006, 10:06 report

    
    

    The beauty of this song is that you can understand it anyway you like. Drugs, depression, materialism, prisons or satanism (who ever wants to listen to that). Whatever you like to hear.
    Like those bubblegums with several flavours.
    
    So just enjoy the song and understand it in your own way.

    
    
    
    

15.  

    anonymous

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    May 19th 2006, 01:32 report

    
    

    After thinking about this song for a long time in many different states, my personal opinion is that Hotel California is about actually doing a drug. You get high and it is great... This hotel california sensation where everything is beautiful and relaxed but then you realize that the only thing you want is to be sober again but you are trapped by your high, your drug, your "hotel california" (have you ever gotten really paranoid on a drug or from drinking too much? its like that panic)So you freak out and try everything you have heard of to get sobered up but nothing works "you just can't kill the beast." He tries to get out "running for the door" trying to get back to the "place I was before" is the sober state he was in before doing the drug. Finally, a little fact was that he was on drugs when he wrote it and if you have ever felt paranoia from a drug, it is what I like to call hotel california.

    
    
    
    

16.  

    anonymous

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    May 7th 2006, 01:19 report

    
    

    I believe that the song is about the lead singers girlfriend who had cancer and Hotel California was the place they would treat it "Stabbing with there stealy knives, but they just can't kill the beast" Stealy knives refering to surgerical instruments for removing a tumour, and the beast refering to cancer

    
    
    
    

17.  

    anonymous

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    Apr 25th 2006, 15:09 report

    
    

    The song is about The Church of Satan. The image used on the cover of the album is actually a photograph of the Church at the time. There's a book about the Eagles and their relation to the Satanic messages in Rock songs.

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18.  

    anonymous

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    Apr 22nd 2006, 18:47 report

    
    

    This song is about whatever you want it to be about. Whatever it means to YOU. And THAT is what music's about.

    
    
    
    

19.  

    anonymous

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    Apr 21st 2006, 23:26 report

    
    

    I think that maybe artists write songs not intentionally meaning it to have very much meaning. Maybe it was about a real hotel, or an ideal one. But perhaps The Eagles simply wrote words down and gave it a cool guitar parts and such and just let it stand...alone as a good song, not a special song with a huge story behind it. Over time people have found similarities with other things and think it's about something special....Don't leave out that lots of times bands just write songs to write songs and jam.

    
    
    
    

20.  

    anonymous

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    Apr 6th 2006, 22:10 report

    
    

    That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. (see above- Hotel California is the 'Vatican for Satanists') I'm trying desperately not to burst out in laughter.
    
    Hotel California is about the 'atmosphere'- what California is. The protagonist is essentially caught up in the idea of an unatainable place that is always 'better than here/now'. He speaks to others, who we can infer followed the same desire and were ultimately held captive by it. California is "The" place- for the rich, famous and successful. Who doesn't dream of that?
    
    "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave" (ignorance was bliss- now you know of what could be, you're trapped. The hope and longing is never quite gone, so the person remains captive, obsessed. California is just a sort of metaphor/tool to express this.)

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway