What does Hotel California mean?

Eagles: Hotel California Meaning

Album cover for Hotel California album cover

Song Released: 1977


Get "Hotel California" on MP3: Get MP3 from iTunes

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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    Jan 20th 2016 !⃝

    It's the California State University in Camarillo California. Ragan closed this former mental institution while he was governor.

  2. anonymous
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    Sep 18th 2015 !⃝

    Word for word, this song refers to drug addition. The hook it creates at the beginning, when it all seems glamorous and fabulous, then your are lost in this world you can try to leave but will always remain trapped. Not having wine in 1969 signifies the change in vice from alcohol to drugs. Stabbing with steeling knife and not killing the beast...signifies the razors they used to cut and line cocaine, even though they were stabbing the beast it was not killing it.
    Some dance to remember, some dance to forget...needless to say, dancing is taking a hit and it signifies the usual causes of why people turn to drugs. Some to remember someone they lost or forget pains they've experienced.
    It almost describes the reasons why someone might arrive to a world of addition and how difficult it is to leave.

  3. anonymous
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    Dec 13th 2014 !⃝

    It's pretty simple. It's about the excesses of being a star and the horrors those lead to - you're in it, and you're trapped. You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave, because now you're notorious and because you will never have your innocence back. Once that's gone, it's gone.

    It's about how stardom is not so glamorous once you get up close.

  4. anonymous
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    Nov 5th 2014 !⃝

    I always thought this song was about this guy finding the hotel to rest, but then realises that there's something very wrong there. That there are sacrifices and bad stuff going on, when he tries to get out they won't let him. The part that always got me was, "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." Which means you can't leave this place, but you will die. I'm a creepy person by nature though so, I could be wrong, Lol.

  5. anonymous
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    Oct 25th 2014 !⃝

    This song is about a being in the right time long time ago having a great time but hard to remember and coming back happens all time when your high nobody cares of you and suddenly someone's do.

  6. anonymous
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    Sep 24th 2014 !⃝

    illuminati

  7. Lisa69
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    Aug 5th 2014 !⃝

    I think this song is about being in a cult is communal living place- popular in 60's and 70's.. They keep you awake all the time and drug you to program you. The master is the leader ( Charles Manson type).I think they used pretty girls to get people to join up.
    He obviously gets away and is telling his story though he's haunted by the experience

  8. anonymous
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    Aug 1st 2014 !⃝

    Hotel California refers to Hotel Del Coronado.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  9. anonymous
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    Jun 20th 2014 !⃝

    The age old question of what is binding us to our present condition. Same theme runs through other songs... We hold the key to releasing ourselves from whatever....status & fate... It
    s within ourselves, we have to find it. Just a change of location wont work. we are all prisoners... of our own desire? device? ... dont realize it. Hotel California is simply a metaphor.
    Another song.. dont remember name but Egles member.." .All Ready Gone?" we hold the key to release ourselves all along, but must first aknowledge that change must happen within ourselves.

  10. anonymous
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    Jun 19th 2014 !⃝

    I think this is about an overdose. Experiencing in and out consciousness, perhaps life. Seeing the light and what the beyond be like. Not understanding the stage you are or where you headed.

  11. Tyco
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    Oct 22nd 2013 !⃝

    The Hotel California was the Church of Satan in Southern California. If you have the album from before the bar code was put on, Anton Levy be seen standing on the balcony with a cirle of symbols behind his head. Colitas is a Mexican marijuana bud. Wine is the symbol of the Holy Spirit. When a Satanic Church is activated, the first ritual is to "Blasphemy the Holy Spirit." This is considered to be the only unforgivable sin. This ritual was performed in 1969. Hence "We have not had that spirit here since 1969." Feasts are a pivotal celebration in Heaven and Hell. The rest of the song speaks for itself. Don Henley would of course lie about any of this after looking at things in retrospect.

  12. anonymous
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    Jul 29th 2013 !⃝

    On a dark chocolate desert my way
    Cool drink in my hand
    The smell of warm custard
    Rising up at the fair
    Up ahead a distraction
    Eyes sore from shimmering lights
    Mike Head drank heavy, while I drank gin
    We didn't stop all that night...

    Yeah, I guess it means whatever you want it to.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  13. m320753
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    Jul 29th 2013 !⃝

    Don Henley said on the Showtime airing of History of the Eagles that Hotel California is simply about the passage from innocence to experienced. what ever interpratation our fans want to make the song out to mean, is fine with the band

  14. anonymous
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    Jul 28th 2013 !⃝

    This song is totally about Jenkem addiction.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. LeeHarveyEnfiled
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    May 31st 2013 !⃝

    There are numerous interpretations of this song, and more than one interpretation can be correct. At the most superficial level it is about the West Coast lifestyle of the 70s, as Henley confirms. But there are deeper meanings. There is also an obvious parallel with the drug culture ("warm smell of colitas rising up through the air") and ultimate addiction ("check out any time you like, but you can never leave"). However, there is also a yet deeper meaning. Every 28 years there is the "Feast of the Beast" it is known to have been held some 15 times since 1618. (Go on, Google it.) It is a year-long feast which culminates around the northern autumn equinox. It is organized by certain members of the Collins family and attended by the world's elite, including Rothschilds. The "beast" is in fact, Satan himself. The song is about a guy who has got deeply involved in Satanism. He is informed that "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device". Then he describes how, "in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast [of the Beast]" and even if they were to "stab it with their steely knives (as perhaps he'd now like to do) they just can't kill the beast [Satan]". So he then entertains thoughts of fleeing, but he is told, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave" - [unless it's in a box]. Whether the Eagles knew all this at the time it was written, I do not know. But even if they didn't know, they were subliminally influenced to write these words. (It's the same with backward masking - singers do not intentionally do it, it would be impossible to sing backwards intentionally, but they do it nonetheless.)




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