Eagles: Hotel California Meaning

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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   Jun 21st 2006 !⃝

   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.
2. nortycorty

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   Jun 15th 2006 !⃝

   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.

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
3. ringo

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   Jun 13th 2006 !⃝

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

   This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
4. KoldFront

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   Jun 13th 2006 !⃝

   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.
5. anonymous

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   May 19th 2006 !⃝

   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.
6. anonymous

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   May 7th 2006 !⃝

   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
7. anonymous

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   Apr 25th 2006 !⃝

   I think that this song simply refers to Hell, and a man's account of how he got there and what it was like.
   
   The song starts out by telling how he dies...car wreck, something like that.
   
   The woman who is so tempting is sin...thus she shows the way to Hell.
   
   Trapped souls and demons welcome the man in the chorus, describing how it seems like a good place from the outside...
   
   "Her mind is twisted" refers to the temptation of sin and the devil. (Remember Bedazzled with Brendan Fraser and Elizabeth Hurley?) "She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys..." Those would be people destined for Hell but not there yet.
   
   Dancing in the courtyard refers to the lost souls remembering (or trying to forget) their time on earth and how they squandered their life by ending up in Hell. When the man calls for wine, he may be going through the same thing...the captain (the devil, a head demon, whatever) says that part of the punishment of Hell is that you can't forget. 1969 is a reference to the number 666, the sign of the beast, rather than the year.
   
   "Mirrors on the ceiling..." is a reference to sins committed here on earth. "We are all just prisoners here of our own device" refers to how humans get to Hell...by their own sins.
   
   At this point, the song get weird. The people in Hell prepare for the "feast", which means that they are going to try to overthrow him (Satan, the beast, their keeper, etc) but they can't kill the Beast...This is describing how the Beast must die not by human efforts but by God.
   
   At this point, seeing all this, the man wants to leave and go back to earth because he finally realizes where he is. However, friends, you can't leave hell. "We are programmed to receive" is indeed one of the coolest lines of this song. "You can check out any time you like" You can die anytime, but you can "never leave" Hell.
   
   This just makes sense! Way more than a mental hospital or a drug trip or describing the music business. It is the description of Hell from a dead man's point of view.
8. anonymous

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   Apr 25th 2006 !⃝

   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.
9. anonymous

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   Apr 22nd 2006 !⃝

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

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    Apr 21st 2006 !⃝

    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.
11. anonymous

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    Apr 6th 2006 !⃝

    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
12. anonymous

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    Apr 6th 2006 !⃝

    I also heard that this was about satanism because apparently, hotel california is now like the vatican of the satanists...
13. anonymous

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    Apr 5th 2006 !⃝

    If you read the booklet on the inside of the very best of album it tells it's about them thinking outside of the box..and the beverly hills hotel...
    there's also a reference to steely dan "you can stab them with their steely knives but they just can't kill the best"
    It also says that they wanted the character to be like the character in "The Magus" when everytime he walks thru a new door it's a new reality.
14. SpikeRulesHell

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    Feb 3rd 2006 !⃝

    I have to say I agree with you. It doesn't have a specific meaning, just to be careful about what life throws at you. If you are too addicted to something materialistic, you will be unhappy.
    
    On a side note, I have heard that this song has many different meanings, a most of which I have seen in the previous posts, so really no one is wrong about it.
15. anonymous

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    Jan 20th 2006 !⃝

    The song is about anything addictive and corruptive that drags you down and wrecks your life, be it lust (which is the example), gambling, drinking, drugs or anything else which you allow to possess you.

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