Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Random Musing
I overheard "Hotel California" today on the radio and for some odd reason, it got me thinking, "Is this song literal (as in a story)? Or is it a metaphor for something else?" I've heard "Hotel California" more times than I could care to count as a child (my mother is a HUGE Eagles fan...I can remember listening to them on 8 track) but for some reason, when the song played through my brain today something clicked that this song just might be a metaphor. I've always assumed it was a nice little story song. I'm sure that as a youth, the concepts of metaphor, analogy and symbolism were just a bit too much for me to digest. As such, ideas that are implanted and reinforced repeatedly at said young age are very, very hard to break (this arm chair psychoanalysis was brought to you by the left side of my brain). So I never questioned the song, just went along with the image of this guy trapped in a demonic hotel. What about everyone else? Metaphor or story? Or am I the only one who is that clueless about this song (Not that I can't discern metaphor in music as I once wrote a paper in college about the symbolism and analogy in "Plush" by STP)?
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4 comments:
When I was growing up it was widely assumed that the song was about satanism. Hotel California=satanic church, the beast=the devil, etc. The rumor was that there was a picture of Anton LaVey in the window of the building on the album cover.
It was also rumored to have been about an insane asylum in California. Seems plausible if you think about the lyrics, right?
Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Joe Walsh have all been published as saying that's all a huge load o' crap. Henley and Frey seem to agree that the song is commentary on both the state of affairs in California in the 70's as well as the band's state of affairs. They have also alluded to there maybe being some drug issues in the band being referred to. Walsh just says its all crazy and you're a complete idiot and very sick if you believe anything other than "It's Just A Song, Man!"
Henley and Frey were so far up their own asses by the time Hotel California came out, it's hard not to believe it's a pretentious but obtuse metaphor for California, the West Coast playground they might have taken shots at, but embraced completely, too. They were straight-up cocaine cowboys, living the rock star life to the fullest, and fuck what anyone else thought about it.
Whenever I hear that song, it makes me visualize a creepy haunted hotel, a la The Shining.
I can see how the song could be about an insane asylum, though. That makes some sense.
From the Wikipedia entry on the song:
Lyrics Interpretation
The term "colitas" in the first stanza of the song is a Spanish term for "little tails." This is a reference to the buds of the marijuana plant, which contain higher concentrations of the psychoactive ingredient, THC, than other parts of the plant. [5]
The lyric "They stab it with their steely knives/But they just can't kill the beast" was widely believed to be a nod to Steely Dan's lyric "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening" in their song Everything You Did (and in the liner notes of Eagles: The Very Best Of, Glenn Frey confirmed this).
Urban legend has attributed the name "Hotel California" to many physical locations:
The Church of Satan which happens to be located in a converted hotel on California Street. The Satanic Bible was also written in 1969, a year that is mentioned in the song. Some believe that the lyrics, " ... kill the beast," and "... that spirit here" refer to black magic. Also, others believe on their inside cover of the Hotel California album, looking down on the festivities, is either Satan or Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan. These rumors, however, were proven false.[6]
The lyrics "her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she's got the Mercedes bends" (NB bends rather than the typically used "Benz") both associate physical discomforts with expensive merchandise.
Some believe that the initials of [The] Hotel California may refer to tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient of the Cannabis plant, commonly abbreviated as THC.[citation needed]
Interesting what you can find, innit?
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