Come in, come in
Come into my world I've got to show
Show, show you
Come into my bed
I've got to know
Know, know you

[Chorus]
I have dreams of Orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my...
You will never be my fool
Will never be my fool

Floaters in my eyes
Wake up in a hotel room
Cigarettes and lies
I am a child; it's too soon

[Chorus]

A little bag of cocaine
A little bag of cocaine
So who's the girl wearing my dress?
I figured out her number
Inside a paper napkin
But I don't know her address; I wade downstairs

The porter smiles to me a smile
I've bought
With a couple of gold coins
A sign that I've been caught

I have dreams of Orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my...
You will never be my dear
Will never be my dear, dear friend
Dear, dear friend, dear, dear friend

A little bag of cocaine
A little bag of cocaine
So who's the girl wearing my dress?
I figured out her number
Inside a paper napkin
But I don't know her address

Come in, come in
Come into my world I've got to show
Show, show you
Come into my bed
I've got to know
Know, know you

I have dreams of Orca whales and owls
But I wake up in fear
You will never be my...
You will never be my dear
Will never be my dear, dear friend
Dear, dear friend, dear, dear friend



Lyrics submitted by Airyca

Track duration: 03:28

"Hotel Song" as written by Regina Spektor

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Hotel Song song meanings
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88 Comments

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  • 0
    My Interpretation:I don't think the cocaine thing's really that important, just a bit of the clutter from the relationship, and the girl in the dress and the confusion there is just her general confusion about people they're meeting in the hotel culture.
    I think it's about a socialite who generally has lots of small flings, and she gets this guy close by chatting to him and seducing him. When she's waking up after nights in hotels with this guy she knows feels differently about him - she's secretly worried that he won't love her properly, and her dreams are full of cute random things, she's not really as much of a wild temptress as she might seem.
    I think it's just a sweet song about hoping someone will fall in love with you.
    Flag FifiGon January 27, 2013   Link
  • +1
    My Interpretation:I see this song as being about a girl who tries to find love or self esteem by having cheap meaningless flings with lots of different people, but inside she knows they'll never give her what she needs ("you will never be my fool/my dear dear friend"). And yet it's the only way she knows to connect with people ("come into my bed, I've got to know you" sex is the only way she knows to try and "know" someone, or make a connection with them).

    So she's gotten pulled into this cycle and this world of messed up people and unhealthy actions, and realizes it's not good for her ("I'm a child, it's too soon", "I wake up in fear", etc.) but she doesn't really know how to get out of it all.

    So that's my take on it.
    Flagged teSon April 01, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is about giving yourself away for nothing real in return, and then the discovery that that’s what’s happening – specifically, with the image of a woman having sex at a hotel, but there are some hints that it applies to a singer. Take a look at another Regina Spektor song that touches on these same themes, â€�Happy Hooker.â€�

    In the first stanza of â€�Hotel Songâ€�, it is pretty straightforward: An invitation. The words â€�come into my world,â€� are an invitation to the song itself – her world as we hear her sing. Then, in the second part, it’s sex: an invitation to bed, to â€�knowâ€� in the biblical sense. Performing sex, performing a song – the two are right there together.

    The woman in the hotel dreams of â€�orca whales and owls but I wake up in fear.â€� There must be significance behind Regina's specific choice of Orca whales and owls. Both are hunters, one that swims the depths, one that flies in the night – both silent almost mythical predators. They have an image of friendliness – they are animals that appeal to children -- but the truth is that they are each skilled killers. I think this maybe says something about why she wakes up in fear. Between the night and the morning, between the mythology of these animals and the reality, there are two worlds, a dangerous reality and an enchanting illusion.

    What she fears are explained in the lines â€�you will never be my foolâ€� and â€�you will never be my dear, dear friend.â€� This is her discovery, and it’s made in the morning, seeing the little bag of cocaine, looking at herself and wondering â€�Who’s the girl wearing my dress.â€� The porter is just another professional at the hotel, offers a smile as part of his job, and there is no enchanting illusion left from the night before. Her phone number has been left behind, discarded, and she delivers a stunning line about herself: â€�I don’t know her address.â€�

    She doesn’t know her home, what this arrangement is, only that she’s woken up in â€�cigarettes and liesâ€� and she’s too young: for her, orca whales and owls should still be full of wonder -- not killers that do their work silently.

    She has given everything she’s got inside, and come away without a fool, without a dear friend. And I would think that fear would be real for anyone who’s taken the stage to sing their song.
    Flag ljsenseon January 26, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i disagree with everyone haha
    i think when she says "whos the girl wearin my dress?" shes talkin about herself, i figured out her number (not phone but the number of things shes done wrong) but "i dont know her adress", she doesnt know where she lives or belongs, maybe its like home is where the heart is and she doesnt yet know where her heart lies.
    shes done and seen a lot of things (cocaine vegas the works maybe just been around people even her parents, into that stuff) and yet she thinks shes a child sometimes, she just wants to get away because its too soon
    her dreams of owls and what not just mean shes goin through life havin a good time but then she wakes up sometimes (like wakes up her conscience not literal from a sleep) and thinks what about my friends? what about a goal? when am i gonna get married? where im going? like she needs to get out of this cycle of the bad life and get back to living and figure out who she is.
    and shes using this person that she wants to "know" an "show" her world to stop learning about herself and learn about someone else, shes trying to avoid the hard part of life: figuring out who you are really are and where youre headed in life.
    i think the smile she bought means she bought it from him, as in she's never truely happy because shes seeing people working in the hotel doing what they want to do and shes just living life like its some big vacation never going towards a career and she wishes she could be happy in a stable job like them.
    but i do agree with loverly23 "wanting some stability in your life--in the form of a home, a belief, or the promise of a constant lover/friend/relative--but not being able to obtain it...much like a hotel cannot obtain a permanent resident. " kudos
    Flag rokouttilur80on November 01, 2010   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:I think it's from the point of view of a young and innocent girl who fancies from afar a guy who's into cigarettes, cocaine, and all that business. Then she realize they'll never be together, or even friends.
    Flag GeneralInformationRetrievalon September 23, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:My take on it is this is about a teenage girl who has an affair with a man who hooks on her cocaine. She goes through rehab to try to kick the habit (hence gold coins and being caught) but finds it imppossible to quit cause she's still with him and he feeds her addiction (wakes up and the bag of cocaine's already there). She wakes up in the hotel room while he's gone out and she sneaks out, bribing the porter not to tell her lover where she's gone. She realizes she has to end the realtionship to save herself but finds out that she's not his only lover and decides to warn the other girl before she ends up in the same mess as our heroine is (figures out her number on a paper napkin but doesn't know her address).
    Flag Kuzyaon July 12, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:i think its about a girl cheating on her husband but he's cheating too. she wakes up in hotel rooms where she's been cheating
    Flag macaulaytayon June 17, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I believe this song revolves around different characters and different perspectives, including the hotel itself; either that, or each character represents different aspects of the hotel. The "Come into my world" stanza--either coming from the hotel or someone else--expresses a feeling of wanting more people to...well..."come into [his/her/its] world"; however, people who go to this hotel only stay temporarily--those people will "never be [his/her/its] fool," or "dear friend." The "Floaters in my eyes," represents the escapism hotel can represent, and how ineffective it is; the woman worrying about "whose the girl wearing [her] dress" represents the infidelities that occur in the hotel; the person who buys a smile from the porter represents the everlasting silence that a hotel has about such things, so long as you pay the right price.

    Overall...I think this song is about wanting some stability in your life--in the form of a home, a belief, or the promise of a constant lover/friend/relative--but not being able to obtain it...much like a hotel cannot obtain a permanent resident.
    Flag loverly23on April 15, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I agree with some of the comments from people saying the song could be sung from the point of view of a promiscuous girl or prostitute/hooker.

    A little bag of cocaine
    So who's the girl wearing my dress
    I figured out her number
    It's on a paper napkin
    But I don't know her address
    I wait downstairs


    It's like the girl is looking in the mirror and saying, "so who's the girl wearing my dress," as if she doesn't even recognize herself anymore. Figuring out "the girl's"/her own number was easy because every hotel room has a telephone, but she doesn't have an address because it's like she lives in a hotel, not a home. She drifts from place to place...etc.

    The porter smiles to me
    A smile I've bought
    With a couple of gold coins

    That's like her tipping the porter and him smiling at her because of her tip. She realizes she just bought that smile, it's not really heartfelt because she basically paid him for it or he's only smiling because she gave him money.

    Come into my world
    I've got to show, show, show you
    Come into my bed
    I've got to know, know, know you

    I have dreams of orca whales and owls
    But I wake up in fear
    You will never be my, you will never be my dear
    Will never be my dear, dear friend

    This makes me think she's a very lonely person... She 'invites people into her world' because she wants so badly to show them who she is, and into her bed for the same reason... She wants people to get to know her because she is lonely, and she's found that inviting them into her bed is an effective way of getting them to be with her/come into her room... She wakes up from her good dream in fear when she remembers or realizes that those people won't ever really be her friends, they're just using her.
    Flag fern1on January 28, 2010   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I agree with the view that it's about a girl who's sleeping with men in hopes that they'll turn around and love her and want to be with her, but finding that she's just being used.

    'So who's the girl wearing my dress
    I figured out her number
    It's on a paper napkin
    But I don't know her address'

    I think this is about realizing that she's turned into someone who would be unrecognizable to her former self. The line about the number on the paper napkin could be referring to her finding her own phone number left behind by one of the men she's slept with, and realizing that she's nothing but a one night stand, that he never had any intention of calling. And as for the address, I agree with those who said that it's about her not being anchored or having the kind of stability she'd really like to, that she's lost and doesn't really have a home anymore.

    Flag starrystarrystarryon December 07, 2009   Link

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