The real Hotel California is not a place; it is a metaphor for the west coast music industry and it's effect on the talented but unworldly musicians who find themselves ensnarled in it's glittering web. Check out snopes.

Whoever wrote this song obviously wrote it with some meaning behind it. Its full of metaphorical statements. But I believe that anyone can listen to this song and interpret its meaning in their own way(i.e. drug addiction, a cult, the 60's/70's music scene)

im not sure really but my mom and i talked it over and we agreed that the last line

"relaxe said the night man we are PROGRAMMED TO RECIEVE you can check out any time you like but you can never leave"


basicly since at the time science fiction was all the rage all the people are robots and they are completly automated to make money as a hotel and the person you made them only able to recieve people and serve but forgot to teach them to let people out so you can check out any time you like but we dont know how to check you out

i saw an interview with the band. they said this song was actualy writen about a time when their tour bus broke down in california. it was in the evening and they walked to the nearest building out in the middle of no where, which happened to be an insain aslyum. they called a tow truck which agreed to get the bus and have it serviced in the morning, so the staff offered them rooms for the night and as a joke refered to the place as hotel california. they stayed for dinner, and even socialized with the pateints. when the evening shift was relieved by the night shift the staff failed to mention to the oncoming shift that they were visitors and not pateints. thus they were told that they cant leave by the night shift and held overnight. i actaualy worked in a behavioral health facility for a year and a half and i can tell you that quite a bit of the lyrics relate to what you experiance in them. for instance to help with pateint saftey we do checks down the halls peakin into the rooms every 15 minutes to make sure that the pateints havent harmed themselves. to a light sleeper this is tough to get used to and relates well to the lyric 'wake you up in the middle of the night just to hear them say' the part where they 'stab it with their stealy knifes but cant kill the beast' relates to code grays where a pateint looses control and needs to be sedated by injection the needle being the 'stealy knife' even the part about mirrors on the cealing relate to security mirrors. the pink champagine even relates to pink lemonaide which is served in many cafiterias. so as you can see it explains all the lyrics and it was truely from the horses mouth.

In my huble opinion, the wine refers to the wine of the Eucharist, i.e. Jesus's blood. Hence the use of the word "spirit" when the captain says "sorry dude, we're all out," or words to that effect.

From Wikipedia:

In a 2009 interview, Plain Dealer music critic John Soeder asked Don Henley this about the lyrics:

On "Hotel California," you sing: "So I called up the captain / 'Please bring me my wine' / He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.'" I realize I'm probably not the first to bring this to your attention, but wine isn't a spirit. Wine is fermented; spirits are distilled. Do you regret that lyric?

Henley responded,

"Thanks for the tutorial and, no, you're not the first to bring this to my attention—and you're not the first to completely misinterpret the lyric and miss the metaphor. Believe me, I've consumed enough alcoholic beverages in my time to know how they are made and what the proper nomenclature is. But that line in the song has little or nothing to do with alcoholic beverages. It's a sociopolitical statement. My only regret would be having to explain it in detail to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary devices in songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly and irrelevant argument about chemical processes."

I guess i could bring most of your theories together. The song is not about just one thing, but a combination of the drugs, music business success in California, and its subsequent perks like girls. Then it follows with act of conniving agents who try to kill one band over another, but in the end music still remains priority, hence the long riff at the end.

IMHO

i said this way before lol the song is too abstract for everyone to agree on an interpretation. inevitably it will mean diffent things to differnt ppl. it is obviously about an intriguing tempting paradise but like *"a cynical view of paradise." When you think about it that way it could mean drugs, the entertainment business,* or L.A life. its inviting then seems to turn on you.

* stolen bit from chorts29 comment

Deth got it right on post 2. Glad it was early to put all these ridiculous satan ideas to rest.

Hotel California is about life in L.A. yes i have my facts and they come straight from the Eagles themselves. Next time you hear this song compare Hotel California to L.A. life and you will understand.

this song scares the shit out of me

Others have probably already saids this so just take this as an agreement. i think its about a combination of drug addiction and Prostitution. The pimp uses these women to get man addicted to the drugs so they can get more money. It is posible that the dealer is a women to - "Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends"

"Tiffany-twisted" could mean that she loves her expessive jewellery.
Mercedes-benz are not cheap cars either.

It is not just limited to female prostitution either- "She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends"
obvouisly these boys are more then friends, but there are no commitments involved just sex.

My first impression after finally paying this old song's due attention was that the song flows in many ways like a ghost story. For those of you into paranormal and paranormal fiction you will be familiar with a few staples of the ghost story. Driving alone (theres the story of the hitch-hiker who disapears after being picked up). Many hotels and inns are often haunted or are claimed to be for tourism purposes (CA being of course a big tourist spot). Another classic ghost story twist is the main charactor finding out that the person they have been talking to actually had died years ago "He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here Since nineteen sixty nine'. Spirit being both a reference to wine and the soul. There are also many references to Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, the beast (Satan), distant voices that sing the chorus. The references others have made to LA and drugs are also spun into the song. References to hedonism, CA excess, are definitely apparent. Finally there are many references to the Satanic Cult which I think ties into the Paranormal. I believe the Irish use the term "haunted" to refer to alcoholism. So again addiction meets ghostly stuff. Also, You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!" seems to refer to dieing but your spirit is still locked up. The meanings of this song are layered and as phishman says that is the great thing about art. The song is about LA lifstyle, the paranormal, cults, and the blurry line between all of these.

like many have said, the song is obviously about drugs. heroine, i'm guessing.
the "she" that he is referring to, is the actual drug rather than a real girl. "she had a lot of pretty pretty boys that she calls friends" meaning that everyone went to "her."

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 doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
'This could be Heaven or this could be Hell'
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

he is going on with his life, but he sees the drug calling at him. his head grows heavy, because he is tempted to go to it, so he HAS to stop because obviously he is addicted. the drug was right there in the doorway just waiting for him, and he knew that his high would either be amazing or absolutely horrible. he could hear voices saying "welcome to the hotel california." i think hotel california is the temporary high. meaning he goes there whenever he uses. "such a lovely face" it looks awesome by it's outter appearance. you can go there whenever you want, because you can find the drug anywhere, any season.

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

everyone at the time messed with that drug. some did it to have fun with it, and remember it. and some did it to forget their bad lives.

So I called up the Captain,
'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here
Since nineteen sixty nine'
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

now i'm not sure about this part. "please bring me my wine" and the spirit reference i think goes to the social ways of people. for example, someone has a nice day so they celebrate it with a drink. i also think that maybe everyone was using the drug as a way of celebration, but the guy decided to go to the traditional way of celebrating, and the "captain" was surprised because he was looking at another source. so i'm guessing he is trying to quit. but he wakes up in the middle of the night still needing the drug, so he goes to get high again.

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast

man-kind has made this drug, and caused people to become addicted, and "prisoners."
so as the realize it, they all gather to try and defeat it, but they just can't kill it.

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
'Relax,' said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!

so the speaker is trying to run out. trying to go back to where he was before. and one of the people that got him into it, says "relax, we are programmed to receive." so they are addicted and their minds have been programmed to the drug. "you can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!" he can stop the drug temporarily, but it'll always be haunting him.

hmph, just intrepretation? not sure.

Just played this song on Guitar Hero: World Tour for 360 so I had to come comment on the lyrics. Agreed with Deth that there are numerous drug/addiction references peppered in the song:

"And still those voices are comin from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night just to hear them say"
- The call of addiction. If you are hooked, you can't control when the urge to light up, etc. will hit. It can wake you up in the middle of the night and you need a fix.

"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"
- When you're high, you feel fantastic at the time but often crash later and end up needing more of the drug you take to feel that same way. Withdrawal or coming down could be the Hell part.

There are several others but to avoid making a mega-post, I will close with my personal fave:

"You can check out any time you like
But you can never leave"
- Many drug addictions are incredibly difficult to kick. So you can 'check out' (go to rehab, try to quit, etc) whenever you want, but you can't ever 'leave' (fully kick the addiction to where you no longer want the drug). I have friends who have quit smoking and want a cigarette all the time. Some will even have one in social settings, when drinking, etc. Thus, they haven't really kicked smoking entirely, they may have 'checked out' but of course have not 'left'.

I've never thought of "Hotel California" as a concept album. Very interesting idea. Now that I think about it, though, "Life In The Fast Lane", "Wasted Time" and "Victim Of Love" do sort of fit this interpretation. I always knew that part of the title track was about drug use, but knew nothing of the church mentioned. My overactive imagination thought the storyteller had somehow unwittingly sold his soul and was trapped in a sort of purgatory. As for the true meaning, daffyb's story is believable in my opinion. I think Mr. Henley is like most song writers in that he had a specific idea in mind when it was recorded but he also encourages the listener to interpret it for themselves.

this song sounds amazing live!!

Can anybody help me, by telling me what he means by 'so i called the captain-please bring me my wine- he said we havnt had that spirit here, since 1969'?
i know hes not literally talking about wine and wine isnt a spirit but what exactly is he talking about? lol thanks x

I don't really see the need for argument or confusion here, it seems pretty transparent to me. It's about living in California at the time, specifically in the music business. The title is pretty self explanatory, really, California is like a nice hotel that takes people in and offers a hedonistic lifestyle, but with catches, 'they stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast' and 'you can never leave'. Any allusions to drugs or satanism are there as a part of the fabric of the Californian dream, the addictions and violent deaths are part of the catch. I'll admit that the satanist cult theory might be a second meaning of the title, but I'll bet that it's not the first. BTW, phishman, what the hell are you doing on this site if you don't have an opinion! I agree that a good song should be open to interpretation, but here the point is to try and come to some kind of conclusion so that neurotic internet geeks can finally get some sleep at night and stop worrying about whether Phil Collins witnessed a drowning (example). Although we all started with the same stimulus, we like to interpret it differently, find new meanings and then try and press them on those around us. Get used to it, it's how religion works.

This song is awesome and i think the meaning is that tempting things end up trapping you

So here's my very own theory:

"On a dark desert highway"
"Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light"
"My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim"

"And I was thinking to myself"
"This could be Heaven or this could be Hell"


I think that the "shimmering light" were the headlights of an approaching car or maybe even a truck. So the song could be about a guy who dozed off behind the wheel, then his car collided with the other vehicle and he died!

The Hotel he "can never leave" is the Afterlife.

THE LINE BELOW IS QUOTED FROM WIKIPEDIA
On "Hotel Cal Do you regret that lyric?ifornia," you sing: "So I called up the captain / 'Please bring me my wine' / He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.'" I realize I'm probably not the first to bring this to your attention, but wine isn't a spirit. Wine is fermented; spirits are distilled.

Henley responded,

"Thanks for the tutorial and, no, you're not the first to bring this to my attention—and you're not the first to completely misinterpret the lyric and miss the metaphor. Believe me, I've consumed enough alcoholic beverages in my time to know how they are made and what the proper nomenclature is. But that line in the song has little or nothing to do with alcoholic beverages. It's a sociopolitical statement. My only regret would be having to explain it in detail to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary devices in songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly and irrelevant argument about chemical processes."[11]
THE LINE ABOVE IS QUOTED FROM WIKIPEDIA
that was a great metaphor over there,he probably aimed to mean that romance is gone,cuz wine is generally associated with romance,but the asker of the question as Henley has also stated clearly missed the meaning

this song is - look up in the book 'Weird California" - about this hotel which was taken over by a cult of Satan worshipers. something like that. i remember reading the book and saw that part and was like, "hey! it all makes sense now."

I think this song is probably either about drugs, or a cult. Either way-good, classic song

this song can also mean that you have died and you not to sure where you are going. the song is being shown of heaven or hell. you can't get out til judgement is given... deep i know....