This song is NOT about drugs, it's about the insane asylum known as Hotel California. Geez.

This song is NOT about drugs, it's about the insane asylum known as Hotel California. Geez.

I had always hear this was about the Satanic church in California. I like that meaning and am going to stick with it. The drug argument is good to but the satanic church seems to fit in every single line of the song.

guys, this song is about guy or giys going to a whore house or brothel, whatever you wanna call it, and they just make it poetical w/ one of the best guitar solos of all time. and my source for this was rolloing stone in a tribute they did for the eagles.

the whole hotel california album was meant to be about america. no prizes for guesing what part of the country this songs about. it is infact about the california of the 60s and 70s with all the partying, drugs ect.

this song s bout 1 thing and 1 thing only:
A C O H O L I S M

I'm too lazy to read all the comments to see if this has been posted before, but has anyone noticed that in the chorus after the 1969 verse, after they sing "Hotel California", there's some weird... spitting like noise? Freaks me out.

I believe this song is about his struggle to overcome an addiction to drigs/alcohol.

~"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"~

This part speaks of the struggle that some (most) go through when trying to overcome addiction 'they just can't kill the beast'...the beast represents their addiction

~"'Relax,' said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!"~

This part, about 'checking out but never leaving'...once your an addict, you're ALWAYS an addict. You can 'check out" and be in recovery, but then you are a recovering addict, you can most likely NEVER go back to your substance of addiction because if you do, you'll most likely fall off the wagon again.

This song is NOT about drugs. Try to look at it this way:

The Eagles' Hotel California is about greed and the temptations of humanity. The glory of American marketing inundates us with messages to shop, "He who dies with the most toys, wins." but many feel that this lifestyle is the cause of depression, unhappiness, and the prozac generation.
After all, what joy do toys really provide?

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air

I've heard a number of explanations for colitas with the only suggestion of any merit being marijuana. What better reference for the artist before plunging into that unhappiness? A high feeling, peaceful, free, “cool wind in my hair... “
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
Who doesn't see shimmerling lights when they are on drugs? But, that shimmering light is the materialism which shimmers like the rich, lusterious, draw that it is while the singer clearly becomes intoxicated by it.

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'

"She", the materialism, is standing between his free life and the world of possessions and greed. He "HEARD" a bell in the past tence, that context is important to imply that he was past heaven, past the mission bell, and on his way to the hell on earth.

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

"She" shows him the way through the door, materialism draws him in where the intoxicating high lingers, "Such a lovely place," "Such a lovely face," it’s almost eerie. The great play on words here is that he's told by the voices down the corrider, the people already there, that he is in California; the place of the gold rush, beaches, and movies (lovely place) and movie of Hollywood and plastic surgery (lovely faces on the outside (it looks good but when you get inside...)).

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Bends (not benz)

"Materialism's" mind is twisted by Tiffany's and Mercedes: Tiffany's for expensive jewelry, Mercedes for the expensive cars. People's perspectives get distorted by these things, which explains another fun play on works with "Benz" or bends and twisted.

She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends

Who doesn't believe pretty boys are a status symbol for our female Materialism?

How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
This is where interpretations mingle. Materialism and her boys are dancing to remember and forget. Remember the past, easy-going, happy lifestyle, and (foreshadowing to the end of the song!) to forget because, "you can never leave"(later in song)
Another twist is how people pursue possessions to remember or forget, with that being the dance. Remembering their childhood or earlier in their life when they had more money or more toys OR pursuing possessions to forget about other painful issues in their life.

So I called up the Captain,
'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine'

So, we've learned that the dance is how we remember the previous life or forget the depression. Wine is good way to warm up those dancing shoes. The Captain's response is interesting, they haven't had that wine since 1969, since the summer of love, the summer of freedom from possessions. They haven't had the ability to give you that wine (that freedom)... since:
The Woodstock Festival (The biggest festival ever).

And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

[chorus]

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device'

The voices are always haunting you (see, I said it was eerie), always driving you to accomplish, acheive, and BUY more.
Ceiling Mirrors are a great reference for our adult audience while Pink champagne is certainly another symbol of luxury. The last line gives up hope and hopelessness in that we are trapped of our own will. In pursuit of wealth we created our lifestyle.

And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

In a social setting, what is a frequent topic of conversation? Vacation? How you need a break? How you look forward to the weekend? When we gather for a feast, we stab at this beast, the primal desire within us to go back to freedom, away from these trappings. People want to kill that part of themselves which longs for peaceful, liberated days, because our lives are otherwise stressful, but you can't and won't ever rid yourself of that.

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before

Clearly, the plight to get back to that lifestyle instead of discussing, stabbing away at it. The only way to get back to the place of before is to go back to that simple lifestyle.

'Relax,' said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!

The night man, the guard, (Marketing?) tells us to relax, this is what we're all about, it is normal to desire things. We are brought up and conditioned by society to be receptive to messages about status and wealth.
Of course, we can "check out", go on vacation, head to the mountains and get away for a while but, we will never be able to pull ourselves from greed.

Dude... Any Body Who Has Done Drugs Can Relate To This Song And Can See The Meaning Behind The Lyrics

Here's My Interpretation:

The Way I See It The Hotel Is Either A Tweeker Pad Or A Drug Rehab, I'm More Inclined To Think Tweeker Pad Because, This Guy Is Driving Through The Desert...Alone...In The Middle Of The Night...Probably Looking To Score. He's Obviously On A Come Down, Can't Keep His Eyes Open. And He Notices One Place In The Middle Of Nowhere, In The Middle Of The Night, That Has The Lights On.

Now The Part That Has Me Confused Is That He Gets There And Can't Tell If It's Heaven Or Hell, He Hears A "Mission Bell" (Sounds Kinda Churchy)

Now She Lights Up A Candle And Shows Him The Way...Hmmm

On One Hand She Could Be Cooking Some Up In A Spoon Or A Bottle Cap And Showing Him How To Slam It Or Busting Out Some Foil And Showing Him How To Smoke It
Or She Could Be Lighting A Candle And Showing Him How To Pray, Like Asking Forgiveness And What Not. Show Him The Road To Recovery

Personally I Think She Cooked Up A 1/2 Gram Of That Shit And He Slammed The Fuck Out Of It

Now We Get To The Courtyard, And There's Some Chick That Probably Used To Be Rich And Has Thrown Her Life Away Doing Drugs But Wont Shut Up About It, Hence The Words "Tiffany Twisted"
Now She's Hanging With A Bunch Of Dudes That She Thinks Are Her Friends But Really Just Think She's Rich And Want Her To Buy More Shit, There Sayin "Tell Her To Buy More! Look That Bitch Has A Mercedes" Anywayz, Now Their Dancing...But Are They Really Dancing? Or Are They "DANCING" I Can Think Back To Many Times When I Was Getting High And I Loaded Up My Glass Pipe, Flicked My Lighter And Said "Let's Dance!" Just Before Taking a Blast.

Now He's Probably Thirsty (tweek will do that to you) So He Asks The Dude That Owns The Pad (or captain) If He Can Get Some Wine. And The Captain Is Like, Dude! We Don't Have Fuckin' Wine...but We Do Have Some "PINK CHAMPGNE" or "ICE" HELLO!!!!!!!

Now He's Like "Damn! These Fuckers Party Hard, There's Even Mirrors On The Ceiling!" and the chick tells him that they are all prisoners there of their own device

Now They Go To The Dining Room For A "Feast" and they're all sitting there and the dude that's hosting this party throws like a pound on the table and they all go to town on it with their knives (or Razor Blades) but this is some good shit, they can't fade a whole pound

So Now This Dude's Been Up For Like 6 Days He's All Burned Out And Friggin Paranoid, And Decides That He Needs To Go Home. So He Breaks For The Door But Is Stopped By Some Dude Who Tells Him To Chill, And Tells Him What He Already Knows. "You Can Go But You'll Be Back"

This Song Is Definately About Drugs, It May Be About Other Things Too But First And Foremost It's Drugs

Definately about some crazy people.

And definately, without one doubt, the best song ever.

Bow down to that murdercity!!!

are you kiddin me...all you idiots who think that this song is about some damn satanist church are retarded. if you just listen to the song you will know its about drugs and not freakin anton levy and his damn church. just thought i'd help clear that up.

Geez.... why does this song have to do with satan or devil worshipping?! just cuz its says 'you jsut cant kill the beast' ? its a metaphor..

No really - i read an interview with don henley and glen fry and they actually said at the time they wrote the song there were going through heavy spells of heroin sessions. absolutely nothing to do with devil worship or satan.

And a few other backmasking songs that are fairly audible and clear would be:
Aerosmith - Walk this Way
Queen - Another One Bites the Dust
and Stairway to Heaven has a few parts that are debatable.

I would definitely agree that the ALBUM as a whole is about the Music Industry and the Starry Eyed young bands getting in over their heads, and the emptiness of stardom alone, sure.
But to dismiss ANY reference to Anton Levae would be wrong. As mentioned at least a couple of band members hung out with him for a time. \ As to the backmasking.. I've never heard that before, however the Pink Floyd "Empty Spaces" reference is fairly accurate.

I head all those clips played backwards and at first i thought it was silly but when i saw the lyrics of the backwards song it was kinda creepy, but i think they are all just sounds matched to words that sound like what is said. I could come up with something about cars and find a way to match it with the backward music. The only one i believe is Empty Spaces by pink floyd (BEST band ever!) and i believe that waters (the writer ) had done this on purpose.
I think hotel california is a great song, reaminds me of the summer and the beach, the best things ever, and even though its creepy, i dont think hotel California backwards is or has anything to do with Satanic Messages.

i heard that if you play this song backwords, satanic sayings come out..like those REALLY low voices that say things like about the devil and all..but i have to find that out by myself..

Listen to the line, "Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say" backwards, you can hear, "Satan, he hears this, he had me believe."

http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm

This song can be taken in so many different ways and in all honesty, most songs can. Someone told my mom it was about sex, someone told me it was about drugs in California, and now I'm hearing it's possibly about addictions and even a cult...
I think this is going a bit too far. I'm a songwriter and I pray, that if I ever write a hit people don't do this to my music. It takes out the whole meaning of the art of music. Just listen to the song and stop decyphering it.

I think it's about human beings being slaves to their desires in general not necessarily drugs....
Maybe that's why they put Satan on the cover.
But it's a lovely song, great music.

this song is about heroin specifically. The eagles used to be big into it. On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air refers to smoking dope before going to the hotel california which is the ultimate high. Colitas is spanish for small buds - or marijuana. she lights up the candle is a metaphor for cooking up and the stabbing reference is injecting the drug - the rest has been explained. awesome song!

i dont know which idea i believe about this song, but i love it because it can have so many people guessing at its meaning and theyre still wondering.

anyway, what's the whole thing with the cover of the hotel california cd and "satan" looking out the window of the hotel? i wanted to know about that.

its blatently about a rehab clinic!
"you can check out any time you like but you can never leave"