Lyrics for Hotel California as interpreted by Demau Senae

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 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

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

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...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

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

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!

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devilslittlesister
05-13-2006

Rated 0 
I don't think it's about drugs although that is a very good guess and I can easily see how one might be led to think that. But it is actually about a guy who dies in a car accident on the highway and the Hotel California is a form of heaven. The part where he talks about driving with the wind in his hair and then his head becoming heavy means that he fell asleep while driving with the top down. He wrecked and was killed. The woman at the door with the candle is most likely an angel who greets those entering heaven similar to Saint Peter. It's just about his feelings about the place and how he gets freaked out when he realizes that he's dead. He tries to escape, but he can't because he's dead. "You can check out anytime you like [You can die at any point], but you can never leave [You can't return to earth once you've left it]."

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Panic! DiscoFever
05-08-2006

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This song would take years for me to write out what each line means, line by line, but everyone is right... it is about drugs and addiction. Just think very very "druggie-ish" when you listen to this song and you will understand the entire thing.
Also, www.urbandictionary.com is a very good source for finding out what some nicknames mean.

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DrWorm2002
04-28-2006

Rated 0 
The song is about LA and how everyone out there lives. It's not about drugs. At least not all of it. colitas is a refrence to weed, but that is about it...the Steely knifes mean "Steely Dan" the 70's band. They had the same manager. They liked to poke fun at each other. In a sone before Steely Dan said something like"Turn the Eagles up on the Radio."

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amandamottram
04-24-2006

Rated 0 
I was told that this song is about Synanon. Synanon was the first therapuetic community (lamemans terms... a drug rehab) in California. Once you checked yourself in, you were there for life. (Hence the, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave")

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liveandletdie_16
04-24-2006

Rated 0 
this song is definately about a drug addiction and what it does to people, I think. but they're a rock band, so why would they be singing about drugs being bad? anyway, Great song!

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chaoticone
04-17-2006

Rated 0 
to me this song is about ehart rbeak and the hotel california is a symbol for ehart break in general you can check out anytime you like and mvoe on but you can never elave you will always rememebr look at his talka bout the girl and her pretty pretty friends and before that ehs running from a broken relationship

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BrittanyLace
04-17-2006

Rated 0 
The Hotel California is a mental hospital. The real name of it is Camarillo State Hospital. It is in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara. Camarillo was nicknamed Hotel California. The song was inspired by Camarillo. There are many websites about Camarillo, with information about the song being inspired by this mental hospital.

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punkghurl_317
04-15-2006

Rated 0 
my dad. ..who is the biggest eagles fan i know told me that this song is about a guy not being sure if he's dead or alive or if he's in heaven or hell. but in the end he's hell bound. and obviously dead.

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punkghurl_317
04-15-2006

Rated 0 
my dad. ..who is the biggest eagles fan i know told me that this song is about a guy not being sure if he's dead or alive or if he's in heaven or hell. but in the end he's hell bound. and obviously dead.

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punkghurl_317
04-15-2006

Rated 0 
my dad. ..who is the biggest eagles fan i know told me that this song is about a guy not being sure if he's dead or alive or if he's in heaven or hell. but in the end he's hell bound. and obviously dead.

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FloydFan50
04-10-2006

Rated 0 
This song is about an abandoned church in California, or so I heard. ( I have no clue why it's called "Hotel California".) It is said to be haunted, where is where the mysterious voices come from.

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Michellelnne1985
04-03-2006

Rated 0 
the song is about a coke binge...the hotel california isnt a specific place..its a lot of different metaphors...the state of mind when you are on drugs..i think specifaclly cocaine..and the reason i think its about cocaine is because eric clapton plays the guitar in it..and he was a known coke head...
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast
the feast of coke..
the girl in the song...is the drug..
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends

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JeffR12345
03-26-2006

Rated 0 
Daffy... funny thing. I was sitting in my car listening to this song last night, and it hit me... it doesn't have a very obscure meaning... its about LA, Hollywood, the business, life in the business. Nothing less, nothing more. Of course you got your hardheaded dumbfucks that point everything out as "OH GOD ITS ABOUT DRUGS", I mean I'm sure drugs have a part in this song, but the song isnt about drugs period.

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Metal4you
03-25-2006

Rated 0 
Pardon my spelling :].

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Metal4you
03-25-2006

Rated 0 
I'm not going to analyze this song because it has already been done several times on this site. However I just want to clear one thing up. The Hotel California is an actual hotel in Laguna Beach, and the Eagles had previously stayed their. They simply used the hotel as a metaphor for their song.

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Morpheus_7
03-22-2006

Rated 0 
I wonder if somebody got the idea of collecting contrasting interpretations of this song and getting a "paper-back" edition published out of that :D >:)

This song is one of my most favorite ones, both because it sounds good (vocals and instruments) and because the lyrics are intriguing. They
not only mean different things to different people, but also different things to the same person at different times ;) I am amazed to read so
many contrasting interpretations.

Well folks, I reckon that like Hermann Rorschach's Inkblot Test and Morgan and Murray's Thematic Apperception Test this song means different
things to different people, and by interpreting this song people unconsciously project their own needs, motivations, and personality aspects into
their interpretations (though in some cases this may not be so if it is mere “group-think” of some sort).

The different interpretations are interesting per se. Some people may attempt to pull out more deeper meanings than what is warranted, but that makes the interpretation even more interesting :)

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leaving_song
03-21-2006

Rated 0 
this song is nothing but a stoner who passes out in a whore house....has a crush on the "main whore".....and tries to figure out how to get away from his new obsession with sex and drugs and this woman...that he knows he cant have

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Occult
03-18-2006

Rated 0 
It's just about a hotel in california. He's schizophrenic so he's seeing and hearing things.

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flyingw
03-14-2006

Rated 0 
i think its just like he fell in love with a girl and she is a player and its saying that you can't stop loving her ever

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brenster
03-08-2006

Rated 0 
Hmmm......i love this song to death and i don't care what people have to say unless it's good. Though i thought the song was based on for it's title but since i read the lyrics on top i'm starting to think it may be about drugs like the feeling of having it even though i wouldn't know because i've never expierenced it. But apart from that i saw them on my old DVD again and they sound just as good as far as ten years ago.

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billybob1989
02-22-2006

Rated 0 
the hotel california-THC

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beard08
02-15-2006

Rated 0 
This song could have many mny different meanings...im just tired of everyone saying every rock song is about drugs..no matter what the song is...yes some may be...but songs do have much more deeper meanings than drugs

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avengedsurvive
02-07-2006

Rated 0 
actually guys, you're all wrong. it's about the book "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding.

here's some examples:

"Some dance to remember, some dance to forget"
The boys dance to "forget" the beast and the oncoming storm.

" 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device' "
Prisoners of the restrictions of human nature.

"The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast"
The boys think they can kill the beast, but they can't because they are, in fact, the beast.

There's some food for thought.

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Domino Hurley
02-03-2006

Rated 0 
Its widely believed in my home town of Camarillo that Hotel California is based on the former mental hospital on the edge of town. In context, most of the lyrics make sense. The place on the edge of town on a bare road, lit up at night with a churchtower...

"Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here "
Camarillo is well known for having some of the best weather in the world, with no real winter to speak of. Archetypal soCal weather.

"How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget"
mental institution

"What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
Camarillo itself was once used as a retreat for recovering artists before Ventura County's population went up. Famous Jazz musicians were known to visit to get clean, and rumor has it that many of them did this at the mental institution.

The mental hospital shut down in the late 90's and in 2002 it became California State University Channel Islands. Wandering around was creepy during restoration; the first classes were sometimes taught in rooms with the bars still on the windows (hence "can never leave")

but hell, it's probably about drug addiction.

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BlueRaven
01-30-2006

Rated 0 
I believe this is a song about sex addiction.

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