hey can ne 1 temme whether this song is anitchrist or no??.....

This isnt about the acutal song...but I heard somewhere that on the cover on this album (or possibly on the inside) some ghosly aparition (sp?) showed up in the picture. Has anyone else heard this?

i heard this song was about a mental hospital. my mom is a little looney and she says that whenever she hears this song, thats what she thinks of. that the lyrics are what shes thinking all the time.
drugs sounds about right too though.
i dont know about a cult
and whats up with antichrist and ghost stuff? Its jsut a SONG ... a very good one at that

Just a song? Of course, I agree that a song is a song, but nothing is ever a song if you know who wrote it, why they wrote it, or the influences on their writing styles. It IS about a cult, however.

I read through about half to the existing reviews before I signed up just to write my own. Although I would never maliciously critisize anyone elses personal opinions on the matter, I would like to point out that this song is not about a cult, drugs, a sadist church, or a mental hospital. Hotel California is a metaphorical representation for a Rock 'n' Roll Lifestyle.
The drug explaination makes only a little bit of sense. This is a common misconception because there is a sort of addiction in the song, yet it is not a chemical addiction. In a way it is an addiction to fame, but in another way it is not the rock stars mind holding him in, but other forces like the media and fans ensure the rock stars immortality.
Basically it is saying that being a rock star is a glorious life, filled with riches, fame and love. Yet the drawback is that one cannot escape from this lifestyle. Up and coming artists hold a one way ticket to stardom, yet once they reach thier destination, they are trapped. I will explain further.
The song opens to "A dark desert highway" This represents the road to fame which all artists hoping to make it big walk. Some, including the Eagles, make it to Hotel California, which is the eutopia this song explains.
Later in that verse the song reads "this could be heaven or this could be hell". This indicates very early that there are going to be drawbacks to indulging in this lifestyle.
The chorus further describes how wonderful and glorious the life is, making it seem evident that one would never want to leave.
The next verse speaks "Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz, she got a lot of pretty pretty boys, she calls friends" The Mercedes Benz represents the money involved with being a rock star, and the pretty pretty boys are a clear representation of fans and fame. Yet by referring to the pretty pretty boys as friends, she is denying the fact that their love for her is only because of her fame, she wants to think that they love ther person inside her.
The beginning of the next line reads "So I called up the captain, please bring me my wine, He said we haven't had that spirit here since ninteen sixty nine". This line is referrring to the progression of Rock 'n' Roll through the past four decades. By saying "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969" he is referring to Woodstock '69, which is often considered the historical pinnacle of Rock 'n' Rolls popularity.
The Second Chorus again displays what happy, glorious lifestyle rock stars live.
The next verse is very important, mainly because of the famous line "We are all just prisoners here, of our own device." I agree this does indicate that there is a drug addiction involved, but that is not what it is meant to say. They are prisoners of Rock 'n' Roll, otherwise known as "Hotel California". This means that a famous rock star can't just disappear, his legacy is eternal.
The ending of this verse, along with the beginning of the last, represent a struggle to escape. First he tries to "Kill the Beast", the he attempts escape. This is shown in the first four lines of the last verse ( Last thing I remember, I was running for the door, I had to find the passage back, to the place I was before.). His escape is intercepted though by the nightman. The Nightmans line, "We are programmed to recieve, You can check out any time you like, But you can never leave" is very important. It is more or less saying that once a rock star, always a rock star. A popular artist can sheck out any time he likes by simply resigning from the band, quit making music, or even dying. However he is not gone, his entire existence does not disapparate into oblivion. His fans keep talking about it, the media still reports about it, and the albums still sell. I have walked into the music shop and bought albums by The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and many other dead Rock 'n' Roll stars, this proves that their legacy lives on, their existence is remembered, their influential words still exist.
I hope this has cleared up some misconceptions, and hope you all continue to support the nearly dead genre or Rock 'n' Roll.

Wonderfull song, it reminds me so many things that I really like to display on my eyes... Its my memory but who don't have one?

I can see where the drugs, the cult, the showbiz, and even the mental hospital metaphors come from, and they're prolly more right than my interpretation, but I feel that this song is about love. This about it. He's talking about a woman. That he met after stopping for the night. Maybe she drugged him, maybe she slept with him, and is charming his, but he hears the voices of her past lovers in the back of his mind to tell him to beware, like a sixth sense. With some girls, you can just tell, and I think that this woman he meets has fooled him, and something about her is making him uneasy, like being in a haunted house, or in a metal hospital with the people reaching out to warn you to turn back. I love the one line, " 'Relax,' said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!" Sounds to me like the night man is talking about men when they fall in love with a deceptive woman. When you fall in love, you just can't fall back out. She haunts you.
"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"
A cheating, maneating woman, and the men she's hurt. They can't live with or without her.
"They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast" Like a group of hunters trying to stab at a beast, the past lovers couldn't stop her wild way of life, and this new lover can't either.

Okay, i'm done here, just my views. But really, none of us, except the lyricist himself, could ever tell us what this song means, because I doubt many of us when through what he did or know what he was thinking. Even the lyricist could listen to this song now and get a different meaning out of it. None of us are wrong, none of us is right.

this is about the first satan cult ever.

After reading the lyrics........I think it's about drugs FO SHO!! "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!"
The last line says it all.......you can "checkout" but you can never leave!!! You can never get rid of your addiction...it always lingers....and all it takes is something to set it off....that is why the nightman is always there! He's trying to get away from his drug addiction

or it could be about fame......that makes sence also

hmmm interesting.i heard it was about prostitution.that satanic cult is an intersting one. please bring me my wine,the blood of christ.since 1969,fiddle with the digits and u get 666.

The song is actually about Hell. As noted in the "Encyclopedia of Hell" by Miriam Van Scott under the entry for "Album Cover Art", this album was the most successful album to use Hell as a selling point. The idea of the song is that the so-called Hotel California is Hell. The narrator is driving on a highway at the beginning of the song, and is killed by another vehicle traveling in the opposite direction ("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").
He is greeted by a figure that resembles the guide that often accompanies travelers to Hell in many tales (such as the poet Virgil, who accompanied Dante through Hell in "The Divine Comedy"). Eerie voices explain to him that there is "plenty or room at the Hotel California" (a reference to the idea that Hell has no limits to the number of souls it can hold). His guide shows him the grim, morose hotel and it's features (Dancing people that resemble the shades of legend, the eternal wails of people, darkly twisted visions of the rooms at the Hotel, etc.). His guide tells him that everybody in the Hotel is a prisoner of their own device (i.e. they commited some form of sin, and weren't able to gain redemption for it, and, therefore, will forever be a prisoner of Hell).
When he gets to the master chamber, there is a feast but there is no food. All the guests have knives to try and kill the Beast that will not die (either a depiction of Satan, or Cerubus).
In the end, the narrator tries to leave, to "find the passage back to the place I was before." Many depictions of Hell describe such an exit, from which, if you are lucky enough to find and prove to be even luckier in making it through, you will be able to leave Hell, and return to whichever plane you wish to return to. However, our narrator is stopped by the doorman (an allusion to the gatekeeper of Hell that appears in many of the stories, such as the Divine Comedy, and the Aeneid). This doorman, told him to relax (in other words, don't bother trying), because they are only "programmed to receive", and while you can checkout anytime you like, you can still never leave (a reference to the inscription over the Gates of Hell in the Divine Comedy: "Abandon Hope, all ye who enter here"

I think TaddyTeddy is right on the mark.
At the begging of the song, the narrator dies. It was common in the days of the California missions for them to ring the bell when someone died. Then he tries to figure out if he's in heaven or hell. Also, many people report heading towards a bright light during their near death experiences. Ok, so the guy's dead. So, just like Teddy says, he encounters a guide.
The only thing else I can add that Teddy didn't mention is, at the end of the song, the people gather for the feast in the master's chambers. Well, I think the people themselves are the feast.

It sounds to me like a bad dream. There are all kinds of images and voices. Almost like the state of schizophrenia.

This song has to be about a cult. Even though the previous posts stated nothing about this, if you backmask the song (play it backwards) at the part that says "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...", there is a message that says, "'Yes, Satan had help. Yeah Satan, he organized, oh, he organized his own religion. Yeah, when he knows he should, how nice it was delicious, he puts it in a vat he fixes it for his sons and gives it away." The first time I read about that, I thought that it was bogus. Then I actually listened to it backwards and it really freaked me out. I don't know whether it was intentional, accidental, or a message from Satan himself to the listener.

This song has to be about a cult. Even though the previous posts stated nothing about this, if you backmask the song (play it backwards) at the part that says "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...", there is a message that says, "'Yes, Satan had help. Yeah Satan, he organized, oh, he organized his own religion. Yeah, when he knows he should, how nice it was delicious, he puts it in a vat he fixes it for his sons and gives it away." The first time I read about that, I thought that it was bogus. Then I actually listened to it backwards and it really freaked me out. I don't know whether it was intentional, accidental, or a message from Satan himself to the listener.

I'm gonna suggest something that no one has thrown out for a while - what if the song is just one bad trip (i'm talking about acid here)?

'Colitas' is marijuana, so maybe the driver was high, which caused him to wreck..

Really interesting on the whole hell idea though, I never heard or thought of it like that. Really makes alot of sense though. But I never thought of Don Henley as a devil worshiper lol. And the 2nd verse I don't get too well, could someone explain how there is any reference to hell in the 2nd verse?

Steely knives is a play on words, same as mercedes bends. Steely Dan was a members of the Eagles.

Btw Joe Walsh is one of the greatest guitar players ever, displayed very well in this song, which has one of the best solos ever.

Dude, there was never a member of the Eagles nor Steely Dan named Steely Dan.

From all of the interpretations that I have heard the one that I have heard is what DRDERAIL said. What I have been told is that the picture on the inside cover of the album is Anton Levy who is the leader of the satanist church (cult) in Cali. Any of the interpretations are possible but that is the one that I have heard. Just rock on to the song... it has pretty good riffs and beats.

You're right Joefainrock, my bad :(

Not a fan of that kind of music. But none the less it is still a reference to Steely Dan when he says Steely Knives. Maybe they toured together.

I would like to know from someone who knows for sure what this song is about. It's really intriguing.

Some of the interpretations on this page have been on the theme of drug addiction. A few years ago I wrote the following lyrics for "Hotel California", but they're about a different kind of addiction. Enjoy. :)

The Taco Bell Burrito
(Written in 1995 to the tune of "Hotel California" by the Eagles, and presented to the rather unusual Usenet newsgroup news:alt.fan.taco-bell.)

On a dark desert highway
Cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of burritos
Rising up through the air

Up ahead in the distance
I saw a bright yellow light
My head grew heavy and my mind grew dim
I had to stop for a bite

There I stood at the menu
Reading "Taco Bell"
I was trying to decide
Did I want bean dip wrapped in a shell?

Then they took down my order
And they asked me to pay
There were voices in the kitchenette
As I walked away

Welcome to the Taco Bell Burrito!
Such a lovely place! Stuff to feed your face!
Plenty of food in the Taco Bell Burrito!
Mild or hot with spice - tacos, beans and rice!

Cameras on the ceiling
You fill your cup with ice
Some would call it hell on earth
But for me it's paradise

In their massive freezers
There are tons of seasoned meat
They slather it with sauce and cheese
And they serve it up to eat!

Last thing I remember
I was ordering some more
They had to bring in forty men
To pick me up from the floor

I've tried to avoid it
But I can't stay away
If I didn't have to sleep or work
That is where I'd stay

Welcome to the Taco Bell Burrito!
Such a lovely place! Stuff to feed your face!
Plenty of food in the Taco Bell Burrito!
Mild or hot with spice - tacos, beans and rice!!

(c) 1995 by Wayne Farmer

Lmfao!

Teddy is right, it makes more sense than any of the other analogies that ppl have been giving. I can see how Drugs, the LA rockscene and Hell are all related though. There doesn't have to be one right answer, it could be symbolic of many things.

I dont think this song is about drugs.. it's a metaphor of something on a bigger scale like life itself.. drugs limit it a lot. well it could be about drugs.. part of it.
But its about getting through life in general.. as for the people that said its about the pressures of the music industry and the whole california culture are on the right track.. their explanations even support my little theory.

oh and please.. i dont have to be reminded every time by some wise ass that songs are like art and can be interpreted however we want. thank you.. i dont really need your permission to interpret a song.. we were just a little curious on knowing what the songwriter wrote it about.. do we have to say this everytime? and the reason why they use metaphors is to describe things better and give you a lively, vivid picture.

anyway.. the lyrics are very well written. They are very haunting.. they sound like a horror movie. And specially with the song's ending. It ends on the guy being stuck in that place for good.. it's really left unclear.. Makes me think of "in the mouth of madness" everytime.. it's a horror movie with a similar idea.
Also reminds me of "the shining" someone already said that i think.