To me, it sounds like an asylum.
"You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave."

"So I called up the captain, please bring me my wine.
He said, we haven't had that spirit here since 1969".

But it's also about drugs as well. Seems to be both.

But it's just my opinion folks,
Don't go taking it all seriously Deth!

i dont think its so complicated. even says right in the song. the physical manifestation of hell on earth

about drugs right?

hmm, thought eveyone knew. It's about the church of satan. The Eagles were Menbers apparantly. Even Anton laVey is on the cover for the Vinyl.

i completely agree with the mental institution theory
even though a lot of other theorys seem also logical
i work in a mental institution so would like to go on with camarillo graduates explanation, altough i dont know anything about the camarillo hospital itself

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
-for many of our patiënts the hospital is the only stable environment the know and where they always can come back-

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
-the head shrink usually comes like once a week, is a very rich person and is very much feared, he is the one who desides if you are healthy or not, either way it turns out its scary for most patiënts-
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
-because they are scared a lot of patiënts act out when the head shrink visits, the pretty boys are sort of a combination of nurses and guards, they are the ones that bring you to the isolation boot if you misbehave, in the hospital they are referred to as friends-
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
-they are also the ones who watch over the patiënt when they go outside-
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...
-nights are the heaviest in a mental hospital, a lot of fear and anger come up, if you get there at first it seems desperate and i think as a patiënt if you here that you probably think you are never going to heel and you are stuck in that place forever-

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
-with very agressive people we use a very strong downer wich is directly injected, it is kept in the freezer-
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!
-it is used as a treath, i work in a private facility and all our patiënts come volentarely, they can go whenever they want, they can leave the facility but not the insanity-

i hope you find my theory as interesting as i found all of yours, thank you for reading it

I agree with pretty much everyone else on here, i think it is to do with drugs and the hold they have on you...no one can say for sure what this song is about its a weird one and i think hotel california is what they see/saw in there head, i used to smoke abit of pot and you see some weird things sometimes but at the end of the day its all about what your imagination wants you to see or what it tricks you into believing what is real...

The Eagles are now considered "Country". I saw their interview on GAC. They were asked what the meaing of Hotel California was. They said it was the underbelly of the "American Dream". Overindulgence and exess. They said most of the lyrics did not necessarily have a meaning, it just ryhmed.

this song is about being caught between heaven and hell in the after life.....but look the eagles suck always have and always will

Though the song does make drug references, the ultimate meaning is materialism.

"Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air"
Colitas meaning marijuana

"Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz"
Both jewelry and expensive cars are status symbols in our society

'Please bring me my wine'
'We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine'
Spirit meaning a form of alcohol.

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"
Not a drug reference, in fact a materialism reference. Meaning that we only have these status symbols because we created them.

TRUE STORY!
I can’t tell you what the writer intended for this
Song; but I can tell you from my own experience
what I believe the song to be about. When I was
16 years old I was severely depressed and attempted suicide. When the privately owned hospital I was first sent to could not help me they sent me to Camarillo. This was in 1989 and the hospital has since closed down so I can see why kids who go out there for a spooky time would have to walk about a mile to get to the actual hospital grounds. Here is my interpretation of the lyrics based on my experiences from beginning to end…

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

(I was taken to Camarillo via ambulance and to get there you had to drive down a deserted highway with a strong smell from the plant life that surrounded you from all directions. I later learned that this was ideal for the hospital staff because they would warn of all the animals that would likely kill us before we got to the city if we tried to escape the hospital.)

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

(The paramedic gave me an injection of some sort of sedative just prior to arriving at the hospital so that I would be easier to examine and question for the intake process. This of course caused heavy headedness and dimming vision.)

There she stood in the doorway;

(there was a female nurse to do the intake)

I heard the mission bell

(I was told the hospital use to be a mission and there were indeed bells that rang out)

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

(I thought the same thing. I was told that this hospital was going to be able to take the pain of the depression away from me but at the same time it was daunting, scary and overwhelming and I felt trapped)

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 were several different buildings that housed thousands of different patients ranging from the mental depression like mine to the criminally insane that had murdered people and as I was taken to my building I heard people murmuring and chanting all along. When she brought me to the ward I was to
spend the next 8 months at I was again asked lots of questions by the staff and there were certainly voices down the corridor, some welcoming, some shrieking warnings to run while I still could.)

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz

(My mind was certainly twisted and as for the Mercedes-benz, when you are new you are the cream of the crop, everyone wants to know your story and they want to be close to you)

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

(again, all the boys want to know who the new girl is)

How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.

(We had dances in the courtyard at least once a month and it was always warm like summertime)

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

(obviously some wanted to remember how they were before they lost their minds, others wanted to forget what they had done to get them here to this place)

So I called up the Captain,

(The head nurse was usually referred to as shift Captain)

'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here
Since nineteen sixty nine'

(This part I have only heard about, but I was told that the patients would be given wine to help them sleep at night up until 1969)

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

(If it weren’t the voices that some of them heard in their own heads it was the voices from the other units where patients seemed to never stop screaming or chanting)

Mirrors on the ceiling,

(There was a room where we were taken if we
acted out and became an immediate danger to
ourselves or others, it had a mirror that was really
a two way mirror they used to observe us while in the room)

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

(Each patient had their own “device” or disease, diagnosis)

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 reminds me again of the room we were taken to when acting out, we were strapped to a bed and shot up with thorazine to calm us down. They ‘stabbed’ us with the needle (steely knife)
to inject the thorazine, but it was always temporary. For some, no drug or therapy ever ‘killed the beast’ of mental illness.)

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

(It came to a point where I just wanted to be back in the private owned hospital or even back at home with my demons but it wasn’t to be)

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

(I was lucky, but the majority of patients at
Camarillo State Hospital truly could never leave)

(I’d like to add to the above)

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

People having a good time. By the sounds of things, it sounds like most guests require an alibi. Our lead male character has his, he was tired. Nudge nudge, wink wink. If it had been some old over the hill woman standing in the door way, I’m sure he’d have kept on driving to the next hotel, or stayed in his car for the night. But that’s another story.

Taking the lyrics at face value, without going as deep as some of the views here, here’s my interpretation of the song, the picture it paints for me.

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

I lone male driving a vehicle along a deserted road, either the window is wound down, or the vehicle is open top. There’s a smell of plants all around. Its summer time.

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

After all the driving, the driver of the vehicle is obviously tired. The smell of plants could be coming from something the driver is smoking, this could also be making him tired. I say him, as the singer of the song is male.

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’

There’s a female standing in the door way of the Hotel, Hotel California. Some hotels are nice clean pleasant places to stay, others are not. What type of hotels feature women outside. It all points to brothel.

Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Obviously the powers down, they use candles at the Hotel California. It sounds like a dark place. Maybe they haven’t paid the electric bill, maybe they prefer candles.

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

The voices are telling the new guest that the Hotel California is a lovely place, and the woman with the candle has a lovely face, so she’s obviously appealing, possibly sexy. You can find it here, is it sex? Its all pointing that way.

Her mind is tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends

Mercedes don’t come cheap, and this female’s got one. This also answers a previous question. She can pay the electric bill, but chooses to use candles. One female, many men, there’s no mention of females guests. The Hotel California sounds more and more like a brothel.

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

Dancing, remembering, forgetting, thinking, reflecting on life in general. The good times, the bad times.

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’

The lead male character in the story is obviously back in his room and calling for room service. He wants a drink, some old wine the Hotel California hasn’t stocked for a while, since 1969 to be precise. The use of the number 69 rings true with this story, as 69 has sexual connotations.

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

A noisy hotel, and old hotel. Could use some sound insulation.

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

People having a good time. By the sounds of things, it sounds like most guests require an alibi. Our lead male character has his, he was tired.

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

Kinky stuff. Hotel California got to be a brothel.

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

An orgy? Steely knives could be erect penises. The guests stab away. Death by penis isn’t common.

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

The lead male has seen enough. He wants out, panics and heads for the exit.

’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

The night (watch) man plays matters down. He doesn’t the guest to go running to the police. The hotel is there to receive, sure guests can leave (any time they like) but what they witness there will remain in their minds forever.

There you have it. The song is about a hotel called Hotel California (obviously). Its run as a brothel. Candles point to a hint of cult, but not much, with drugs playing little part in the story. Although I am sure some guests that visit the hotel do drugs.

this song was written by don henley after a dream he had about the state of affairs in L.A. around the late 60's. the group was on tour and they had to find one more song to complete their set. they were in the tour bus and they had about an hour until the show and were freaking out because they didnt want to disappoint their fans. henley was like guys last night i had this crazy dream and he told them about it and then in about ten minutes they put the lyrics to some music they had written a while ago an viola they had come up with hotel california

This song is about someone who is forced to go into an alcohol/drug rehab. And while in there they basically lose place of themselves. And the closing lyrics have a strong meaning, "You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!", This means the person can checkout of rehab anytime, but the addicition will never leave them. Classic, great song!

It's about an innocent young boy becomeing a man. His first experence with a woman and life there after. You can never return to your innocence and dont know if you want to or not.

this song and band fucking suck and so do the people who like it

The LA scene meaning seems right and plausible to me, but the addiction metaphor seems all too glaring to be false. A. Up ahead in the distance, saw a shimmering light, ...had to stop for the night. The drugs are enticing at first (shimmering light). they seem like a one or couple night thing (had to stop for the night). B. Thinkin' to myself this could be heaven or this could be hell. Most users of addictive substances don't dive into their DOC fullheartedly with no reservations. With the wide variety of opinions they've heard, they know it could be heaven OR hell. C. her mind is tiffany twisted, shes got the mercedes benz...etc.=drug dealer. Has lots of pretty pretty boys SHE CALLS friends. make sense? D. Some dance to remember, others dance to forget. Seems pretty obvious to me. Some, usually people in early addiction, use for the good times, to remember and have fun. After that period, usually relatively brief, people do it just to not feel, to forget the pain of every day life, to forget the fact that they've abandoned everything outside the "hote california". E. Mirrors on the ceiling...prisoners here of our own device. When an addict finally gets to the end of the line, when he is miserable with or without drugs, all he has to face is himself. The problem is not in anywhere but the mirror. He is a prisoner of his own device. The drug is just the bars and cell, but he has locked himself away. F. Stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast. (also a reference to steely dan.) Try everything to kill the addiction, but no matter what one does, the beast is still there. It never sleeps, just waits. G. Last thing I remember, I was running for the door, trying to find a passage back to the place I was before...you can check out any time you'd like, but you can never leave. Same Idea. Trying desperately to reach the place you were before you stuck yourself or encountered that first line or drink, but it seems nonexistent. You can stop any time you'd like, but the addiction is always there. It will never be like it was in the beginning. Once an addict, always an addict. I'm in heroin and cocaine recovery and almost every lyric in this song rings true in some respect to me.

This song is about a evil hotel.

This song is not about a cult. Don Henley said the song is about excessiveness in America and he is using California as a microcosm in the song. And the "steely" reference is a tip of the hat to Steely Dan who acknowledged the Eagles in their song "Everything You Did."

I think that some of the quotes in this do refer to drugs,

ex1."Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way "

ex2."Some dance to remember, some dance to forget"

ex3.'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"

ex4."You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!"

But there are other metaphores that refer to other subjects like..


ex.3 "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." Is a metaphore refering to the devil using illusions to corrupt minds into a cult of followers. The term tiffany twisted is refering to jewelry, "her mind is tiffany-twister, she got the mercedez benz" is pretty clear their trying to justify that the woman "the devil" is wealthy and has a pack of followers "pretty boys".


ex.2 "We haven't had that spirit here
Since nineteen sixty nine" This is refering to a insane asylum in california which used to serve wine to their patients befoer they slept for the night to calm them down.


ex3. "The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast" The term"Steely Knives" is contributed to Steely Dan who has aswell contributed to the eagles in another song.


so i believe there are many interpritations of the song "Hotel California"

I think that some of the quotes in this do refer to drugs,

ex1."Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way "

ex2."Some dance to remember, some dance to forget"

ex3.'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"

ex4."You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!"

But there are other metaphores that refer to other subjects like..


ex.3 "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." Is a metaphore refering to the devil using illusions to corrupt minds into a cult of followers. The term tiffany twisted is refering to jewelry, "her mind is tiffany-twister, she got the mercedez benz" is pretty clear their trying to justify that the woman "the devil" is wealthy and has a pack of followers "pretty boys".


ex.2 "We haven't had that spirit here
Since nineteen sixty nine" This is refering to a insane asylum in california which used to serve wine to their patients befoer they slept for the night to calm them down.


ex3. "The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast" The term"Steely Knives" is contributed to Steely Dan who has aswell contributed to the eagles in another song.


so i believe there are many interpritations of the song "Hotel California"

I think that some of the quotes in this do refer to drugs,

ex1."Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way "

ex2."Some dance to remember, some dance to forget"

ex3.'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device"

ex4."You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!"

But there are other metaphores that refer to other subjects like..


ex.3 "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." Is a metaphore refering to the devil using illusions to corrupt minds into a cult of followers. The term tiffany twisted is refering to jewelry, "her mind is tiffany-twister, she got the mercedez benz" is pretty clear their trying to justify that the woman "the devil" is wealthy and has a pack of followers "pretty boys".


ex.2 "We haven't had that spirit here
Since nineteen sixty nine" This is refering to a insane asylum in california which used to serve wine to their patients befoer they slept for the night to calm them down.


ex3. "The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast" The term"Steely Knives" is contributed to Steely Dan who has aswell contributed to the eagles in another song.


so i believe there are many interpritations of the song "Hotel California"

This song is not about drug addiction, not about a cult, not even audience members of a concert. The song represents the culture and the material excesses of that time period. The whole song is made to sound like a ghost story of a haunted hotel. The "voices down the corridor" are ghosts. But it is not really a ghost story, it is all metaphorical. The "hotel california" represents the Hollywood scene, and the girl with the candle represents the temptation of Hollywood, how easy it is to get drawn into it. When she says "we are all just prisoners here of our own device," it means that once people are drawn into the Hollywood scene, it's not what they expected it to be and they want out. Don Henley and the rest of the band did not like that whole scene, and they were trying to show that in this song. "Last thing I remember, I was running for the door. I had to find the passage back to the place I was before."

That is the interpretation of the song from Don Henley himself that he has given in interviews, so I would probably think he knows best what it means.

One more thing. The voices that are calling all the time... You know how, in concerts, the audience only sings refrains? The voices here are singing "Wellcome to the Hotel California, Such a lovely place..." - the chorus of the song. So they might be the voices of the show attenders... don't know. might be listening to pink floyd too much. :-p

It is a common thing for every artist to do... to dedicate a verse, a song or even a whole album - as well as any other piece if art, regardless of its volume - to general themes and ideas that she or he (it?) wants to communicate. So, Tagore isn't some creepy foot-fetishist (no offence, anyone. I personaly enjoy every milimeter of a woman's body, and feet are just as erotic as any other woman's "place" *sorry for off-topicing*) - it's his poetic manifesto, his relationship with art as the highest form of expression. For me, this song is a RnR manifesto and it reminds me, in a weird way, of Pink Floyd's Have a Cigar. The "kicks&thrills" of perferming to an audience, delivering your message to a large number of individuals who enjoy your work, soon becomes the lowest priority - not for you as the artist, but for, ironicaly, the very same people that glorified your work in the first place. Nobody actually cares much about how you feel, but how you make them feel. You became a prisoner of your own device, i.e. you're forced to do something like making a hit just to sell the album. And of course, there's always the Beast. It could represent the record company mgmt, which doesn't really care much for metaphores and alusions, they get their satisfaction in the green stuff. ("you gotta get an album out, you owe it to the people, we're so happy we can hardly count")
And for an artist, "in the finished article, the most important thing is whether it moves you or not." (Roger Waters). Not whether the execs think "it's a helluva start" or thether "it could be made into a monster".
I know the two songs I paralleled don't have much in common on behalf of their forms, but they share the common idea.
Also, to think of it, aren't all the myths surrounding the meaning of Hotel California one of the main reasons why it's the most successful single of all time? Eagles' The Best Of went 25x platinum thanks to it. But if that was their main goal, I'm all wrong and please scull-f*** me.