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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Lyra
09-24-2004

Rated 0 
A.What's the fun in deleting?Bitching is a rare joy these days...
B.Well sure the interview could be a fake...
It seems credible enough though, and it makes sense, the song seems to cover a wide range of stuff.

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sugarmagnolia
09-27-2004

Rated 0 
wow i just spent an upsurd amount of time reading all your crappy explanations----its about a brothel u idiots. it makes more sense than ne thing else---it talks about her tiffany twisted mind etc.---owners of brothels are rich evil women...u can sign out ne time u wnat..but u may never leave--becae the owners are known to blackmail both the women--and the men.

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yellowstar
10-03-2004

Rated 0 
how about... it's about getting sucked into the drug scene of california as aspiring musicians who are being fucked with by labels and going to whorehouses while sometimes stopping at the satanic church? hotel california representing the immorality of the time and place and getting caught up into that lifestyle?
i win.

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Timeaisis
10-06-2004

Rated 0 
I believe TaddyTeddy has the best interpritation so far. In, fact, I was about to post an interpritation of my own along those same lines. I see this song as a description of Hell, and at the beginning of the song the narrator thinks he has died and went to heaven as everything seems like paradise. He soon realizes that this is all fake and when he tries to escape he cannot as is obvious in the last lines. "Prisoner's here of our own device" because of they're sin they have been condemned. As for the line that states "We stab it with our steely knives but we just can't kill the best", I think that the beast represents their "sin" which led them to this place, and they can't get rid of it because it's now too late, and they're all eternally prisoners of this place.

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Z/28
10-16-2004

Rated 0 
Thak you daffy for you explaination. Befor I had always thought that it was about an asylum in southern california that used to do wierd expierements on its pacients back in the 60s (hence mercedes bends). Surfer guy is an asshole who doesnt know what he is talking about. He didnt even say who the lead singer was.

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gimpyx2k
10-16-2004

Rated 0 
Wow, some of you are overanalyzing this song A LOT. I mean, to me this song isn't on the symbolic par as Stairway or Boh Rap (see my reviews of those for true overanalysis.) It's pretty straight forward, just about the Underworld of LA. If you get the 2 disc Eagles: Best of set it actually says exactly how the song came about. I'll paraphrase it: basically it said they got the basic thoughts for the song, a twilight zone-like hotel in LA, watched a lot of Twilight Zone shows to get ideas, did a lot of research on hotels, and then threw in as much weird shit as they could to get a very odd feel to it. It's nothing more than that. So not to say your ideas aren't good, but in my opinion the song is just about some crazy shit going down at a hotel.

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luvlyss23
10-17-2004

Rated 0 
i always thought this song was just a dream this guy had

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willard
10-20-2004

Rated 0 
its about alchoholism

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willard
10-21-2004

Rated 0 
i think your comment was the best luvlyss23!

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lorakir
10-21-2004

Rated 0 
wow!i dont know what the song means always wanted to but anyways it is an awesome song awesome guitar solo and it has been a favorite of mine for about 15 years! lovin them eagles!

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TabuuDi26
10-30-2004

Rated 0 
hmm, to me this song means death....especially the part "you can check out anytime you want,but you can never leave". My uncle who died in 1987 loved this song and it reminded me of him andit reminds me of my fiance's death a few months ago

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TabuuDi26
10-30-2004

Rated 0 
hmm, to me this song means death....especially the part "you can check out anytime you want,but you can never leave". My uncle who died in 1987 loved this song and it reminded me of him andit reminds me of my fiance's death a few months ago

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willard
11-04-2004

Rated 0 
thats quite touching TabuuDi26. definatley the most poigniant comment ive seen on this website...

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st_ern
11-21-2004

Rated 0 
no question about it, its about drugs. "havent had that spirit here since 1969 (Woodstock) she has pretty boys she calls friends (drug dealers) voices calling Welcome to the Hotel California (drug world). All signs point to drugs. Drugs use is inevitable.

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code6productions
11-27-2004

Rated 0 
Why has anyone not noticed that this song is about sex?

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

There is PINK Champagne
and the prisoners are sex addicts.

"They gathered for the feast"

The feast meaning the new meat the has just arrived for them to have sex with.

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bakismaki
11-29-2004

Rated 0 
To me the song is about the excess drug use, and just the excess of everything period that went on during the sixties, whether it be the drugs, the sex and etc. The song to me is about reflecting on that period and how hard it was to move on from that. "You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave"

Great song, one of the best rock songs of all time.

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peace999
12-04-2004

Rated 0 
the songs about drugs

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kategirl345
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
ok... im seein a lot of people say that its all about what the song means to you and thats true... but who cares??? what i want to know is what the writer wrote the song about.... or at least what people think he wrote it about...

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kategirl345
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
THINK PEOPLE!!! everyone keeps saying its about drugs because of the line "you can check out any time you like but you can never leave" well ok i get the "you can never leave" part but..... are you forgetting the first part of the line??? maybe you have something explaining that but ive yet to hear one

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kategirl345
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
ok, taddy teddy, your idea is very good, but there are a few flaws. such as, when you said "and while you can check out any time you like, you can still never leave (a reference to the inscription over the gates of hell in the divine comedy: abandon all hope ye who enter here" the part about you can never leave makes sense but how can you "check out" of hell any time you like???

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kategirl345
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
ok, what i dont get is why people would come on here just to tell us this song is evil and if you play it backwards you hear satan... i mean jese, if you hate the song so much just dont listen to it... but im going to if you want me to or not... so please... just shut up!

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kategirl345
12-28-2004

Rated 0 
wow okay sorry ive written so many comments but thisll be my last... gonna be long though

ok first i wanna say some stuff to some people i think are wrong

first of all i hate it when people say its all about drugs because there are way too many signs pointing against it... as i have said earlier...

also... someone said the "you can check out any time you like but you can never leave" thing was about drugs because you can check out or kill yourself but you can never leave cause youll always have the addiction, but how can you have an addiction once your dead???

and yes it is beverly hills hotel on the front, ive seen countless reviews confirming that....... and i think the shadow is to represent the darker side of la, how it looks all pretty on the outside but is really awful

and really, i just agree with spitbars on what its all about

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xsinisterxbeautyx
12-29-2004

Rated 0 
its a drug addiction, or an evil womanly wrath.. i personally lean more twards the drug addiction... but i think the name Hotel California is a way of symbolism, they are calling the endless addiction, as a hotel. and katie girl, its not only that line there are countles hints throughout the song but some are hard to catch, soetimes i find it easier to analys it like a poem not line by line or verse by verse but word by word....(sometimes 2 wordsnever more.) for exampple...
"Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before "
Last meaning before that could be before anything such af a smoke or... an shot of heroin smack anything, it could be before his last love, then the next couple wors will decifer that
running for the door, well that could be running away frma n abusive lover or a bad tripp on coke or heroin or smack er sumthin... Passage, there is a trick word, a way, a way for what? a way to stop the drug a way to stop the woman from yelling.. who knows? then the word back folows... a way back a way back to the way thing were maybe, before what? drug or woman? the reason every one hangs on lthe line "You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!" is because, it is the defining line and no one said we were taling about suicide in here, nowhere does it say that... all it says in that lineis, "CHeck out" to remove yourself, not to kill but to remove, "never leave" you can remove yourself, buty you cant leave it behind, you will carry it with you forever, to leave means to go with allowance of coming back, and should you come near it that drug agin, you will check back into it without meaning to....

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take it 2 the limit
12-30-2004

Rated 0 
drug addiction?? my god! it's one of the best songs on the whole freaking planet! i mean, i know this is a 70's band but man...talk about a way to destroy a good song! i can see how you see it as a drug addiction but i don't agree but hey, i'm just the minority...

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frozen_in_fire
01-08-2005

Rated 0 
i love this song

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