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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avengedsurvive
01-18-2008

Rated 0 
everyone thinks this song is about drugs, or an institution of sorts, or, dare i say, the devil.

allllllllll wrong.

it's about when jesus went to california and started an underground fight club, you know, like the hit movie that was based on a book. anyways, when jesus started this fight club, he used a basement of a hotel, and he only fought girls who drove mercedes-benzs. he became a huge wino and smashed ladies faces in and told them they looked lovely afterwards. all these bitches finally got sick of it, and tried to destroy jesus with steely knives, but failed miserably. he would never let them leave, and continued bashing faces until the romans found out about this.... and the rest... as they say... is history.

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koolaidqueen
01-11-2008

Rated 0 
I agree that some of this is about the 70's drug era...but I feel that this song is about a drunk driving accident and how he is finding out he is dead. When it refrinces Mirrors on the Ceiling and Pink champagne on ice...Fermaldihide is pink and needs to be chilled before being placed into the body and mirrors on the ceiling are from a morges office. Also when he says you May Check Out but you may never leave...and then we are programmed to recieve..morges take in bodies. I really feel like this song is about a man who was involved in a car accident and is realizing he is dead. And the women he refrences is the doctor. And when they gather for the feast he is actually being shown his dead body. As they stab it with their stealy knives it is actually the docters performing the autopsy...I might be wrong but I am pretty sure this is about Death.

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suthernlass
12-09-2007

Rated 0 
This song is most definitely about the California Music Industry. Why? Because the Eagles have said so. California and the Music Industry has always been steeped in the drug cult so therefore the many comparisons. It's talking about how they bring you in and use you up and make money off of you. You become dependent on that life style because music is all you know how to do... you can check out any time you want but you can never leave.... where would you go? At the time this song was written... you had to go to California for rock producers. Now it's a bit better... there are choices. It's a great song and one could pretty much compare it to any addiction in life... What ever works for you and how ever you want to apply this song to your life is cool. That's why they do it... for the fans.

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EvangelisticRYan
12-09-2007

Rated 0 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktQ6KWI0a3s
To all my brothers and sisters in Christ... I personally believe that this song, if played backwards, is some kind of satanic chant...
Warning!! Don't visit the link if you're not strong in the faith...

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dl0vesme03
11-29-2007

Rated 0 
in camarillo california there are alot of back roads wit no lights.. no nothing! its trully a dark desert highway.even till this day there are nothing but feilds back there and at night its comepletly dark. on one of the backroads there was a mental institution back in the day.now they built a university and a bunch of apartments right next to it and people say its haunted. i trully think that this song was written about a trip down that back road.everything in this song makes sense when u think about it that way.

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jacqueceltic
11-28-2007

Rated 0 
Here is an interesting article to "California" being related to as a "Hotel". For those of you who have the time and energy to look into this, check this out ! Remember the Eagles came out with "A New York Minute" many years before 9/11 2001 took its place in our history.
For a possible quantum-leap meaning of this song called "Hotel California" link to this website --> http://illuminatimatrix.wordpress.com/.
This website consists of 21each long articles, but to quickly get to the section of "California" related to as a "Hotel" please click on article (Pages)#17 and soon after the Aleister Crowley section you will find the diagram for "THE MARRIAGE SUPPER OF THE LAMB at the MARRIOTT HOTEL" which is reflected as being "California". MARRIOTT INT'L also owns the brand of hotels known as the "COURTYARD by MARRIOTT" designed for business travelers.
Please post your thoughts if you have the desire, patience and perserverence to read the entire 21articles of this website so that you can make some sort of sense of this. I will be checking back at this site periodically to view your thoughts about this.
Take care,
JC

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lindseynicole
11-25-2007

Rated 0 
idk if anyone has said this yet, but i was just watching an interview and glenn fry just said this song is about the underbelly of the american dream and just the dark side of things and the materialism in america.

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lindseynicole
11-25-2007

Rated 0 
idk if anyone has said this yet, but i was just watching an interview and glenn fry just said this song is about the underbelly of the american dream and just the dark side of things and the materialism in america.

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antiyou
11-25-2007

Rated 0 
It's about being in an insane asylum.
The words .. you can check out anytime you like but you can never leave, refer to a person being admitted into the asylum and dying there.
All the other luxuries are being created by the mind of the storyteller.

When the Eagles did their unplugged session, they elaborated more about this song in the interview.
They cleared up all the myths revolving around it.
Don Henley confirmed that this was the story behind the song. But he loved all the other versions that people had told him throughout the years.

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limo
11-17-2007

Rated 0 
Chip10atl, you couldn't be more right! Just reading the lyrics thinking of that you seem to wonder how you didn't spot it straight away!

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chip10atl
11-15-2007

Rated 0 
Ok, let me clear this up for everybody. Colitas, although thought to be about drugs, is not it refers to the female anatomy. Listen to the song again, it is about a whore house and you can't bring yourself to leave. Listen to the song with this in mind and it will totally make sense.

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medicineman
11-12-2007

Rated 0 
i`m not shure what this song could be about, but i read about it @wikipedia, and some of the stuff seemed interesting:

The term "colitas" in the first stanza of the song is a Spanish term for "little tails." This is a reference to the buds of the marijuana plant,

The lyric "They stab it with their steely knives/But they just can't kill the beast" was widely believed to be a nod to Steely Dan's lyric "Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening" in their song Everything You Did (and in the liner notes of The Very Best of the Eagles (2001), Glenn Frey confirmed this).

Urban legend has attributed the name "Hotel California" to many physical locations:
The Church of Satan which happens to be located in a converted hotel on California Street. The Satanic Bible was also written in 1969, a year that is mentioned in the song. Some believe that the lyrics, " ... kill the beast," and "... that spirit here" refer to black magic. Also, others believe on their inside cover of the Hotel California album, looking down on the festivities, is either Satan or Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan. These rumors, however, were proven false.[6]

The California State Mental Hospital at Camarillo, so called by some of the staff who worked there. This interpretation is backed up by the lyric from the song: '"So I called up the captain, Please bring me my wine, He said "We haven't had that spirit here since 1969"'. The staff used to give wine to the patients to calm them before dinner. This practice was halted in 1969.

The lyrics "her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she's got the Mercedes bends" (NB bends rather than the typically used "Benz") both associate physical discomforts with expensive merchandise.

Some believe that the initials of [The] Hotel California may refer to tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive ingredient of the Cannabis plant, commonly abbreviated as THC.[citation needed]

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Kuromi
11-10-2007

Rated 0 
I first heard this song in my dad's car when I was about 7, and I used to listen to it and think of some guy who is riding out in the desert on a motorbike, and as he's really tired when he spots a old mexican style hotel complete with courtyard up ahead.

He sees a beautiful woman, who lures him in and although he doesn't realise it, but he's actually stumbled across a deserted building full of spirits. Only thing is once you arrive there, you never leave, and he ends up joining them in their eternal stay at the hotel.

Bit hard to explain in writing, but I never pictured it as a morbid thing, more a beautiful scene of people dancing that comes alive at night, and fades away with sun-rise.

I know you guys will all jump on my translation, but remember I was a kid, and that was how I translated the song at the time. And I prefer my version to thoughts of drugs, cults or whore houses.

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StonedImmaculate428
11-06-2007

Rated 0 
This part reminds me of tripping on strong Salvia...

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!

Salvia has little effect on some, and extremely strong effects on others, like me. If anything could come close to describing the visions, realizations, and pure terror of a trip I had, it would be those lines.

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Ron1967
10-28-2007

Rated 0 
Obviously, songs can take on many different meanings and can mean anything you want them to. "Hotel California" is a complex song and in my opinion, one of the best songs ever written. For me, the song is about the allure of Southern California, but in kind of a cynical way. For anyone who's ever lived in or visited Southern California, it is a paradise. The Hotel Califonia refers to the state itself. It is vast, hence the line "plenty of room at the hotel california", it is beautiful, hence the line "such a lovely place", yet has a reputation for being superficial, hence the line "such a lovely face". Once you're bitten by that Southern California bug, you'll never want to leave, hence the line "we're all just prisoners here of our own device". And when you do leave, you'll always want to return and it will always stay with you, hence the line "you can checkout anytime you like but you can never leave".

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Dan54321
10-11-2007

Rated 0 
The Hotel California = THC

But it is about Hollywood/The Music industry cause the band says so... there are just a lot of drug references. Certainly not a bad thing, right?

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:)4thecamera
09-25-2007

Rated 0 
i no i posted this before but ill post it again, the band said what it is about, its about life in hollywood. thank u and goodnight

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incubus1979
09-22-2007

Rated 0 
heroin addiction

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Melinda07
09-13-2007

Rated 0 
Sheesh!

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ImNeilYoung
08-28-2007

Rated 0 
I heard that the Eagles came out and said that this song is about the music industry. They bring you in with sweet smells and nice looking houses. Then you are stuck there. Once you decide to check out meaning you can quit music but you cant leave, meaning your still famous because they will use your songs to still make money. It makes sense, but so does the idea of drugs, sex, alcahol, or any other addiction. I like to think of music how i like not what it was written for, it is like a good painting. You will interprite it how you wish and that is good enough for me. But please quit saying, " I dont care what you say this song is about Drugs." This makes you sound ignorant and someone that should keep their opinion to themselves. Joe Walsh is awsome because he helped write this song and then had an awsome solo carrer. The Eagles are my heros and they made a huge mark on the music industry.

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youknowimright
08-23-2007

Rated 0 
the tune is a rip off of Jethro Tulls "We used to know" except the tull song is better.

the eagles were souless shit.

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khforce
08-19-2007

Rated 0 
so i like KTsmiles defintion of this song, thats is how i would interpret it if i had taken the time on this one, plus cute name :)

but forreal. theres always more to a person than drugs, sex and rock n roll, and thats obviously presented in a rockstar's music. so chill with the satan and drug shit, drugs can only stimulate emotions that were already there.

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AnniNecaise
08-16-2007

Rated 0 
This is for all the idgits who insist on saying this song is about drug addiction or Satanism. Since you obviously know how to type in a URL, try this one.

http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/hotel.asp

I think Don Henley would know what the song was about better than anyone on here.

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aic22
08-14-2007

Rated 0 
this song is about excesses-whether it be drugs, sex, alcohol, etc. Someone may have mentioned this already but the "steely" knives is a tip of the hat to Steely Dan. Steely Dan mentioned the Eagles in their song "Everything You Did."

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KTsmiles
08-14-2007

Rated 0 
Alright. Lots of people think that this song is about Satan, or some crazy cult. or something like that. Other people think it's about drug... well you're getting there.
the way i see it... this song is about getting lost in yourself because of the things you've done in the past.
A lot of it refers to the classic "rock and roll" life.
'This could be Heaven or this could be Hell'- that refers to the sex and drugs and alcohal being fun at the time but that doesn't mean that it's good. so is it good or bad? heaven or hell?
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends- refers to the rock and roll life. expensive cars, friends, girls.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget - some people get into that life to remember good times. others get into the life to forget bad times.
We are all just prisoners here, of our own device - pretty much self-explanatory, they're all prisoners there of themselves or of their own mind.
The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast - the beast is yourself. the beast within you, and you can't kill it
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before - he had to find a way back to the person he was before the sex, drugs, money ect.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave! - you can try to change who you are and get out of the life you're in, but you can never change your past.
and the voices down the corridor saying welcome to hotel california etc. - that's your conscience talking to you

i don't know. it makes sense to me. and in my opinion, this song has nothing to do with Satan. and that crap about the person in the window on the album cover? i can't explain that. but i don't believe that this song has anything to do with the Eagles worshiping the Devil.

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