i always thought it was a prisoner of your own mind
"you can check out any time you'd like ...but you can never leave"

Yeah I've also heard that it was about Hell...not just a comparison.

Since I seem to be the only person who was growing up while that song was popular, I'll bust a few satanic/drug addiction theories by saying that Hotel California is an allegory about hedonism and greed in Southern California in the 1970s. At the time of its release, the Eagles were riding high in the music world, experiencing material success on a frightening level. Though they thoroughly enjoyed the money, drugs, and women fame threw their way, they were disquieted by it all and sought to pour that sense of unease into their music and to warn others about the dark underside of such adulation.

In a 1995 interview, Don Henley said the song "sort of captured the zeitgeist of the time, which was a time of great excess in this country and in the music business in particular." In another interview that same year, he referred to it as being about a "loss of innocence."

The album has as its underlying theme the corruption of impressionable rock stars by the decadent Los Angeles music industry. The celebrated title track presents California as a gilded prison the artist freely enters only to discover that he cannot later escape.

The real Hotel California is not a place; it is a metaphor for the west coast music industry and its effect on the talented but unworldy musicians who find themselves ensnared in its glittering web.

colitas is a spanish nickname for the bud of a marujana plant.

trust me, i know this stuff.

i remeber reading a book in like 7th grade called the landlady it was like a short story thing and it was bou tthis guy whos on some buisness meating and notices a hotel thts cheap and nice so he rents a room and theres an old lady and the guy notices two other ppl have only been there he finds the lady then reveals they never left after 15 years because like wat she is about to do to him she poisens tehm and stuffs them.. im pretty sure tht book was written bout this .. it wasnt bad either

neways
i think the song is more of a story other than a spacifice meaning

I agree with daffyb - I've always thought Hotel California was comparing L.A. to Hell. And of course, I never stopped to weave the rest of the songs on the album into the play. Although "Last Resort" is fairly obvious and a little bit in your face.

PS: I am UCLA4Life, i just forgot my password, and punched in my email adress wrong, so basically, i cant get my password

that UCLA4Life guy knows what he is talking about, i tried listening to the song backwards and i heard it as well

GO BRUINS!!!!!!!!

I get an ominous feeling when I hear this song.
It makes me think of an x-files, horror situation
alot like what happens in 'from dusk til dawn'

an unsuspecting person gets lost and finds a place that is
a little too convenient, too inviting
There is a suspiciously alluring woman welcoming the guy, drawing him in
The guy doesn't know what to think until
the first creepy clue comes for the disembodies voices
and the zombielike people dancing and singing through all hours of the night
giving the place an undead feeling
The servants and the hostess seem to be unknowing of this affect
but it bothers the guest

Its the woman's job to take the guys mind off of things
keeping him from worrying or thinking that something is wrong
but at the same time, she gives a hint of a warning
possibly she feels a little sadness with her position

all of a sudden the tides turn when the guy discovers
the zombie-vampire people feasting on an undead 'beast'
I see the beast as the master vampire
His underlings are performing a ritual where the people
make a cut into the master and drink of his blood and so become more like him.

Freaked out, The guy tries to get the hell out of there but the servants are warning that
there is no escape

I do believe that all music/art is open to interpretation, but
also that there are meanings which are truer than others
Its easy and pointless to say a song is about drug/sex/etc
Almost any song can be interpreted this way,
but this way doesn't add anything new, so whats the point of accepting it as the only explanation

art is supposed to give an inspired point of view, special and unique
drug/sex/etc probably played a part in inspiring or helping the making of the song
but thats not what the song is about.

Kind of like how on the tv show 'heroes', Isaac uses drugs to induce prophecies,
but the meaning of the prophecies have nothing to do with drugs

Also there are too many details for the song not to have more meaning to it,
There are alot of cryptic details that have specific meanings and significance
such as the name of the place being a satanic church,
or the mention of 1969

i just heard on the radio that this song was about materialism in the united states & i guess that makes sense

I just want to know what colitas is!

I always thought that "she lit up a candle and showed me the way" refered directly to the way heroin was primarily used in the 70s.

Colitas is a drug popular in the early 60s

And "they stab it with their steely knives" refers to how coke is cut with a razor blade and made into powder.

This song is definatly about the draw the thriss and then the ultimatedownfall path that drugs will lead you down

Sorry to disappoint, but yes this song is about drug use, but even farther a particular drug - herion. The lead singer has some obscure journals that can be very hard to find that talk about the meanings in a lot of his songs. Hotel California is about is addiction and attempted recovery from the drug. You can see it in every metaphor

Everyone has their own interpretation. I believe it's about being locked up eitherin a jail or in an asylum. Here's some interpretations:

"And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast"

Priosoners gathering in the big cafeteria to eat

"The stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast"

Typical bad prison food, they can't even get their knives to cut through it!

Many many more clues lead me to interpret it this way. I am not going to cite the whole song. Of course, it is most likely not the real meaning, but it is how I like to interpret it!

I agree with the whole drugs addiction route.

Colitas is a Spanish word for a flower, the flower in question being Marijuana.

This could be Heaven or this could be Hell, Some drugs make you feel good but when you get off them for a while they make you feel bad, which in turn starts an addiction.

Then she lit up a candle (joint)

he is hearing voices but it doesnt say he sees people. this may be his subconcious mind or just a halucination

Any time of year, you can find it here, Any time you need some dope come here and we will have some.

Some dance to remember, some dance to forget, people do drugs to remember good memories and to forget bad ones.

So I called up the Captian. Notice how Captain is capitalized , he is calling for God.

Please bring me my wine, he is calling God for help.

he said we havnt had that spirit here since 1959, nobody has tried to break the addiction at the hotel since then.

Bring your alabis. he is basically saying bring your excuses for starting up.

We are all just prisoners here, of our own device. Everyone there started doing drugs because of their own issues. They started it themselves

They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast. They cant break the addiction

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door. he can only remember that he tried to quit

I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before. He has to get back to the way he was before he started taking drugs.

We are programmed to receive. Addiction only lets you in.

You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!
You cannot get out of addiction. Period.

Now that ive gone through all the drug analogies, tell me what you think, if I am right or wrong I will gladly listen to all replies.

Ok you idiots who try to pick apart a song and overanalyze it too. I am going to tell you the true literal meaning of the song.

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
(Pretty self-explanatory.)
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
(If you look up colitas on the internet, you will find that it means flower petals, so apparently he can smell flowers on the road he is travelling.)
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
(On the pavement, driving in the evening, sometimes the sun reflects off of the pavement into your eyes.)
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
(He is getting tired.)
I had to stop for the night
(He must find a place to rest his weary body.)
There she stood in the doorway;
(The hotel keeper is inviting him into the wonderful hotel.)
I heard the mission bell
(He is opening one of the doors that have a bell on them to alert workers when a customer has arrived.)
And I was thinking to myself,
(He thinks to himself about something.)
'This could be Heaven or this could be Hell'
(He thinks, "This place could be great, or it could be terrible." He hasn't seen enough of the hotel to know yet.)
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
(The hotel keeper lights a candle because the power is out, and show him to his room.)
There were voices down the corridor,
(There is a party in one of the rooms getting rowdy.)
I thought I heard them say...
(He thinks he hears them say something.)

Welcome to the Hotel California
(The people are singing the hotel's theme song.)
Such a lovely place
(More theme song)
Such a lovely face
(Repeated most likely because they are drunk.)
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
(There are many vacancies as noted by the sign out front.)
Any time of year, you can find it here
(It's there all year round, not like some of the crappy resort hotels.)

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
(The hotel keeper, is whacko, but she has a Benz and is pretty cool.)
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
(Her car attracts all of the pretty, pretty boys.)
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
(They dance out back in the courtyard at a party, and sweat because it's one of those dog days of summer.)
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
(The people want to dance to remember the party the night before, or to forget about it and focus on this one.)

So I called up the Captain,
(He calls up the captain of the ship U.S.S. Arizona because they are old friends.)
'Please bring me my wine'
(He asks his old friend to bring some wine to the party because all of the alcohol had run out.)
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here
(The captain tells him that they haven't had wine here.)
Since nineteen sixty nine'
(They haven't had it since 1969.)
And still those voices are calling from far away,
(He still hears the party going on, from even farther away this time, indicating that it is getting even more rowdy than the previous night.)
Wake you up in the middle of the night
(The party is so loud that it wakes him up in the middle of the night.)
Just to hear them say...
(He hears them saying something.)

Welcome to the Hotel California
(Singing the theme song again.)
Such a lovely place
(It really is a nice hotel.)
Such a lovely face
(They're so drunk that instead of saying "lovely place" they accidentally say "lovely face.")
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
(They're having a kick butt time partying at the hotel.)
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis
(It's such a nice surprising place, that you have to make excuses to come more often.)

Mirrors on the ceiling,
(There are mirrors on the ceiling so you can watch yourself having sex with people. (Trust me, they are awesome.))
The pink champagne on ice
(The rooms come with special pink "love" champagne for couples.)
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device
(The people are doing some sexual role playing involving someone pretending to be a prisoner. In this case it is the whacko hotel keeper. She's kinky like that.)
And in the master's chambers,
(After the sex, they all go to the master's chambers.)
They gathered for the feast
(They are there because there is a feast.)
The stab it with their steely knives
(They are stabbing something, but we don't quite know what it is yet. Maybe, it's a turkey, or...)
But they just can't kill the beast
(maybe it's a beast! And in this case it is. It seems that a dangerous lion or tiger has broken out of a local zoo and it jumps through the window. They can't kill it because they are using butter knives, and they aren't that effective against an angry big cat.)
Last thing I remember, I was
(Because he is so panicked, he blacks out, but remembers this last thing.)
Running for the door
(He is running away from the lion because it is chasing him.)
I had to find the passage back
(He has to find the exit to get away from the lion.)
To the place I was before
(The place he was before had a lion proof shield in case of emergencies just like this.)
'Relax,' said the night man,
(The night man tells him to calm down because he is a professional lion tamer.)
We are programmed to receive.
(They are trained to handle lions.)
You can checkout any time you like,
(He is saying that if the lion scares bother you, then you can check out whenever.)
but you can never leave!
(But, if the lion kills you, you really can't, as you are dead.)

Now, that wasn't too hard to figure out, was it idiots?

The song is about someone tripping on acid.

I have heard many diffrent, explinations to this song, some being the loss of innocence, some about the music industry,drugs, cults, the devil, you name it. I do not think we will ever know what it means for sure. However, i was doing a little research, and listened to the song backwards, and i could clearly hear: "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 vet he fixes it for his son which he gives away." i dont know if it was intentional or not, but it clerly says that. Try it for youself, where they say "There were voices down the corridor, thought I heard them say, welcome to the Hotel California" play that part backwards, and you be the judge

It's about a Satanic cult. End of discussion.

does anyone know if this song has anything to do with the "Christ is coming" church in maui hawaii?
thanks

you know how you know when a song is realy great? When countless motherfuckers from all over the country, and even world are argueing over the meaning of it.

you know how you know when a song is realy great? When countless motherfuckers from all over the country, and even world are argueing over the meaning of it.

does anyone know if this song has anything to do with the "Christ is coming" church in maui hawaii?
thanks

This song is about being in a mental institution.

I once was stuck on an elevator with Don Henley. We were trapped in between floors for two hours, and the whole time, he never said a word to me. Then, like magic, the elevator started working again. When it pulled up to his floor, he stepped out of the elevator, turned back to face me, and said, "'Hotel California' was about a whore house." The elevator door closed and I never saw him again.