This song is either about an insane asylum or drug users.

The drugs make more sense, however

"Then she lit up a candle and showed me the way"
Very probably, she's smoking something.

"She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys that she calls friends."
Dealers.

"We are all just prisoners here, of our own device."
Refers to how drug users cannot break the habit, and how it was their decision to do drugs in the first place.

"They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast."
Probably referring, again, to how they can't break the habit (the beast representing the habit.)

"You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave."
Again, the motif that you can't break the habit.
Obviously, they are trying to pound it into your head that you CAN'T BREAK THE HABIT.

"You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!" Once you are addicted to drugs you can quit at any time but you will always be addicted for the rest of your life.

Because its lyrics contain an ominous undercurrent, many have appeased their sense of disquiet by finding in the words literal and figurative meanings that just aren't there. Theories abound as to what the song means. Some see the devil in the lyrics. Others see a madhouse.

Some believe the song was written about a real inn bearing that name. Though there is a Hotel California in Todos Santos, a town on Mexico's Baja California peninsula, its relation to the song begins and ends with the coincidence of a shared name. None of the Eagles stayed there, let alone wrote music there. Nor did they have this building in mind when they set down the lyrics to this popular song.

Those who persist in believing the song must be named after an actual building have been known to assert "Hotel California" was the nickname of the Camarillo State Hospital, a state-run psychiatric hospital near Los Angeles which housed thousands of patients across its sixty-year history before closing in 1997. To them, the lyrics seem to fit what a mentally disturbed person would experience upon incarceration in a long-term care facility. The imagery of the song is explained as that person's hallucinations juxtaposed against moments of startling clarity as he realizes where he is.

However, by far the most common theme to surface in Hotel California rumors is one that links the song to devil worship. The lyrics (which speak of trying to "kill the Beast" and not having had "that spirit here since 1969") form the bedrock of the various Satan-related theories, but the belief is also fed by the album design. The inner cover is a photograph of people in a courtyard of a Spanish-looking inn. In a balcony above them looms a shadowy figure with arms spread. Many who look at that photo see Anton LaVey, leader of the Church of Satan, and interpret the spread arms as his welcoming the populace below into Satan's trap. That the people in the picture seem unaware of the gleefully evil figure standing above them only adds to the implicit horror of the scene — the innocents below are oblivious to their having wandered into the house of the Devil.

It's wonderful imagery. But it doesn't hold up. The shadowy figure was a woman hired for the photo shoot. AND...ITS THE BEVERLY HILLS HOTEL.

The truth proves far less satisfying than the myriad rumors that have sprung up around this song.

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.

Actually, when I first heard this song, I thought it was just about a man without much to live for, driving through the desert, who finds a quiet hotel and falls in love with the beautiful woman who works/lives there. Eventually he realizes the hotel isn't as heavenly as he once believed and leaves, but of a part of his heart stays at the hotel.

...seems I totally missed the drug references, LA metaphor, or satanic cult bit. (which I don't believe. people say just about everything when it comes to song meanings.)

Well no matter what the eagles meant by that song it can mean anythin to us as long as we can justify it eg. i came to uk from a different country and although uk is much more shallow than my homeland it is much richer n delivers like a hole new level to everyone that come n lives in here but my point is that i'd like to go back to everyone that isn't empty inside yet but i want to stay just to pamper myself n although i could go back if i do i'll always want to be in uk and the other way around.( by the way i'm not callin everyone british shallow i'm just sayin that there seems to be another level of being silly by eg. putting lots of make up on at the age of 7)

"You can checkout any time you like, but you can never leave!"
makes me think this song is about acid because even if you do quit traces of it are left in your spine

I heard that Hotel California was about marriage. Now I don't know if this is true or not but although it seems like a rather pessimistic view of marriage, it does make sense.

***THC*** am I the only one who noticed this the line is welcome to The Hotel California. kind of like imulating The Beatles Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds(LSD) but for pot.

Based on the interviews with the band, this is how I interpet the song:

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
(Coming from nowhere)
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
(Senses the California drug culture)
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
(there it is, LA in the distance)
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
(Finally there. Made it!)
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'
(Greated by the culture he also hears the warning bell)
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
(But after being led in to the decandence you let go of the fears)
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
(There is always a party going on in LA)

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes-Benz
(Obvious reference to Janis Joplin)
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
(A lot of free love, also sounds like a gay reference)
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
(different reasons for always parting)

So I called up the Captain,
'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here
Since nineteen sixty nine'
(A reference to the fact that the whole scene peaked in 1969)
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...
(it is always niggling at the back of your mind, the slight anxiety of the decadent lifestyle)

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
(everyone has excuses for this lifestyle)

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
(again references to extravagant life with sexual trimmings)
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device
(we only brought this on our selves)
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
(people hang around leaders and share drugs but the anxiety still doesn’t go away)

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
(Trying to leave the whole industry, going back to being a normal nobody)
'Relax,' said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
but you can never leave!
(you can physically leave but you will always be a part of it and it will always be a part of you)

Probably one of the most discussed songs ever. I think the safest bet is it's about drugs ('You can check out any time you want but you can never leave'- even if you stop you'll always be a junkie), but there are other possibilities as well. Just goes to show how people can listen to the same song and still interpret it differently, depending on their own feelings and experiences. Nobody's wrong.

My husband actually heard on a radio talk show interview w/the band that it's about marriage. I don't know if somebody already said that I don't feel like going through all 200+ interpretations. It really does make sense if you think about it.

wow some of you guys are way off its about the first church of satan

its a metaphor for excess of all types, and the realization that they all lead to the same place ie. drugs,materialism, fame--all leads to emptiness and imprisonment and ultimately death.
stop arguin because you are ALL right!!!

I have read somewhere that this song is about drinking addicts and if you read carefully you should agree with me! It must be about a rehabilitation clinic which such people get in.
Great song anyway!
Thanx for the lyrics!:)

Well, I've read all 11 pages of posts about my favorite song of all time, number one in my "100 list." It's amazing!!!

I see sex, drugs and rock & roll, satan's church, prison, mental institutions, sanitoriums, alcohol, California the State and the state of mind, greed, murder, suicide, weed, coke, heroin, crack, love, religion, prostitution, despair, the music industry, fame, and so many more I can't recall them all.

Everyone has a theory about what the song "REALLY" means.

We got quotes from the band, quotes from those who know or knew the band, quotes from wannabes, quotes from folks who don't know diddly, and quotes from those who just THINK they know.

ELEVEN pages of it!

Bottom line, the song means whatever one wishes it to mean. For me...it means Madrid, Spain. I was living there the first time I heard it. Knew right away this was gonna be a classic for the ages. The song says so much without saying anything at all, and that is usually the mark of a cleverly written song. Lets the masses read into it what they wish, hope, fear, aspire to, run from, embrace or abhor.

Be talkin' to you................Web Rydr

err,it may be a typo, but on the lyrics of my vinyl single, it says "Mercedes bends" not "Mercedes-Benz"

the guy from the eagles said that it was about life in hollywood and other places like that in california (at least i saw that on the internet which we all know can lie) :)

I agree with you Hatz.I just dont understand why people come up with the ideas like "hotel california is slang for death at deathslayer.com", I mean really, listen too the music, and appreciate it before you jump to the conclusions about cults and garbage.
Listening to hotel california right now.

I'm sure it's already been said but here we go:

The Hotel California represents the self indulgence of the mid 70's culture in LA, California and much of the US. You have to remember that Henley is heavy into literature and symbolism.

The people are trapped by their endless desires for more. They've found everything they've wanted and now it has them rather than them possessing those desires.

"She's got the Mercedes Benz" "Mirrors on the Ceiling, Pink Champagne on ice." All of these describe the decadence and emptiness of what they've found.

As they try to run away they find that they can't (either because they aren't able or the lure is too great to get away) "We are programmed to receive. You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave."


BTW the 1969 lyric has to do with the era change. Many see that as the quintessential year that the Love, Hippie, Cause era ended (symbolically) and the era of greed, excess and "ME" began. While '69 gave us Woodstock (the ultimate 3 days of the Counterculture vision) it also gave us a few months later the disaster at Altamont, CA and the Hell's Angels knifing the guy in front of the Rolling Stone's Concert Stage.

"Bring me my wine. We haven't had that spirit here since 1969."

The Spirit was gone and what was left was self-indulgence.

I know for a fact that this song is not about a cult or drugs. This song is about L.A. I know this b/c I read an article which interviewed the band about the meaning of hotel california. There is one drug reference, "warm smell of colitas", Colitas is spanish for little buds, and therefore is a reference to pot. Also they did say in the interview that they realize that "hotel california" has a lot of urban legends about devil worshiped churches, cults, etc, but really "hotel california" is just the bands interpretation of high life in L.A. Also "stab it with their steely knives but they just cant kill the beast", is not a reference to cocaine it is a reference to a fellow song artist, Steely Dan. The song explores the underbelly of success, and the darker side of paradise, NOT, drugs or cults, or whatever other nonsense.

Not sure if anyone has said this yet, but Hotel California is also slang for death according to deathslang.com

(and as a side note, no matter what this song is about, I love it)

I've read that "Hotel California" is a metapher for the church of satanism which stands in California. I remember that this church is shown on the cover of the cd.
So the song is about satanism and how stanists want to win more people to their religion.
They give you the feeling that everything is fine and unsolicited. But the truth is different. The longer you stay with them, the more complicated is it to get rid of them.

(I'm sorry for my bad English)

To clear any confusion up: this song is NOT about a cult. One of my teachers has an autographed copy of the lyrics, and on the autograph, he says that the song has no occult meaning. Just so y'know.

i love this song, its one of the greatest songs out there!!

i love this song, its one of the greatest songs out there!!