Lyrics for The Last Resort as interpreted by Demau Senae

The Last Resort Lyrics
She came from Providence,
the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang
heavy in the air
She packed her hopes and dreams
like a refugee
Just as her father came across the sea
She heard about a place people were smilin'
They spoke about the red man's way,
and how they loved the land
And they came from everywhere
to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
or a place to hide

Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all,
what it's like up there
And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

Then the chilly winds blew down
Across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the Malibu
Where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea

You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming"
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign

Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here

We satisfy our endless needs and
justify our bloody deeds,
in the name of destiny and the name of God

And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

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Mixiblob
05-08-2002

Rated 0 
this is one of the best songs i have ever heard.... the higher notes he does are amazing with his voice.... it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up... its a genious song.
the lyrics are great too ...there is nothing bad to say about it i cant believe no one has wrote any comments about it already.
xxxxx

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garbojen
05-31-2002

Rated 0 
this song is very hard to get. a friend of mine had to explain parts of it to me. "kiss it goodbye" is a great lyric. the song talks about our past in a deep way and yes Mixiblob i agree with you about making your hairs stand up on the back ofyour neck.

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Mixiblob
06-01-2002

Rated 0 
cant believe only us two have wrote comments.... its such a cool song wots wrong wiv ppl

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mikes_konstantine
06-01-2002

Rated 0 
wow...this is like the first song i've heard about rhode island (i live there)...and it does rock

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sapphireskies
08-22-2002

Rated 0 
he isn't talking about the history of rhode island. a lot of this song is figuratively speaking, which adds to how amazing it is. the first line "she came from providence", it implies that she's coming from the grace of god, and when he says "one in rhode island", he could mean quite a few things. the way i believe is that since he says it almost as a side note, he's talking about how people would use certain words to get where they wanted. i can't explain what i mean as well as it is in my head. =)

i don't believe he's describing an actual place, but more describing how we destroy our own happiness, as in the last line "you call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye." once a place has attention brought to it ["can't wait to tell you all what it's like up there"], it slowly brings upon its own demise. up until this point, it's such a peaceful song, but then it almost seems sinister:
then the chilly winds blew down
across the desert
through the canyons of the coast, to
the malibu
where the pretty people play,
hungry for power
to light their neon way
and give them things to do"

the next part talks about the same idea, how people started out with a good idea ["they even brought a neon sign that said 'jesus is coming'"], but it "brought the white man's burden down, brought the white man's reign". power is corruption. up until that moment, everything was good, but once someone took control, they ruined it.

the next few stanzas is him expressing his anger, and the power in this is amazing. i love his voice. =)

the last lines sum up the song... about how one day, this "paradise" that was once, is now simply a story they tell, nothing more. once you "call some place paradise... kiss it goodbye"...

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Arianrhod
09-29-2002

Rated 0 
To me, this song is about development. Development of land for financial gain, evangelization of people, and the ignorance we show towards both.

"Down in the crowded bars,
out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all,
what it's like up there
And they called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high"

To me, this is about the desecration of the environment, and how we humans choose to ignore it. The "laying low" of the mountains is probably about mining or logging, and how the people in the towns just drink to celebrate the end of the weeks work. They drown their sorrows in drink and drugs, and ignore the damage they are doing.

"Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea"

Is pretty self-explanatory. Development, the destroying of the land and the building of homes, offices and shops. Calling it paradise, because it's a nice home, ad watching the hazy sun, possibly hazy because of pollution. This seems to be a very sarcastic lyric.

"You can leave it all behind
and sail to Lahaina
just like the missionaries did, so many years ago
They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming"
Brought the white man's burden down
Brought the white man's reign"

This takes a place like Lahaina, which really is paradise (I went there a few years back, so I'm not just shooting my mouth off here), and it's people with their culture, and evangelising them, to make them like everyone else. It's the development of a culture, which destroyed what was natural and beautiful about them.

"Who will provide the grand design?
What is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here"

This sounds very angry. It talks about how there's no "new frontier" for us to explore, and because of that we can't move on from the mess we've made...we have to make it here.

"And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye"

This is about Church-goers. Possibly the miners and loggers, the rich men who raped the land, and the people who bought from them, and the missionaries.
At Church on Sunday morning, singing about getting into heaven, which is sometimes called Paradise, and how wonderful it will be up there, after they've died.
However, as the song has shown, all the places we've called paradise we've managed to destroy, in favour of a man-made paradise.

"They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye"

In a religious context, this states that calling the afterlife paradise is a misnomer. All the places we've called paradise we have destroyed, and therefore, hoping to get into heaven is unjustified, as we don't deserve it. After having called some place paradise, and kissed it goodbye, the same should then happen with our hopes of getting into heaven.

This is one of the only Eagles songs I like (the other being Try And Love Again), and I just LOVE it.
It's also my Dad's favourite song, and it's so powerful and emotional, it makes me want to cry every time I hear it.
It's an absolute masterpiece; musically, lyrically and vocally. I am yet to hear a better song by this band.

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HRslammR
04-17-2003

Rated 0 
if you've ever seen the video for "hell freezes over" he basically explains it. in that he says "everybody talks about how the west was won... this is about how the west was lost"

Somebody laid the mountains low
while the town got high

great lyric in that they're losing sight of the beauty that is nature and becoming more consumed with the human elements.

Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus,
people bought 'em
And they called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea

he's talking about how california has a beautiful scenery and yet some rich guy went out there and built and colonized the coast basically and now the pollution clouds the site.

And you can see them there,
On Sunday morning
They stand up and sing about
what it's like up there
They call it paradise
I don't know why
You call someplace paradise,
kiss it goodbye

think about this one for a moment. how many times have there been said that some place is "paradise". heaven is the only place we haven't gone in and build "ugly boxes"

i think dave matthews band got his inspiration for "don't drink the water" from this song

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philw3000
06-06-2003

Rated 0 
Henley's increasing frustration regarding humanitarian issues and such really starts to manifest itself here, and continues on for the rest of his career...especially in his solo stuff. Just check out "sunset grill" from album Building the Perfect Beast" , his 1st solo album....or ""Dirty Laundry", which most of us have heard. He is such a great artist, one who you can really follow and watch change as he gets older- you can see it happen starting on the album "The End of the Innocence" on tracks like "the heart of the matter", as well as on his latest offering, "Inside Job". He is still pissed off, but you can see that he comes to peace with himself and his anger on these later works.

-"you gotta put it all behind ya babe/because life goes on/you keep carrying that anger/it'll eat you up inside"

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Andaah
06-08-2003

Rated 0 
Its genious.

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skakayla
06-19-2004

Rated 0 
It's about how we've distroyed the earth and how we don't appreciate the simple beauty of it.

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stoolhardy
02-14-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with HRslammer on this one, this song is NOT about Rhode Island at all. That's just the first few lines of the song. The song is about the westward expansion of the US and especially the development of California. Don't forget, gold mining was what founded California, no doubt, and it has been growing enormously ever since. What has founded it hasn't changed much in principle: the desire for new wealth.

The new wealth he talks about through much of the latter part of the song is real estate development:

"Some rich men came and raped the land,
Nobody caught 'em
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes"

Those would definitely be the ubiquitous tract homes of California, which caused California to grow tremendously in the second half of the 1900s.

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thefez1
03-12-2005

Rated 0 
I agree with the previous comments. I heard this song after my first visit to California and I remember thinking about how beautiful it must have been before all of these teleophone poles/wires, ugly out-of-place houses etc were built. A few months later I heard this song and it said exactly what I felt on my visit.

The only commentary I will add is the line "in the name of destiny and in the name of God" points out how we (Americans and humans in general) always try to find a religious justification for our actions. I feel the destiny is an obvious reference to the term "manifest destiny" which was the American rally cry for expanding out territory from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. At that time it was almost considered to be pre-ordained by God that we would occupy the western territory regardless of the Indians, French, Mexicans, etc who considered it their land.

Also, for me, the line about singing in the churches on Sunday morning points out the inherent hipocracy of the Christian Right-Wing who talk about God and the mercy of Jesus in heaven but turn a blind eye to the poor and disadvantaged here on Earth and think only of increasing their own personal wealth.

Great song! You can feel the emotion in his voice.

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recordsofthepast
03-31-2005

Rated 0 
somethnig that is once a "paradise" just gets way too over commercialized, over polluted, over worked, over etc. such as religon, nature, heaven, people, dreams, etc.

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TheSyndicate88
07-26-2005

Rated 0 
i think this song describes how individuals can be innocent, but as a population, we destroy everything we touch...in this case, it describes land and how we run in holding a cross, as if god wants us to destroy his planet, and once we've grown bored of everything, we cry about how we fucked up. however, it's an empty guilt, because we just go and to it again...

sorry, i'm a bit of a nihilist haha

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mongoosestalker
01-02-2006

Rated 0 
I think this song is about, like everyone said, the destruction of the natural beauty of the country, but i think it also has a somewhat anti-Christian meaning also. Personally, I think Christians are trying to take over the world, and i know thats part of the religion- to spread it around, but it destroys other cultures, and when people complain about them seeming to take over the world, then they try to take it over more.

Okay, could anyone guess im not christian? But for me it has a somewhat anti christian meaning.... i love this song(but not necessarily for that reason only)

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shirvs
01-22-2006

Rated 0 
If you've seen the Hell Freezes Over DVD Don Henley introduces The Last Resort by saying, "Everyone's heard of how the West was won, well this is about how the West was lost." Take from that what you will.

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therealsvenden
02-13-2006

Rated 0 
Wow, I've heard this song many times before, but I actually listened to it for the first time recently, and was completely blown away. To me, this song is a brilliant commentary on the destructive forces (against the environment and other cultures) of Western civilization and the Church.

Furthermore, it implies an interesting theory on why people are so drawn to religion (and I'm not talking just Christianity here). Humans seem incapable of preserving the things they love (paradise), and yet we yearn for them continually. Religion of any form gives people hope that finding paradise is possible - whether in the afterlife (Heaven), through enlightenment (Buddhism), or any number of other means. The intriguing and implied twist is: can even heavenly paradise withstand humanity's destruction?

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ebowtheletter
03-04-2006

Rated 0 
This is the greatest song of all time and means so much to me. It is about basically everything said already. It is about the blinding force and power of religion and about "how the west was lost". It is about what happened to the native peoples (I say peoples because to call them Native Americans would be innacurate since many of those killed/displaced were not under the jurisdiction of the U.S. at the time, especially Hawaii).

I don't think this song is too hard to figure out. The literal meaning is obvious: while the U.S. was fullfiling its Manifest Destiny, the western lands and peoples were getting exploited all for the benefit of the Christianized Easterners. And then when there was nothing left, they turned to the oceans and went after Hawaii.

And the other part is that this is just a symbol of what people have done in the name of religion. Very few times have empires been formed in which the conquered were not of a different religion (Hitler's Germany and Napoleon's France are examples, but both were short lived). However, by holding religion over heads and making people "buy" Jesus or whoever the conqueror's god(s) is(/are ), they get weakened. But in the end, everything is worse off under the conqueror and its god(s).

Finally, I see a negative prediction. By sailing to Lahaina, Hawai'i, like was done in the song and in real life, it shows that the process keeps going. Europe may have given up religion last century, but it'll sail back. It shows the circle of dominance. Remember, once the U.S. was the west of the song and before that it was the Lahaina. Empires will keep pushing around the world in the name of god....

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Revolver45
03-06-2006

Rated 0 
This song isn't anti-Christian at all. If it did they would no longer play it because 2 both Don Henley and Joe Walsh are born again Christians.

It's about the over commercialization of everything, how no one can appreciate the natural beauty of something, and what is once beautiful is then raped for profit. It's a commentary on basically the capitalist way of life, not condemning it but simply pointing out what happens, and human nature.

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mongoosestalker
03-14-2006

Rated 0 
Hey, sorry about my comment. Ive gotten a few emails and realized my comment may have been offensive. Sorry to anyone offended! Didnt mean for it to be that way.

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TheKeeper
06-14-2006

Rated 0 
This song is so very clearly an attack on the Church. It could not be any clearer in the lyrics. (Even if you ignore the tone when it refers to missionaries and the Sunday-morning singers, and the clever double meaning of the exclamation "and Jesus, people bought 'em" – "Jesus' people"? Even "Jesus-people"?) Very interesting, therefore, to hear that the Eagles are now born-again Christians yet still performing the song! Of course, the band were always spiritual and the point is that the faith itself is not their target. It's about the Native Americans' respectful ways with regards to what was a paradise on earth being turned over, and the "white man's" excesses/crimes and greed being outrageously justified in the name of God – they "brought the... burden down" with "bloody deeds", "raped the land" etc. etc. until the paradise was no more. The essential message of Christianty was never the target, but the self-righteous colonial nature of Bible-bashing settlers; the song is a warning to appreciate what we have on earth, whether you believe a God gave it to us or not.

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shools
07-31-2006

Rated 0 
Your comments are very insightful and your reasoning is quite interesting, but you're all wrong!
This is a song about a girl from Providence, RI that went to college at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. A Church of Christ school that is on the land donated by The Seaver Family and named for George Pepperdine founder of Western Auto Supply. They are the "Jesus People" The little boxes are the dorms and buildings all surrounding a giant cross on the hill.
This girl was walking or riding a bike down PCH and was strruck and killed by the President of the school who was drunk. There's no drinking in the Church of Christ and the fancy Republican layers got him off without any charges.
Every year the mother of this girl spills red paint on PCH where her daughter was struck. if you play this song on the campus radio station...you get expelled.
This is an abridged version, but gives you an idea of what it truly means.

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p!nkluvr
09-11-2006

Rated 0 
no you are ALL wrong its about the way the white man raped the indians.. raped their women.. stole their land.. killed them.. it's all in that song.. they did all that and called themselves chiristians and said they were worshipers of god

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marcy32
03-03-2007

Rated 0 
thats so weird that you say that, everytime i hear this song i think about taking everything from the indians.

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elizabetta11
04-10-2007

Rated 0 
I would listen to "Hotel California" 100 times over this insipid guilt-drenched song. Clever lyrics - but who wants 7+ minutes of feeling bad? Sorry - it's just that Hotel California just rocks all other songs on the album!

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