Eagles & Doors

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

A classic rock question that has nagged at me for years, so I Must Share…

A line in the Eagles’ Hotel California: “we are all just prisoners here/of our own device”.

A line in the Doors’ Unhappy Girl (from Strange Days, the second album I ever owned): “you are locked in a prison of your own device”.

A coincidence? Not bloody likely.

A common source? A search of Bartlett’s didn’t turn up anything under “prison” or “device”.

Plagiarism? Or is Hotel California some kind of Doors hommage? It always felt kind of Doors-y to me anyway. Whadja think?

2

Why bloody not?

3

OR, maybe the universe is just trying to make it look like a coincidence! Bloody cosmic conspiracys (they’re the things that keep me from spelling, too)

4

How often have you used the phrase “prison of your own device” in everyday speech?

If I used the phrase “twilight’s last gleaming” in a song I wrote, would you think it a coincidence?

5

I used it just this morning. :slight_smile:

No, but then I don’t think that “prison of your own device” is as unique a phrase as “twilight’s last gleaming.” I’m not saying the phrasing was a coincidence – how would I know? – just that I don’t think we can say for sure that it was not.