# Hotel California lyrics **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [January 20, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361 "2011-01-20T18:40:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![forrie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@forrie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/forrie)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/1 "2011-01-20T18:40:40Z")
A good friend of mine told me it was based on Don Henley’s experience of being in a juvenile group “camp” called Elan in Maine. Elan has a long sordid history, Google around for more info. It still exists, but perhaps under a different design. My friend was placed up there for a while and I got some interesting and disturbing stories. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2011, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/2 "2011-01-20T18:57:13Z")
Well, if you are interested in what Cecil has to say on it, read [here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1053/in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean): > [@](#): > > (1) The Hotel California is a real hotel located in (pick one) Baja California on the coastal highway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz or else near Santa Barbara. In other words, the song is a hard look at the modern hospitality industry, which is plagued by guests who “check out any time [they] like” but then “never leave.” > > (2) The Hotel California is a mental hospital. I see one guy on the Web has identified it as “Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara.” > > (3) It’s about satanism. Isn’t everything? > > (4) Hotel California is a metaphor for cocaine addiction. See “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” This comes from the published comments of Glenn Frey, one of the coauthors. > > (5) It’s about the pitfalls of living in southern California in the 1970s, my interpretation since first listen. Makes perfect sense, and goddammit, who you going to believe, some ignorant rock star or me? > > (6) My fave, posted to the Usenet by Thomas Dzubin of Vancouver, British Columbia: "There was this fireworks factory just three blocks from the Hotel California . . . and it blew up! Big tragedy. One of the workers was named Wurn Snell and he was from the town of Colitas in Greece. One of the workers who escaped the explosion talked to another guy . . . I think it was probably Don Henley . . . and Don asked what the guy saw. The worker said, “Wurn Snell of Colitas . . . rising up through the air.” -XT ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/3 "2011-01-21T08:53:11Z")
Given that Don Henley apparently spent his entire childhood in Texas, what would he have been doing at a camp in Maine?: > **[Don Henley](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don_Henley)** > > Donald Hugh Henley (born July 22, 1947) is an American musician, and a founding member of the rock band Eagles, for whom he is the drummer and one of the lead vocalists, as well as the sole continuous member of the band. Henley sang the lead vocals on Eagles hits such as "Witchy Woman", "Desperado", "Best of My Love", "One of These Nights", "Hotel California", "Life in the Fast Lane", "The Last Resort", "The Long Run" and "Get Over It". > After the Eagles disbanded in 1980, Henley pursued a solo... ---
**Author:** ![Crazyhorse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazyhorse/32/31_2.png) [@Crazyhorse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazyhorse)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/4 "2011-01-21T11:57:55Z")
You’ve got to admit if he wanted to create a metaphor for a youth camp in Maine it’s hard to think of a more imaginative way than a ‘dark desert highway’ motif; driving a convertible on a balmy night, etc. The great ones never go for the easy metaphors. And it wasn’t just a friend of the OP who said so, it was a good friend. The statements of the original author himself and all of Cecil’s research mean very little now that this Maine angle has blown all our basic assumptions about this mystery right out the window. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/5 "2011-01-21T12:25:13Z")
> [@forrie](#): > > A good friend of mine told me it was based on Don Henley’s experience of being in a juvenile group “camp” called Elan in Maine. Here’s the Straight Dope kid. Don Henley was born in 1947. [Camp Elan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lan_School) was founded in 1970. Are you seriously telling me that Henley at the age of 23 went to a behavioral camp in Maine? Hell, he was a rock star, banging chicks, snorting coke and living life in the fast lane at that point. But, if you play the song _backward_, you’ll find out the real secret stuff. ---
**Author:** ![bri1600bv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9fc29f/32.png) [@bri1600bv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bri1600bv)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/6 "2011-01-21T17:39:29Z")
I always thought it was about sexual desire/decadence in the southern California lifestyle of the 1970s…“they stab it with their steely knives but they just can’t kill the beast”…no matter how much you indulge you can’t satiate yourself. Also somewhat phallic. “Check out any time you like but you can never leave” as in you get so jaded by what you see and do that you can never regain your “innocence”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2011, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hotel-california-lyrics/568361/7 "2011-01-21T22:59:22Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Here’s the Straight Dope kid. > > Don Henley was born in 1947. [Camp Elan](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89lan_School) was founded in 1970. Are you seriously telling me that Henley at the age of 23 went to a behavioral camp in Maine? Hell, he was a rock star, banging chicks, snorting coke and living life in the fast lane at that point. > > But, if you play the song _backward_, you’ll find out the real secret stuff. So it was really the Letoh Ainrofilac? I’m so confused.