I have two questions about this song:
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Is there some kind of hidden meaning?
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What is meant by “programmed to receive”?
Partial explanation by The Perfect Master
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I think all songs have so sort of hidden meaning.
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Well you can check in anytime you want but you can never leave.
I’ll put my money behind the drug addiction theory.
And I’ll put my money that it has no “meaning,” but is merely meant to be evocative.
what?!? No mention of the Church of Satan?
Just wanted to say that Hotel California was playing on the radio when I saw this thread.
The power of the Eagles is greater than you thought.
Well, Cecil’s initial interpretation of the song is pretty much the same as mine. The individual verses of the song don’t make a whole lot of sense, but put together, they paint a pretty clear picture of rich people pursuing all kinds of sick pleasures that don’t make them happy. The people at the Hotel California are living in what SEEMS like Paradise, but which is really a destructive trap that they can’t get out of.
So… my sense is, the song is a meditation on life among the rich and famous in Southern California in the 1970’s. It was a time and a place where sex, drugs and cheap thrills were easy to come by. Those things both attracted and destroyed a lot of people. The dangers of that lifestyle are real, but so are the pleasures. And those pleasures are hard to give up, even when you realize they’re destroying you.
I’m sure drugs are PART of what the song’s about, but drugs were only part of what was seductive and destructive in L.A. in the 70’s.
So what happened in 1969 that the song might be referring to?
I too believe it to about drug addiction.
I’m not too familiar with the lyrics of the song so this may be completely off. But assuming its about the pitfalls of California at the time, Diceman, the event that immediately comes to my mind when I think of 1969 California is Altamont.