# So is Hotel California about a Haunted House, or What? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 11, 2018, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953 "2018-12-11T18:50:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2018, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/41 "2018-12-14T18:45:45Z")
Silly me… I had always thought that the song was about…California. The culture and varied lifestyles of California that is. I guess I got it from the line about not having wine since 1969 which was a few years after a long strike by California vineyard workers who eventually reached an agreement in 1970. Plenty of room any time of year you can find it here - California’s varied climate areas where you can ski the mountains or surf the ocean, stay warm in San Diego or cool in San Francisco. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2018, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/42 "2018-12-14T21:30:00Z")
As an aside: there is a semi-famous member of 4chan, nicknamed “weaver”, who created several “RPG adventures” in the forums: he opened a thread wherein he presented characters, drew scenes, and let the readers propose a course of action for the characters. Lather, rinse, repeat, and the final result could be really interesting. One of them was “Nan Quest” and it very probably drew some inspiration from the “spooky” interpretation of the song “Hotel California”. You can check it out (in a compiled and relatively easy-to-navigate format) in the following link: [http://mozai.com/quests/NanQuest/](http://mozai.com/quests/NanQuest/) I really recommend it 🙂 Enjoy! ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/43 "2018-12-15T01:05:42Z")
Back around 1986 as part of their Sunday night special programming, San Diego’s 103.3 (?) radio station\* (re)broadcast the “Westwood One Radio Network” production of Pink Champagne on Ice, an in-depth look at Hotel California complete with interviews with Eagles band members and, of course, playing each track from start to finish. Including commercial breaks, the listening experience lasted 3 hours. They don’t emphasize it much#, but the top of the tower in the left of [this picture](https://www.csuci.edu/) is what’s on the cover of the album in question. If you’ve clicked on the link, you’ll know where it is; if you haven’t yet, I’ll spoil the not-so-secret secret and tell you it’s the campus of Channel Islands University, a California State University member (CSU-CI) located in Ventura County. If you take Lynn Road off the 101 and follow it south, it will wind its way past open preserves and steep hills and become Portrero Road and eventually get to Highway 1 (The Pacific Highway) near Point Hueneme naval base. Just a few twisty-turns before you get to Highway 1, you’ll pass CSU-CI; it’s quite a lovely campus, nestled in the hills and looking toward the ocean. As you might have guessed, the site was not created to be a university campus. In fact, it didn’t open for CSU classes until 2002. The literature for CSU-CI says it was built in the 1930’s as Camarillo State Hospital but, if you look up that name, you’re taken to information about Camarillo State MENTAL Hospital. This would explain why its located in a place that is both far from major cities and difficult to access even if you know which way to turn. It was very threatened by the Hillside Fire which started in Camarillo in November of 2018 and by various other fires that have burned from the 101, over the hills, and to the ocean. If you’ve followed me this far, you’ll have to trust me when I note that, back in the 1930’s when it opened, people who were checked in to a mental hospital were usually NOT there voluntarily and, therefore, usually couldn’t voluntarily check out, either. Well, maybe they could check out; they just couldn’t physically leave… The WIKI2 article about Camarillo State Mental Hospital notes that it eventually became innovative and renowned for its advances in both mental health and developmental disability treatments for adults, youths, and young children. Late in the article it notes that they branched out into the treatment of severe alcohol and drug abuse/addiction treatment. They went from being a remote lock-down asylum to being a remote detox center long before Passages in Malibu became the celebrity sobriety spot\* – but that was in the mid-80’s while Glenn Frey claimed he wrote the song while he was detoxing in 1975. Oooh! Spooky and strange! In any case, since Frey admitted to residing there at all, he would undoubtedly have heard (if not experienced) the history of the site being an insane asylum. And in Pink Champagne on Ice, Don Henley says they were inspired by Al Stewart’s _Year of the Cat_, which he described as a montage of partial descriptions bleeding together into a musical carnival ride. Furthermore, the timing of the song’s writing and development also seems more-than-coincidental. Year of the Cat was produced by Alan Parsons and came out in 1976 while The Alan Parsons Project released The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether on their Tales of Mystery and Imagination album (full of songs based on Edgar Allan Poe’s work) and it’s tough to believe Frey, Henley, or both weren’t influenced (at least subconsciously) by the juxtaposition of the two songs into a got-exhausted-on-the-road-and-trapped-in-an-asylum masterpiece, which came out in the summer of 1976. –G! #Not on the splash page, but apparently the student body has adopted the bell tower as its official icon. \*Actually, I have no idea when that place opened and, yes, I admit I’m being rudely flippant about the problem. My apologies to any celebrities reading this who have had their addiction(s) disrespected. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/44 "2018-12-15T03:58:52Z")
I’ve never really listened to the lyrics; I can’t bear to, because the song is so unbearably insipid–like so much of 70s music before punk came along. But for a long time I thought that it might be about [the hotel represented by that huge sign that was left on Riverside Drive for years](https://www.kcet.org/history-society/sign-of-the-times-the-strange-fortune-of-the-hotel-californian), and then I realized that’s the Hotel California_ **n** _, (with an N). > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > . . . he proceeded to tell me what a HUGE Eagles fan he was and that his favorite was “Hotel California.” Yeah, if you go out with friends to a club in Colombia, usually about 3am, after every table’s gone through several bottles of aguardiente, and after all the salsa, merengue and vallenato, the DJ will inevitably play this song, for “slow dancing.” Nobody knows what the song is about. All they know is that it’s about a hotel, and it’s about California, and if you’re male, and from California, some colombiana will want to dance with you, and you can’t really say “no” just because you can’t stand the song. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/45 "2018-12-15T04:08:37Z")
> [@guizot](#): > > . . . that huge sign that was left on Riverside Drive for years . . . . . . and now is back at the original place in Westlake, on a new building, I forgot to add. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/46 "2018-12-15T23:48:56Z")
> [@Grestarian](#): > > In any case, since Frey admitted to residing there at all, he would undoubtedly have heard (if not experienced) the history of the site being an insane asylum. And in Pink Champagne on Ice, Don Henley says they were inspired by Al Stewart’s _Year of the Cat_, which he described as a montage of partial descriptions bleeding together into a musical carnival ride. Furthermore, the timing of the song’s writing and development also seems more-than-coincidental. Year of the Cat was produced by Alan Parsons and came out in 1976 while The Alan Parsons Project released The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether on their Tales of Mystery and Imagination album (full of songs based on Edgar Allan Poe’s work) and it’s tough to believe Frey, Henley, or both weren’t influenced (at least subconsciously) by the juxtaposition of the two songs into a got-exhausted-on-the-road-and-trapped-in-an-asylum masterpiece, which came out in the summer of 1976. This is fascinating. I’m a huge Alan Parsons Project fan, but I’ve never heard about this connection. I can believe it, though. I grew up near Ventura (Ojai, a little north) and lived there until the early Eighties. Camarillo State Hospital was definitely well known as a mental hospital (the kids would joke about “getting sent to Camarillo State.”) I went there on a field trip for a high school psychology class, so it was still one in the early Eighties. I didn’t realize it closed in 1997. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/47 "2018-12-16T07:11:53Z")
I’ll agree that it’s probably coincidence that ‘Colita Heroin Laf’ is an anagram of ‘Hotel California.’ And I’ll agree that many of the words were chosen just for images, rhyme or meter. But one line is very clear: ‘This could be heaven or this could be Hell’ **Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way.** Thank you, ma’am; I’ve never injected heroin before. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/48 "2018-12-16T10:19:56Z")
> [@Slash1972](#): > > It’s about drugs. Just like 99% of songs. It’s right in the name: > > (H)otel = Heroin > (C)alifornia = Cocaine Wait, H. C. means heroin and cocaine? That gives an apt meaning to the use of those initials in _Illuminatus!_ (I would have thought the writers were inspired by “HOT” and “COLD” taps in a basin, and RAW seemed like a weed guy, anyway.) > [@Icarus](#): > > Nah, it’s about running for the Presidency. The Hotel California is the White House, the “beast” is…well, you know… > > (H)illary > (C)linton > > 😃 > [@Sir\_T-Cups](#): > > It’s about a sandwich. It’s right there in the name > > (H)otel = Ham > (C)alifornia = Cheese > [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](#): > > It’s about snacks. It’s right there in the name > > (H)otel = Hostess > (C)alifornia = Cupcakes > mm > [@kenobi\_65](#): > > For which one will have a serious craving after spending an evening partaking in colitas. 😃 [Ted “Theodore” Logan]Whoa! > [@BubbaDog](#): > > Silly me… I had always thought that the song was about…California. > The culture and varied lifestyles of California that is. > > I guess I got it from the line about not having wine since 1969 which was a few years after a long strike by California vineyard workers who eventually reached an agreement in 1970. > > Plenty of room any time of year you can find it here - California’s varied climate areas where you can ski the mountains or surf the ocean, stay warm in San Diego or cool in San Francisco. Man. That’s deep, man. From what I’ve heard, in an interview with the writers I think, the song was meant to be like something Steely Dan would write, hence “steely knives;” but what it all _means_, eh, yeah, that wasn’t as clear. I think rock songwriters sometimes don’t care that much if the song really makes sense or means one actual thing. It’s part of the music, man. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/49 "2018-12-16T21:48:50Z")
> [@foolsguinea](#): > > From what I’ve heard, in an interview with the writers I think, the song was meant to be like something Steely Dan would write, hence “steely knives;” but what it all _means_, eh, yeah, that wasn’t as clear. I think rock songwriters sometimes don’t care that much if the song really makes sense or means one actual thing. It’s part of the music, man. **DrDeth** previously pointed that out: > [@DrDeth](#): > > wiki:\* “According to Glenn Frey’s liner notes for The Very Best Of, the use of the word “steely” in the lyric, “They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast,” was a playful nod to the band Steely Dan, who had included the lyric “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening” in their song “Everything You Did”.[15] Frey had also said that the writing of the song was inspired by the boldness of Steely Dan’s lyrics and its willingness to go “out there”,[12] and thought that the song they wrote had “achieved perfect ambiguity.”[14]”\* ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2018, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/50 "2018-12-16T22:19:17Z")
Perfect ambiguity sounds… perfect. Heroin and Cocaine, that makes sense. And then there’s the “real” Hotel California, a hotel in Baja, in Todos Santos, about 40 miles north of Cabo (gMap, [Google Maps](https://goo.gl/6WFRFS)). You can drive down a dark, desert highway to get to it. But there is a [clear disclaimer at the bottom of the hotel’s history page](https://goo.gl/KEhGb7): > [@](#): > > The song “Hotel California” by the Eagles was not in any way inspired by the Hotel California in Todos Santos. The hotel wishes to inform its guests that there is no past or present connection between the hotel and the Eagles, any of its members, or their song. Any rumors or innuendo suggesting that the song is associated with or inspired by the hotel are untrue. Still, we stopped in for drinks when we drove through. It was a nice break, and I snapped one of my favorite pictures of my wife there ([In Todos Santos, Baja, across the street from a hotel named Hotel California (but not of Eagles' song fame). - Imgur](https://imgur.com/wCk3Sw9)). We were across the street from that Hotel California, which is off the frame to the viewer’s right in that picture. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/51 "2018-12-20T12:09:55Z")
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air My cousin thinks that colitas is actually Clematis ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/52 "2018-12-20T14:52:42Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air > > My cousin thinks that colitas is actually Clematis Sure it isn’t “colitis”? Or can there only be one rock song about colitis? ---
**Author:** ![MeanJoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanjoe/32/5693_2.png) [@MeanJoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanJoe)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/53 "2018-12-20T19:18:41Z")
I’m shocked no one has dragged out the old Fundamentalist Christian interpretation about the founding of the Church of Satan, satanic cults, etc. As a teenager in the 80’s who went to a Fundamentalist Christian school, this was one of the common examples of the satanic nature of Rock & Roll music. Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, and KISS were old standby’s by anti-Rock preachers brought into youth group meetings. Haha ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/54 "2018-12-20T19:27:35Z")
> [@MeanJoe](#): > > I’m shocked no one has dragged out the old Fundamentalist Christian interpretation about the founding of the Church of Satan, satanic cults, etc. As a teenager in the 80’s who went to a Fundamentalist Christian school, this was one of the common examples of the satanic nature of Rock & Roll music. Hotel California, Stairway to Heaven, and KISS were old standby’s by anti-Rock preachers brought into youth group meetings. Haha Yep. I listened to a whole sermon or whatever about Hotel California. Wish I could find it now. The only thing I remember is “Check out anytime you like, but you can never leave” means doing drugs 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2018, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/55 "2018-12-20T20:28:22Z")
> [@WildBlueYonder](#): > > Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air > > My cousin thinks that colitas is actually Clematis [The Master Speaks](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1053/in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean/). ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/56 "2018-12-21T02:53:19Z")
There’s a high-end substance-abuse inpatient rehab nearby named Hotel California. I can’t think of a potentially worse music-related name for a rehab, except maybe St. James Infirmary. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/57 "2018-12-23T12:59:02Z")
> [@squeegee](#): > > [The Master Speaks](https://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1053/in-the-song-hotel-california-what-does-colitas-mean/). So many thanks to you! I cant wait to tell my cousin, later this morning 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2018, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953/58 "2018-12-23T20:51:20Z")
I stayed at a place in San Francisco once called the California Hotel. It made me just a bit uneasy until I did check out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-is-hotel-california-about-a-haunted-house-or-what/825953.md?page=2)