Living in Oakland, I pass that hotel constantly when driving home from SF. Of course, their neon sign almost never has all the letters working, which only seems appropriate.
I have read so many interpretations of this song, all of them plausible. But this reminds me of a Thai cab driver who picked me up in Bangkok one night. When he learned I could speak Thai, he proceeded to tell me what a HUGE Eagles fan he was and that his favorite was “Hotel California.” Then he wanted me to explain the lyrics to him, in Thai. Uhhh, I was not even about to attempt that in my my struggling language skill.
About two years ago, at the cafe where I work, I took an early morning delivery before our manager arrived. I had to use my access card to get the young delivery guy back onto the elevator, and I said “You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave.” He didn’t get the joke, and I felt so freakin’ old.
Growing up in LA in the 70s and 80s it was always clear to me that it was about the self-satisfaction and alienation that Los Angeles generates. At that point it was a city - certainly obsessed with celebrity and fame - with many homes but few real neighborhoods.
Between 1940 and 1980 the population of Los Angeles County went from 2.7MM to 7.4MM. As a boy it seemed there were new kids introduced to class every single week. It was almost disorienting.
Toss in other SoCal songs on the album like Life in the Fast Lane, New Kid in Town and The Last Resort and it’s The Eagles attempt to define a very strange, changing city.
I always took it as a metaphor for drug addiction. “You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave” pretty much perfectly describes it. Or so I’ve been told.
Also, he built a cage with her bones. Even creepier.
‘Hotel California’ was really about the intoxicating yet soul-destroying attractions of the California music scene - specifically the Laurel Canyon bohemian culture of drugs, money, record company sleazebags, and general craziness. Zevon wrote about all that as well, but he did it more as ascerbically and with more wit.
Ultimately, the Eagles embraced that culture and epitomized it, while Zevon spat in its face. While they were writing about ‘life in the fast lane’, Zevon was writing about the people that system chewed up and spat out.
“And if California slides into the ocean,
Like the mystics and statistics say it will,
I predict this motel will be standing,
Until I pay my bill.”
Exactly. “Hotel California” is the Eagles’ attempt to write well. Most of their material, while good, was pretty lightweight and direct - and they knew it. “Hotel California” was an attempt, largely successful, to write more metaphorically, iceberg style if you will, with many potential meanings and incisive, cutting language.
When I was a kid, evangelicals preached that the song was about the Church of Satan, and it’s not impossible that HC show’s reflects some influence of LaVey’s crew and their debaucheries. More broadly speaking, the main topic of the song remains the excesses of the 1970s California culture the Eagles found themselves a part of. Drugs, materialism, meaningless sex, general lassitude, the post-hippie Californians craved all these things. The song lends itself to other meanings, though. It’s a good piece of work.
