Hotel California - (This is going to be a lengthy post)

Because of its length, I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks now and then. I thought it would be nice to refresh my analytical essay writing skills. I don't get to do that enough in my business courses. It's pretty lengthy, but I think it's pretty good. Enjoy!

I think that most of the music made today sucks. Style and image have replaced substance and content. I used to like listening to rap and hip-hop when songs raised issues like poverty, violence, social injustice, and even politics.

But now, hip-hop, the videos in particular, has become nothing more than a rapper's penis-extension that shows off expensive jewellery, (rented) cars, money being thrown around, and scantily-clad, female sex objects who wouldn't be caught dead near these guys if they weren't being paid to do so.

While I was never exactly a big fan, the once rebellious punk and alternative rock has been taken over by a new breed of manufactured, heart-throb boy (and girl) bands that the original founders of the genre wanted to lash out against.

In terms of content, artistic decisions have been replaced by business decisions based on demograpics, market research data, and product placements.

This is why I'm only able to listen to old songs from the 60s and 70s: musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Santana, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, and others. In terms of artistic content, this kind of music was it. One of my all-time favourites is The Eagles' Hotel California. It has a great guitar solo and lyrics that can be interpreted in so many ways. I guess that this is where this ranting post is going.

I want to discuss on this post two popular interpretations for this song. One theory explains that the song is a criticism society's growing addiction to both drugs and materialism. The second interpretation states that the song is about the a satanic cult in an old, abandoned church called "Hotel California". What follows is a piece-by-piece analysis of the song that looks at the two possible interpretations.

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
’this could be heaven or this could be hell’
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here

This first part, in which I include the first version of the chorus, the narrator talks about being on a "dark desert highway". For both interpretations of the song, this loneliness in the dark shows his vulnerability to being pulled in by a drug addiction or by a satanic cult.

The next lines are interesting references to drugs. The "smell of colitas rising up through the air" is an obvious reference to marijuana, while the shimmering light that suddenly leads to the narrator's head feeling heavy and sight going dim is a description of the drug taking effect after lighting up and smoking. Getting into something that could be "heaven or (...) could be hell" is another clear reference to the highs and downs that a drug addiction brings.

This is further accentuated by the line: "Then she lit up the candle and she showed me the way", which can be interpreted as a reference to heroin use. A candle is used to liquefy the heroin in a metal spoon in order to be able to put it in a syringe.

The mission bell here refers to the satanic cult theory where the old church has been transformed into the evil, yet seductive, Hotel California.

Throughout the song, if you listen to lyrics' transition to the chorus, there's an eerie feeling about the place. The narrator hearing "voices" of people welcoming him to Hotel California almost sounds like the chanting of trapped, brainwashed cult members.

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

Just a couple of things to say about this piece here. First, the phrase "Tiffany-twisted" and the reference to Mercedes Benz are obvious references to materialism, with Tiffany referring to the Tiffany's jewellery store. That is, her mind was twisted by wanting excessive amounts of jewellery.

Dancing in the courtyard seems like a reference to the disco era and the excessive drug abuse of the time. The last line: "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" makes that clear. Drugs being used to remember and relive the happy days of their lives or to forget their daily problems is the obvious image coming from this.

So I called up the captain,
’please bring me my wine’
He said, ’we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine’
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the hotel california
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They livin’ it up at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

An interesting thing here regarding both satanism and materialism. First the reference to wine. The interesting play on words here is the captain's reply of not having "that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine". The spirit, in the literal context, refers to the alcohol.

In Christianity wine is a very powerful symbol representing the blood of Christ. In terms of the satanism theme, the spirit represents the Christian Holy Spirit that is no longer in Hotel California because the old church has been transformed. Apparently, this transformation happened (coincidentally?) in 1969.

As far as the materialism theme is concerned, the commentary seems to be about musicians. They have become more involved in money and material possessions and lost the "spirit" for their art that came to a peak at Woodstock (in 1969).

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back
To the place I was before
’relax,’ said the night man,
We are programmed to receive.
You can checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

This is pretty straightforward. The mirrors on the ceiling and the pink champagne are signs of excess. Being prisoners of their own device can be interpreted as being another reference to drug addiction.

What really makes the whole satanic cult thing more obvious here is the reference to killing an animal with "their steely knives". Although it does talk about a "feast" the narrator seems to be so freaked out about what he saw. He wanted to run away until he gets told that he can never leave that place. Being "programmed to receive" was a great way to really emphasize the idea of brain washing that goes on in a cult.

The song then ends with a great guitar solo that just makes your spine tingle.

Now that's what I call great music. Unfortunately, very few, if not nobody, makes songs like these anymore. It's really too bad that our generation has to get stuck with bad music while our parents got so bombarded with so much good music, but they never noticed how good they had it. Then again, our kids will probably complain that we didn't appreciate the intellectual content of Ludacris' classic song "Move Bitch, Get Out the Way" or the brilliant use of double-entendres in 50 Cent's "Candy Shop".

That's it for me for now. Happy Easter.