Don Henley's Song 'The Hotel California'

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“The Hotel California”, one of the Eagles most famous songs, was released in 1977 with the album Hotel California and instantly caught the attention of rock lovers across the nation. Maybe because of the catchy lyrics, or maybe the interesting rhythm, but everything in the song added up to create on wild, entertaining song. Many people think that “The Hotel California” is a simple song about a man living a luxurious life in an extremely fancy hotel, but after looking deeper into the lyrics, I believe that the song can be translated to have a much bigger meaning that relates to the society that surrounds all of us. The song begins by describing a scene in which a man, the author, is traveling down a road in the desert. The “dark desert highway” that is mention in the first verse is used as a metaphor to represent the lead singers life, a journey. The entire song can be thought of as the thoughts of Don Henley, the lead singer for the Eagles, as he enters this “hotel”, which represents the luxurious life of fame, money, sex, and drugs while living the high life in the state of California. Still during the first verse, the smell of desert flowers and plants surround him as he is driving. He then begins to feel tired and …show more content…

People are dancing and singing, there are nice cars and expensive wines everywhere. The man then asks the “Captain” to bring him some wine and the Captain makes a remark about how the man has a certain something about him that he has not seen since the year 1969. I believe that the specific use of the year 1969 was inspired by Jethro Tulls’ song “We Used to Know”, which was released during the year 1969. Before the Eagles recorded “The Hotel California” they had traveled with Jethro Tull and very much looked up to him and his incredible music. Therefore, I think the use of 1969 was a small tribute to their close

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