About david Expertise I am a self-proclaimed Eagles expert based on my voracious research in libraries and on the internet. Have taped hundreds of hours of live Eagles radio interviews and any and all television broadcasts of Eagles related biographies or interviews. Own every Eagles record, including the newly-released box set and have aquired the autograph of Glen Frey, been to Winslow Arizona, and conversed with their original promoter. Seen the band twice, once on my birthday! Using a Don Henley song in my wedding. Used a dissertation on the meaning of the song "Hotel California" as the basis for a public speaking class in college.
Question I'm sure you get this question all the time, but what does the Hotel California mean? I have a speech due monday and I want to use this song as my subject. Thanks for your help.
Answer I do get this question alot! The simple answer is that there is no true meaning to this song. The Eagles were impressed by the way that Steely Dan could make what they described as "junk sculpture" songs where they took weird disjointed lyrics, combined them with great music, and turned out hits. In fact, this song evolved in the reverse style of song making, with the great guitar parts of Don Felder laid down first, and then lyrics added later.
Although "HC" has many disctinct images and unusual twists of phrases, there is no meaning behind it other than to decribe a fictional place in the desert that Henly/Frey may have visited on a drug-induced head trip and not in their cars. It also skewers the decadence and opulence in which every southern Californian was living, or attempting to live at that moment in the late seventies.
The rest of the album does this as well, with songs like "Life In The Fast Lane," "New Kid In Town," and, in my opinion, their best-ever song, "Last Resort." Listen to this album as a time-capsule of the seventies and not for a dark meaning behind the title song.
I hope this helps. I did a speech on the Eagles in college too!!
