Hotel California
The Eagles - December, 1976
Written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glen Frey
Chart Peak UK 2

Hotel California is undoubtedly one of the most memorable, dynamic and enigmatic songs of the 1970’s. For decades now music lovers have debated just what those strange lyrics with their loaded imagery actually mean. Is it a damning indictment of the drug fuelled rock and roll lifestyle or is it about the hotel industry on the west coast?

The story of Hotel California traces back to the early 70’s when the country rock boom was at its peak. Formed in Los Angeles in 1971 and hugely influenced by the likes of the Byrds and the Flying Burrito brothers...bands who’d really pioneered the genre of music commonly referred to as country rock.......The Eagles were quickly embraced by the public as one of the biggest bands of the 70’s...led by two very distinctive writers and front men Glen Frey and Don Henley they came to symbolise the American rock sound of that era like no other group.

After initial hits like Desperado they moved away from the rootsy sound of early albums and by the time of their fifth release in December 1976 they had recruited guitarist Joe Walsh and adopted a rockier more hard edged sound.

The album they unleashed that month was Hotel California and it was to become the most successful album of their career. It spent an amazing 63 weeks on the UK album charts but strangely enough peaked at number two. Over in their homeland however it was a different story it nestled in the album charts for an even more astonishing 107 weeks and reached the top spot into the bargain.

The opening track on the album was the title track itself and as Glen Frey remembers the backing track for hotel California came about in fairly unusual circumstances:

Guitarist Don Felder himself vividly remembers the day he came up with the idea for the song: he says:

"I had just leased this house out on the beach at Malibu-- I remember sitting in the living room, with the doors wide open, on a spectacular July day. I had a bathing suit on and I was sitting on this couch, soaking wet, thinking the world is a wonderful place to be. I had this acoustic 12-string and started tinkling around with it, and those 'Hotel California' chords just kind of oozed out”.

From such simple beginnings the song developed. Don had an old four-track recording machine set up in one of the back bedrooms of his house and he ran in and put his idea down before he forgot it. He added a simple cha-cha beat over it on an old beat box, played a 12-string guitar on top of that and a few days later came up with a bass line and mixed the whole thing down. The band all agree that the music was all Don Felder’s creation, Don Henley and Glen Frey wrote the words of the chorus and Don Henley himself composed the verses.

The track and indeed the entire Hotel California album was recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. Legend has it there was always chaos whenever the Eagles recorded there, with plenty of ego’s clashing, plenty of voices shouting and plenty of musical cooks doing their best to spoil the broth. Indeed over a period of troubled months it looked as if their masterwork might never see the light of day.

Facing up to the very real possibility that the song might be snuffed out before it ever saw the light of day Don Felder had an idea. Calling his housekeeper, he sent her rummaging through the heaps of tapes in his home studio until she'd located the original one he’s recorded on his humble four track, then he had her play it to him over the phone while he recorded it on a professional Sony Walkman.

So armed with the cassette he rushed back to Criteria studios. He played the tape to Joe Walsh so that he could re-learn all the guitar parts the band had liked in the first place. When they listened to the final mix, the five Eagles were a little taken aback by what they'd produced, and they admitted they were wary about releasing a single so different from their previous work...they shouldn’t have worried it turned out to be their fourth chart-topper, entering the Billboard Hot 100 at number 72 on February 26, 1977, and moving to number one 10 weeks later.

But still the public screamed what was it all about?!? Well theories about the exact meaning of Hotel California are everywhere on the web.....some fans and observers say it’s about drugs.....with the hotel a metaphor for cocaine addiction...which would make a nice change wouldn’t it? Some pages suggest it’s about a mental institution but most are adamant that it’s about a real hotel located in Baja California on the coastal highway.

Indeed many have suggested that the actual Hotel California was a fairly run down little establishment in Todos Santos.... In other words, the song is a damning indictment of the modern hospitality industry, with all its guests who "check out any time [they] like" but then "never leave."...

Unfortunately the truth is not as simple. That hotel closed in 1998 but famous travel writer Joe Cummings, who personally contacted the Eagles or rather Don Henley and his legal people, was told they had no connection at all with Hotel California in Todos Santos.

Written by Ralph McLean