Hotel California Essay

675 Words3 Pages
“ Hotel California” is a single song released by the rock band Eagles in 1977. The song was written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glenn Frey. It remains the best-selling album ever released. The song had sold more than 16 million copies in the United States alone. Looking to the time in which the song was released, the 70s was widely regarded as one of the golden eras of pop. Because of the Eagles and other singers, California was turned into the centre of the pop universe. However, a lot of people misinterpret the meaning of the lyrics since then. According to the band, the song was about excess and materialism. It was about greed and the temptations of humanity. It is about the hedonistic and excess driven lifestyle of Los Angeles and California culture of the late 1970s. Don Henley for instance said in the London Daily Mail “It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew. But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce.” The main themes of the song are the corruption and decadence of the Los Angeles music industry. On November 25, 2007 Henley appeared on the TV news show 60 Minutes, where he was told, "everyone wants to know what this song means." Henley replied: "I know, it's so boring. It's a song about the dark underbelly of the American Dream, and about excess in America which was something we knew about." The writers of the song were from the middle class. They wrote it to describe the high life in LA as what Don Henley said: "We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.” The first time you listen to the song, you will get the surface meaning, which is a story about a tired traveler who became trapped at a hotel. The hotel appeared at first as inviting and tempting. However, it was deceptive. The writers of the song used so

More about Hotel California Essay

Open Document