(The Hit Hammer is where I'm reviewing each #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100. Starting from when the chart started in 1958 and eventually working my way to the present. To see my inspiration and more information about this blog, please CLICK HERE)
Eagles - "Hotel California"
Hit Number 1: May 7, 1977
Stay at Number 1: 1 Week
A guy is driving through a desert at night, and begins to feel extremely tired. He knows he's got to stop for the night, and to his luck, he sees lights in the distance which then become clear to him as belonging to a huge, luxurious hotel. It's called the "Hotel California." However, as soon as he steps inside, everything becomes so strange to him. He's got no idea if he's about to have the stay of a lifetime, or if it's going to be, to quote the song, "hell." It appears to be the latter. People are dancing in the courtyard, they refuse to serve him wine, people are waking him up in the middle of the night welcoming others to this bizarre place, and lastly, the thing that makes the narrator decide to finally leave, is some of those in the "master's chambers," stabbing a "beast," for their meal but they "just can't kill it." It's then that the narrator is told this place is only programmed to receive. He can check out any time he likes, but he can never leave. He's stuck in this bizarre, wacked-out nightmare of a hotel for, presumably, forever.
Alright. What the actual hell does this all mean? It certainly seems like something that may belong in the late '60s, during the psychedelic era when a bunch of songs were about things that didn't make much sense. Mostly because when they were being written, the songwriters were high off LSD. But by my research, the Eagles were stone-cold sober when they wrote "Hotel California," and they knew exactly what they were doing here. They even had a motive, and had a true purpose of what they were talking about here. "Hotel California," according to the band themselves, is a song detailing the life of L.A. How everything can seem so cool and glamorous on the outside, but once you get involved in what's going on there, you begin to realize it's just pure chaos. Everybody begins to know your name, some of the people around you become fake, and you have no idea who your true friends are anymore. A simple life just flat out doesn't exist for you any longer, and there's no getting it back. Don Henley would even describe the song as somebody experiencing losing their innocence.
None of the Eagles members were from California, so this whole new lifestyle for them as they were becoming famous was strange for them. Guitarist, Don Felder, said that the first time the band drove into L.A. at night, it was a surreal experience. He said that they began to see the glow of the lights over the horizon, and they began to officially realize they were about to make something of their dreams, and also, life would not be the same for them again at that point on. Obviously, the Eagles had already achieved plenty of success to this point, and have appeared in this series three times so far; twice before the Hotel California album was in production. But by the time 1976/77 rolled around, they were in the midst of this chaos I was talking about earlier. Henley already had what seemed to be a pretty nasty breakup with his L.A. native girlfriend, which some of the song's lyrics were inspired by, with the band also experiencing a life of too much money/fame, and at some points, drug abuse. The message I get from the song, is that L.A. isn't all it's cracked up to be. The life of L.A. can toss you around, put you down, and change your life, not always for the better. Fame is cool, but you can never flip that switch again. That's your life from there on out. So in that sense, "Hotel California" makes total sense. We're introduced to a guy who was just some ordinary man before, and though he wants that back after stepping into this strange metaphoric hotel, he's forever stuck in this chaotic world.
This was the Eagles' idea of "getting weird." They liked the sort of thing bands like Steely Dan were doing, which was basically jazz-infused soft rock (better known today as yacht rock) with complex lyrics that really took some thought to try to interpret. I'm as big a Steely Dan fan as you can find, but I can't figure out what a lot of their songs are supposed to mean. "Hotel California" isn't quite like that, as there is some meaning to what is going on, but if you're listening to this song for the first time, it makes no sense. I have to think that this is what the Eagles were trying to accomplish. Hell, I even remember trying to interpret their previous #1 single from the Hotel California album, "New Kid In Town," and continued to come up empty on what was truly going on in that song. Maybe the Eagles really did have a true "Steely Dan side" to them.
With all that being said, I'm not too sure that I'd put "Hotel California" into the "yacht rock" category. It's still some of that early, easy-listening classic rock that the Eagles pumped out earlier in the decade. It's just more "sophisticated" if you will. There's a little more going on in "Hotel California" than say "Best of My Love." But honestly who cares about all that? Cause "Hotel California" still rules. The guitar solo trade-offs between Don Felder and Joe Walsh right after Henley delivers that famous line "You can check out any time you like/But you can never leave!" is like a dagger to the soul. The guitar solos have a mind of their own, almost symbolizing the crazy, eternal lifestyle that one would have in L.A. Henley doesn't do anything too crazy on vocals, only allowing the story to be told to us even more clearly. The whole vibe of it is so, so mysterious as well, which fits perfectly. The only thing I'm not sure about is if "Hotel California" really needs to be nearly 7 minutes long. Particularly, I don't think the opening guitar solo needs to be as long as it is, but that's just me being critical, I'll admit. "Hotel California" is a damn near perfect song, and there's a reason it's still so celebrated today.
No, "Hotel California" is not my favorite Eagles song, and I also don't think it's necessarily their best. (I'm still a big stan for "One of These Nights." Fight me all you want) But it's the song that propelled the band into immortality. Whether you love "Hotel California," hate it, or are indifferent to it, you have to admit that it's one of the more important #1 hits of the '70s, if not all time. The world became a little more different when "Hotel California" entered it. We can check out anytime we like, but we can never leave.
GRADE: 9/10
IN POP CULTURE:
"Hotel California" has been featured in pop music several times, as one might expect, but I am having zero luck finding good quality videos of that. So, here's the top cover on YouTube by a band called Plethora. I think you guys would like this:
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