I’m sure Hotel California‘s meaning has been dissected many times by many people. The song is so obviously rich with metaphor and other poetics that analyzing it is hard to resist. My previous efforts at enhancing the meanings of songs have focused on songs that are less well known. Nevertheless, there are some aspects of this celebrated song that I have yet to see discussed, so I venture forth anyway.
One aspect I intend to discuss is what I consider the song’s reference to The Odyssey—Homer’s tale of Ulysses’ long and twisted voyage home from Troy.
I prefer the live version of the song that features a Spanish guitar introduction, echoing California’s Mexican/Spanish heritage that infuses the song’s lyrics. There are certain poetic devices that have been used for millennia to please the ear. Among those are rhyme and alliteration, alliteration being the repetition of the beginning sounds in strings of words. The “dark desert highway” and “saw a shimmering light” in the very first verse set the tone.
One thing to note in any “analysis” of a poem or song is that the authors rarely think in terms that were later devised by scholars to explain why the things that poets write please people. That’s a distinction that overly intellectualizes what artists do, and a misconception that bedevils many a high school English student, because their teachers ask for essays that ‘explain’ a song. I doubt the lyricists were thinking, “Let’s put some alliteration in there,” when they wrote the song. The sounds were just pleasing to the ear. The goal of my essays about songs is to enhance the enjoyment of the listener rather than ‘prove’ anything. Poetry is not math. It is not a problem to solve, and there is no definitive solution. Rather, the enjoyment of poetry is to pry open one’s imagination and one’s worldview. That can happen even, and especially if, the reader/listener can hold different and sometimes contradictory interpretations in mind.
On a dark desert highway Cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas Rising up through the air Up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim I had to stop for the night
The word that stands out most in the first verse is ‘colitas’. Supposedly that is a slang term for marijuana—something that will fit later in the song. I recently learned the term mondegreen, a mis-hearing of a word or sequence of words in a song or poem. There are many famous and funny mondegreens in popular music such ‘there’s a bathroom on the right’ instead of ‘there’s a bad moon on the rise’. I mention this only because, not being familiar with doper slang, I always heard the word as ‘calyptus or, I supposed, a shortened term for eucalyptus. Perhaps colitas is actually a corruption of eucalyptus, the pungent odor of which could easily overwhelm the distinctive smell of ‘weed’. (If you’re not from California or Australia, eucalyptus is the distinct odor that characterizes your grandfather’s Ben Gay.) In any case I thought it was the, perhaps imagined, reference to one of the most recognizable trees that dot the urban landscape of Southern California.
After years of listening to the song, I trained myself to think of the word as an unconscious reference to Charybdis, Homer’s whirlpool that Ulysses encountered, as he had to thread a narrow path between Scylla (the giant rock cliff) and Charybdis (the giant whirlpool). That interpretation came to me only after I started connecting other parts of the song to Ulysses.
The last 3 lines of the verse with its description of drowsiness led naturally into thoughts about the much touted ‘California Dream’ that the song spins in its own way.
There she stood in the doorway I heard the mission bell And I was thinkin’ to myself “This could be Heaven or this could be Hell” Then she lit up a candle And she showed me the way There were voices down the corridor I thought I heard them say
The first two lines evoke California with the reference to the mission bell. Oddly the woman lights a candle to lead our singer down a corridor rather than a hallway that one might expect in a hotel. These choices introduce a note of foreboding to weigh the scenario more towards the hell rather than the heaven of the 4th line. Candles and corridors with mysterious background voices are the stuff of horror movies.
[Chorus] “Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place) Such a lovely face Plenty of room at the Hotel California Any time of year (Any time of year) You can find it here”
The chorus suggests the dissembling of a used car salesman, especially with it’s quietly whispered repetition of the main selling points in “such a lovely place” and “any time of year”.
[Verse 3]
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted She got the Mercedes Bends, uh She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys That she calls friends How they dance in the courtyard Sweet summer sweat Some dance to remember Some dance to forget
The early lines of the third verse, reference the status symbols of Hollywood/Beverly Hills where luxuries are for show rather than intrinsic value just like “lots of pretty, pretty boys that she calls friends”. Tiffany is, of course, a famous brand of jewelry, but the luxury is twisting her. Some lyrics transcriptions go with the whole Mercedes Benz, but, given the twisted part of Tiffany in the preceding line, I hear bends, referring to the gut-wrenching condition a diver gets from coming up too quickly from the depths. Sticking with the mood of surface pleasure, it’s pretty, pretty boys, rather than men.
What I hear in the last lines is a reference to the lotus eaters of Ulysses’ tale, where a mindless pleasure and contentment replace ambition and accomplishment, especially with some dancing to remember (lost in nostalgia for the good times), and some dancing to forget (any bad times).
[Verse 4] So I called up the Captain “Please bring me my wine” He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here Since 1969″ And still those voices are callin’ From far away Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say
The question that immediately comes to mind is, why Captain? Is that a reference to a Bell Captain in a hotel? It could be, but it would seem Head Waiter would be more appropriate. Whatever the literal interpretation, to my mind, the careful choice of word reminds me again of Ulysses and his sea voyage.
The choice of wine also echoes of a homophone whine, which goes with the double-entendre in the next line, using spirit to literally refer to alcohol, but metaphorically refer to the spirit of ’69. 1969 is an odd choice, since 1968 with Eugene McCarthy’s failed “children’s crusade” for the presidency, the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and RFK, the violent demonstrations at the Democrat’s convention and subsequent arrest and detention of the Chicago Seven. The eventual election of Richard Nixon was the last pin deflating the balloon of the baby boomers who imagined they ruled the land with anti-war rallies and love-ins. Many of those boomers felt all they had left was to whine about the injustices they felt the world had meted out to them. Of course, the important thing is that 1969 rhymes with wine.
“Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place) Such a lovely face They’re livin’ it up at the Hotel California What a nice surprise (What a nice surprise) Bring your alibis”
The last verses of the chorus are altered this time as they emphasize that the pursuit of pleasure is now not just for its own sake, but to escape from the harsh reality implied in the preceding verse. An interesting side note on the use of the word alibi. I make no claim that the song-writers knew this, but in Latin the word alibi literally means, “I was somewhere else”, in other words, don’t look at me, I wasn’t responsible.
[Verse 5] Mirrors on the ceiling The pink champagne on ice, and she said “We are all just prisoners here Of our own device” And in the master’s chambers They gathered for the feast They stab it with their steely knives But they just can’t kill the beast
Again to my mind, already primed to think of Ulysses, trying to kill the beast makes me think of famous Greek myths of the Hydra, the sea monster that Perseus saves Andromeda from, or especially the Minotaur in his labrynth because of all the earlier talk of candle light and dark corridors. In any case they can’t kill the monster, the device, of their own creation that is imprisoning them in shallow pleasure. The last two lines strike again with alliteration stabbing with steely knives, but can’t kill the beast.
[Verse 6]
Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door I had to find the passage back To the place I was before “Relax,” said the night man “We are programmed to receive You can check out any time you like But you can never leave”
The word passage in the third line deliberately refers back to a ship route or a path through a dimly lit labrynth. I don’t know whether young people today still get the pun in the last time that you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Literally you can check out of a hotel, but in the slang of the sixties to check out meant to commit suicide. Given that we’re talking about California here and specifically Los Angeles and Hollywood, that verse as well as the whole song reminds me of something I once heard the famous screenwriter Rod Serling say. “You get some success in Hollywood, much beyond what you’ve ever had before until you start living a certain life-style. Then, they have you [and you have to write whatever they want you to in order to make enough money to support your new life-style].”
I hope all that I’ve said gives you something new to think about when that oh so familiar song that is still played frequently comes over the radio airwaves.
Musings of a Restless Mind 