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Thread: Author Misses Point of Hotel California...what do you think?

  1. #11
    Out on the Border
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    Default Re: Author Misses Point of Hotel California...what do you think?

    Quote Originally Posted by Freypower View Post
    The majority of them were. However Don Felder objected to them doing the Alan Cranston benefit & a couple of other political things, I believe. In recent years Don Felder played at a Republican national convention.
    Oh yes, I remember that!

  2. #12
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    Cool Re: Author Misses Point of Hotel California...what do you think?

    A few words about the song "Hotel California."

    The song is a lament - a biting and angry lament, at times - about finding out that your dreams are only that - dreams.

    "I came out here, like a million other young people from all over the country, and I had this vision of what California was like," Henley once said. "It was the music, and the beaches, and the girls, and the idea that… (L.A.) was the center of the world, culturally and spiritually. And I wanted to be part of that. It was bigger than real life."

    Frey's expectations were similar.

    "I came out here from Detroit, which isn't the greatest place to live in the winter, and… you get out here, it's 80 degrees and the sun is shining and people are eating outside and it's, like, mid-January. And then, coming here as a musician - I used to tell people back home that it was like being in heaven and getting away with all the sin you could stand. It was almost TOO cool to be real."

    But it was real. The beaches were there for anyone to lie on, and you could barbecue the family's Christmas dinner in the back yard if you wished. I had a girlfriend who never wore shoes, except when she absolutely had to. No big deal - it was SoCal.

    But then, things changed, as things will. Back in the early '70s, you could rent a place in a cool neighborhood for a couple hundred bucks a month. I lived in an amazing redwood house in Topanga Canyon, just a half-mile from Bernie Leadon's place and a few hundred feet from Woody Guthrie's old domain, for the princely sum of $245; the landlord was always concerned that he was charging too much and that Karma would come around to bite him in the ass.

    And, lo, it came to pass that everything (almost) became centered around money, particularly in the "entertainment business." Part of it had to do with the astronomical earnings of musicians and managers and record company owners; part of it had to do with the arrival of people from Asia and Europe and New York who were astute enough to recognize that real estate values in sleepy L.A. - no high-rises because, by law, nothing could be taller than 16-story City Hall - were about to explode with a capital BANG! And part of it had to do with cocaine, a very expensive refreshment. If you wanted to be part of the In Crowd, you had to entertain your friends and yourself with small mountains of blow. Having your septum rebuilt soon became the most popular surgery one could get, at least in some zip codes.

    A lot of folks who'd come out here looking for the Dream had serious attacks of reality. It didn't help that California natives, like Eve Babbitz and, well, me, keep pissing and bitching about how great it was back in the old days. Evie, who was just an amazing woman with a finger in every aspect of the L.A. scene, probably contributed to Henley and Frey's writing "Hotel California" as much as anyone.

    I apologize if I'm beating this L.A. thing into the ground, BUT many of the band's song were about life in this corner of the world. (There are references to places that only people who lived in L.A. would get.) I think it's unlikely, to put it mildly, that anyone would write "The Last Resort" about Des Moines, or "Long Road Out Of Eden" as a tribute to Providence, R.I. Those places have their own stories and their own mythos, but The Eagles mythos was, like the "June Gloom," layered over The City Of Angels, waiting for the sun to clear everything up.
    Last edited by peneumbra; 06-29-2018 at 02:09 PM.

  3. #13
    Stuck on the Border Dawn's Avatar
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    Default Re: Author Misses Point of Hotel California...what do you think?

    Quote Originally Posted by peneumbra View Post
    A few words about the song "Hotel California."

    The song is a lament - a biting and angry lament, at times - about finding out that your dreams are only that - dreams.

    "I came out here, like a million other young people from all over the country, and I had this vision of what California was like," Henley once said. "It was the music, and the beaches, and the girls, and the idea that… (L.A.) was the center of the world, culturally and spiritually. And I wanted to be part of that. It was bigger than real life."

    Frey's expectations were similar.

    "I came out here from Detroit, which isn't the greatest place to live in the winter, and… you get out here, it's 80 degrees and the sun is shining and people are eating outside and it's, like, mid-January. And then, coming here as a musician - I used to tell people back home that it was like being in heaven nd getting away with all the sin you could stand. It was almost TOO cool to be real."

    But it was real. The beaches were there for anyone to lie on, and you could barbecue the family's Christmas dinner in the back yard if you wished. I had a girlfriend who never wore shoes, except when she absolutely had to. No big deal - it was SoCal.

    But then, things changed, as things will. Back in the early '70s, you could rent a place in a cool neighborhood for a couple hundred bucks a month. I lived in an amazing redwood house in Topanga Canyon, just a half-mile from Bernie Leadon's place and a few hundred feet from Woody Guthrie's old domain, for the princely sum of $245; the landlord was always concerned that he was charging too much and that Karma would come around to bite him in the ass.

    And, lo, it came to pass that everything (almost) became centered around money, particularly in the "entertainment business." Part of it had to do with the astronomical earnings of musicians and managers and record company owners; part of it had to do with the arrival of people from Asia and Europe and New York who were astute enough to recognize that real estate values in sleepy L.A. - no high-rises because, by law, nothing could be taller than 16-story City Hall - were about to explode with a capital BANG! And part of it had to do with cocaine, a very expensive refreshment. If you wanted to be part of the In Crowd, you had to entertain your friends and yourself with small mountains of blow. Having your septum rebuilt soon became the most popular surgery one could get, at least in some zip codes.

    A lot of folks who'd come out here looking for the Dream had serious attacks of reality. It didn't help that California natives, like Eve Babbitz and, well, me, keep pissing and bitching about how great it was back in the old days. Evie, who was just an amazing woman with a finger in every aspect of the L.A. scene, probably contributed to Henley and Frey's writing "Hotel California" as much as anyone.

    I apologize if I'm beating this L.A. thing into the ground, BUT many of the band's song were about life in this corner of the world. (There are references to places that only people who lived in L.A. would get.) I think it's unlikely, to put it mildly, that anyone would write "The Last Resort" about Des Moines, or "Long Road Out Of Eden" as a tribute to Providence, R.I. Those places have their own stories and their own mythos, but The Eagles mythos was, like the "June Gloom," layered over The City Of Angels, waiting for the sun to clear everything up.
    Hotel California isn't a place but rather a state of mind or being.

    Excellent post. So glad you are here to help recall the 60's and 70's in LA and through your own experience shine a spotlight into the corners of that world.

    "Stop, hey what's that sound .."
    Last edited by Dawn; 06-29-2018 at 05:58 AM.


    "Let's burn our long johns and head west" - Glenn Frey 1948-2016

  4. #14
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    Default Re: Author Misses Point of Hotel California...what do you think?

    When Glenn heard Felder's demo and he saw a guy driving a car on a highway with a light in the distance, I wonder if he was thinking of all kinds of metaphors and allegories or if it was just a guy driving a car. I've always had this feeling that - although aware of the meanings behind them - for Glenn the lyric was more about fascinating imagery and for Don more about deeper meanings, but I don't know if I'm right or wrong. Having said that, I think it's also been reported that Glenn said "I think this could be about....." (whatever it was)
    Last edited by chaim; 06-29-2018 at 10:55 AM.

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