“Hotel California” (Eagles)

Yesterday I reminisced about my freshman year at Indiana University and mentioned the two albums that almost everybody in my dorm seemed to have—Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours and the Eagles’ Hotel California. (One of the guys across the hall also had Heart’s Dreamboat Annie on constant repeat, and I didn’t object to that at all.) Since we featured a track from Rumours yesterday (Stevie Nicks’ “Dreams“), it’s only fair that today’s classic song of the day be from the Eagles album, in this instance the LP’s title track, “Hotel California.”

“Hotel California” was written by Eagles Don Felder, Don Henley, and Glenn Frey; Felder did the music while Henley and Frey wrote the words. Released as a single in February of 1977 (the album itself came out two months earlier, just in time for Christmas in 1976), “Hotel California” went all the way to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100. It was the group’s fourth and final number-one hit, following 1974’s “Best of My Love,” 1975’s “One of These Nights,” and 1976’s “New Kid in Town.”

As I noted yesterday, I was not a huge fan of either Fleetwood Mac or the Eagles. The Eagles, especially, I found calculatedly commercial in their approach, more craftsmen than artists. That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate their work, however, especially a solid tune such as “Hotel California.” From its deliberately snarky lyrics to its track-ending two-minute long guitar duet, it is a well constructed piece of music.

About those lyrics. The group once described this one as an “interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles,” with Henley saying it was “a journey from innocence to experience.” Here’s what Don Felder remembers about writing the song:

“Don Henley and Glenn wrote most of the words. All of us kind of drove into L.A. at night. Nobody was from California, and if you drive into L.A. at night […] you can just see this glow on the horizon of lights, and the images that start running through your head of Hollywood and all the dreams that you have, and so it was kind of about that […] what we started writing the song about.”

I’m especially fond of the line that goes “They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast.” That’s a deliberate callout to the group Steely Dan, who had referenced the Eagles in “Everything You Did,” from their Royal Scam album (“Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are listening”). One good turn deserves another, I suppose.

(While I have trouble seeing the slick corporate boys from the Eagles having much in common with the darkly cynical Donald Fagen and Walter Becker of Steely Dan, there was apparently enough there that Eagles Timothy B. Schmidt, Glenn Frey, and Don Henley sang backup on the Dan’s song “FM (No Static at All).” Fascinating, the cross-pollination that sometimes goes on in the music industry.)

As to the guitar duet on “Hotel California,” credit goes to the combination of Don Felder and Joe Walsh. Felder goes first, followed by Walsh, then they end up playing in harmony until the fadeout. Some good drumming from Henley there, as well.

So forgive me for not being a huge Eagles fan but give me credit for recognizing one of their best tracks. It’s southern California corporate rock at its best, well-constructed and professionally performed. What more could you want?

Well, you might want to see the Eagles perform “Hotel California” live, which leads us to today’s daily bonus video of the day. Yes, it’s the Eagles performing “Hotel California” live at the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, back in 1977. They brought that same cool professionalism to their live performances, too—it sounds eerily like the record.