Today on Days to Remember we celebrate how on February 26th 1977, the song called, “Hotel California,” was released from the Eagles.
When I heard the song called, “Hotel California,” from the Eagles it always reminded me of that Roach Motel advertisement, when you heard that one line from the song, “You can check in but you can never leave,” but how did the song generate its popularity?
The song was written by, Don Felder, the late Glenn Frey and Don Henley.
Don Henley later said in interview that was in London, on November 9, 2007 said: “Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing. 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.”
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.”
He offered yet another interpretation in the 2013 History of the Eagles documentary: “It’s a song about a journey from innocence to experience.”
You haven’t ever heard the song before and want to know what the innocence of that experience was, that the Eagles were referring too.
Today’s YouTube presentation brought to you by user name, (domenic catauro) gives the song from The Eagles singing the infamous song called, Hotel California.
Were any of the Eagles from California?
Don Henley was born in Texas; Glenn Frey was from Detroit, and Don Felder was from Florida.
In an interview with Don Felder he explained the purpose of the song was to give you a feeling.
“As you’re driving in Los Angeles at night, you can see the glow of the energy and the lights of Hollywood and Los Angeles for 100 miles out in the desert. And on the horizon, as you’re driving in, all of these images start coming into your mind of the propaganda and advertisement you’ve experienced about California.
In other words, the movie stars, the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, the beaches, bikinis, palm trees, all those images start coming into your mind of the propaganda and advertisement you’ve experienced about California. In other words, the movie stars, the stars on Hollywood Boulevard, the beaches, bikinis, palm trees, all those images that you see and that people think of when they think of California start running through your mind. You’re anticipating that. That’s all you know of California.”
Don Henley put it this way: “We were all middle-class kids from the Midwest. Hotel California was our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles.”
Don Felder came up with the musical idea for this song. According to his book Heaven and Hell: My Life in The Eagles, he came up with the idea while playing on the beach. He had the chord progressions and basic guitar tracks, which he played for Don Henley and Glenn Frey, who helped finish the song, with Henley adding the lyrics.
Later in 2001 when the group came back together, Felder claims that Henley and Frey added nothing original to the new version, and that this was simply a power play. Felder was fired from the band after disputing payments and royalties.
The Eagles spent eight months in the studio polishing take after take after take, until the song was released on February 26th 1977, to the public.
Written & Designed by JD Mitchell
jdmitchelldesigns@gmail.com
Days to Remember 