HOTEL CALIFORNIA

by Eagles
(Don Felder/Don Henley/Glenn Frey)

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 dimmer I had to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway; I heard the mission bell And I was thinking 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… Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (such a lovely face) Plenty of room at the Hotel California Any time of year, you can find it here Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz 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 So I called up the Captain, "Please bring me my wine" He said, "We haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine" And still those voices are calling from far away, Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to hear them say… Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (such a lovely face) They livin' it up at the Hotel California What a nice surprise, bring your alibis Mirrors on the celing, 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 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!

© Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Hotel California is an album released by American rock band Eagles in late 1976 (see 1976 in music). It is the first Eagles album without founding member Bernie Leadon, and the first album with Joe Walsh. It is also the last album featuring original bass player and singer Randy Meisner. History Hotel California was the Eagles' fifth album of original material and became a major commercial hit; since its release in late 1976, it has sold over 16 million copies in the U.S. alone, and is considered their best-selling album of original material. The album was at #1 for eight weeks between late 1976 and early 1977 (non-consecutively), and included two tracks which became #1 hits as singles on the Billboard Hot 100: "New Kid in Town", on February 26, 1977, and "Hotel California" on May 7, 1977. Hotel California is one of the top 15 best-selling albums of all time in any category. This also makes them one of the top 5 best-selling bands in the United States, the list including three other rock artists; - The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Elvis Presley. In 2001 the TV network VH1 named Hotel California the 15th greatest album of all time. Hotel California was ranked 13th in a 2005 survey held by British television's Channel 4 to determine the 100 greatest albums of all time. In 2003, the album was ranked number 37 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. Themes Hotel California touched on many themes, including innocence (and the loss thereof), addiction to drugs, death, the dangers, temptations, and transient nature of fame, shallow relationships, divorce and loss of love, the end results of manifest destiny, and the "American Dream." Members of Eagles have described the album as a metaphor for the perceived decline of America into materialism and decadence. In an interview with Dutch magazine ZigZag shortly before the album's release, Don Henley said: “ This is a concept album, there's no way to hide it, but it's not set in the old West, the cowboy thing, you know. It's more urban this time (. . . ) It's our bicentennial year, you know, the country is 200 years old, so we figured since we are the Eagles and the Eagle is our national symbol, that we were obliged to make some kind of a little bicentennial statement using California as a microcosm of the whole United States, or the whole world, if you will, and to try to wake people up and say 'We've been okay so far, for 200 years, but we're gonna have to change if we're gonna continue to be around.' ” The album's final track, the epic "The Last Resort", was about the demise of society. Glenn Frey on the Hotel California episode of In the Studio with Redbeard explained about the track: “ It was the first time that Don took it upon himself to write an epic story and we were already starting to worry about the environment...we're constantly screwing up paradise and that was the point of the song and that at somepoint there is going to be no more new frontiers. I mean we're putting junk, er, garbage into space now. The songs story line was also featured in Monkey Dust ´´