"Hotel California" The Eagles

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas, ____________________ up through the air Up ahead in the distance, I ____________________ shimmering light My head grew heavy and my sight ____________________ dim I ____________________ to stop for the night There she stood in the doorway; I ____________________ 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 ____________________ me the way There ____________________ voices down the corridor, I ____________________ I heard them say... Welcome to the Hotel California Such a ____________________ 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 ____________________ it here Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends She ____________________ a lot of pretty, pretty boys she calls friends How they __________________ in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat. Some dance to remember, some dance to forget So I ____________________ 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 ____________________ from far away, Wake you up in the middle of the night Just to ____________________ them say... Welcome to the Hotel California Such a lovely place (Such a lovely place) Such a lovely face They livin' it up at the Hotel California What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise) Bring your alibis 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 ____________________ for the feast They stab it with their steely knives, But they just can't kill the beast Last thing I remember, I ____________________ Running for the door I ____________________ to find the passage back To the place I was before 'Relax,' ____________________ the night man, 'We are programmed to receive. You can check-out any time you like, But you can never leave!'

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"Hotel California" The Eagles

The lyrics describe the title establishment as a luxury resort where "you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." On the surface, it tells the tale of a weary traveler who becomes trapped in a nightmarish luxury hotel that at first appears inviting and tempting. The song is an allegory about hedonism and self-destruction in the Southern California music industry of the late 1970s; Don Henley called it "our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles" and later reiterated "it's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about." In 2008, Don Felder described the origins of the lyrics: "Don Henley and Glenn wrote most of the words. All of us kind of drove into LA at night. Nobody was from California, and if you drive into LA 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. Coming into LA... and from that 'Life in the Fast Lane' came out of it, and 'Wasted Time' and a bunch of other songs." The abstract nature of the lyrics has led listeners to their own interpretations over the years. In the 1980s, some Christian evangelists alleged that "Hotel California" referred to a San Francisco hotel purchased by Anton LaVey and converted into the Church of Satan. Other rumors suggested that the Hotel California was the Camarillo State Mental Hospital. These claims have been consistently denied by the band. The term "colitas" in the first stanza of the song is a Spanish term, in Mexican slang for "little tails" and a reference to the buds of the Cannabis plant. In a 2009 interview, Plain Dealer music critic John Soeder asked Don Henley this about the lyrics: On "Hotel California," you sing: "So I called up the captain / 'Please bring me my wine' / He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.'" I realize I'm probably not the first to bring this to your attention, but wine isn't a spirit. Wine is fermented; spirits are distilled. Do you regret that lyric? Henley responded, "Thanks for the tutorial and, no, you're not the first to bring this to my attentionand you're not the first to completely misinterpret the lyric and miss the metaphor. Believe me, I've consumed enough alcoholic beverages in my time to know how they are made and what the proper nomenclature is. But that line in the song has little or nothing to do with alcoholic beverages. It's a sociopolitical statement. My only regret would be having to explain it in detail to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary devices in songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly and irrelevant argument about chemical processes."