I thought this might be an interesting topic. I've never had any trouble understanding music... how it's written, style, form, etc. I learned a lot on my own from thousands of hours of listening and also from classes in school.
But they never taught anything about actual song writing and lyrics. I've always had a hard time interpreting certain songs.
Case in point... Hotel California by The Eagles. I was listening to it the other day and while I know the lyrics and can sing the song, I really don't know what I'm singing about.
I hope I don't sound too stupid about this (maybe I'm just too young to understand some of the references), but does anyone know what this song is about? I'm curious and haven't really figured it out...
Lyrics for this song can be found at:
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/eagles/hotelcalifornia.html
If this becomes interesting enough, maybe we can discuss some other songs as well...
Thanks,
Scott
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Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Sound Forge 6, SONAR, SONAR 2, SONAR 3 and **Sonar 4 Power!** books. Books up to 37% off at: http://www.garrigus.com/
Publisher of DigiFreq. Win a free copy of Native Instruments' INTAKT software loop sampler and learn cool music technology tips and techniques by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... over 17,000 readers can't be wrong! Go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/
Sometimes it is best just to let one's imagination let it mean whatever comes to mind while listening to the song and if we all think something different - all the better.
On the web, here is an explanation that wouldn't have occurred to me:
Hotel California is an allegory about hedonism and greed in Southern California in the 1970s. At the time of its release, the Eagles were riding high in the music world, experiencing material success on a frightening level. Though they thoroughly enjoyed the money, drugs, and women fame threw their way, they were disquieted by it all and sought to pour that sense of unease into their music and to warn others about the dark underside of such adulation.
In a 1995 interview, Don Henley said the song 'sort of captured the zeitgeist of the time, which was a time of great excess in this country and in the music business in particular.' In another interview that same year, he referred to it as being about a 'loss of innocence.'
The album has as its underlying theme the corruption of impressionable rock stars by the decadent Los Angeles music industry. The celebrated title track presents California as a gilded prison the artist freely enters only to discover that he cannot later escape.
The real Hotel California is not a place; it is a metaphor for the west coast music industry and its effect on the talented but unworldy musicians who find themselves ensnared in its glittering web.
My understanding was different :)+) And I don't recall hearing Henley's interview.
But The gist of the song went like this. California has since the movie industry took root out their many years ago had quite an influx of fortune seekers, star wanna be's, and plain ol job seekers (read Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck)
This fostered a feeling (by the natives at least) that they lived in a grad ol Hotel as they sat around watching the gold diggers/star struck move through.
But the air and the attitude out in sunny California was so different from the rest of the world that once you went there you were somehow changed by the experience thus the 'you can check in but you can't check out reference.'
And that this attitude/experiance was somehow corrupting but you were simply helpless to head the warnings about it. You were trapped in that rarefied world forever if you so much as stayed a day to long.
Now play the twilight zone theme and fade to black.
Strange, but it seems they all fit in one way or another. I guess that's a sign of good song lyrics. :-)
Scott
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Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Sound Forge 6, SONAR, SONAR 2, SONAR 3 and **Sonar 4 Power!** books. Books up to 37% off at: http://www.garrigus.com/
Publisher of DigiFreq. Win a free copy of Native Instruments' INTAKT software loop sampler and learn cool music technology tips and techniques by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... over 17,000 readers can't be wrong! Go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/
Throw out another one Scott. I like the idea, personally. I enjoy hearing what other musicians have read or heard about songs and lyrics. The story behind the story.
I had heard a long time ago that whiter shade of pale referred to nothing. That the song is about nothing in particular at all. While the song itself is a classic and I personally like it and the group that did the song. I've could never form a coherent image on this tune. This was back in the day when most really good tunes had a theme. A story to tell. A solid image to convey. And for me what sets this song apart from all those classic hits I still like to hear is that lack of a solid image. I wonder if that tune influenced the Beatles because they begin turning out tunes in a similar style. I am the walrus ku ku ka choo.
i was just listening to this song at my office and i was always enthralled by beautuiful but cryptic tone of the melody. it seems to me that it is more of a ghost story, like spirits haunting this once famous bordello style hotel because, even after they had died, their souls want to dwell there forever. maybe this guy got caught up in their world and now hes trapped because the spirits, especially the woman he sings about, won't leave alow him to return. kinda twilight zone huh? anyway thanks for the clarity. peace
Yeah, that's another good interpretation. It's very cool how this lyric lends itself to so many different explanations.
Scott
--
Scott R. Garrigus - Author of Cakewalk, Sound Forge and Sound Forge 6, SONAR, SONAR 2, SONAR 3 and **Sonar 4 Power!** books. Books up to 37% off at: http://www.garrigus.com/
Publisher of DigiFreq. Win a free copy of Native Instruments' INTAKT software loop sampler and learn cool music technology tips and techniques by getting a FREE subscription to DigiFreq... over 17,000 readers can't be wrong! Go to: http://www.digifreq.com/digifreq/
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