Hotel California: The real meaning behind the Eagles song revealed, and it's not what you think

The Eagles’ most famous single, Hotel California, sold 16 million copies in the United States alone since it came out, and remained at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart for 19 weeks. It has also won a Grammy Award for 'Record of the Year' in 1978.

Theories VS the true story

Glenn Frey, co-founder of the band, wrote the lyrics and Don Felder and Don Henley made the music (including one of the best guitar solos known to mankind). The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame said the song 'shaped Rock & Roll' and still has an impact today, more than forty years after it first came out.

The vast majority of people first heard the song as the description of a man meeting a beautiful woman in a hotel in California, and did not look further than that. Little did they know, the song is actually about something else entirely! Endless theories surround the true meaning of the song, with some people arguing that it is about the most excessive part of America, and others arguing that it is actually about a rehab facility or a mental institution.

Read more: Love music? The reasons why have been revealed and they might surprise you

Members reveal the truth behind Hotel California

To end speculations, several band members have said in interviews that the song is actually a denunciation of the hedonism and self-indulgence of America, the epitome of which is California, according to the band.

In an interview with 60 Minutes in 2002, Don Henley said the song is about ‘the dark underbelly of the American dream.’ In this song, the Eagles are criticizing the culture of excess surrounding fame and money in 1970s California, although they took part in that culture for a while. In a 2013 documentary entitled History of the Eagles, Henley said it was a song ‘about the journey from innocence to experience.’

Read more: What does your music taste say about your personality?

True meaning hidden within lyrics

The song begins with a man driving his car down a ‘dark desert highway’ and feeling the wind in his hair. He gets tired and stops for the night at a hotel on the side of the highway: the one and only Hotel California. Everything seems perfect at first, he meets a beautiful woman and enjoys some wine. However, at dinner time, everyone stabs a ‘beast’ that won’t die, which sends the man ‘running for the door’, of course.

Unfortunately for him, he learns that you can never leave the hotel, because everyone is here as a prisoner 'of their own device.' At first glance, the song could be a nightmarish encounter and nothing more, but it’s a lot more than that. The brilliantly written lyrics depict a dream gone bad, which is a representation of the American Dream (especially in California) fading as people understand the reality of the place.

Read more: Queen's guitarist reveals the one thing fans did that the band hated, and you probably do it too

The songwriter, Glenn Frey, drew inspiration from a 1965 novel by John Fowles, The Magus, in which a young depressed traveller finds himself drawn to a Greek recluse woman whose powers slowly detach him from reality, resulting in tragedy and loss. The book, just like the song, recounts the rise and fall of a young man’s idealism, something that could also be found in young people pursuing the American Dream, before being hit by the reality of the place.

Sources used:

ABCNews: 5 Things You Might Not Know About The Eagles' 'Hotel California'

Schmoop: Hotel California Meaning

Tampa Bay Times: The 'good life' evolves for Glenn Frey

American Songwriter: Revisiting the Meaning of the Eagles’ Hotel California as We Head Into 2022

Songfacts: Hotel California by Eagles