What is the song Hotel California by the Eagles about?

Question

What is the song Hotel California by the Eagles about?

Answer 1

materialism and excess  http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1...

Answer 2

The leader of the Satanic Church, Anton Szandor LaVey purchased a building that was formerly a hotel in California and turned it into a church in the late 60s.....the song tells a story about someone being "converted" and becoming part of the church

The inside cover of the album has Mr LaVey standing on the balcony overlooking the courtyard where the band is....he's barely visible

This lead to alot of talk about the Eagles being Satanic

EDIT*** See the link below...but before you click it, keep in mind that SATANISM is based on Self Centered Excess & Materialism!!!!!   For the knucklehead who TD'd

Answer 3

I've always thought it was about drug addiction, especially the line "you can check out but you can never leave."

Answer 4

There have been many speculations of it being about The Church of Satan founded by Anton La Vey in California in 1969.

Other speculation has been that it is about cocaine addiction.

Possibly both?

Answer 5

Well I heard that is about getting into rehab, Hotel California was just a famous name as the song "The House Of The Rising Sun" played by Eric Bourdon, those places were rehab clinic that in those days were mental institutes as they thought drug addiction and alcohol were mental illness.

There's another rumor that Henley was about to enter the recording studio and lost the main lyrics so he called his wife or grilfriend home and told her to dictate him the lyrics he had for the song but the phone line was too scratchy that he didn't understand the lyrics and so he  improvised it.

Answer 6

During a July 17, 2008 appearance on The Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite Radio, Don Felder described the origins of the lyrics:

    "Don Henley and Glen 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 and metaphoric nature of the song has led listeners to their own interpretations over the years, including some claims, spread by word of mouth and internet, of Satanic aspects. Other rumors suggested that the "Hotel California" was a mental hospital, a real hotel run by cannibals, or a metaphor for cancer. These claims have been consistently refuted by the band.

Answer 7

The best theory i have heard so far was Materialism.