(stepping into it) Let's discuss "Hotel CA" as A (not THE) greatest song ever

[UTUSN]

O.K., so I'm old, it's old, and when I'm gone it will still be there. But this thing has layers.


Me, boomer/marginal-Hippie, I first hear that song in a convenience store & it blew my mind. Not a concert.



Then, every time it played, fine.

Then, the band whatever, but when they did a reunion/whatever, THAT blew my mind.

I guess my mind is easily blewable. (I just heard it again tonight, that's why)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I LOVE that song, my dear UTUSN.

It is a wonderful, layered song.

It blows my mind too!

[UTUSN]

2. Thanks for the blowing not the BLEWING!1 n/t

[arcane1]

3. I can agree to that

Very well-constructed, with a chord progression that seems "on paper" as if it would sound terrible but instead perfectly fits the mood and tone of the song (and you instantly recognize it by the 2nd chord), and equally well-crafted multilayered lyrics. I appreciate the depths even more after 12 years in California.

Plus, it has guitar solos that demonstrate why Joe Walsh makes those faces when he plays

[Lars39]

5. Ran across this the other day:

[arcane1]

22. Interesting...

I just listened to the song, and he's right!

ps: great sig line you have there!

[Generic Brad]

4. Your mind sounds Tiffany twisted

Do you have a lot of pretty, pretty boys who you call friends?

[gratuitous]

6. Disqualified for one simple passage

How they dance in the courtyard
Sweet summer sweat (So far so good)
Some dance to remember (Uh oh)
Some dance (NOOO!) to (DON'T YOU FUCKING SAY IT!) forget. (Ah, shit)

Most. Embarrassing. Lyric. Ever.

[cliffordu]

7. Used to play that tune in a band I was in when it was on the top 100...

I played guitar.

I can still do that solo....

And keep clowning around for another 20 minutes.....lol....

Sure do love that song.

[cbrer]

8. Has it been recorded backwards?

Or set to a popular movie? But that only covers the commercial aspect doesn't it? There could be many nuances and intonations that only the enlightened, gifted ones can perceive...

Is there any word of that righteous revelation that can't be defined in at least 2 different scenarios or historical eras?

[lastlib]

9. "They stabbed it with their steely knives...

...but they just can't kill the beast."


I've often thought that was a veiled reference to the Manson clan/Tate murders. Any thoughts?

[bluesbassman]

10. Lots of theories on that...

Some say drugs, others say it's a reference to the music biz, still others say Henley was/is a Satanist.

Personally, I lean toward the music biz angle.

[OriginalGeek]

15. The church I grew up in often pointed to that album

as a shining example of Satan working his wiles on an unsuspecting earth.

Supposedly one of the pictures on the wall is Anton LaVey.


Then again, they also routinely criticized "known Satanists" Juice Newton and Barry Manilow and Simon and Garfunkle from the pulpit.

Did I mention I grew up with insane people?

[bluesbassman]

19. I hear ya. I played with the worship team at a fundie church for a while.

Some good musicians, but the hypocricy got a bit much for me.

[LuckyLib]

20. LOL. Simon and Garfunkel. I was raised Catholic and I thought

that was nutty enough. You REALLY had it bad!

[arcane1]

23. I read that it's a shout-out to Steely Dan

because they apparently mentioned the Eagles in a song.

But that's just about the word "steely", I have no idea what the whole scene represented in their mind. Its meaning varies with me depending on my mood

[riderinthestorm]

12. I was under the impression the song is about cocaine addiction

If you think of the lyrics, ALL of them make sense if its about being an addict

[MrCoffee]

11. Oh hell no

Hotel California (and every song the Eagles, either in whole or in part as solo acts, ever recorded) is utter shit. The rhymes are juvenile beyond all comprehension, as in, Dr. Seuss would shake his head and say "Oh come on, you can't do better than that?" The music is insipid to the point of being flagrantly insulting, and the whole thing reeks of pretension and wank.

Not on this day, good sir, when a brilliant artist has died, shall this blot on humanity be allowed a free pass. Hotel California is everything evil and sick in the music industry, and it is far better to stab out one's own eardrums than to hear the bleaty atonal whine of Don Henley making absolutely no fucking sense whatsoever.

[gratuitous]

13. A brilliant artist died today?

All I've heard about is some wanker in a rap group who wasn't fit to carry a real musician's guitar case. Who was the brilliant artist you refer to?

[OriginalGeek]

14. Dannnnng, why y'all mad doe?

I like 'em both. Both put on great shows too.

But I will admit that Joe Walsh is my main attraction to the Eagles.
And the Beasties sample John Henry Bonham.

all good things in my opinion.

[UTUSN]

16. Well, just because this thread popped up without my kicking it, I've never cared about lyrics

and the meaning or lack thereof of lyrics. As Dr JOHNSON said, "What is too silly to be said is sung." To me melody, musical hooks, are the maximum. Yes, pop hooks. I guess that's why I'm so big on TCHAIKOVSKY. While I am not advanced in music composition, I *did* play in the band and can read music, unlike many sophisticated musicians and composers who somehow canNOT read music. But that in itself is not a credential for me.

All I can say is that, while I don't play music BY EAR, I hear it BY EAR, and I can't imagine this song "insidpid to the point of being flagrantly instulting... pretension and wank," although I appreciate your arrangement of words in the service of your critique, I simply disagree you.

The piggybacking of somebody else's death that has nothing to do with anything is just a rhetorical trick. And I say this AS analysis, not as personal attack.

That said, I can only say that by contrast in the pantheon of my dislike, there is a fellow who, to me, casts a gigantic PALL on many a Friday's "Happy Hour," when poor working people would just like to relax after their labors with relaxing chat and soothing tunes, with his insistence on playing some famous (for some reason) thing by Pink Floyd (I don't know the name of the song) that sounds like (I have named: ) ZOMBIE MUSIC. The "Happy Hour" goes DEAD and that dude INSISTS on playing the danged thing, that after ten minutes before and after, has 30 seconds of a tuneful interlude. I'm sure that Pink Floyd song is adjudged to be a landmark by true afficionados, but it irks the piss out of me, so there.

[UTUSN]

17. And to contrast with my wackadoodle posts here that get much more traffic than my others

allow me to indulge in suggesting my other self in this thread that is sinking like a rock:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002644618

[bluesbassman]

21. Geez you're right Coffee, these are such much more inspired lyrics...

Rhymin' And Stealin'

Because mutiny on the bounty's what we're all about
I'm gonna board your ship and turn it on out
No soft sucker with a parrot on his shoulder
'Cause I'm bad gettin' bolder - cold getting colder
Terrorizing suckers on the seven seas
And if you've got beef - you'll get capped in the knees
We got sixteen men on a dead man's chest
And I shot those suckers and I'll shoot the rest

(chorus) Most illingest b-boy - I got that feeling
Cause I am most ill and I'm rhymin' and stealin'

Snatching gold chains - vicking pieces of eight
I got your money and your honey and the fly name plate
We got wenches on the benches - and bitties with titties
Housing all girlies from city to city
One for all and all for one
Taking out M.C.'s with a big shotgun
All for one and one for all
Because the Beastie Boys have gone A.W.O.L.
Friggin' in the riggin' and cuttin' your throat

Big biting suckers getting thrown in the moat
We got maidens and wenches - man they're on the ace
Captain Bly is gonna die when we break his face

(repeat chorus)

Ali Baba and the forty thieves

Torching and crakin' and rhymin' and stealin'
Robbin' and raping - busting two in the ceiling
I'm wheeling' - I'm dealin' - I'm drinking, not thinking
Never cower, never shower - and I'm always stinking
Yo ho ho and a pint of Brass Monkey
And when my girlie shakes her hips - she sure gets funky
Skirt chasing, free basing - killing every village
We drink and rob and rhyme and pillage

(repeat chorus)

I've been drinking my rum - a Def son of a gun
I fought the law and I cold won
Black Beard's weak - Moby Dick's on the tick
'Cause I pull out my jammy and squeeze off six
My pistol is loaded - I shot Betty Crocker
Deliver Colonel Sanders down to Davey Jones' locker
Rhymin' and stealin' in a drunken state
And I'll be rockin' my rhymes all the way to Hell's gate

(repeat chorus)

To be clear, I have no problem with The Beatie Boys, but just thought I'd set the record straight.

[CBGLuthier]

18. Time and again, so much of what sounded cool to a young teenager

turns out to be kind of embarrassing. The guitar solo is nice though.

[Avalux]

24. That songs bores the hell out of me.

And their voices.....ugh. Sorry, personal preference.

[UTUSN]

26. Really?!1 Does the 1812 Overture bore the hell out of you?!1 Just asking. n/t

[UTUSN]

25. See here's (the/my) problem, now/tonight I heard "Knock knock knocking"

on Heaven's Door and it is FANTASTIC, but it's NO TCHAIKOVSKY!1

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

27. Anything by the Eagles

makes me want to run shrieking from the room. The ultrasucktastic Eagles are auditory tear gas.