Hotel California

My eldest sister was my icon when i was younger. She is beautiful, slender, she loves music, she had boyfriends, she went out loads. She is eight and a half years older than me. Almost all the music i knew in the 70s i got to know through her. Well, apart from the singles i bought. Those were Top 40 singles, which i saw most of the time in TopPop, on television each week.

So yes, Steely Dan, Little Feat, Crosby Stills Nash and Young, Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Brown, J.J. Cale, Ry Cooder and of course… The Eagles.

I loved the Eagles until my taste in music changed and i got full into new wave. Post punk it is called nowadays. I remember doing a lecture about the Eagles with a friend in most likely the third class in high school. Later on though they got lower and lower on my appreciation ladder. At last they vanished all together. A year ago when the song Hotel California got to number one in the Top 2000, a yearly event in the Netherlands, i was quite angry. Not the Eagles! No no no no.

A few weeks ago i made a slight turn. Not that the Eagles will ever be on my favorite band list, but a little bit of appreciation would be in place. I did spend several years listening to their music. I still have three albums: the very first untitled one, On The Border and Hotel California. The other ones i had, Desperado and One of These Nights, i sold when i was around sixteen years old. Among many others, a decision i learned to regret a couple of years after it.

So yes, not the best band, not the best song. But still a song whose lyrics i know by heart. So here it goes!

Hotel California – The Eagles
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night

There she stood in the doorway, I heard the mission bell
Then I was thinking to myself this could be Heaven or this could be Hell
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor I thought I heard them say

“Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely 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 find it here”

Her mind is Tiffany twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain, “Please bring me my wine”
He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969”
And still those voices are calling from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night just to hear them say

“Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
(Such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face
They’re living 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 gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives but they just can’t kill the beast

Last thing I remember I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
“Relax,” said the night man, “We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”

Live ’77

Published on April 12, 2017 at 6:00 by

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.