| Author | Message | ||
| Oldslow308 (Djparks)
Member Username: Djparks Post Number: 602 Registered: 2-2003 |
My take on it was about Heroin, espescially after Jim G.'s post relating to Janis Joplin ..........."dieing before his eyes but she could still sing........"God could she. Another that can belt it out is an LA girl Beth Hart, Singin' For My Supper' I'm guessing she is going down that same 'road'. I hope I am wrong. Man she can sing but she looks like hell. DJ | ||
| DES (Sickspeed)
Senior Member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 6086 Registered: 8-2002 |
This is turning into a really cool thread... Awesome contributions... Speculation about the song's meaning, as we know, suggests drugs, but further investigations by some suggest it's, more specifically, about cocaine... i'm not sure, but it definitely makes sense... A lot of things fit (mirrors on the ceiling, stab it with their steely knives and on and on)... Dale, that's poetry right there. | ||
| Oldslow308 (Djparks)
Member Username: Djparks Post Number: 598 Registered: 2-2003 |
Dale, I couldn't agree with you more. Too bad for the ones that didn't make it. DJ | ||
| Dale W Spradling (Drtax)
Member Username: Drtax Post Number: 334 Registered: 4-2003 |
DJparks, your point is why I'd choose Hotel California for the ending book end. My memory gets fuzzy sometimes, but I do remember the early days of the so called counter culture movement. Every entrance ramp on 101 had at least a dozen kids just hanging out waiting to go further up the road. Sounds stupid today; but at the time, there was a sense that a change was gonna come. Unfortunately, the sweet smell of reefer got blown away by the hard realtity of ludes and cocaine. Feeling groovy gave way to guns and disco. If California Dreaming was the sunrise, Hotel California is the sunset. What's gonna be interesting to watch is the next rebirth of California. Things may seem a bit gloomly today. But I believe that it will be a long time before California becomes New Jersey. Meanwhile, the guitar solo in Hotel California is probably the best rock and roll lick ever. And this is coming from very hard core Duane Allman fan. But, you gotta give credit where it is due. Dale | ||
| Ron (Easy_rider)
Member Username: Easy_rider Post Number: 732 Registered: 12-2002 |
My 16 year old son loves this song for its guitar intro. I love it for its music, its words and for its haunting surreal qualities. | ||
| Oldslow308 (Djparks)
Member Username: Djparks Post Number: 595 Registered: 2-2003 |
.."relax said the night man, we are programmed to receive..........." Come on! Join the party! It will never end! The song said to me more about the social atmosphere of the time than any one place in particular.......not just in California. I love the song but it creeps me out at the same time. DJ | ||
| Oldslow308 (Djparks)
Member Username: Djparks Post Number: 594 Registered: 2-2003 |
Seriously, Hotel California; ".....in a dark chamber where we gathered for the feast, we stabbed it with our steely knifes(injection) but we just can't kill the beast...." ".check out anytime you like but you can never leave." Two definitive examples of drug addiction and the nearly impossible attempts to escape. Still makes me sick thinking about it. | ||
| Dale W Spradling (Drtax)
Member Username: Drtax Post Number: 332 Registered: 4-2003 |
Actually, I have always thought that two bookends for the California of my youth would begin with California Dreaming (or maybe Little Surfer Girl) and end with Hotel California. It's funny how life goes. Calfornia today is a far different place today than it was back in the day, e.g., skinhead surfers in Huntington Beach. But my daughter who has spent the last 5 years going to school in New England has just announced the she is moving to California when she graduates. Once again, the circle starts all over again with another generation. I wonder what songs she will remember California by? Dale | ||
| DES (Sickspeed)
Senior Member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 6035 Registered: 8-2002 |
LOL...! These are funny...! Bob, i've heard of the first one, but never heard the Tony Danza one, that's hilarious... Mr. G., evidence that everyone's life has roots, but there's one that's always longer than the rest. | ||
| Ronny Jones (Ronny)
New member Username: Ronny Post Number: 41 Registered: 6-2003 |
Or Michael Jacksons new record " I'm forever blowing Bubbles " | ||
| DL (Darth550)
Junior Member Username: Darth550 Post Number: 207 Registered: 7-2003 |
Robert, Would Elton John actually say that?? DL | ||
| Robert Callahan (Rcallahan)
Member Username: Rcallahan Post Number: 342 Registered: 7-2002 |
Elton John: Don't let your son go down on me. Or, Hold me closer Tony Danza.  | ||
| James Glickenhaus (Napolis)
Advanced Member Username: Napolis Post Number: 2503 Registered: 10-2002 |
Des I remember driving my roomates Sunbeam down the PCH from Santa Barbara to Irvine to see Janis, Big Brother and the holding co. Susan's hair was blowing in the wind and the warm smell of eucaliptus was rising up through the air. Years later I was sitting at the Sunset Marquis which as WM knows was The Hotel California with Glenn talking about Janis. "What was it like he asked?" "She was dying in front of my eyes but she still could sing." | ||
| Ed P. (Ebp)
Junior Member Username: Ebp Post Number: 173 Registered: 12-2002 |
or Jimi Hendrix: "scuze me while I kiss this guy" | ||
| William Huber (Solipsist)
Intermediate Member Username: Solipsist Post Number: 1272 Registered: 9-2001 |
Don't forget about CCR's "there's a bathroom on the right" | ||
| DL (Darth550)
Junior Member Username: Darth550 Post Number: 204 Registered: 7-2003 |
Little known fact: If you play Hotel California backwards, during in the second reprise, it very faintly says, "I buried Glen Frey" DL | ||
| John Do'h (Combover)
Junior Member Username: Combover Post Number: 57 Registered: 8-2003 |
Who can forget Bruce Springsteen's "Blinded by the light, wrapped up like a d0uche"...wait, "rev'd up like a deuce"-there we go | ||
| Joe (Jts)
Junior Member Username: Jts Post Number: 52 Registered: 8-2003 |
LOL
reminds me of a friend in high school that was positive that "Sunday Bloody Sunday" was actually "Someday Buddy, Someday" | ||
| wm hart (Whart)
Intermediate Member Username: Whart Post Number: 1609 Registered: 12-2001 |
My recollection of the cover art is of the Beverly Hills hotel, that swank pink montrosity.The live version on the Hell Freezes Over album is a superb recording for impressing people with the tastiness of your auto sound system; textured guitar, followed by the bass and drums. There is still something of that era that seems to exist in the Beverly Hills area; too much money, attitude, everybody is cool. Drug use is not as conspicious, but virtually everything else is, including the factory made breasts on many of the young honeys. | ||
| Tyler (Bahiaau)
Member Username: Bahiaau Post Number: 1000 Registered: 12-2001 |
LOL | ||
| DES (Sickspeed)
Senior Member Username: Sickspeed Post Number: 6031 Registered: 8-2002 |
Definitely one of my favorite songs... Listened to it more than a few times over the weekend and i'm listening to it right now... Great stuff... Anyway, was listening to it a little while ago when my boss asked me what the exact lyric is in the second line: On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air More to the point, though, what is colitas...? So i did a little poking around and this is what i came up with: In the song "Hotel California," what does "colitas" mean? 15-Aug-1997 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Cecil: Just what does "colitis" mean? In the song "Hotel California" by the Eagles the first lines are, "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of colitis rising up through the air." I remember I tried looking it up at a university library years ago and couldn't find the answer. I know songwriters sometimes make up words, but I didn't see a Dr. Seuss credit on the album. --Wendy Martin, via the Internet Cecil replies: Uh, Wendy. It's colitas, not colitis. Colitis (pronounced koe-LIE-tis) is an inflammation of the large intestine. You're probably thinking of that famous Beatles lyric, "the girl with colitis goes by." As for "Hotel California," you realize a lot of people aren't troubled so much by colitas as by the meaning of the whole damn song. Figuring that we should start with the general and move to the particular, I provide the following commonly heard theories: (1) The Hotel California is a real hotel located in (pick one) Baja California on the coastal highway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz or else near Santa Barbara. In other words, the song is a hard look at the modern hospitality industry, which is plagued by guests who "check out any time [they] like" but then "never leave." (2) The Hotel California is a mental hospital. I see one guy on the Web has identified it as "Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara." (3) It's about satanism. Isn't everything? (4) Hotel California is a metaphor for cocaine addiction. See "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave." This comes from the published comments of Glenn Frey, one of the coauthors. (5) It's about the pitfalls of living in southern California in the 1970s, my interpretation since first listen. Makes perfect sense, and goddammit, who you going to believe, some ignorant rock star or me? (6) My fave, posted to the Usenet by Thomas Dzubin of Vancouver, British Columbia: "There was this fireworks factory just three blocks from the Hotel California . . . and it blew up! Big tragedy. One of the workers was named Wurn Snell and he was from the town of Colitas in Greece. One of the workers who escaped the explosion talked to another guy . . . I think it was probably Don Henley . . . and Don asked what the guy saw. The worker said, "Wurn Snell of Colitas . . . rising up through the air." He's also got this bit about "on a dark dessert highway, Cool Whip in my hair." Well, I thought it was funny. OK, back to colitas. Personally I had the idea colitas was a type of desert flower. Apparently not. Type "colitas" into a Web search engine and you get about 50 song-lyric hits plus, curiously, a bunch of citations from Mexican and Spanish restaurant menus. Hmm, one thinks, were the Eagles rhapsodizing about the smell of some good carryout? We asked some native Spanish speakers and learned that colitas is the diminutive feminine plural of the Spanish cola, tail. Little tail. Looking for a little . . . we suddenly recalled a (male) friend's guess that colitas referred to a certain feature of the female anatomy. We paused. Naah. Back to those menus. "Colitas de langosta enchiladas" was baby lobster tails simmered in hot sauce with Spanish rice. One thinks: you know, I could write a love song around a phrase like that. Enough of these distractions. By and by a denizen of soc.culture.spain wrote: "Colitas is little tails, but here the author is referring to 'colas,' the tip of a marijuana branch, where it is more potent and with more sap (said to be the best part of the leaves)." We knew with an instant shock of certainty that this was the correct interpretation. The Eagles, with the prescience given only to true artists, were touting the virtues of high-quality industrial hemp! And to think some people thought this song was about drugs. OUR SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED This E-mail just in from Eagles management honcho Irving Azoff: "In response to your [recent] memo, in 1976, during the writing of the song 'Hotel California' by Messrs. Henley and Frey, the word `colitas' was translated for them by their Mexican-American road manager as 'little buds.' You have obviously already done the necessary extrapolation. Thank you for your inquiry." I knew it. A CLARIFICATION Dear Cecil: Please tell me you were joking when you mentioned the Beatles lyric "the girl with colitis goes by." You were joking, right? You know it's "kaleidoscope eyes." --nancrow Cecil replies: Nothing gets by you, Nan. --CECIL ADAMS If you've never heard of the song, these are the lyrics; by The Eagles. i never knew this before so i just figured it was cool to share... |