Greetings from California......

[onewilyfool]

from the HOTEL California....lol

 

Hotel California Chords

 

Intro : Bm, F#, A, E, G, D, Em, F#

[bm]On a dark desert highway, [F#]cool wind in my hair

[A]Warm smell of colitas, [E]rising through the air

[G]Up ahead in the distance, [D]I saw a shimering light

[Em]My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim, [F#]I had to stop for the night

 

 

[bm]There she stood in the doorway, [F#]I heard the mission bell

[A]And I was thinking to myself: this could be [E]heaven or this could be hell

[G]Then she lit up a candle [D]and she showed me the way

[Em]There were voices down the corridor; [F#]I thought I heard them say:

 

 

"[G]Welcome to the Hotel Califor[D]nia

[F#]Such a lovely place (such a lovely place), such a [bm]lovely face

[G]Plenty of room at the Hotel Califor[D]nia

Any [Em]time of year (any time of year), you can [F#]find it here"

 

 

[bm]Her mind is Tiffany twisted, [F#]she got the Mercedes Benz

[A]She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, [E]that she calls friends

[G]How they dance in the courtyard, [D]sweet summer sweat

[Em]Some dance to remember, [F#]some dance to forget

 

 

[bm]So I called up the captain, "[F#]Please bring me my wine", He said

[A]"We haven't had that spirit here since [E]nineteen sixty-nine"

[G]And still those voices are calling from [D]far away

[Em]Wake you up in the middle of the night, [F#]just to hear them say:

 

 

"[G]Welcome to the Hotel Califor[D]nia

[F#]Such a lovely place (such a lovely place), such a [bm]lovely face

They [G]livin' it up at the Hotel Califor[D]nia

What a [Em]nice surprise (what a nice surprise), bring your [F#]alibis"

 

 

[bm]Mirrors on the ceiling, [F#]the pink champagne on ice, and she said

"[A]We are all just prisoners here, [E]of our own device"

[G]And in the master's chambers, [D]they gathered for the feast

[Em]They stab it with their steely knives but they [F#]just can't kill the beast

 

 

[bm]Last thing I remember, I was [F#]running for the door

[A]I had to find the passage back to the [E]place I was before

[G]Relax," said the night man, "We are [D]programmed to receive

[Em]You can check out any time you like, but [F#]you can never leave"

[wonderful remark]

are you in a hotel right now....????????

[jefleppard]

i think the eagles kicked felder out of the band for repeatedly saying in interviews that he wrote the music for that song. frey says it was him, henley was too busy looking in the mirror and walsh doesnt remember anything about the 70's which explains why he gave his les paul to jimmy page.

[ksdaddy]

That song came out when I was a Junior in high school. I played it over and freakin' OVER. Well, the record I mean. Guitar wise I was playing Honky Tonk on a 1963 Danelectro. I liked Hotel California, and I liked the Eagles in general, and HC didn't really piss me off until later when I actually tried to figure out what the song was about. Never did figure it out, just like Stairway to Heaven and about 1/3 of American Pie. People speculate all the time what songs "mean" and I think that's sad. We shouldn't have to figure a song out.

[jefleppard]

That song came out when I was a Junior in high school. I played it over and freakin' OVER. Well' date=' the record I mean. Guitar wise I was playing Honky Tonk on a 1963 Danelectro. I liked Hotel California, and I liked the Eagles in general, and HC didn't really piss me off until later when I actually tried to figure out what the song was about. Never did figure it out, just like Stairway to Heaven and about 1/3 of American Pie. People speculate all the time what songs "mean" and I think that's sad. We shouldn't have to figure a song out.[/quote']

 

HC is about the phony glam LA subculture, american pie's about rock losing its innocence and no one, including robert plant, knows what stairway's about. but, by the looks of it, the previous owner of that brand new used dove of yours knew how to play all three very well.

[Murph]

I liked the old Eagles.

 

My wife bought me the Wal Mart, tree huggin' Eagle album last year for Christmas, because it had a Country single that sounded like the old Eagles. Then they played it live on T.V. at some award show and Joe Walsh didn't even play the lead, and the rest of the cd sucked.

 

I gave it to some college girl that was gonna save the planet.

 

It was in an eco friendly package.

 

Wow......

 

Shut up and sing.

 

Murph.

[albertjohn]

Please forgive the ramble.........

 

When I took up the guitar again, about 7 or 8 years ago, I started having lessons. I had a beat up old Yammy 12 string and one of the first projects was the jangly 12 string part to HC.

 

My mid-life crisis only extended to a Fender Strat and one evening, proudly brought my new acquisition to my lesson.

 

"So, what would you like to learn?" says Robbie

 

"But I'm rubbish at lead" I replied forlornly (?)

 

"What's your favourite solo?

 

"Hotel California" I say, safe in the knowledge Robbie would never attempt to teach me that one!.

 

I was wrong and after 3 or 4 lessons I was stumbling through it.

 

We play it live together when we play (me on 12er) and I still love to play the solo despite hearing myself murder it 100s of times. There's always time for one more murdered solo I say!

[ballcorner]

 

HC is about the phony glam LA subculture' date=' american pie's about rock losing its innocence and no one, including robert plant, knows what stairway's about. but, by the looks of it, the previous owner of that brand new used dove of yours knew how to play all three very well.[/quote']

 

I love the movie Back to School with Rodney Dangerfield. After seeing his son flunking out of a course, Rodney's character hires Kurt Vonnegut to write a book review about Breakfast of Champions. The professor, convinced that the piece had been ghost written, fires off that "whoever wrote this doesn't know crap about Vonnegut."

 

In the next scene, there is a knock at the professor's door and he opens it to see Vonnegut himself standing there with the paper in his hand ready to talk to the professor about the book.

 

I don't even believe that the meaning of a song given by its composer is accurate. Many of us here write songs, including cunkhead who writes very good songs, and I think the imagery in our own minds as we perform them evolves and graduates over time and the meaning comes along for a ride. Agreed, cunk?

 

In the case of Hotel California, I have seen about fifteen different interpretations of the metaphors in the piece. In the end, what I think matters is what the song means to me when I listen to it. If a musicologist or some other academic wants to suggest it is a metaphor for the prison of fame, or the tackiness of a certain social scene I can take comfort in the fact that I will likely not experience the former and have no choice but to participate in the latter. It still won't change the images in my head when I listen to HC that are related more to my memories of the time this song comes from.

[TWilson]

I'm not sure if you can get access to it on-line, but the April 2007 issue of ACOUSTIC GUITAR WORLD is dedicated to the 30th Anniversary of Hotel California. It has the story of the song's music being written by Don Felder in a house on malibu beach. He was sitting on the couch in a wet bathing suit and grabbed his 12-string and started fooling around with some chords. Soon he was recording it on a reel-to-reel tabe deck. Henley and Frye were the ones who did most of the lyrics and it was changed to the key of Bm and the 12-er is capoed at the 7th fret. It has two sets of music for it in the magazine. An "easy" version and then the genuine music for all the guitars, bass etc. Not having read any kind of music since 5th and 6th grade band where I tortured my lips with a trumpet, I coldn't even begin to understand it. The "easy" version gets me as close as I need to get to the song and it's fun to play on my $360 Alvarez 12-string. I'll see if I can find a link to it. It has lessons on several of their other big hits and lots of stories of the shenanigans that came with their newfound fame. Much of which was white and went up their noses. Anyway, if you can find it, it's a pretty interesting issue.

[jefleppard]

I don't even believe that the meaning of a song given by its composer is accurate. Many of us here write songs' date=' including cunkhead who writes very good songs, and I think the imagery in our own minds as we perform them evolves and graduates over time and the meaning comes along for a ride. Agreed, cunk?

[/quote']

 

sure, it does evolve i suppose and interpretation is always up to the listener. while the writer may "change his tune" about the meaning over time, there is no doubt that he/she had one particular thing in mind when it was written. HC seemed a fairly straight ahead metaphor to me, a condemnation of LA culture - a theme in many of henley's song (fast lane et al). one might dissect each line and attribute it to a specific person, place or thing much like mclean's american pie, but i still think the artist had one idea or ideal in mind, wrote it, recorded it and moved on. sometimes, though, i have noticed that when a song becomes an icon and it takes on a life of it's own (HC and AM, definitely) the artist gets drawn into the mystique as well and starts soaking in all the attention its getting by pandering to the subculture the song has created. it is then, as you say, that "hidden" meanings suddenly pop up, often ones the artist may have never thought about but they roll with it just the same and enjoy the ride while it lasts. don mclean was once asked what the meaning of american pie was. he answered saying, "it means i'll never have to work again."

thanks for the compliment, too BTW.

[Guest]

That song came out when I was a Junior in high school. I played it over and freakin' OVER. Well' date=' the record I mean. Guitar wise I was playing Honky Tonk on a 1963 Danelectro. I liked Hotel California, and I liked the Eagles in general, and HC didn't really piss me off until later when I actually tried to figure out what the song was about. Never did figure it out, just like Stairway to Heaven and about 1/3 of American Pie. People speculate all the time what songs "mean" and I think that's sad. We shouldn't have to figure a song out.[/quote']

 

Hotel California: I remember it well, and still like playing descending barre chords from the 7th to the 2nd fret, but it sorta is that "ad nauseum" chord pattern, isn't it? When you have three or four guitars though, as the Eagles had, you can do some neat 'trading off' things in the song.

 

Stairway was Stairway, I suppose, Scott, but American Pie I think we pretty much had deciphered within a month or two of its release.

 

Speaking of determining the meaning of obscure (obtuse? weird? strange?) lyrics, I continue to marvel at songs like The Weight, which if you google up, you can get lost for half a day reading about and trying to understand.

 

At least "Please, Please Me" was fairly self-evident! :-)

 

Fred

[ballcorner]

That is a great quote from Don McLean - It means I'll never have to work again. I always say how wonderful it would be to not have to go to work, but then I meet retired people who tell me they have nothing to do. I always ask: Do you play guitar? On the rare occassions when they answer yes, I tell them they have plenty to do.