More to It Than a Hotel?

"Hotel California"

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

And 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 bends

She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys 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 nineteen sixty nine"

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 livin' 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! "

   The poetic form of this song is not easy to describe, you could say it's like a free verse. It is made up of six stanzas/verses and there is no constant syllable or rhyme pattern. There is however similarities between a few stanzas. The second and fourth stanza have similar syllable patterns, as in the amount of syllables increase and then decrease by the last line in the stanza. The verses do not contain the same amount of lines so the rhyming patterns do not match up except in both refrains. The rhyming pattern for the refrains is aabbac. The refrains or chorus of a song are repeated because they contain the main idea of the story, in this case "The Hotel California", which we will see does not literally mean a hotel.

   The writer of this song uses a conceit, a metaphor that encompasses the entire song. The lyrics of this song use imagery, creating the picture of being on an empty highway, for example, and then seeing a light meaning someone or something is there. This image is linked to the conceit. The persona or speaker of the song could be a man or a woman. We might assume that it is a man because the original artist is a male band, also a woman figure is used as a symbol for temptation. This poem's tone is sombre, especially when you listen to it with the instrumental. The last lines of the song, "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave", make "The Hotel California" sound like a creepy place.

   This song is about drugs or any other type of addiction. The girl the speaker describes is a woman who lures him in, she represents temptation. They also mention dancing to remember or dancing to forget. They could be using a substance such as hard drugs to release tension and have a good time, which is represented by dancing. The last two lines of the song, which I previously cited, explain how you can try to stop but the addiction and harm will never leave your body.