By a strange coincidence, the Eagles are known in Russia for their only song, Hotel California. And, despite the fact that the collective has released several platinum albums, it sold excellently and is cult for the rest of the land - the soul of the Russian person is tormented by questions related only to the main hit "Orlov".
Instructions
Step 1
The song is notable for the fact that it does not have a single specific author, but is the fruit of the activities of all the then members of the group. The main motive for one of the rehearsals was brought by guitarist Don Felder. It was just a melody, a solo that was immediately refined by Frey and Souter. Similarly, the text was born - at the junction of improvisation and the participants' work with each other.
Step 2
It is interesting that the text does not have a clear and unambiguous interpretation. Frey justified this by the fact that the group was then impressed by the work of Steely Dan: a group that fundamentally does not invest in works of semantic load. This is the path the Eagles wanted to take - to write a strange and indefinite text that would be easy for listeners to understand individually.
Step 3
Literally, the song is played by the driver, who sees the hotel lights on the highway in the middle of the night and decides to stop there. A strange thought appears in his head: "This is either heaven or hell." The sweet girl guides the guest through the corridors, where the chorus is heard, consisting of the endless repetition of the fact that this hotel is a charming place, always ready to welcome new people.
Step 4
By the end of the song, the atmosphere becomes more infernal: people, without interruption for rest or sleep, dance around the girl who meets the hero. She reports that all those present are prisoners who are trying to defeat the monster, but they are unable to do so. When the hero tries to escape from a terrible place, the owner of the hotel declares that it is impossible to leave "California".
Step 5
Such a messy text presents a lot of possibilities for interpretation. The most popular version says that "Hotel" is a posthumous anthem of the era of beatniks and hippies. There are options that equate California to an existing state, the entire US, a mental hospital, a workhouse, and even a drug addiction. However, since the authors in an interview stated that they were writing just a cryptic text, it is unlikely that it will be possible to find a specific and only correct answer.
