Released: February 22, 1977
Songwriters: Don Henley, Don Felder, Glenn Frey
Producer: Bill Szymczyk
Links
1977 live performance: https://youtu.be/vRmsKv99dhg
TL;DR: This legendary song holds up quite well even to this nitpicking critic's ear.
This seems like a great place to start my classic single review series: one of the most famous and mysterious rock songs of all time.
"Hotel California" has always been one of my personal favorites, but I've never taken a deep critical dive into it until now. The Eagles are very well-known, especially among previous generations, for their brand of popular rock which featured western styles at times. In fact, one of their other signature songs, "Take it Easy", was covered by country artist Travis Tritt. Here, they put it all together into a song that, with a few exceptions, has stood the test of time as an absolute classic.
The production is by far the crowning achievement of this song. It starts off with an uneasy- sounding acoustic guitar-type instrument with some serious twang to give the song flavor. The electric guitars slowly build in intensity and wrap up with one of the greatest guitar solos you'll ever hear during the extended outro. While I can't claim to understand the fine points drumming techniques, the masterful performance on the percussion in this song cannot be ignored. The slow burn build and the slightly unsettled atmosphere the instrumentation has is maybe the best example you'll ever find of sound matching subject matter.
Don Henley's vocals on this track are good, not great. He doesn't need to be perfect, of course, when the Eagles' excellent harmonies kick in on the choruses. There's very much a storyteller vibe to his voice. I still have no idea what story exactly he's telling (more on that in a moment) but his signature falsetto is interesting enough to grab your attention and make you listen for a while.
The abstract lyrics have been analyzed by so many over the years, and varying interpretations of the song have been put forth. In my mind, the most compelling is that this is a subtle but clear warning against getting sucked in too deeply to the fast-paced, glamorous lifestyle of Hollywood fame (especially given that the Eagles have another song that seems to warn against the same thing, "Life in the Fast Lane.") While the closing line is magnificent ("you can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave") there's also one line that really hasn't aged well and honestly was pretty cringeworthy even for its time (if you're not sure what I mean, look up the connotation of the "pretty, pretty boys" line on the second verse.) While I'm not sure I completely buy any interpretation of the song, even band members said it was intentionally vague, and generally speaking I don't have a problem with that.
Is this one of the greatest songs of all time, as I once believed? Not quite. But it's very, very good.
Score: 8.5/10 (timeless rock classic)