Hotel California

photo from www.missionsanmiguel.org 
   

"Hotel California" is a song by the Eagles with metaphysical intimations encompassing a mission bell and the 'night man' disclosing, "We are programmed to receive . . ."  

 

The 1976 release was written by Don Felder, Don Henley and Glen Frey.  Over the years, I’ve read accounts of composers and songwriters creating musical compositions and songs in a relatively effortless cognitive process.  I read a BBC Internet article by Ralph McLean that included the following:

 

Guitarist Don Felder himself vividly remembers the day he came up with the idea for the song: he says: 
 
"I had just leased this house out on the beach at Malibu – I remember sitting in the living room, with the doors wide open, on a spectacular July day. I had a bathing suit on and I was sitting on this couch, soaking wet, thinking the world is a wonderful place to be. I had this acoustic 12-string and started tinkling around with it, and those 'Hotel California' chords just kind of oozed out.” 
 
From such simple beginnings the song developed. Don had an old four-track recording machine set up in one of the back bedrooms of his house and he ran in and put his idea down before he forgot it. He added a simple cha-cha beat over it on an old beat box, played a 12-string guitar on top of that and a few days later came up with a bass line and mixed the whole thing down. The band all agree that the music was all Don Felder’s creation, Don Henley and Glen Frey wrote the words of the chorus and Don Henley himself composed the verses.
  
The track and indeed the entire Hotel California album was recorded at Criteria Studios in Miami. Legend has it there was always chaos whenever the Eagles recorded there, with plenty of egos clashing, plenty of voices shouting and plenty of musical cooks doing their best to spoil the broth. Indeed over a period of troubled months it looked as if their masterwork might never see the light of day.
  
Facing up to the very real possibility that the song might be snuffed out before it ever saw the light of day Don Felder had an idea. Calling his housekeeper, he sent her rummaging through the heaps of tapes in his home studio until she'd located the original one he’s recorded on his humble four track, then he had her play it to him over the phone while he recorded it on a professional Sony Walkman.
 
So armed with the cassette he rushed back to Criteria studios. He played the tape to Joe Walsh so that he could re-learn all the guitar parts the band had liked in the first place.

 

These incidents encourage consideration of what constitutes the mental capacities that people often refer to as their ‘imagination.’  Many physical processes of the human body are carried out by the ‘subconscious mind’ and the annals of psychic or ‘unexplained’ phenomena offer evidence of a shared subconscious mind among all human beings and among all living organisms.  

 
McLean commented in his article:
 

For decades now music lovers have debated just what those strange lyrics with their loaded imagery actually mean.

 
The song's lyrics demand the listener's reflection about spiritual and worldly influences.  It is undeniable that many people living in the "Eureka" state have careers deriving from the sometimes lucrative commercialization of the creative process, leading to a gamut of consequential temptations for an ego.  Symbols and synchronicities will help guide one to spiritual insights unless there is a preoccupation with materialistic concerns.
 
When I was living in Santa Monica after the publication of Testament, the photograph of myself shown below (with angel and bell) was taken at the California Heritage Museum in Santa Monica during the 1997-1998 exhibition "The California Home — The Arts & Crafts Movement in California, 1895 - 1920."  I recall my admiration for the values reflected in the philosophy articulated by craftsmen associated with this movement as I served on Saturdays as a docent for this exhibition that included a gallery installation featuring artifacts from the Riverside Mission Inn.  I'd begun volunteering at the museum during the previous exhibition "Aloha Spirit — Hawaii's Influence on the California Lifestyle."  My nearly 56-year sojourn in the Hotel California has been a very fortunate one.

 

   The Hotel California theme reminds us of the transitory aspect of earthly existence.