A Latin-flavored riff developed into an allegorical masterpiece and the signature song for America’s band. Hotel California by Eagles became their signature song. It’s the psychological tale of a man- precariously caught in a disturbing asylum- from which... he may never escape. The iconic writers Don Henley, Glenn Frey, and Don Felder wanted the song to open like an episode of The Twilight Zone.. They wrote it about the dark underbelly of the American dream and they used the song to call out another popular band of the time. The song was so epic the two guitar players Joe Walsh and Don Felder wrote a solo side-by-side that took 3 days to finish. It’s a song that every band dreams of writing… a Song that is still as popular and perplexing as it was the day it came out… A song that has inspired a dozen theories of what it really means. A '70s classic. We find out the true meaning next on Professor of Rock.
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It’s time for another episode of our program the new standards where we break down a song that is now part of the great American songbook or I should say the great global songbook, a song that is truly immortal, we haven’t done one of these in some time. So we’re back with one I think we can all agree on.
Welcome to the “Hotel California” the spellbinding American Rock standard by The Eagles... as peculiar as an episode of the Twilight Zone, with the mysterious intrigue of an Alfred Hitchcock movie.
Our story begins at a beach house in Malibu, California- then transports to a dark desert highway- to an eerie hotel in the middle of nowhere... and that’s where the story ends. Because... you see… "you can check out any time you like… but you can never leave…”
Guitarist Don Felder was excited to play on his first album with The Eagles in 1975. On one spectacular sunny day in July of ‘75, Don was sitting on the beach outside his rented home in Malibu tinkering on an acoustic guitar and started playing the intro of what would become the signature song for his new band.
Don played his freshly invented chord sequence over and over, and the more he played it, the more he liked it. So, he went to one of the back bedrooms where he had a reel-to-reel tape recorded and a microphone. Don played his guitar part several times while recording on the reel to reel, then rejoined his family on the beach.
Soon after, Felder added beats from a Rhythm Ace drum machine, and a 12-string guitar version of his sequence to fatten up the track to include In on a demo tape with 15 or 16 songs to submit to Don Henley & Glenn Frey.
Listening back to the instrumental, Don could hear a Latin flavor to his track- sort of a cross between Eastern Cuba Bolero and Mexican-styled reggae.
He gave the instrumental the working title “Mexican Reggae.” When Henley first reviewed “Mexican Reggae” while driving down Benedict Canyon in LA one evening,