feeble moments

Hotel California(This is goin 2 b a lengthy post)


Because of its length, I've been working on this post for a couple of weeks now and then. I thought it would be nice to refresh my analytical essay writing skills. It's pretty lengthy, but I think it's pretty good. Enjoy!

I think that most of the music made today sucks. Style and image have replaced substance and content. I used to like listening to rap and hip-hop when songs raised issues like poverty, violence, social injustice, and even politics.

But now, hip-hop, the videos in particular, has become nothing more than a rapper's penis-extension that shows off expensive jewellery, (rented) cars, money being thrown around, and scantily-clad, female sex objects who wouldn't be caught dead near these guys if they weren't being paid to do so.

While I was never exactly a big fan, the once rebellious punk and alternative rock has been taken over by a new breed of manufactured, heart-throb boy (and girl) bands that the original founders of the genre wanted to lash out against.

In terms of content, artistic decisions have been replaced by business decisions based on demograpics, market research data, and product placements.

This is why I'm only able to listen to old songs from the 60s and 70s: musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Santana, The Beatles, Eric Clapton, and others. In terms of artistic content, this kind of music was it. One of my all-time favourites is The Eagles' Hotel California. It has a great guitar solo and lyrics that can be interpreted in so many ways. I guess that this is where this ranting post is going.

I want to discuss on this post two popular interpretations for this song. One theory explains that the song is a criticism society's growing addiction to both drugs and materialism. The second interpretation states that the song is about the a satanic cult in an old, abandoned church called "Hotel California". What follows is a piece-by-piece analysis of the song that looks at the two possible interpretations.

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 face
Plenty of room at the hotel california
Any time of year, you can find it here
This first part, in which I include the first version of the chorus, the narrator talks about being on a "dark desert highway". For both interpretations of the song, this loneliness in the dark shows his vulnerability to being pulled in by a drug addiction or by a satanic cult.

The next lines are interesting references to drugs. The "smell of colitas rising up through the air" is an obvious reference to marijuana, while the shimmering light that suddenly leads to the narrator's head feeling heavy and sight going dim is a description of the drug taking effect after lighting up and smoking. Getting into something that could be "heaven or (...) could be hell" is another clear reference to the highs and downs that a drug addiction brings.

This is further accentuated by the line: "Then she lit up the candle and she showed me the way", which can be interpreted as a reference to heroin use. A candle is used to liquefy the heroin in a metal spoon in order to be able to put it in a syringe.

The mission bell here refers to the satanic cult theory where the old church has been transformed into the evil, yet seductive, Hotel California.

Throughout the song, if you listen to lyrics' transition to the chorus, there's an eerie feeling about the place. The narrator hearing "voices" of people welcoming him to Hotel California almost sounds like the chanting of trapped, brainwashed cult members.

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

Just a couple of things to say about this piece here. First, the phrase "Tiffany-twisted" and the reference to Mercedes Benz are obvious references to materialism, with Tiffany referring to the Tiffany's jewellery store. That is, her mind was twisted by wanting excessive amounts of jewellery.

Dancing in the courtyard seems like a reference to the disco era and the excessive drug abuse of the time. The last line: "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget" makes that clear. Drugs being used to remember and relive the happy days of their lives or to forget their daily problems is the obvious image coming from this.
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 face
They livin????????? it up at the hotel california
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis
An interesting thing here regarding both satanism and materialism. First the reference to wine. The interesting play on words here is the captain's reply of not having "that spirit here since nineteen sixty nine". The spirit, in the literal context, refers to the alcohol.

In Christianity wine is a very powerful symbol representing the blood of Christ. In terms of the satanism theme, the spirit represents the Christian Holy Spirit that is no longer in Hotel California because the old church has been transformed. Apparently, this transformation happened (coincidentally?) in 1969.

As far as the materialism theme is concerned, the commentary seems to be about musicians. They have become more involved in money and material possessions and lost the "spirit" for their art that came to a peak at Woodstock (in 1969).

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
The 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 checkout any time you like,
But you can never leave!

This is pretty straightforward. The mirrors on the ceiling and the pink champagne are signs of excess. Being prisoners of their own device can be interpreted as being another reference to drug addiction.

What really makes the whole satanic cult thing more obvious here is the reference to killing an animal with "their steely knives". Although it does talk about a "feast" the narrator seems to be so freaked out about what he saw. He wanted to run away until he gets told that he can never leave that place. Being "programmed to receive" was a great way to really emphasize the idea of brain washing that goes on in a cult.

The song then ends with a great guitar solo that just makes your spine tingle.

random

Marilyn Manson

A long time ago, there was a man as misunderstood as we are and they nailed him to a fucking cross!
Brian Warner (Marilyn Manson), Winston Salem, N.C. April 19, 1997

I'm not against God. I'm against the Misuse of God.
Brian Warner (Marilyn Manson), Raygun Magazine, Dec/January, 1998

There are people accusing me that I'm sick, that I'm a danger to morals, western civilization and basically everything under the sun. And they've got these wild stories about me, completely off the wall, completely untrue. They thought them up and it makes you wonder what goes on in their brain, but of course, they don't consider themselves sick. They think they're normal because they don't dress like I do.
Marilyn Manson

We live in a society of victimization, where people are much more comfortable being victimized than actually standing up for themselves.
Marilyn Manson

Times have not become more violent. They have just become more televised.
Marilyn Manson, I Don't Like The Media But The Media Likes Me - Columbine statement

I view my job as being someone who is supposed to piss people off. I don't want to be just one-of-the-guys. I don't want to be just a smiling face you see on television presenting some vapid kind of easily- digestible garbage. This is rock and roll. I want to be a rock and roll star! Rock and roll is about shaking things up, making people act and react. That's what I do.
Marilyn Manson

I'm tired of people calling me a devil worshipper. It's kind of pointless you know. Because if the Devil did exist, he'd be worshipping me, because I'm more successful than he is.
Marilyn Manson

if i were the devil
Feb 23, 2007 6:30 PM
The word Satan means the opposer because he opposes good i.e. God (Go-d). The word devil means the liar because he invented it (John 8:44). Lies are evil - D/evil.



If I were the Prince of Darkness, I would want to engulf the whole world in darkness. And I would have one-third of the real estate and four-fifths of the population , but I wouldn't be happy until I had the ripest apple on the tree. So I'd set about, however necessary, to take over the United States.

I'd subvert the churches first; I'd begin with a campaign of whispers. With the wisdom of a serpent I would whisper to you as I whispered to Eve: "Do as you please."

To the youth I would whisper, "The Bible is a myth."

I would convince them that man made God instead of the other way around. I would confide that what's bad is good and what's good is "square."

In the ears of the young married I would whisper that work is debasing, that cocktail parties are good for you.

And to the old I would teach to pray after me: "Our Father, who art in Washington..."

And then I'd get organized; I'd educate authors in how to make lurid literature exciting, so that everything else would appear dull and uninteresting.

I'd threaten television with dirtier movies and vice versa.

I'd peddle narcotics to whom I could; I'd sell alcohol to ladies and gentlemen of distinction; I'd tranquilize the rest with pills.

If I were the Devil I'd soon have families at war with themselves, churches at war with themselves, and nations at war with themselves; until each in its turn was consumed. And with promises of higher ratings I'd have mesmerizing media fanning the flames.

If I were the Devil I'd encourage schools to refine young intellects but neglect to discipline emotions: let those run wild. Before you know it, you'd have to have drug-sniffing dogs and metal detectors at every school house door. Within a decade I'd have prisons overflowing.

With flattery and promises of power I would get the courts to do what I construe as against God and in favor of pornography.

I'd designate an atheist to front for me before the highest courts and I'd get the preachers to say, "She's right." Thus, I could evict God from the courthouse, then from the school house, and then from the Houses of Congress.

And in His own churches I would substitute psychology for religion and deify science. I would lure priests and pastors into misusing boys, girls, and church money.

If I were the Devil I would make the symbol of Easter an egg and the symbol of Christmas a bottle.

If I were the Devil I'd take from those who have and give it to those who want it, until I had killed the incentive of the ambitious.

What'll you bet that I couldn't get whole States to promote gambling as the way to get rich?

I would caution against extremes: in hard work, in patriotism, and in moral conduct.

I would convince the youth that marriage is old-fashioned, but swinging is more fun; that what you see on television is the way to be; and thus I could undress you in public and I could lure you into bed where there are diseases for which there is no cure.

Then I would separate families, putting children in uniform, women in coal mines and objectors in slave-labor camps.

In other words, if I were the Devil, I'd just keep doing what he's doing.