Does anyone know what the lyrics to the Eagles "Hotel California" mean?

Pamisis, What I get from this song is a trip on heavy drugs ! I listened to this song a billion times as a teen in the late 70's My friend and me all asked the same question about the song to one another back then and I still feel it's about drugs and getting high taking a mind trip if you will . By the way the end of the song inturpts adiction meaning you can die from it but you can be free from them just my ideas of it ..... post script: Whe he sings of lighting the candle well some know it as chasing the dragon... It's cocaine on tin foil a lighter is held under it to desolve the drug and it is snorted . And in the master's chambers, They gathered for the feast Thats Heaven the master is God Or it could be Hell and the master is Satan...... Famous Rockers often met this fate and still do . It's really very sad...................

Lol Honey I am not gonna lie to you but I'm raking my brain for that song,cause I know I heard it some time ago,but my brain is at a stand still,PLS forgive me honey.xxxx

I don't know if this is the real meaning but to me it seems something in the mind. We are are prisoners in our own mind and the things in there. Say like some mental illness or such. That is my best guess. Or even maybe something drug induced? sue

I didn't see this interview, but have heard before that it's an allegory of the L.A. music industry in the 70s. Before I knew that, I took the song literally... that it was just about some haunted hotel in the desert.

The lyrics to this song kind of scare me, but it's a very good song. To me it seems like they're describing Hell or Purgatory or some other bad place you might go to when you die. It reminds me a little bit of the hotel in the movie The Shining with Jack Nicholson. You might want to check this out: http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=4793

I've always thought that it was mocking that glamorous but really f*cked up Hollywood lifestyle (mirrors on ceiling, prisoners of their own device etc.) It's thought of as so wonderful, but really it's full of turmoil and addiction. I've been to the real Hotel California and it's kind of a shack.

Years ago in church we were told that the "Hotel California" was a demonic church. That was typical of the church lessons, "Music is the devils playground, now open your hymn books and sing along" LOL

its like they went to the hotel california-and it was an amazing life there-like nothing theyd seen

Have you ever heard of 'backmasking'? It's where one of the tracks of the record is recorded backwards. In the track is demonic chants. The mind records things (like the eyes) backwards, therefore a track recorded backwards goes directly into the subconcious mind. It is a very dangerous thing. The Eagles practiced backmasking in their recordings, especially 'Hotel California', as did many other artists, including the Beatles. Check it out. http://jeffmilner.com/backmasking.htm