1 of The Eagles Explained This Mysterious Lyric From ‘Hotel California’
The best classic rock songs have an air of mystery. For example, one line in The Eagles’ “Hotel California” might be confusing to many fans. During an interview, one of The Eagles discussed how a member of the band came up with the line.
The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ includes a dug reference in another language
One of the significant aspects of American culture is the road trip. The opening of “Hotel California” captures the feeling of being on a road trip in some unfamiliar (and perhaps sinister) place. The song includes the lyric “On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair / Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air.” “Colitas” is Spanish for “little tails,” but it is also a slang term for marijuana.
During a 2013 interview with SongFacts, The Eagles’ Don Felder discussed the origin of that lyric. “And the colitas is a plant that grows in the desert that blooms at night, and it has this kind of pungent, almost funky smell,” he said. “Don Henley came up with a lot of the lyrics for that song, and he came up with colitas. When we try to write lyrics, we try to write lyrics that touch multiple senses, things you can see, smell, taste, hear. ‘I heard the mission bell,’ you know, or ‘the warm smell of colitas,’ talking about being able to relate something through your sense of smell.”
How 1 song laid the groundwork for a whole album by The Eagles
Felder said that “Hotel California” paved the way for other Eagles songs from the same era. “And once that concept was done, once you arrive in LA and you have your first couple of hits, you become the ‘New Kid In Town,’ and then with greater success, you live ‘Life in the Fast Lane,’ and you start wondering if all that time you’ve spent in the bars was just ‘Wasted Time,'” he said. “So all of these other song ideas kind of came out of that concept once the foundation was laid for ‘Hotel California.'”
Notably, “New Kid in Town,” “Life in the Fast Lane,” and “Wasted Time” all appear on the album Hotel California. Critical usually don’t categorize Hotel California as a concept album. Considering that many of its songs reflect on The Eagles making it to the top, it’s actually a lot more cohesive than most self-proclaimed concept records.
‘Hotel California’ was massive
“Hotel California” reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week. The tune lasted on the chart for 19 weeks in total. The tune appeared on the album Hotel California. That record topped the Billboard 200 for eight weeks and lasted on the chart for 158 weeks.
Like most great songs, “Hotel California” became a standard. To date, Nancy Sinatra, The Killers, and Gipsy Kings are among the luminaries who covered the song. The Gipsy Kings’ cover appeared in the cult classic film The Big Lebowski. Beyond that, “Hotel California” remains a staple of classic rock radio. It has outperformed all of The Eagles’ other singles in that regard.
“Hotel California” is a perfect song and, if you listen to it, you might just smell the scent of colitas rising up through the air.
