Don Henley Said The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ Was About 1960s Peace and Love Fading Away

One of the most enduring classic rock songs from the 1970s is The Eagles’ “Hotel California.” Despite this, the tune was commenting on the legacy of the 1960s. One of The Eagles seemed to have an odd interpretation of American history.

Don Henley said The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ is about America’s dark side

During a 2016 interview with Rolling Stone, The Eagles’ Don Henley discussed the ideas behind the album Hotel California. “They’re the same themes that run through all of our work: loss of innocence, the cost of naiveté, the perils of fame, of excess; exploration of the dark underbelly of the American dream, idealism realized and idealism thwarted, illusion versus reality, the difficulties of balancing loving relationships and work, trying to square the conflicting relationship between business and art; the corruption in politics, the fading away of the ’60s dream of ‘peace, love and understanding,'” he recalled. 

“But it’s also important to remember that during the making of the Hotel California album, we were ecstatic much of the time,” the “Boys of Summer” singer added. “We knew we were onto something. So, you have the interesting juxtaposition of dark themes being developed and constructed in an atmosphere of excitement and productivity. (And OK, a little debauchery, here and there. You know what they say about all work and no play.)” Henley cited the title track and “Life in the Fast Lane” as two songs from Hotel California that embodied these themes.

The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ ignores a lot of the music from the 1970s

Was Henley correct about the cultural change between the 1960s and 1970s? Did everyone lose the idealism of the hippies? Well, for starters, hippie media didn’t go away at the end of 1969. One of the most well-known pieces of media about hippies — the musical Hair  — premiered in 1971. Maybe The Eagles weren’t feeling the vibe but that doesn’t mean other people were not. Also, the biggest legacy of the hippie movement — New Age spirituality — really took off during the 1970s.

Henley is, after all, a musician, so maybe he’s just talking about 1960s idealism disappearing from pop and rock. The 1960s gave us famous peace and love anthems such as The Beatles “All You Need Is Love,” Elvis Presley’s “If I Can Dream,” and the Plastic Ono Band’s “Give Peace a Chance.” Did that type of music go out of style when the decade ended?

No. The 1970s produced John Lennon’s “Imagine,” the Five Stairsteps’ “O-o-h Child,” and George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth).” Optimism didn’t die. Maybe Henley had become more cynical with age, but that was not the case for everyone — or even all rock stars.

Don Henley recorded another classic song about the same subject

The unbilled sequel to The Eagles’ “Hotel California” was Henley’s solo song “The Boys of Summer.” That track has a line about a Deadhead selling out and driving a Cadillac. In “The Boys of Summer,” Henley tells himself that he should stop looking back to the innocence of an earlier era. Clearly, Henley felt the social dreams of his youth had died out.

Regardless of what Henley said, we can all try to keep peace, love, and understanding alive.