The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ References Another Classic Rock Band
One of the most famous classic rock songs ever is The Eagles’ “Hotel California.” The tune has a lyric that alludes to the name of another rock band that was popular at the same time as The Eagles. The band in question might not have been big Eagles fans.
The Eagles’ ‘Hotel California’ tips its hat to Steely Dan
“Hotel California” feels more like an Edgar Allan Poe short story than the average pop song. The tune has inspired a lot of speculation. One of the song’s seemingly straightforward lines is actually layered. The lyric “They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can’t kill the beast” was meant as a nod to the popular jazz rock band Steely Dan.
During an interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, The Eagles’ Glenn Frey discussed why “Hotel California” has a Steely Dan reference. “One of the things that impressed us about Steely Dan was that they would say anything in their songs, and it didn’t have to necessarily make sense,” he said. “They called it ‘joke sculpture.’
“When we thought of this song ‘Hotel California,’ we started thinking that it would be very cinematic to do it like sort of The Twilight Zone — you just have one line that says there’s a guy on the highway, the next line says there’s a hotel in the distance, then there’s a woman there, then he walks in,” Frey said. “It’s just like all one-shots just strung together, and you sort of draw your own conclusions from it.” Frey added The Eagles “were sort of trying to expand our lyrical horizons and just take on something in the realm of the bizarre, as Steely Dan had done.”
Steely Dan wrote an earlier song that mentioned The Eagles
There is another reason why “Hotel California” includes an Easter egg about Steely Dan. Steely Dan had previously released a tune called “Everything You Did.” The track included the line “Turn up The Eagles, the neighbors are listening.” That line makes it sound like Steely Dan might not have been the biggest fans of The Eagles’ music.
Some bands and artists are obsessed with throwing references to other bands and artists into their lyrics. For example, it’s impossible to get through a Lana Del Rey album without hearing a couple dozen allusions to classic rock stars. The Eagles generally didn’t go that route, so Steely Dan should feel proud that they got a shout-out in “Hotel California.”
‘Hotel California’ was bigger than any Steely Dan song
“Hotel California” topped the Billboard Hot 100 for a single week. It lasted on the chart for 19 weeks. The tune appeared on the album Hotel California, which topped the Billboard 200 for eight weeks and lasted on the chart for 158 weeks.
Interestingly, none of Steely Dan’s songs reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100. The band’s highest-charting hit was “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” which peaked at No. 4. This means that the Steely Dan reference in “Hotel California” might be more famous than any of Steely Dan’s songs. That’s an odd factoid.
Steely Dan might not sound much like The Eagles — but they’ll always be part of a certain song about driving down a dark desert highway with cool wind in your hair.
