Mystic spirits and sobering wines: Is there a glaring error in ‘Hotel California’?
‘Hotel California’ is one of the best-selling classic rock singles of all time. But somehow, its legacy has always been shaky. Firstly, it pushed the Eagles to breaking point and can be easily pinpointed as the beginning of the end. Secondly, its mystic meaning has always meant that the group have had to face frivolous questions about its meaning, leading to frustration and lamentation… until the next royalties payment pep them back up.
Don Henley faced one of these questions back in 2009 when John Soeder pointed out a potential glaring error with the famed lyric: “So I called up the captain / ‘Please bring me my wine’ / He said, ‘We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969′”. Wine is not a spirit. Wines are fermented, and spirits are distilled. So, is this a victory for the pedants, or does the discrepancy point towards a deeper meaning?
In wry style, Don Henley answered, “Thanks for the tutorial and, no, you’re not the first to bring this to my attention – and you’re not the first to completely misinterpret the lyric and miss the metaphor. Believe me, I’ve consumed enough alcoholic beverages in my time to know how they are made and what the proper nomenclature is. But that line in the song has little or nothing to do with alcoholic beverages. It’s a sociopolitical statement.”
Not satisfied with that snarling degree of cynicism, he took things a step further and added, “My only regret would be having to explain it in detail to you, which would defeat the purpose of using literary devices in songwriting and lower the discussion to some silly and irrelevant argument about chemical processes.” As a literature student before he became a musician, this blunt misinterpretation has always stuck in his craw.
Is there a glaring error in ‘Hotel California’?
So, what is the sociopolitical statement? Well, despite how many perceive them, the Eagles have always voiced a critical view of America. In this instance, they study the sad and sadistic death of the so-called American Dream. The issue is that while this fabled view that ‘anyone can make it’ is now most certainly a fantasy, it still proudly lingers over politics like a spectre, sheltering society from the sorry truth.
This sense of inescapable entrapment defines the meaning of the song. Capitalism is, by definition, business as usual that suppresses change. As long as there is the promise of “pink champagne” on ice, there will always be prisoners “of their own device”. Your stay at the ‘Hotel California’ “could be heaven” or it “could be hell”. The illusion within society is that such a fate can be decided by you, but the song spells out the truth that your endless stay is arbitrary in such a way that its message was barely reconciled upon release in 1977.
In many ways, that makes the “wine” line a pivotal one—the weary protagonist, who seems to realise his ruthless fate, decides to party within this perdition. At least with wine, he can in some way rebel against the sobering hardship of his unending vacation in a hotel that promises so much and delivers so little. But, as the concierge regretfully informs, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969″.
This is a line that pretty much defines the essence of the Eagles and their preoccupation: did the quashed death of counterculture take hopes for some sort of escape and alternative along with it?
