‘Hotel California’: Did the Eagles rip off Jethro Tull?
Don Henley, Glenn Frey and Bernie Leadon, the three principal songwriters of the Eagles, rose to global prominence in the early 1970s with a popular brand of country-infused rock music.
With chart-busting hits like ‘Take It Easy’ and ‘One of These Nights’, the group became one of the most beloved and successful musical acts on a global scale by 1975.
Despite the band’s runaway success following 1975’s One of These Nights, fans were shocked to hear that Leadon had departed the band. It has long been believed that he left because he was dissatisfied with the band’s gradual departure from country to pop rock. However, Leadon denied that this was the case when questioned in a 2013 interview with Rolling Stone.
“That’s an oversimplification,” he retorted. “It implies that I had no interest in rock or blues or anything but country rock. That’s just not the case. I didn’t just play Fender Telecaster. I played a Gibson Les Paul, and I enjoyed rock ‘n’ roll. That’s evident from the early albums.”
Following Leadon’s exit, the Eagles brought in Joe Walsh, previously of James Gang, as a replacement. With the new configuration, the band soared to new peaks in 1976 with their fifth album, Hotel California. The release was buoyed in the charts by its eponymous single, which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100.
When the hit first reached the radio waves, some listeners pointed out its striking similarity to the 1969 Jethro Tull song ‘We Used To Know’. As we know, such resemblances have, all too often, led to courtroom disputes between artists and record labels. But fortunately, the Eagles and Jethro Tull have never clashed horns on the matter.
In a 2010 conversation with Steve Davis, the Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson addressed the matter. He felt the structural similarities only occurred by chance or by subconscious recreation. “A lot of people have mentioned to me the apparent similarity between ‘We Used To Know’ on the Stand Up album and the Eagles’ Hotel California’,” Anderson said. “I had never really drawn any comparison at all until many, many years later, after ‘Hotel California’ came out.
“But then, of course, Martin [Barre] and I did remember – I think it was in ’71 or ’72 – meeting the Eagles before they were rich and famous,” he continued. “I think they [had] just released their very first single called ‘Take It Easy’, and they were like almost a Country band. They were a kind of pleasant enough, kind of cheerful, funky-country sort of band.”
“They were an opening act for Jethro Tull, probably around the time or just before Thick As A Brick album in ’72,” he continued. “At that point, I guess we were playing ‘We Used To Know’ on stage. So it’s quite possible that the Eagles back in their dressing room when they come offstage, you know, when they’re packing up their guitars and doing whatever, they may have heard this permeating through the dressing room walls. And as is so easily done, you pick up on something subconsciously.”
“It’s not a deliberate act of plagiarism,” Anderson concluded. “I mean, the rhythm is different, the melody is different. But it is the progression of the chords. In some ways, in which elements of the melody relate to it that it’s certainly some similarities.”
Finding inspiration in another artist is par for the course. There are likely countless moments where Jethro Tull have been an inspiration for another band’s songs; in fact, if they weren’t, it would be a mark against their name. But it is also fair to say that the similarities on display are likely something that would stick in the craw of the British band, especially considering that the Eagles’ hit went on to be one of the best-selling songs of all time.
The song is one of the most beloved tunes of all time, and it might have been influenced by Jethro Tull, but it can also claim to be inspired by Steely Dan, too, if not for very different reasons. Perhaps the truth is that the Eagles’ hit was so impressive that everyone wants a small slice of the pie?
Listen to both songs below.
