The supposed Satanic message hidden in ‘Hotel California’ by the Eagles
“We decided to create something strange, just to see if we could do it,” Glenn Frey said of the decision to pen one of the Eagles’ greatest hits. Little did he know how much that strangeness would reverberate down the ages.
‘Hotel California’ is, without question, the song that defined the Eagles for the rest of their days, for better or worse. From the second it hit the airwaves, the world knew it was listening to something far more spiritual, enchanting, and even more terrifying than the standard run-of-the-mill rock fodder. But that was simply all part of the game plan.
Even if you’re not even close to being an Eagles superfan, you’re bound to have heard that track hundreds of times, either intently or just in passing. But do yourself a favour and indulge in yet another listen – because you might just find something sinister lurking beneath the surface, that you would never have discovered before if you weren’t to go looking for it.
The success of ‘Hotel California’ is often attributed to the iconic guitar riffs and the head-spinning lyrics, yet in reality, all of this could really be handed to the band selling their soul to the devil. Don’t be fooled: this is no tongue-in-cheek metaphor, as within the walls of allegory on hedonism, the music industry, and richness, there is a message from Satan himself.
Admittedly, it’s not often the mode of choice to listen to your favourite songs in reverse, even though it is a quite literal way of getting to know them back to front. If you were to apply that method to ‘Hotel California’, however, what you might find is something far more than an indistinguishable mishmash of sound.
Indeed, the words “Satan he hears this. He had me believe,” can allegedly be heard over the course of the track as it is played in all its backwards glory, either serving up enough of a beguiling chalice to entrance you into its spell even more, or creeping you out so much that it sends you running a mile. The choice, and the interpretation of that moment, is yours.
Of course, this all rather conveniently ties into what Don Henley later described as “the dark underbelly of the American dream. It’s about excess, it’s about narcissism. It’s about the music business. It can have a million interpretations.” Diving deeper, however, it’s the relinquishment of morals and the loss of innocent minds that really made the devil come out to play.
There’s no way of knowing whether the Satanic reversed message is simply the product of fans eagerly hunting for meanings and metaphors within the Eagles’ crown jewel of a hit. But given the precedent that the band themselves set in their intimations about the song, nothing is out of the bounds of possibility.
That is ultimately the real gateway into what made ‘Hotel California’ the golden dream that proved too good to be true. The Eagles said it was a case of checking out and never leaving, but instead of those keys going missing, it now seems that they may have been handed over to Satan.
