The Eagles song saved by a housekeeper and inspired by ‘The Twilight Zone’
A lot of the time, nothing specific makes a hit song take off; it just happens. It often comes down to timing, what the public is looking for, musical innovation, and a little bit of luck. That being said, some songs are so good, so downright perfect, that upon their release, there was no option but for them to be classics. Among these tracks are ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’, ‘Smoke On The Water’ and, of course, the Eagles ‘Hotel California’.
Their most famous effort and the titular track from their most popular album, ‘Hotel California’, comes close to defining the Eagles as a band. Its sound is completely unmistakable, and every single second is as infectious as the last. It is considered one of the greatest rock songs ever written, and two fundamental elements make it stand out.
The first is the lyrics. They are very catchy, easy to latch on to, and fun to sing to. On top of that, they have no set meaning, so people have spent years trying to read into what they mean. Some people take the song literally and read it as a cursed luxury hotel. Some believe it is a metaphor for the hedonistic lifestyle the band was living. Then, other theories exist that surround heroin, cannibalism, and even devil worship.
“Everybody wants to know what that song was about, and we don’t know,” confessed Glenn Frey when talking about the lyrics to the song. He said they “wanted to write a song that was sort of like an episode of the Twilight Zone… It was just one shot to the next – a picture of a guy on the highway, a picture of the hotel, the guy walks in, the door opens, strange people.”
The other part of the song that stands out over all the others is the guitar solo. The dual combination of shredding and melody contributes to one of the greatest guitar instrumentals ever committed to the airwaves. At first, the solo was supposed to be jammed, but Don Henley and Frey wanted something more than that so that the track would be well-rounded and a hit. Don Felder had previously recorded a demo, and the two wanted it to follow that sound.
“Joe and I started jamming, and Don said, ‘No, no, stop. It’s not right’,” recalled Felder in an interview, “I said, ‘What do you mean it’s not right?’ And he said, ‘You’ve got to play it just like the demo’.”
While Felder knew the demo the two were referring to, it wasn’t something he had listened to religiously, so he couldn’t remember the solo from memory. He knew where the original was, but given that they weren’t recording at his home, he was unable to pick it up and listen.
“I did that demo a year earlier; I couldn’t even remember what was on it. So we had to call my housekeeper in Malibu, who took the cassette, put it in a [ghetto] blaster and player it with the phone held up to the blaster,” he said, “We recorded it, and I had to sit in Miami and play exactly what was on the demo.”
The song was a guaranteed hit when it was released, but what goes into a hit? Well, in this case, it’s the Twilight Zone and the help of a housekeeper.
