
Makes perfect sense, and goddammit, who you going to believe, some ignorant rock star or me? (5) It’s about the pitfalls of living in southern California in the 1970s, my interpretation since first listen. See “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.” This comes from the published comments of Glenn Frey, one of the coauthors. (4) Hotel California is a metaphor for cocaine addiction. I see one guy on the Web has identified it as “Camarillo State Hospital in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara.” (2) The Hotel California is a mental hospital. In other words, the song is a hard look at the modern hospitality industry, which is plagued by guests who “check out any time like” but then “never leave.” (1) The Hotel California is a real hotel located in (pick one) Baja California on the coastal highway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz or else near Santa Barbara. Figuring that we should start with the general and move to the particular, I provide the following commonly heard theories:

You’re probably thinking of that famous Beatles lyric, “the girl with colitis goes by.”Īs for “Hotel California,” you realize a lot of people aren’t troubled so much by colitas as by the meaning of the whole damn song. Colitis (pronounced koe-LIE-tis) is an inflammation of the large intestine.
