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[news@ugle.unit.no]

Newsgroups: rec.music.gaffa
Path: solan1.solan.unit.no!ostrand
From: ostrand@solan.unit.no (\yvind Strand)
Subject: Hotel California Revisited
Message-ID: <1991Apr5.143819.12914@ugle.unit.no>
Sender: news@ugle.unit.no
Reply-To: ostrand@solan.unit.no (\yvind Strand)
Organization: Norwegian Institue of Technology
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 91 14:38:19 GMT

            
                          HOTEL CALIFORNIA REVISITED

  Is there anybody out there who can come to my assistance in exegeting the lyrics to the good, old song "Hotel California", by the Eagles? This piece of enigmatic rock-poetry has puzzled me ever since I acquired a firm understanding of the English language, and it dawned on me that I surely was NOT going to crack this mean, evasive nut.
  Allegedly, it's all about some place of devil-worship. Some say the song refers to a satanist rendezvous in the Californian desert. One can even spot some of the prominent cultists on the sleeve of the "Hotel California"-album, they say.
  Alas, until I have gained scientific evidences, or at least weighty arguments, for such far-out suppositions, I regard it all as pure hype. You are now allowed to hammer away on my scepticism...
  In addition to the allover problem of comprehending the meaning of the lyric, there are some linguistic barriers to a full understanding of some lines. I pose the questions as follows: What is to be "Tiffany-twisted", and to have the "Mercedes bends"? Is it simply to be fond of a certain kind of cloth, and to fancy stealing Mercedeses? And MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, what is "colitas"? Consider the following lines:
 "On a dark desert highway/cool wind in my hair/warm smell of colitas/rising up through the air".
 Is colita some kind of plant? Is it an insect? Is it a diminutive form of "cole" or "cola"? My mind is faring badly on this one. There isn't even any reference to the word in encyclopedias or dictionaries. Is it perhaps a local Spanish expression? Is it an anagram? A message from aliens... I'm really intimidated by inexplicable phenomena, and this word is certainly such a thing, an ever-glowing UFO soaring over my mind day and night, year after year.
  It goes without saying that I will be eternally grateful for a clear and precise exegesis of this, for me, mysterious text. It would further please me if somebody could point out exactly where, in what book of reference, I can find the entry "colita".

                                                           Yours broodingly,
                                                              Erlend Strand


ostrand@solan6.solan.unit.no