Hotel California
In honor of Glenn Frey's birthday, today's Music Monday is exploring the iconic "Hotel California" album from Eagles with fun facts and trivia! Let's go.
It was the last to feature founding bassist Randy Meisner
Meisner preferred not to be the center of attention, and once stated: "I was always kind of shy ... They wanted me to stand in the middle of the stage to sing 'Take It to the Limit,' but I liked to be out of the spotlight." However, he formally quit the band in September 1977, citing "exhaustion": "All that stuff and all the arguing amongst the Eagles is over now. Well, at least for me." RIP Randy.
It was the first Eagles album with Joe Walsh
The guitarist had replaced founding member Bernie Leadon.
'Life in the Fast Lane' started from a guitar riff by Walsh
Frey indicated that the song's central riff was played by Walsh while the band was warming up in rehearsals and Walsh was told to "keep that; it's a song". Don Henley recalled that the "song actually sprang from the opening guitar riff. One day, at rehearsal, Joe just busted out that crazy riff and I said 'What the hell is that? We've got to figure out to make a song out of that." Henley and Frey, the primary lyricists for the band, then wrote the lyrics for the song.
The title, however, came from a drug dealer
On "In the Studio with Redbeard", a radio program, produced and hosted by Dallas, Texas, based rock and roll disc jockey Doug "Redbeard" Hill, Glenn Frey revealed that the title came to him one day when he was riding on the freeway with a drug dealer known as "The Count". Frey asked the dealer to slow down and the response was, "What do you mean? It's life in the fast lane!"
Glenn Frey wanted the title track to be "more cinematic", and to write it "just like it was a movie"
Don Henley sought inspiration for the lyrics by driving out into the desert, as well as from films and theatre and even a break up with his then girlfriend Loree Rodkin.
Rodkin also inspired the song 'Wasted Time'
'Wasted Time' was what Glenn Frey called "Philly influence"
As Frey wrote in the liner notes to The Very Best Of The Eagles, “I loved all the records coming out of Philadelphia at that time. I sent for some sheet music so I could learn some of those songs, and I started creating my own musical ideas with that Philly influence. Don was our Teddy Pendergrass. He could stand out there all alone and just wail. We did a big Philly-type production with strings — definitely not country-rock. You’re not going to find that track on a Crosby, Stills & Nash record or Beach Boys record. Don’s singing abilities stretched so many of our boundaries. He could sing the phone book. It didn’t matter.” (Source: https://americansongwriter.com/wasted-time-the-eagles-behind-the-song/)
The hotel on the front cover is the Beverly Hills Hotel
The rear album cover was shot in the lobby of the Lido Hotel in Hollywood. Shot by David Alexander with design and art direction by Kosh.
The Eagles sued a hotel in Baja for using the name
"A Mexican company called Hotel California Baja LLC...settled a legal dispute with The Eagles, withdrawing an application for a U.S. trademark for the name of the hotel that’s located in Todos Santos, a city in the state of Baja California Sur, about 1,000 miles south of San Diego." (Read more: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversation/sd-hotel-california-a-brief-timeline-of-lawsuit-over-mexican-resort-name-20180119-htmlstory.html)
However, there is a Hotel Californian in Santa Barbara
It was ranked the second best hotel in SoCal Condé Nast Traveler Readers' Choice Awards. I stayed there last October when I ventured to see a Nick Mason concert at the Arlington in SB. You can check out any time you like. But you can never leave. (Book your stay: https://www.hotelcalifornian.com/?gad=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwtJKqBhCaARIsAN_yS_nWn_b1KbbBo1bndgggG6knOxc5S5d5aNwIoSwwgZpkfQiyIx01QooaAjv8EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)
Stolen lyrics sheets
In July 2022 three men, all involved in rare book and memorabilia dealing, "were indicted...in New York for allegedly conspiring to sell handwritten notes and lyrics for the Eagles album 'Hotel California'— papers that band member Don Henley says were stolen in the late 1970s.
The 100 allegedly stolen pages include the lyrics to the songs 'Hotel California,' 'Life in the Fast Lane; and 'New Kid in Town.' Collectively, they are valued at more than $1 million."
The album won two Grammy Awards
"Hotel California" won record of the Year for the title track and Best Arrangement for Voices for 'New Kid in Town'.
However, the band did not attend the ceremony
Irving Azoff, the Eagles' manager, refused requests by the ceremony's producer for the band to attend or perform at the ceremony unless a win was guaranteed. The band therefore did not appear at the ceremony to collect their awards. Henley later went on to say: "The whole idea of a contest to see who is 'best' just doesn't appeal to us."
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