Hotel California Technique

Music

Musically, "Hotel California" is propelled by Don Henley's incomparable voice, which sounds a bit like someone trying to play it cool while straining to be heard above a noisy room. The song a...

Songwriting

"Hotel California" has seven different sections, two of which are the chorus. The song has plenty of rhyming verses, but there's no obvious pattern or rhyme scheme. In the first stanza, for ex...

Speaker

The speaker's a free spirit and likes to do things his own way. And at the beginning of the song, he does do things his own way. He's on the road, letting the wind ruffle his hair as he rolls down...