Glenn Frey, a founding member of the Eagles, died yesterday at age 67.
The Eagles have had five number one hits, but they’re best known for “Hotel California,” their 1977 ballad of hedonism—the song ranks No. 49 on Rolling Stone’s list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.” Some thought the hotel “you can never leave” was a drug addiction, some thought it was actually purgatory, but Frey said it’s “the underbelly of success, the darker side of paradise. Sort of what we were experiencing in Los Angeles at that time. That just sort of became a metaphor for the whole world.”
In honor of Frey’s life, Genius checks in with seven facts you didn’t know about “Hotel California.”
1. The working title was “Mexican Reggae”
When Eagles Guitarist Don Felder started on the band’s fifth album, he made a cassette of 17 demos to share with the rest of the group. Felder recalled Henley’s first listen to what would become “Hotel California,” “He said, ‘I like that song that sounds kind of like a bolero or a Mexican reggae or something.’ That was the only track that was on there that sounded like that, so it became nicknamed ‘Mexican Reggae’ until the lyrics were finished.”
2. Christian Evangelists thought the song referred to the Church of Satan
Some fans interpreted “Hotel California” as a song about drug addiction, but a small group of Christian Evangelists were convinced it was about a San Francisco hotel that a man named Anton LaVey bought in 1966 to house his new religion, The First Church of Satan.
3. The Eagles wanted the track to sound like an episode of The Twilight Zone
Listening to Felder’s demo of “Hotel California,” Henley and Frey discussed what they wanted the song to sound like. Frey said, “We were talking about what we would write and how we wanted to be more cinematic. We wanted this song to open like an episode of The Twilight Zone—just one shot after another.”
4. The band didn’t show up to receive their Grammy for “Record of the Year”
The Eagles won the Grammy for Record of the Year in 1978, but Don Henley didn’t believe in contests, so they didn’t go. In the clip above, Andy Williams awkwardly waits for someone to come accept the award. Eagles member Timothy B. Schmidt later said the band had watched the ceremony from band practice.
5. The song may have been inspired by Jethro Tull
The chord progressions on Tull’s 1969 track “We Used To Know” are almost identical to the Eagles’ mega-hit. The bands toured together in 1972, so Felder, Frey and co. heard the song many times over. Jethro Tull frontman Ian Anderson doesn’t feel cheated, though: “There’s certainly no bitterness or any sense of plagiarism attached to my view on it, although I do sometimes allude, in a joking way, to accepting it as a kind of tribute.”
6. There’s a Steely Dan Reference
In the third verse of “Hotel California,” Don Henley sings, “They stab it with their steely knives / But they just can’t kill the beast.” The line was a response to Steely Dan’s 1976 track, “Everything You Did,” in which Donald Fagen sings, “Turn up the Eagles, the neighbors are watching.”
“We decided to volley,” Frey said. “We just wanted to allude to Steely Dan rather than mentioning him outright.”
7. Don Henley and Frank Ocean had beef over a “Hotel California” sample
When Frank Ocean sampled the track on 2012’s “American Wedding,” Don Henley allegedly threatened to sue. Ocean wrote on his Tumblr: “Ain’t this guy rich as fuck? Why sue the new guy? I didn’t make a dime off that song. I released it for free. If anything I’m paying homage.”
But a band rep denied all of it, “For the record, Don Henley has not threatened or instituted any legal action against Frank Ocean, although the Eagles are now considering whether they should.”
