I had always taken the lyrics to be about a loss of innocence that comes with working in the California entertainment industry. It's all glamorous from the outside but within the residents have become deranged and exploitative.
Wtf I didn't interpret it that way at all lmao, I thought it was a funny joke about California having nice weather or something which made you not want to leave
Kicking a lot of mentally ill people out onto the streets was an atrocity, no argument from me there.
I'm arguing that Hotel California being about mental hospitals doesn't make sense. There are so many lines that run counter to that interpretation:
There she stood in the doorway
The . . . intake nurse?
Her mind is Tiffany-twisted/She got the Mercedes Benz
Even if the staff can afford some luxuries, it doesn't seem like something they'd discuss with a patient.
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
Said nobody about an inpatient mental health facility ever
Mirrors on the ceiling/The pink champagne on ice
A hazard and contraband that would be immediately removed
And the part that might work,
You can check out any time you like/But you can never leave
really only half works. The "never leave" part works, sure, it was involuntary hospitalization, but how can you explain "check out any time you like?" Letting patients fake a check-out just seems like torture.
I always thought it was about drug addiction, specifically in the music industry, which lines up a bit more with the things you pointed out imo. And I heard that checking out was a euphemism for suicide.
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I had always taken the lyrics to be about a loss of innocence that comes with working in the California entertainment industry. It's all glamorous from the outside but within the residents have become deranged and exploitative.
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WHAT?
For fuck sakes there ain't no good boomer song
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Wtf I didn't interpret it that way at all lmao, I thought it was a funny joke about California having nice weather or something which made you not want to leave
I'm too innocent
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That seems like a stretch. I highly doubt public mental health facilities have ever been synonymous with intoxicating opulence.
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Kicking a lot of mentally ill people out onto the streets was an atrocity, no argument from me there.
I'm arguing that Hotel California being about mental hospitals doesn't make sense. There are so many lines that run counter to that interpretation:
The . . . intake nurse?
Even if the staff can afford some luxuries, it doesn't seem like something they'd discuss with a patient.
Said nobody about an inpatient mental health facility ever
A hazard and contraband that would be immediately removed
And the part that might work,
really only half works. The "never leave" part works, sure, it was involuntary hospitalization, but how can you explain "check out any time you like?" Letting patients fake a check-out just seems like torture.
I always thought it was about drug addiction, specifically in the music industry, which lines up a bit more with the things you pointed out imo. And I heard that checking out was a euphemism for suicide.
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I don't see how he was being pendantic? He was just analyzing the song lyrics to point to another interpretation
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