THIS SONG SCARED THE HECK OUT OF ME AS A KID...I TOOK IT SO LITERAL.I THOUGHT IT WAS AN ACTUAL PLACE THAT SOMETHING REALLY HORRIBLE HAPPENED AND THE PERSON LIVED TO TELL THE TALE.AS I GREW OLDER..AND UP TO THIS DAY IT STILL GIVES ME THE CHILLS...BUT THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST 6 MINUTES AND 30 SECONDS EVER WRITTEN AND PLAYED...💯💯💯

BRAVO 10 points!

Very nice interpretation!

🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸👍👍

Her particular LSD mental head trip😮😮

🎸All parrralles stem from our Bible good vs evil with many occult like injections from Lord of the rings,,,I like the song, but I like it same as a Christmas tree,,,,,Do Not make them your salvation as any other False salvation,,,,,,, Jesus Christ is mans only true salvation,,,,see Acts, 4:12❤🙏❤

I love drugs. Drugs are good. :)

I don't see any point in decoding song lyrics because if a hundred of people break down the meaning of a song you'll have a hundred different stories and explanations. Take for example John Lennons I am the Walrus where he says "Corpration t shirt stupid bloody Tuesday man you've neen a notty not you let your face grow long! What does that mean? Most rock song lyrics are very abstract and make no sense

Its about aliens

The good rock and prog rock bands are the ones that not only had good music, but also had good lyrics in the majority of their tunes.. there's a lot of rock 'n' roll that people think is great, but has shit lyrics .. and that's what separates a good rock band from a bad one. The lyrics are the final ingredient in LZ magic.

so funny to me how you make stairway to Heaven sound like a work of genius, and Robert Plant can't even stand this song, and he was responsible for it !!😂

This planet is a hotel California, once you entered you will be recycleback in to be energy sources of your captors! Don't worry their tenure is about to end!😂

Did so much at one point took me 10 hits windowpane just to get off.. sooo my take on the allegories of White Rabbit are that they're basically plug & play.. and, hence, timeless. White Knight talking backwards and Red Queen's "off with her head" could be topical now w Trump's schtick and Kamala's prosecutor image. I'd say Grace lucked into a perfect timeless allegory... channeled, o'course, as she said thru past writings fed to her. I love you, Grace. My grandmother's name was Grace.

Amazing!

Plant was high af when he wrote it. Also, the music notes were plagiarized.

Very good explanation. When the song came out, i was in jr high, and I have listened many times to it,only understanding bits and pieces. Your explanation is good, thank you.

The 70s hippie drug culture, many lost their life, even famous people in the art world. They went too deep into the rabbit hole, I guess? I grew up in a socialist/communist country, we didn't have this kind of problems, other than a few wacko kids sniffing glue! LOL!

Makes sense together with a song like "the last resort" being also very much a criticism to the dark side of the American dream.

I think it's being trapped in a situation, a psychologic circle of trauma you can't get out.

I think it was omitted to fully decipher the steely knives failing to kill the beast which in my mind represents the process of dissecting crack into sniffable potions but failing to overcome it's devastating effects

I've always thought it was about being in a mental institution and it makes perfect sense to me so I'm sticking with it

Your narrative of the mission churches is completely false

I was born in 1964 in Portland Oregon as a child myself and peers were warned of the fate of young teenagers " runaways" trying to escape thier fate, born into a abusive family, so forth had went to Hollywood never to be heard from again and many people from my generation thought these stories for propaganda such as many book's " Go ask Alice later became a movie as the original noval was banned. During the hieght of COVID in 2019 my only child, a 28 year young man called me from Spokane Wa to announce his departure, having asulted a Metro bus driver during a drunken Bliss he might be facing federal charges as a judge I judge had recently ordered a continuance of trial and sent him into a treatment center he decided to ascound charges and when given the privileges to leave the center on his first excursion unattended my Son explained I checked my readjustment money and bought a one-way ticket to LA I can't return tonight because they'll know what's up, my bus leaving 6:00 a.m. myself recently experiencing the covid hospitalization in Denver Colorado I remember replying: Los Angeles is the worst place that you could have picked with covid happening at the epi center of disease my son replied, I'll be okay Dad I'm in great physical shape you realize I've been on some form of supervision over the last 10 years of my life and if the plea bargain becomes bad how to spend another 8 to 10 years in a penitentiary, I just want to have some of my life to myself for once perhaps something good will happen in my life what type of guitar do you think I should buy? 10 things to change the subject line my son has been exposed to some music from his mother and me at a very early age and could play guitar and piano and said when I get my s*** together I will invite you to come visit and we can start our band. That was the last time I ever spoke with my son, three years later, his mother received a call from the Los Angeles county morgue set on the morning of February 3rd a child has succumbed in West Hollywood to an accidental overdose of fentanyl and methamphetamine as The story goes a 911 call was made concerning a young man who was having convulsions in front of Starbucks located in West Hollywood when the ambulance arrived he was unconscious and was given life-sustaining treatment taken to west Hollywood hospital and died of a massive organ failure due to the high toxicity of drug's in his system. My world has forever changed since that moment I'm still learning how to deal with the pain I wonder how my child could live on the streets of West Hollywood 3 years where the number one cause of death is gunshot wounds to the Head could survive only to die from the little blue pill, Sincerely Luke W

Wow Finally someone else gets it. I would add two things. I believe you have slightly wrong. We know at the time of writing Plant was into Celtic mysticism. which in all fairness is where Tolken gets this concept from. The West is indeed the Celtic version of Heaven. What I think you misunderstood is the next stanza. The rings of Smoke through the tress is also a Celtic reference to the festival of Beltane. This is a festival celebrating the transition from spring to summer and the end of calving season in which the whole community gathered in the forest and built a bonfire often in circles and danced through and around the fires and sang songs to the Celtic God of fire Belenus and The May Queen Goddess. The Symbol of birth purity and spiritual growth. All fitting into the narrative you have pointed to for this song. In Fact if you look at the chain dance that is common in Celtic celebrations today that has everyone join in a circle and dance together you see that dance of this festival. The final point I think you are a bit off on is the Shadow and the Soul. The fact that is makes reference to winding down the road thus referencing our journey through life. The Shadow represents our deeds our actions the fact it is taller than our soul which is our true Identity shows that we are still far away from the light source, if we were close to the source our shadow would be smaller than ourselves. We know this is what is being said because first off the Lady is on the same road as we are. Secondly he then goes on to say that we must still listen very hard for the truth to finally come to us. And then he states what that Truth is. To be a rock and not to roll. To be firm in your convictions. Most people have a very high moral standard the real challenge in life is to live up to that standard yourself and not to roll over when that moral standard becomes inconvenient (ie:to stand firm on your convictions your morals even if it leads to your death.) Jesus says the same thing Judge Not lest you are judged for the same measure you put on others is the measure you will have to stand up to. We all have our moral code and we judge others actions by that code the real Question is do you live up to it yourself, are you a rock that does not roll? One final thought is that in symbolism a woman very, very often represents false religion or beliefs. ie the Whore of Babylon comes to mind who loves gold and is responsible for not only all who have been murdered on Earth but for the wanton destruction of Earth.

Acid, with Alice in Wonderland as a metaphor.

What about it played backwards. That is much more interesting.

That song always reminded me of tripping!

Hell

Stuck in this world 4 ever😂

Don't know if it got covered, but "the warm smell of colitas" I understood to be the smell of cannabis bud.

if you only have one brain cell yoi should be able to work it out it really is'nt hard

Simple....drug use.

I concur. Reminiscent of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poetic ambiguous genius!

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king.” - J RR Tokien (a prophecy about a seemingly unimportant raggedy old ranger becoming King over Gondor)

Drug talk for sure... A lost cause for sure..!!!

For the longest time I thought Feed your Head was Peace on Earth

I think while there’s obviously drug related themes, they might have just been the sideline. The sins that lead them to that hotel. Some place between earth and hell. Like a time loop thing.

Lucifer inspired song

Also on the album cover you will see a real witch on the upper level with the hotel lobby pic on the inside . Give you chills seeing it ( it’s a real witch !!! And the same witch that was witchy woman album . Super spooky you also see the reaper sickle in windo and long hair hanging out windo and vulture in chandelier

biblical aligned : Wind =Spirit Colitis = mix of marijuana and opuim Candle is the light of God Door= going from physical to spiritual Plenty of room hotel California ( Jesus said in my fathers house there are many mansions ) Captain = JESUS Wine= JESUS blood The heavenly host are within us / Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is within us . The woman ( is the church the bride of Christ ) The Beast is Satan/ steely knives is a flip humor but the word of the God is also the sword knife to destroy the beast ( God will destroy the beast , the meal when the rapture comes is the marriage supper of the lamb . Gods Holy mountain is Firestone’s in which Lucifer and. God did walk on before Lucifer fell

I never knew the Eagles realized they were sort of intellectual, and always thought this song mostly happened by (happy?) accident.

True story of the mossers early 50s impressed Morrison

There only one way to get your innocent back.that is christ jesus

Merci!

The Hotel California = THC.

You covered the interpretation pretty well. Another forgotten point was Anton Szandor Lavey who was in the door way on the album Hotel California. He had a black church in San Francisco, but has been since destroyed after his death.

Being French (although bilingual), I didn’t grasp all of the cultural references and English meaning of some of the sentences in that song. However, intuitively, that song resonated deep with me. Now, thanks for your analysis, you extracted its essential oil and distilled it in a clear and concise way for us to « hear the wind blow ». Everything makes so much sense now and although I once heard RP say in an interview that this was a song written by a 24 yr old boy and that he preferred Kashmir over STH… I guess, he, himself, has not « heard the wind blow »even though he wrote it and performed it over a thousand times in his life 😉. Don’t get me wrong, Kashmir is an exceptional piece of music that I admire as well but STH is a special « gem » all of its own. Thank you so much for this in-depth analysis 🙏!

Let me verify I don't believe it's a satanic song although Christian's would have you think otherwise

it was really far out, man

TO THOSE IN THE KNOW, IT IS ABOUT DUMPING STUPIDANITY AND RETURNING TO THE ANCIENT MYSTICAL PACTICES.