tuscl

Welcome to the Hotel California...

Monday, May 6, 2013 6:03 PM
So my 17yo son and I are driving along when "Hotel California" by the Eagles (a popular rock and roll band from the late 70's for you young bucks out there {wink}) comes on. He reaches out and cranks the volume and we continue on in rapt silence enjoying Joe Walsh's and Don Felder's gutiar interplay and Don Henley's vocals as we speed on through the cool night air. When the song ends he stubs the volume and asks, "Hey dad what is that song about?". It turns out that he and a couple of his friends were debating what "they" thought it was about and he was of the opinion that it was about a famous strip club. Now the point here isn't what the actual song is about as much as it is about what he thinks it is about and why. After all to the best of my knowledge he doesn't have any "real" SC experience to draw from so it should probably go with out saying that I'm curious as hell about what he thinks SCs are all about and it does afford me the opportunity to pass along some potentially useful knowledge... So the question is, In my position (sequestered in car with son who actually wants to know what I think about something I actually know about) what would you say to him? Would you take advantage of the opportunity to talk to him about SCs in general and SS in particular or diatribe on the meaning of the song? Thoughts???

18 comments

  • Papi_Chulo
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    11 years ago
    I do not have any children so what I say should be taken w/ a grain of salt. Personally, I think he is still too young to have a SC convo – he is not even old enough to get in one anyway. I think it’s best to delay that convo `till he is a bit older and more mature like 21 when he can get into SCs – but there are some clubs where one can get in when one is 18 – if that is the case in your area, I would hold off as long as you can to have the SC talk – i.e. when he is old enough to start going to them - IMO.
  • Papi_Chulo
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    11 years ago
    I think “Hotel California” is one of those songs that is so good that it will be enjoyed by many no matter how much time passes. Great music/songs will always be great music/songs
  • MondoGoGo
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    11 years ago
    @ Papi, respect!
  • SuperDude
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    11 years ago
    Hotel California is like a SC. "You can check out, but you can never leave."
  • dallas702
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    11 years ago
    Don't discuss SCs with a 17yo! He won't get it and you'll just confuse him. OTOH, DO absolutely discuss Hotel California, the Eagles, sex, drugs and Rock and Roll. Perhaps your son might get a little insight about his dad and the world back then.
  • PredragDr
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    11 years ago
    It's about a mental institution, or at least that is the general consensus in the rock community.
  • gawker
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    11 years ago
    What's the difference between a mental institution and a strip club? They're both filled with nuts.
  • SlickSpic
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    11 years ago
    I've always heard that the song was about the mental institution in Camarillo, CA. Urban legend or truth, I don't know.
  • jester214
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    11 years ago
    Take it as an opportunity to point him towards more good music.
  • jerikson40
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    11 years ago
    Interesting...never much cared for the Eagles, never though Hotel California was that big a deal. But a tiny bit of research on the meaning of the song came up with this from Wikipedia: "Don Henley called it "our interpretation of the high life in Los Angeles" and later reiterated: "It's basically a song about the dark underbelly of the American dream and about excess in America, which is something we knew a lot about." Like 3 million other rock songs, it's about their experiences of being in a rock band in LA, etc. Kinda like Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon. Now THAT was some good music.
  • MondoGoGo
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    11 years ago
    So good feedback. I appreciate it and thought that it might be an interesting topic to chew on, more or less. In a related incident (that's a stretch really) on the way home from basketball practice last week he was very excited about an artist he discovered in our iTunes collection (currently about 10,000 titles strong) that he really wanted to "introduce" to me so he queues up a track and passes me the headphones with a big shit eating grin on his face and who do you think it is? "Well, I just got into town about an hour ago " "Took a look around, see which way the wind blow " "Where the little girls in their Hollywood bungalows " Yeah baby...
  • shadowcat
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    11 years ago
    The Eagles may have been first to record it but I like this rendition from The Big Lebowski better. [view link]
  • SlickSpic
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    11 years ago
    I LOVE the Doors! Your son rocks! I've eaten more than my fair share of mushrooms playing the Doors in candlelit rooms. I should've been born decades ago. The Doors, Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye. The sixties-early seventies were amazing. I understand that nostalgia plays a big part but, damn. I love my early 90's gangster rap, alternative, and shit-kicking country but the late sixties were America.
  • MondoGoGo
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    11 years ago
    ^^word @Slick
  • MondoGoGo
    •
    11 years ago
    Yessss Mr. Cat! I do so dig the Gipsy Kings and have been to see them several times in small venues. Strunz and Farah too... Good stuff, makes me want to drink tequila and party!
  • shadowcat
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    11 years ago
    Mondo - I saw them too at Chastain Park Amphitheater in Atlanta. Always a sell out.
  • azdd
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    11 years ago
    Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air......yeah, that could be a strip club! I recently picked up the History of the Eagles DVD. Great interviews and information about the beginnings, middle, and end of an iconic group. Probably my favorite part is video of a very young Linda Ronstadt singing in an LA nightclub. I forgot how incredibly hot she was! Long live the 70s!
  • staxwell
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    11 years ago
    "Great music/songs will always be great music/songs" Truer words have never been spoken on this board. "I LOVE the Doors! Your son rocks! I've eaten more than my fair share of mushrooms playing the Doors in candlelit rooms. I should've been born decades ago. The Doors, Johnny Cash, Marvin Gaye. The sixties-early seventies were amazing. I understand that nostalgia plays a big part but, damn. I love my early 90's gangster rap, alternative, and shit-kicking country but the late sixties were America." I LOVE mushrooms! Zeppelin is my life! This girl gave me a BJ while I did an acoustic cover of Hotel California for her. Such an intimate moment.
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