December 8, 1976: The Eagles Release "Hotel California"

Left to right: Don Felder, Don Henley, 

Joe Walsh, Glenn Frey, Randy Meisner

December 8, 1976: Rock band The Eagles release their 5th album, Hotel California. It becomes not only their signature album, but perhaps the defining rock and roll album of the 1970s.

In an interview with a Dutch magazine, Don Henley, the group's drummer and, along with rhythm guitarist Glenn Frey, one of their 2 main songwriters, said:

This is a concept album, there's no way to hide it, but it's not set in the old West, the cowboy thing, you know. It's more urban this time...

It's our Bicentennial year, you know, the country is 200 years old, so we figured, since we are the Eagles, and the Eagle is our national symbol, that we were obliged to make some kind of a little Bicentennial statement, using California as a microcosm of the whole United States, or the whole world, if you will, and to try to wake people up and say, "We've been okay so far, for 200 years, but we're gonna have to change if we're gonna continue to be around."

In another interview, he said:

They're the same themes that run through all of our work: Loss of innocence, the cost of naiveté, the perils of fame, of excess; exploration of the dark underbelly of the American dream, idealism realized and idealism thwarted, illusion versus reality, the difficulties of balancing loving relationships and work, trying to square the conflicting relationship between business and art; the corruption in politics, the fading away of the Sixties dream of "peace, love and understanding."

The word, "California," carries with it all kinds of connotations, powerful imagery, mystique, etc., that fires the imaginations of people in all corners of the globe. There's a built-in mythology that comes with that word, an American cultural mythology that has been created by both the film and the music industry.

Bernie Leadon had been the group's lead guitarist and chief influencer in the style of country music, making The Eagles the leader of the "country rock" movement. But he left the group after their previous album, One of These Nights. He was replaced by Joe Walsh, formerly of The James Gang, and he teamed with guitarist Don Felder and bass guitarist Randy Meisner to take them in a more straight-ahead rock direction.

For the title track, Felder wrote the melody, and Henley wrote most of the lyrics, with help from Frey. The building on the front cover of the album is the Beverly Hills Hotel, its location in the ritziest suburb of Los Angeles being emblematic of wealth. The building on the back cover is the Lido Hotel, in seedier Huntington Park.

Neither building is meant to have satanic connections, and the mysterious shadowy figure looking out the window on the back cover is not meant to be the Devil. These misconceptions are not helped by the lyrics:

* "So I called up, the Captain, 'Please bring me my wine.' He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969.'" That's not a reference to the founding of the Church of Satan. It's a reference to the Altamont festival in the Bay Area city of Livermore, the intended "West Coast Woodstock," that ended in disaster, ending "the spirit of the Sixties."

* "And in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast. They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast." "The master" is not explicitly said to be the Devil. And, in the Bible's book of Revelation, "the Beast" is a separate being from the Devil and the Antichrist.

* "You can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave." That sure sounds like Hell, but it's more a metaphor for the American, the Californian, the Los Angeleno lifestyle, where "Some dance to remember, some dance to forget."

Nevertheless, it's one of the greatest rock and roll recordings ever made. The 1st 52 seconds are Felder, Walsh and Frey warming up on guitar, before Henley begins to sing. The lyrics end at the 4:20 mark, and then Walsh and Felder spend the last 2 minutes and 11 seconds dueling on their guitars until they fade out.

"Life in the Fast Lane" was a metaphor for Frey's drug problem. "New Kid in Town" is about the nature of celebrity, as Frey reminds us, "They will never forget you 'til somebody new comes along." "The Last Resort" was about the spoiling of the American West: Henley closed with, "When you call a place 'Paradise,' kiss it goodbye."

Ironically, much of the album wasn't recorded in California. Producer Bill Szymczyk had developed a fear of earthquakes. So they compromised, recording some of it at the Record Plant in Los Angeles, and some at Criteria Studios in Miami. Also recording at Criteria, in a separate studio, was Ozzy Osbourne's band, Black Sabbath, which led to Szymczyk having to stop recording a few times, because Sabbath were just too loud.

"New Kid in Town" and the title track both hit Number 1 in 1977, while "Life in the Fast Lane" reached the Top 10. The album reached Number 1, and has sold over 32 million copies. After this album, Meisner, whose biggest contribution was writing and singing "Take It to the Limit," off One of These Nights, left the group -- the reason why is in dispute -- and was replaced on bass by Timothy B. Schmit. It was the 2nd time Schmit had replaced Meisner in a band, having previously done so in Poco. With Henley, Frey, Felder, Walsh and Schmit, The Eagles recorded The Long Run in 1979, and then broke up.

Henley, Frey and Walsh all had successful solo careers, but bad blood led Henley to say the group would reunite "when Hell freezes over." Well, in 1994, with their Long Run lineup, they reunited, and titled both their new album and their subsequent tour Hell Freezes Over. 

They began their shows with an acoustic version of "Hotel California." Walsh adopted, with some appropriateness given the State, a Spanish style for the long outro. Like the original version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," the acoustic version might be spookier than the electric version.

Meisner has only performed with the band once since leaving, at their 1998 induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Leadon also appeared then, and rejoined them on tour from 2013 to 2015. Frey died in 2016, and his son Deacon Frey took his place in the band, before leaving for a solo career in 2022. Leadon appeared with Henley, Walsh and Schmit in a tribute to Glenn Frey at the 2016 Grammy Awards.

As of December 8, 2022: Szymczyk is 79; Meisner is 76; and Henley, Leadon, Walsh, Felder and Schmit are all 75. Scott Crago, since 1994 their touring drummer for songs where Henley sings out front, is 59.

UPDATE: Meisner died in 2023. And it took me until 2024 to think of this, but the 1970s were Schrödinger's Decade. There was too much overwrought music, and, at the same time, not enough of it.

*

December 8, 1976 was a Wednesday. English actor Dominic Monaghan was born.

Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the New York Nets, 105-95 at the Nassau Coliseum. Earl "the Pearl" Monroe scored 37 for the Knickerbockers, and Lonnie Shelton scored 31. Nate "Tiny" Archibald had 27 to top the Nets, who, due to the entry fee into the NBA and the big territorial indemnification fee to the Knicks forcing them to sell Julius "Dr. J" Erving to the Philadelphia 76ers, went, practically overnight, from the last Champions of the ABA to the worst team in the NBA.

* The Boston Celtics beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 104-95 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Buffalo Braves, 123-102 at The Spectrum in Philadelphia. The aforementioned Julius Erving scored 20 points.

* The Seattle SuperSonics beat the Washington Bullets, 109-99 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls, 107-100 at Cobo Hall (now Huntington Place) in Detroit.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Los Angeles Lakers, 111-98 at the Market Square Arena in Indianapolis.

* The Phoenix Suns beat the Houston Rockets, 116-96 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Atlanta Hawks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 117-106 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio. John Drew had 39 points.

There were 6 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers and the St. Louis Blues played to a tie, 4-4 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Vancouver Canucks beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-3 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.

* The Buffalo Sabres beat the Cleveland Barons, 5-1 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Chicago Black Hawks, 4-3 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 5-0 at the Metropolitan Sports Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota.

* The Colorado Rockies and the Los Angeles Kings played to a tie, 3-3 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* And the New York Islanders, the Boston Bruins, the Detroit Red Wings, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals were not scheduled.

And there were 3 games played in the WHA:

* The New England Whalers beat the Houston Aeros, 5-1 at the Hartford Civic Center (now the PeoplesBank Arena).

* The San Diego Mariners beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 6-1 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center) in Cincinnati.

* And the Winnipeg Jets beat the Calgary Cowboys, 4-2 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.