Without a doubt, the Eagles are one of the most recognizable rock bands of the ’70s, especially after the band’s most famous song “Hotel California,” was released in ’77.  The song not only represents major conspiracy theories over its meaning, but contains one of the best guitar solos of all time, voted by rocklist.com.

The song was mostly written by band members Don Henley and Glenn Frey, but altogether was a combination of the whole band’s creativity. In an interview with Cameron Crowe, Glenn Frey talked about how Henley and him wanted to make the song open like an episode from the Twilight Zone, a horror, science fiction TV show made in the late ’50s and ’60s by Rod Serling.

“We take this guy and make him like a character in The Magus, where every time he walks through a door there’s a new version of reality. We wanted to write a song just like it was a movie,” Frey added.

The song was actually based on The Beverly Hills Hotel because it resembled such a significant part in their lives at the time.  

The lyrics, “Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends” focuses on Don Henley’s breakup with his girlfriend.

One of the most contravisory and debatable aspects of the song are its lyrics and moral. Theories range from “a journey from innocence to experience” or “socio political statement,” although Henley explains the songs is primarily, “more of a symbolic piece about America in general.”

Lyrics like, “So I called up the Captain, / ‘Please bring me my wine’ / He said, ‘we haven’t had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine’” to “Last thing I remember,  I was / Running for the door / I had to find the passage back to the place I was before,” show how the wealth and riches of America corrupt many people’s minds and overtime drive them crazy and make them feeling trapped.

Overall, the song is definitely a classic and deserves a huge applause for the phenomenal guitar solos by Don Felder and Joe Walsh.