Why "Hotel California" Makes for Great Sacrament Meeting material

Yes, I know that the song, "Hotel California" is among those well-worn classics where everyone thinks they "know" what the song means...just like everyone knows the "lessons of Vietnam," the interpretation of "Bye, Bye, Miss American Pie," and what their respective gender is looking for a relationship.

However, if I didn't see that I had something to add, I would certainly refrain from the melee of interpretations. And I understand some of them are l(to seriously understate) less-than-edifying. And it's possible that this is not a new interpretation. But I like it, so if it isn't new...tough. And I won't take you threw the historiography of interpretation for the song...I have neither the time nor you have the patience (or even the desire, really...). That said...

Hotel Caliifornia, written, performed, and made legendary by The Eagles, tells the story of a desert traveler who happens across on an old mission in old California. A woman greets him, holding up a light in the doorway. Her hair "tiffany-twisted" (prob. meaning an obsession with Tiffany's, the jeweler), she receives him into a world of luxury, "pretty boys," and dancing. People eat to their hearts content, but still, as it were, "cannot kill the beast." "We are prisoners here," the women notes, "of our own device." Meanwhile, voices haunt the man, saying "Welcome to the Hotel California, such a lovely place, such a lovely face, such a lovely face/ They livin' it up at the hotel California/What a nice surprise, bring your alibis." Before long, the man finds himself going mad and tries to leave. The clerk stops him and says: "We are programmed to receive; you can checkout anytime you like, but you can never leave."

Now for the fun part...interpretation! In doing so, I must of necessity be slightly outrageous and assume that I know precisely what it means and that anyone who disagrees with me is a fool (reminds me of Voltaire who quipped: "'I always made one prayer to God, a very short one. Here it is: 'O Lord, make our enemies quite ridiculous!' God granted it.'). But I tend to think, given what the clerk says about how one can never leave, that the hotel is an imagined edifice. And what are they prisoners of? Whatever it is, they freely choose it...and it is a prison of luxury. Finally,it is prison that is considered to be a bit of an indulgence..."what a nice surprise, bring your alibis" For what are alibis needed if it is a place you would want to tell people about? And finally, notice the aroma surrounding the hotel...colitas (a marijuana bud). Whether these individuals are high or not, the imagery suggests that the joy they are having is an artificial one, wrapped in the haze of drug-induced happiness. Most significantly, one cannot leave this prison once it is indulged in. It becomes a mindset, not a location. A way of life.

I suggest that Hotel California can be usefully read as a critique of materialism. Elder Holland said this much when he spoke of materialism as a "great and spacious building in which the soap opera, Vain Imaginations is playing incessantly."

I'll write a note in honor of the next person to use "Hotel California" lyrics in a talk.