[Journal 3] Hotel California, a Song for American Hippies

All this afternoon and evening, I listened to my favorite popsong, 'Hotel California'. Among many charming aspects of this song, I particularly like the sense of voidness felt from its dreamy guitar sound. Moreover, the ambiguous words of the song intensifies its mystic sound. Especially when I get to the last line, "You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave", the implied irony always thrills me out. The song overall seems to suggest the faint mental status caused by the use of narcotics.



As I listened to the song. I remembered reading from somewhere that the obscure lyrics and decadent mood of this song reflect the American society in the mid 1960s. In order to know more about this song, I decided to do a little research on the Internet. As I surfed around various webpages, I came to know that the song was written and performed during the time of hippies. Hippies were American young people who became sick of the Vietnam war in which countless American soldiers got killed. They refused to submit themselves to the military conscription and protested against the war. Most of them felt disgusted with the American society where materialism reigned over humanistic values. Many of them left their schools and families and moved from one place to another, sleeping outside. Groups of hippies gathered around different towns along the West Coast whose pleasant climate they found highly attractive. They were the advocates of non-violence and pursued utmost freedom and self-satisfaction.



A majority of Hippies were known to practice meditation. As they experimented various ways of meditation, they became attached to the hallucinating effect of LSD. Under the influence of the mind-shattering drug, a number of hippie artists tried to express the stream of their hallucinated consciousness through painting and music. During the time, many musical bands were formed and played in the bars across San Francisco. Drug was their inspiration, and they, with misty tunes, sung progressive ideas developed from radical and skeptical social views. Previously, pop music was played to be danced along. On the other hand, the new hippish psychedelic rock was just to be listened to: it was played for the sake of acoustic aestheticism.



Based on what I have learned, I realized that it would be meaningless to try to interpret the true meaning of this song. It would be sufficient just to feel the song as it is as it merely represents chaotic mentality of the aimless American hippies and the dark side of the American society stained with worldly materialism.

I have something in common with you. I've learned about that song recently in a course called 영어대화법. In groups, every students had to find what each word implies, though all of us was confused about the song. Anyway, after the professor's explanation, I got the flavor of Hotel California, and it was pretty interesting. However, I still think what is important is appreciating the music, including melodies and feelings, itself.

I loved the song very much. As Sujin said, I could learn more about the song in Dr. Garrigues class. I still so enjoy singing Hotel California at Noraebang even though my sisters hate me to sing English song. Your first impression doesn't tell me that you are a music man and yet I now know you're the man so into music. For me, music is special and melts away my stress. I "was" so into music in movies and would collect a CD right after seeing a movie. Now it's very old story. I hardly ever buy any CDs these days. However I still keep in mind the moment I would trace back to the scene listening to original sound track. Thanks to you, I remember being a more enegetic and romantic younger lady