The Eagles Hotel California, Our Meeting Down Under, and Why This is a Desert Island Album

What can you possibly say about Hotel California that hasn't already been said? Realistically, probably nothing, so I'll begin with the facts. Released in 1976, it has sold more than sixteen million copies in the U.S alone. It was number one in the album charts for eight weeks. It also boasts two number one hit singles in the title track Hotel California, and its brilliant predecessor New Kid In Town. It was listed #38 on VH1's Greatest Album's Of All Time, #37 on Rolling Stone Magazine's 500 Greatest Album's Ever, and #13 in a 2005 survey by Channel 4 determining the best record ever made. It was a major global critical and commercial success, and in the title track boasts one of the most air-played songs of all-time, with one of the defining opening lines in Rock'n'Roll history: "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair/Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air." In 1977 New Kid In Town won a Grammy Award for the Best Arrangement For Voices category, and in 1978 the album Hotel California won another Grammy Award for Record Of The Year. So, just in case you aren't quite getting the picture yet, this album is a BIG fucking DEAL.

That's all the statistical crap out of the way. I guess now I can have my say. Ok, so it opens with the title track. Some people can't stand it; I suspect that is because it is overplayed, over-quoted, and totally misunderstood. Songs can be ruined by the radio, it is true, but it is impossible to draw the line. When there is a demand for air-play because something is so good, how do you mediate it? It is the unanswerable question. In my opinion the song Hotel California speaks loudly for itself. One of the great moments in music history, it still sounds fresh, still has something to say lyrically as well as musically, and has the potential (along with certain Beatles/Stones/Elvis numbers etc) never to grow old. I don't often get defensive about music anymore - I am broad-minded enough to appreciate that everybody has different tastes, and everybody is entitled to an opinion. However, I'm going to break the mould here since I love this track, still get so much pleasure out of playing it live, and believe in its genius so much. If you think this song is shit you have one of two possible ailments: either a) you are deaf, or b) you are a complete dickhead.

New Kid in Town, which still stands as my favourite Eagles track ever, is, in my opinion, simply perfect. Lyrically it exposes the tensions felt as a young person; it captures the anxiety caused as a result of an imposing newcomer, and puts us all back into a situation familiar to our younger days. How many young people have been conscious of some other stealing their limelight? Hi-jacking their relationships? Taking their girl/guy? How many people have experienced that feeling of green-eyed envy and jealousy, which leaves you feeling paranoid and empty? I'd guess just about everyone. Despite this song being, musically, one of the most sumptuous, delightful, harmonies tracks you'll ever hear, that underlying material theme and uneasiness is right there within. Life In The Fast Lane is the riff that sparks the fire on the album; a wonderful duel of sorts between Joe Walsh and Don Felder - a duel with two outright winners. Wasted Time is a stunning ballad in which Don Henley's immense vocal steals the show, amidst some fine guitar playing, immaculate piano work, and a heavenly string arrangement. It is devastating in every possible positive sense.

The reprise of Wasted Time is equally as dazzling, pre-empting Victim Of Love, a thunderous lament co-written by Henley, Glenn Frey, Don Felder and JD Souther. Joe Walsh's slide guitar is riveting throughout. Pretty Maids All In A Row - Walsh's only self-penned track on the album - is an overwhelming love song in which his much criticised vocal puts many critics back in their unjustified boxes. The harmonies are everything you would expect from the Eagles; they are, in fact, so tight that it could be mistaken as one multi-dimensional voice. Try And Love Again, written by soon-to-depart bass player Randy Meisner, is a lovely country song, sang in his usual alluring style. The album ends with the epic The Last Resort - a song that has come up against much speculation over the years. Glenn Frey said in an interview that the song was about the loss of paradise; how human beings are experts at screwing up the environment and making a catastrophe of everything beautiful here on Earth. Musically it is untouchable; a prodigious statement, a colossal musical arrangement, and a hair-raising moment if ever there was one. It concludes a record that is so broad musically and thematically that it is impossible to compartment. It is Rock, Folk, Country, Pop - everything in fact. Conceptually it speaks about imprisonment, death, materialism, insanity, the separation of art and commerce, lost love, found love, drug addiction, the transient nature of fame, temptation, shallow relationships, manifest destiny and the American Dream. It is an absolute classic which every music lover should own, and never fails to reveal itself in a new light every time I listen to it.

Back in 2004 I was walking through Knox City, a multi-storey shopping centre just outside Melbourne, Australia. I spotted on a poster that The Eagles were coming down under for a series of shows, five of which were at the Rod Laver Arena. I rang my mate Travis, he came down, and we bought a pair of the cheapest tickets - $94.60 each. The most expensive were over $500 a piece. Capitalism gone mad. We were warned that we had paid for restricted view, but I suppose beggars couldn't be choosers. When the night finally came - wait for it - on a gloriously hot November's evening, Travis and I were blown away. First of all, our 'restricted view' seats were actually right at the side of the stage. I had people sat two yards to my right who had paid the full $500. Secondly, The Eagles were amazing. They played all the hits, their harmonies were incredible, the playing immense, and the atmosphere electric. A magic night. And, to top it all off, they released that very gig on DVD just for me as a keepsake. What cool old boys.

Since then I have managed to see The Eagles twice - once in Manchester at the MEN Arena (2006), and again at The O2 Arena in London (2008), where they plugged their brilliant new record Long Road Out Of Eden. It is a curse that I wasn't around to see them blossom in their heyday, but a total blessing to have caught them doing what they STILL do best in their autumn years. The Eagles are an institution - and, yes, they are commercial, but their importance and influence cannot be denied. Hotel California is one of my desert island discs; to think I'd never hear it again would break my heart in two. BUY IT!