Eagles / Hotel California (US, Asylum Records, 7E-1084) <December 8, 1976> その②-1

Eagles / Hotel California (US, Asylum Records, 7E-1084) <December 8, 1976> その②
(SIDE ONE) 7E 1084 A RE SP 1-2 "IS IT SIX O'CLOCK YET?"
(SIDE TWO) 7E 1084 B-1 SP 1-1 "V.O.L. IS FIVE PIECE LIVE"

"Hotel California" is the fifth studio album by American rock band the Eagles. The album was recorded by Bill Szymczyk at the Criteria and Record Plant studios between March and October 1976, and then released on Asylum in December. It was their first album with guitarist Joe Walsh, who had replaced founding member Bernie Leadon, and is the last album to feature bassist Randy Meisner. The front cover is a photograph of the Beverly Hills Hotel by David Alexander.

"Hotel California" topped the US Billboard Top LPs & Tapes chart. At the 20th Grammy Awards, the Eagles won a Grammy Award for "Hotel California", which won Record of the Year, and for "New Kid in Town". The album was nominated for Album of the Year but lost to Fleetwood Mac's Rumours. Three singles were released from the album, with two topping the Billboard Hot 100: "New Kid in Town" and "Hotel California", whilst "Life in the Fast Lane" reached No. 11.

A 40th anniversary special edition of Hotel California was released in November 2017. Hotel California is one of the best-selling albums of all time. It has been certified 26× Platinum in the US, and has sold over 32 million copies sold worldwide, making it the band's best-selling album after Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975). It has been ranked as one of the greatest albums of all time. In 2003 and 2012, it was ranked number 37 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Theme

The first song written for the album was "Hotel California", which became the theme for the album. Henley said of the themes of the songs in the album:

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."

On the title "Hotel California", Henley said that "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." In an interview with the Dutch magazine ZigZag shortly before the album's release, Don Henley 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.'"

[Verse 1]
He was a hard-headed man
He was brutally handsome, and she was terminally pretty
She held him up, and he held her for ransom in the heart
Of the cold, cold city
He had a nasty reputation as a cruel dude
They said he was ruthless, they said he was crude
They had one thing in common, they were good in bed
She'd say, "Faster, faster. The lights are turnin' red."

[Chorus 1]
Life in the fast lane, Surely makes you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane, Huh
Are you with me so far?

[Verse 2]
Eager for action and hot for the game
The coming attraction, the drop of a name
They knew all the right people, they took all the right pills
They threw outrageous parties, they paid heavenly bills
There were lines on the mirror, lines on her face
She pretended not to notice, she was caught up in the race
Out every evening, until it was light
He was too tired to make it, she was too tired to fight about it

[Chorus 2]
Life in the fast lane, Surely makes you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane, Huh
Life in the fast lane, Everything all the time
Life in the fast lane, Huh

[Verse 3]
Blowin' and burnin', blinded by thirst
They didn't see the stop sign, took a turn for the worst
She said, "Listen, baby, you can hear the engine ring."
"We've been up and down this highway, haven't seen a goddamn thing."
He said, "Call the doctor. I think I'm gonna crash."
"The doctor says he's comin', but you gotta pay in cash."
They went rushin' down that freeway, messed around and got lost
They didn't care, they were just dyin' to get off

[Chorus 2]
And it was life in the fast lane, Surely makes you lose your mind
Life in the fast lane, Huh
Life in the fast lane, Everything all the time
Life in the fast lane, Huh

[Outro]
Life in the fast lane
Life in the fast lane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tcXblWojdM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po6QU0z1rSs&list=RDpo6QU0z1rSs&start_radio=1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUIO4QTB2VM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsYhDSR9mGI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-toZfeVtMmA

若さ＝馬鹿さ、という感じでしょうか。