I thought it might be nice to have a little bit of a think about some of the classic songs we kind of take for granted. For the time being, I’m thinking of songs that are, or have remained, in our guitar club repertoire for a fair time, usually demonstrating their popularity to players as well as listeners. I reserve the right to expand that definition in the future…..
We’ve probably all played songs that we don’t really know the history of, or even what their real meanings are…. you just “accept” them. But who actually wrote them? Is there a story behind their existence? As somebody with a burgeoning interest in songwriting doing a little bit of digging into the hows and whys appeals to me more and more.
Hotel California by The Eagles is a great place to start. It’s been a guitar club favourite since forever. Certainly since I took over running Coustics properly, circa 2009 (you can read more about the club’s history in my last blog, “On The Road Again”) it could be the only song that I took out of the book, only for it to be reintroduced a few years later following some not so mild grumblings. Everybody makes mistakes.
The album, “Hotel California” was released in 1976. The musical concept for the track was the guitarist, Don Felder’s. Writing demos alone in a rented beach house, he hit upon a chord sequence which “showed promise”. His daughter’s bedroom at the time, was doubling as his home studio, so as soon as he was able, he recorded a basic demo, with a basic drum machine and a few overdubs onto a cassette. The track went to Glenn Frey and Don Henley, along with about 15 other ideas, and he pretty much forgot about it.
In a later interview Glenn Frey recalled most of Felder’s demos were pretty useless, with too many guitar parts to leave space for a vocal, (note to songwriter self, there’s a tip there), but that that particular track again, “showed promise”. Don Henley too ultimately latched onto the track too, describing it as a bit like “Mexican Reggae” and proceeded to write the lyrics we all know and love.
But was there actually a Hotel California? Apparently not. I mean, there is, NOW….be pretty stupid for there not to be. Most opinions seem to air towards it being a ‘state of mind’. I think it was Joe Walsh who described that, at that time, everybody was going to California from all over the U.S. to make their names. Nobody was actually from California, (at least none of the original Eagles lineup was) so the city was like a hotel to everybody…..
Third time lucky...
The song took three tries to record. First one was the wrong speed, (Felder can’t remember if it was too fast or slow), second time it was too high for Don Henley to sing (yep, been there done that, good to know I’m not the only one) so it was dropped from Em, 5 semitones to Bm, (E to Eb/D#, to D, toDb/C#, to C and then B = 5 frets, 5 semitones, theory fans…). Three….is the magic number…... Felder, with a background in jazz improvisation, was apparently looking forward to trading licks in that monster of an outro with Joe Walsh, as they had often done on previous tours. Apparently this was shot down by Henley, who considered Felder’s original solo ideas to be far superior, demanding Felder to get his housemaid back in Florida to find the original demo and play it over the phone to him at The Record Plant Studios in L.A. so that he could relearn it.
There you go, a bit of history, a bit of theory. If you’re really hungry for a demo on the actual playing of the song, I’d recommend the following video where the man himself shows you how it’s done. To be honest the word “teaches” in the video title should perhaps more accurately read “demonstrates” - it’s not a great lesson per se. Take note though that Felder talks about the song being written in Em, but has the capo on 5, pulling that Em shape up 5 semitones to Am. If you pull the capo up to 7, it takes that Em shape to Bm, hence his reference to the 7th fret.
Basic Chords
The chord shapes he’s using in a Coustics style layout are therefore :
Em / Em / B7 / B7 / D / D / A / A
C / C / G / G / Am / Am / B7 / B7
See you next time. Now, Captain..... pass me my wine!
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