The All-TIME 100 Albums: Hotel California by The Eagles

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The All-TIME 100 Albums

51 of 101

By Josh Tyrangiel Published: November 13, 2006

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ALBUM: Hotel California

YEAR RELEASED: 1976 LABEL: Elektra/Wea ARTIST: The Eagles

TIME 100 ALBUMS PODCASTS

PODCAST: Welcome to the All-TIME 100 Albums - the musical compilations of the last half-century that need no introduction. That said, listen in below as music critics Josh Tyrangiel and Alan Light introduce the list and talk about the top albums of the 1950s and '60s.

PODCAST: We know. Twenty-nine of the 100 greatest albums of all time come in the 1970s, and Pink Floyd isn't there. Play this podcast to learn why we picked the titles we did, and if you have something to say, tell us about it using the talkback link below.

PODCAST: Maybe it's a Sign O' The Times that you're listening to critics' audio recordings about great music, but this podcast about how we chose the best albums of the 1980s really is a Thriller. Give it a listen below.

PODCAST: Here's music even the younger set will know by heart. Listen to selected clips from the 1990s through present day as music critic Josh Tyrangiel discusses his picks.

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Henley, Frey and co. spent most of the nation's bicentennial year locked in a studio making a record about the nation on the verge of its bicentennial. Decadence was their major topos, and they wanted to reference drugs and innocence lost and lots of other stuff, though, like much of their catalog, Hotel California seems a lot smarter when you listen to it than when you talk about it. "Life in the Fast Lane" drew a line between the band's country-tinged past and rock and roll future, but the big hit was the title track, a sprawling epic with Satanic undertones that might have been subconsciously cribbed from Jethro Tull's "We Used to Know" when the bands toured together. As for the warm smell of colitas, fans are split on whether the word is Spanish slang for cannabis buds or an easy lay. Given the band and the era, the safest guess is both.