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"You can check out any time you like. But you can never leave." - Hotel California, The Eagles

There's no question the song sends shivers down my spine every time I hear it.

I must have heard "Hotel California" a thousand times in my life. And it has always given me the creeps. When I was younger I would often hear it on the oldies station my parents listened to. I wouldn't sing along, but sit quietly in nervous contemplation. The lyrics are nothing short of eerie, and from that first strum of the guitar I would feel anxious.

To this day the song still gives me the willies. I imagine a setting like "From Dusk Til Dawn"; this creepy, rundown hotel in the middle of a vast, uninhabited desert. There are several rusted cars out front, and you know if you look close you'll see that they haven't been moved in years, if not decades. You enter, and it appears as deserted inside as it seemed outside. The decor is Victorian, but shabby; wallpaper is peeling, carpeting is threadbare, and there is a film of dust several inches thick on everything.

Listening to that song, I feel as if I'm in that Hotel. Like an unwitting character in some bloody horror flick, I've checked in, and I'm in for something truly hellish. But as the song says, "you can never leave."

Eventually you find yourself sitting down to dine in this decrepit ballroom, and you look around to see your table-mates aren't quite right. Jaws are hanging, and you can see the insides of their mouths through gaping holes in their cheeks. Ears have rotted off, and fingers are no more than bones. They grin at you (or maybe they don't, it's hard to tell when they have no lips), and then begin applauding as a crew of waiters bring in a huge plate, it's contents hidden by a tarnished cover. They place it with a clatter on the table and remove the cover with a flourish.

"And in the master's chambers they gathered for the feast.
They stab it with their steely knives but they just can't kill the beast."

Although this song has always left me with a sense of unease, I can't help but love it. From those first unsettling notes, to the last jangling chords, "Hotel California" will always have a special place in my heart. That place that can't help but get a pleasurable little thrill from being scared.

Learn more about this author, Kristina Grace Gordon.
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