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Welcome to the Hotel California

Jun 14, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I bet that if you practice Eastern culture or Arab culture, if you are a Buddhist, or a Rastafari or Hindu devotee or you love classical music, you would like one of the most complete pop songs ever written – Hotel California by the Eagles.
Elegantly arranged with touches of reggae drumming and undulating variations in guitar arrangement interspersed with touches of cross over in musical genres, Hotel California is one of pop music’s phenomenal accomplishments.
If you think Michael Jackson has the most outrageous live performance where scores of fans fainted and dozens went into uncontrollable euphoria to the point of psychotic behaviour, then you should see the first live performance of Hotel California by the Eagles after the song became a worldwide phenomenon. For me, it remains the most emotionally crazy live performance where the audience just became unnatural in their response.
Hotel California tells the story of the obsessive pursuit of hard drugs once you indulge. The lyrics take you on a journey of a trapped mind forever imprisoned in the lure of false satisfaction. Once in, there is no way out. Here are those lyrics:
On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night

There she stood in the doorway, I heard the mission bell
I was thinking to myself this could be Heaven or this could be Hell
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say

“Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year
You can find it here”

Her mind is Tiffany twisted, she got the Mercedes Benz
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the captain, “Please bring me my wine”
He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969″
And still those voices are calling from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night just to hear them say

“Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place
Such a lovely face
They’re living it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise
Bring your alibis”

Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice
And she said, “We are all just prisoners here of our own device”
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

Last thing I remember I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
“Relax,” said the night man, “We are programmed to receive
You can check out any time you like but you can never leave”

Remove the death trap of drugs in the song and replace it with the death trap of absolute power and the message of Hotel California can be applied to the PPP in government. Remove the intoxicating hold of drugs in Hotel California and replace it with the inebriation of absolute power and the message in Hotel California is about the kind of behaviour we saw in the PPP Government.
The meaning of Hotel California is the losing of reality. That explains the words, “we are all just prisoners here…you can check out anytime but you can never leave.”  What is meant by “you can never leave” is that you can never reclaim your rationality; you can no longer recognize reality.
PPP Parliamentarian in the 10th Parliament Dr. Vindhya Persaud points to some manifestations of the loss of reality when she criticized her leadership for its continued cries of rigged elections and its refusal to go to Parliament. She specifically pointed to erratic behaviour of Rohee, Ramotar and others.
These were the people who for fifteen years since 1999 were in the master’s chambers in Hotel California where pink champagne and mirrors on the ceilings formed part of the ambience of a mind infested with the rut of absolute power.
Dr. Vindhya Persaud didn’t framework her criticism. Had she done that, she would have situated her critique within the concept of naked power. Rohee, Ramotar, Robeson Benn, Gail Teixeira, Luncheon, Jagdeo, Charles Ramson Senior, Ashini Singh couldn’t help themselves. They were intoxicated with absolute power. With absolute power, there is no escape.
Welcome to the Hotel California. There is plenty of room. Perhaps at Camp Street.

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