The church of Satan was established in 1969 in California and basically its tenets were hedonism, living to the hilt, disregard of traditional morality and indulging fully in the senses and particularly the sensual senses. If you zoom in on it that figure it’s Anton LaVey. When you open the original album you will see the inside of the hotel lobby and in the back window you will see a man dressed in black robes and a shaved head.
The third and more somber interpretation is that the Eagles at the height of their success have been lured in the church of Satan under the auspices of the great satanic priest Anton LaVey and that they did not dare to speak about Satan publicly but wrote this song and masked the lyrics inside the song. Then a woman appears out of nowhere “There she stood in the hallway I heard the mission bell I was thinking to myself this could be heaven or this could be hell” So this could be a whole initiation into drugs. So if you listen at the beginning of the song “on a dark desert highway cool wind in my hair warm smell of colitas rising up through the air” Colitas in America could be a codeword for grass. One of the most interesting ones is that whole song is a metaphor for a drug trip and The Hotel California (THC) spells out the principal components in grass which needless to say was extremely popular in southern California at that time. However there are other interpretations for the lyrics that are more penetrative and titillating and even darker. Hotel California has inspired endless debates on what the lyrics really mean as they’re very enigmatic and cryptic. Don Henley said “It’s a song about a journey from innocence to experience.” When The Eagles were interviewed they said “it is about the jaded, blasé, hedonistic lifestyle that characterizes California” And indeed when you listen to the song there are lyrics that sounds like the epitome of that type of lifestyle (mirrors on the ceiling, pink champagne on ice, Mercedes-benz). 'I Can See Clearly Now' reached number one in America, selling over a million copies.It’s about the jaded and hedonistic lifestyle that characterizes southern California.
The song is about hope and courage for people who have experienced adversity in their lives, but have later overcome it.
The arrangements and style were both heavily influenced by reggae, and he drew strong influence from the time he worked with Bob Marley in the 1960s. Nash wrote and composed the original version, and later recorded it in London with members of the Fabulous Five Inc. What inspired the song and what is the meaning behind it?.Members Bob Marley, Bunny Wailer, Peter Tosh, and Rita Marley introduced Nash to the local music scene, and Nash signed them to an exclusive publishing contract with Cayman Music for J$50 a week.Īfter a couple of hits in the late 1960s with rocksteady tracks including 'Hold Me Tight', Nash scored his first massive hit with the reggae-inspired 'I Can See Clearly Now' in 1972. In 1965, he and his manager moved to Jamaica.Ī year later, Neville Willoughby took Nash to a Rastafarian party, where Bob Marley & The Wailing Wailers were performing. This was actually his 11th album, but arguably his breakthrough song that got him noticed around the world.īorn in Texas, he began recording music in the 1950s and was originally marketed as an easy listening artist to rival Johnny Mathis.
Johnny Nash wrote and produced the song for his 1972 album of the same name.