Another anniversary coming up, this time for the LP that finally killed off hippiedom! First released in the US in late 1976, Hotel California was released in the UK in 1977 and very quickly eclipsed just about every other album on release. I do still have a copy of the album from its first UK release somewhere.
The Eagles, originally Linda Ronstadt's backing group, who had boozed and tripped their way through the '70's came out with this powerful indictment of the whole drop-out culture. The classic line "You can check out anytime, but you cannot leave" says it all, and puts a definitive full stop on the whole pseudo turn-on, tune-in, drop-out attitude of Timothy Leary and the late '60's, early '70's counterculture and which had led to the extreme excesses of Charles Manson in 1969. For years, flower-power was looking for the right moment to grow up and move on, and this LP, as far as I was concerned, did that.
Yesterday, I put my CD version on the player, and the songs still seem fresh and original 30 years later. Not many LP's are that important, but this one was.
