Dear, dear! Why don't you actually listen to what the man (Don Henley) has to say intead of parroting pseudo modernist tosh? When you know as much as he does about what's going on in this world, then your comments might have some substance. Until then, save your nonsense for the many idiots out there.....please?

Hi, Sharmian!

I hope I didn't hit a nerve.

But when I hear Henley complaining to our local DJ ("the last DJ," in fact) about people "violating his copyright" by posting Eagles clips to You Tube, it makes me cranky.

Jim Ladd played right along, though, and proclaimed it "immoral" to rip someone else's CD to one's own iTunes program (or even tape an album, for crying out loud).

I assume, of course, that Ladd has never, ever borrowed a book from a friend, and thereby violated a writer's "intellectual property rights." Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying musicians haven't been ripped off for decades by the music industry: I'm only saying that the end user shouldn't be made into the enemy, here.

Ladd: "You have a reputation as being someone whom, in business, you do not want to cross. They say you have an army of lawyers on your side."

Henley: "Well, you need 'em these days."

I'm only expressing my gratitude that The Great Don Henley allowed me to link a video with one of The Sacred Tunes on it.

Now if only, in concert, he'd let someone else do the drumming on "Hotel California," so he wouldn't be out of breath while he's trying to "sing" it (that is, sort of wheeze it out). That would be nice, no?

Since when is publicity a bad thing? Does anyone really think the YouTube offering will
do anything other than increase sales by exposing the material to a new audience?

Wow! You hit the nail on the head. I'm embarrassed to say that, for whatever reason, I never really listened to the lyrics before. That despite the fact that I probably know ALL of the lyrics to Hotel California.

Speaking of Hotel California, in 1973, after living for 4 years in California, I moved back to Kansas. I was alone, driving a Pinto station wagon pulling a small U-Haul trailer (don't ask). West of Oakland, on a really long downgrade, the trailer went haywire on me (due to faulty loading, probably), came around and smashed into the rear quarter panel of the car. Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic and I was able to get stopped on the shoulder of the road without further damage.

After getting some help from a local U-Haul agent, I was able to get my bent hitch straightened, re-arranged the load in the trailer, and proceeded on. I was feeling pretty shaken by the incident and dreading the 1800 miles or so I still had to travel.

That evening I stopped at a motel on I-5. It was a nice motel, almost new with a Spanish mission theme, but out in the middle of nowhere. And it was almost deserted. I had a sandwich and a couple of beers in the attached restaurant/bar and there were, at most, 2 other customers. Given my mental state at the time, it was really spooky. I did not sleep well that night.

In recent years, I had almost convinced myself that while I was at that motel, the lyrics to Hotel California were running through my head. But, since the song came along about 4 years later, that's obviously not the case. However, to this day, I can't hear the song without thinking of that motel.

If you want spooky, here's this: there was clearly, at one point, a Hotel California. On Los Feliz and . . . um, Riverside? . . . (near the fountain where young Latino couples have their wedding portraits taken . . . someone help me out, here). There are a bunch of old signs (presumably on property that is owned by the city and part of Griffith Park, right off of Riverside) mostly unlit neon IIRC, that say "Hotel California" on 'em. There obviously used to be a Hotel CA in the area (now converted into apartments along Los Feliz, I imagine), and no one can decide whether to junk the signs or make 'em into a museum. So, there they sit. Rusting.

This is right by the L.A. River, which even oldtimers cannot agree on--that is, is it a real river that got reinforced with concrete, or is "river" just a fancy name for an old water-delivery system?--maybe that one that runs through the Central Valley itself? (Now, of course, after 15 years of floods and soil and whatnot, a whole ecosystem has grown into the L.A. River: islands with trees on them, thick brush, rocks and sand . . . all framed by those odd concrete banks).

I don't know the history. But I love it.