Eagles Song Survivor: Hotel California

[sodascouts]

Time for our next Song Survivor! Our album this time will be Hotal Calfornia. If you're new, for a basic overview of the game, see this post: Survivor Overview

I'm going to list the songs of Hotel California here. Vote for the song that you feel should be eliminated from the list. The song that gets the most votes will be taken off of the list (or, in the language of Survivor, "Voted off of the island.") Each round, one more song will get axed, until there's only one left. Remember: you're voting for your LEAST favorite, not your favorite.

Each round will last 48 hours after posting to give people a chance to vote who don't post every day. That means that the first round will end at 8:00 Eastern time the day after tomorrow. If you miss a round, don't think you can't play. It's all good!

Since there may be discussion posts, be sure to make it clear when you are casting your vote. Votes cannot be cast after the cut off time of 8:00 on the second day, and they cannot be changed once you have voted.

If you get confused about what round we are in, look at this post. I'll always update it to reflect the current round. Also feel free to post any questions if you don't understand what's going on.

If there is a tiebreaker, then ALL votes from ALL previous rounds are tallied and whoever has the most prior votes is eliminated. That’s the way it’s done on the real show, that’s the way it’s done here. If there is a complete tie with prior votes (Murphy’s Law), then I'll have a sudden-death trivia question ready. The first person who answers it correctly gets to break the tie. The odds of that happening are slim, but you never know, and it's good to be prepared.

We have finished the game. Thanks for playing!

The winner of the Hotel Calfornia Survivor Game is:
Hotel California

Songs voted off:
The Last Resort 05/06
Pretty Maids All in a Row 05/08
Wasted Time 05/10
Victim of Love 05/12
Try and Love Again 05/14
Life in the Fast Lane 05/16
New Kid in Town 05/18

Game Over!

[sodascouts]

I'm voting for the overlong, self-righteous, and arguably hypocritical Last Resort. The tune is pretty, but... let's just say I think Henley should have stopped before he got to Lahaina.

I cast my vote for The Last Resort.

[Freypower]

This is my favourite Eagles album and such will be the hardest for me to choose which songs to eliminate. I have already done some thinking about this. They are eight essential songs - which is the least essential? It's almost impossible!

Very reluctantly I cast my vote for Pretty Maids All In A Row although it fits the album's themes of disillusion and innocence vs. experience so beautifully, and it's a wonderful performance. Of the eight, I guess for me it's the song I could live without.

[glenneaglesfan]

In the iPod age it's good to go back to listening to an album. Hotel California was the first Eagles album I ever heard, and I suppose most people consider it their finest. Every track is good, and this is going to be difficult. Although I can see your point of view, FP, for me Pretty Maids is hauntingly beautiful - particularly the piano intro, and remains one of my favourites. I am going to go with Soda here - The Last Resort is a moving indictment of man's destructive tendencies, but it is overlong, and probably the track I would be most likely to skip.

I cast my vote for The Last Resort

[sodascouts]

Good point about the intro, GEF. I've described it before as "cinematic" - it happened to come on my iPod today, in fact, reinforcing to me its beauty all over again.

It's also interesting what you said about the rarity of listening to an album front-to-back nowadays. I wonder if a "concept album" like Hotel California would have a real impact at this point?

[Randy's Girl]

I cast my vote for Victim of Love

[sodascouts]

I cast my vote for Victim of Love

Short and to the point, RG!

[DonFan]

I'm voting for the overlong, self-righteous, and arguably hypocritical Last Resort.

I hesitate to comment on this song, since it is known as "Mr. Henley's Opus" and I am such a huge fan of most all of Don's work---
However, I feel the same way as Nancy. Although I appreciate the sentiment behind the song, it is overlong and definitely the song I tend to skip over on this album.

Therefore, I cast my vote for The Last Resort as well.

[timfan]

As I enjoy all the songs on this album it is a very difficult choice.

However if i had to say my least favourite it would be Life in the Fast Lane.
I find it to repetitive and Don's voice is IMO is not suited to the heavy rock songs.
Therefore:

I cast my vote for Life in the Fast Lane

[Maleah]

Ouch i LOVE LITFL and Don's vocals on it is one of the first things that drew me to the Eagles lol


I totally agree, however, about TLR. It seems to be a favorite among many....but not me. It's very well written and it has good intentions, but it's just too long for me and for some strange reason I really don't care for the melody. So........

I cast my vote for The Last Resort