"On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of colitis rising up through the air."

As an avid cyclist that rides 10 miles daily on my trusty steed, I take great pleasure listening to my all time favorite “rock and roll” band from the `70s on my MP3 player, that being the Eagles!



Here were four young musicians gathered together in a studio in LA in 1971 to support one of America’s great young Divas of the time, Linda Ronstadt.
Don Henley would be the Lead vocalist, who played drums and provided percussion, Glenn Frey played the 12-string acoustic guitar, electric guitar and provided backing vocals. Don Felder played Lead guitar, the 12-string electric guitar and also provided backing vocals, and Bernie Leadon a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, banjo, mandolin, steel guitar, dobro) coming from a bluegrass background. He introduced elements of this music to a mainstream audience during his tenure with the Eagles.

As the band finely evolved Joe Walsh joined the group who also played Lead guitar, the organ and also provided backing vocals, and of course Randy Meisner who played Bass guitar and also provided backing vocals. These were the young men who would “Rock” the music world with their introduction with their gigantic hit
“Take it Easy”



As I was listening to their hit song "Hotel California” this morning while I was riding and thinking about my next blog entry, the first lines of the song seemed to yell at me, "On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair, warm smell of colitis rising up through the air." “Just what does "colitis" mean”? I said to myself! I remembered back when the song was first released as a single in early 1977, what a controversy that was stirred up about what the term was all about! So I decided it was time to address the subject! Starting with the song itself;


Hotel California – “The Eagles” live in concert April 25-26,1994 in Moline,IN.

"Hotel California" topped the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart for one week in May 1977. Three months after its release, the single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America representing 1,000,000 records shipped. The Eagles also won the 1977 Grammy Award for Record of the Year for "Hotel California" at the 20th Annual Grammy Awards in 1978.


The Hotel California in the late 40's

For years there has been a lot of discussion about the many theories behind the writing of Hotel California some of the more common theories was that The Hotel California is a real hotel located in Baja California on the coastal highway between Cabo San Lucas and La Paz others say it is near Santa Barbara.

Then there are those that claim The Hotel California is a mental hospital! "Camarillo State Hospital” in Ventura County between LA and Santa Barbara. Glenn Frey, one of the coauthors of the song said it is a metaphor for cocaine addiction. "You can check out any time you like but you can never leave."

But back to the question of what “colitas” really meant? According to Eagles management honcho Irving Azoff: "In response to your [recent] memo, in 1976, during the writing of the song 'Hotel California' by Messrs. Henley and Frey, the word `colitas' was translated for them by their Mexican-American road manager as 'little buds.' You have obviously already done the necessary extrapolation. Thank you for your inquiry." [1]

So as it turns out "Colitas is little tails, or 'colas,' the tip of a marijuana branch, where it is more potent and with more sap (said to be the best part of the leaves)."

With an instant shock of certainty that this was the correct interpretation, The Eagles, with the prescience given only to true artists, were touting the virtues of high-quality industrial hemp!

And to think some people thought this song was about drugs.

With that thought in mind I felt that maybe everyone had been a little too rash so I decided that perhaps a little reprieve was due and decided to express my thoughts about the subject with this little song of theirs;



As I was returning home from my daily journey on my 29er I had this feeling come over me as I realized how much fun I was really having riding my bike and enjoying the music of my youth!

The Eagles - Peaceful Easy Feeling


So in the morning as I am cursing down the road trying to loosen my load, I’ll think about how much fun I was having smelling the sweet smell of colitas so I could enjoy that peaceful easy feeling before I jumped into the fast lane to get to work on time! I wonder why my wife asked me about that song I was humming before I left for my ride. Was it Witchy Woman? or Desperado I think it was!




Spencer "Wolf" Smartt
Dallas, Texas
Email Me

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel California

"Eight to the Bar"

Clickity Clack, Clickity Clack down the railroad line they went! As dawn broke over 20th century America, a new style of piano-based blues was to become very popular well into the late 1930s and early 1940s. What had evolved was extended from the piano, to three pianos at once, to the guitar, the big band, and country and western music, and even gospel. It was “Boogie-woogie” an early art form mainly associated with dancing. Early lyrics of one of the very earliest of "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie", consist entirely of instructions to dancers: “Now, when I tell you to hold it, I don't want you to move a thing.” “And when I tell you to get it, I want you to Boogie Woogie!”

The precise origin of boogie-woogie piano is uncertain; it was no doubt influenced by early rough music played in honky tonks in the Southern United States. W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton both mentioned hearing pianists playing this style before 1910. According to Clarence Williams, the style was started by Texas pianist George W. Thomas. Thomas published one of the earliest pieces of sheet music with the boogie-woogie bassline, "New Orleans Hop Scop Blues" in 1916, although Williams recalled hearing him play the number before 1911. The term "boogie" itself was in use very early, as in Wilbur Sweatman's "Boogie Rag" recorded in April, 1917.


"Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith recorded in 1928

The first boogie woogie hit was "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie" by Pinetop Smith (1928 in music) recorded in 1928 and first released in 1929. Pinetop's record was the first boogie-woogie recording to be a commercial hit, and helped establish boogie-woogie as the name of the style. It was closely followed by another example of pure boogie-woogie, "Honky Tonk Train Blues" by Meade Lux Lewis, recorded by Paramount Records; 1927 in music, first released in March of 1930.

Meade Lux Lewis

Boogie-woogie gained further public attention in 1938 and 1939, thanks to the “From Spirituals to Swing” concerts in Carnegie Hall promoted by record producer John Hammond. The concerts featured Big Joe Turner and Pete Johnson performing Turner's tribute to Johnson, "Roll 'Em Pete", as well as Meade Lux Lewis performing "Honky Tonk Train Blues" and Albert Ammons playing "Swanee River Boogie'.

"Roll 'Em Pete" is now considered to be an early rock and roll song. After the Carnegie Hall concerts, it was only natural for swing bands to incorporate the boogie woogie beat into some of their music. One of the first to do this was the Will Bradley orchestra, starting in 1939, which got them a string of boogie hits such as the original versions of "Beat Me Daddy (Eight To The Bar)" and "Down The Road A-Piece," both 1940, and "Scrub Me Mamma With A Boogie Beat," in 1941.

The Andrews Sisters sang some boogies, and Tommy Dorsey's band had a hit with an updated version of Pine Top's Boogie Woogie in 1938, which was the swing era's second best seller, only second to Glenn Miller's "In the Mood". After the floodgates were open, it was expected that every big band should have one or two boogie numbers in their repertoire, as the dancers were learning to jitterbug and do the Lindy Hop, which required the boogie woogie beat.

Tommy Dorsey – Woogie Boogie

In 1939 country artists began playing boogie woogie when Johnny Barfield recorded "Boogie Woogie". But it was "Cow Cow Boogie" that was written for, but not used in, the 1942 movie "Ride 'em Cowboy" where Boogie Woogie crossed over the line. This song by Benny Carter, Gene DePaul, and Don Raye successfully combined Boogie Woogie and Western, or Cowboy music. The lyrics leave no doubt that it was a Western boogie woogie. It sold over a million records in its original release, and has now been recorded many times.

Brooks and Dunn - "Boot Scooting Boogie"

The boogie beat continued in country music through the end of the 20th century. The Charlie Daniels Band (whose earlier tune "The South's Gonna Do It Again" uses boogie-woogie influences) released "Boogie Woogie Fiddle Country Blues" in 1988, and three years later in 1991 Brooks & Dunn had a huge hit with "Boot Scootin' Boogie". More representative examples can be found in some of the songs of Western swing pioneer Bob Wills, and subsequent tradition-minded country artists such as Asleep at the Wheel, Merle Haggard, and even George Strait.

The popularity of the Carnegie Hall concerts meant work for many of the fellow boogie players and also led to the adaptation of boogie-woogie sounds to many other forms of music. Tommy Dorsey's band had a hit with "T.D.'s Boogie Woogie" as arranged by Sy Oliver and soon there were boogie-woogie songs, recorded and printed, of many different stripes. Most famously, in the big-band genre, the ubiquitous "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," which was revamped recently by Christina Aguilera as her 2006 hit, "Candyman."

See Article: http://thepalomar.blogspot.com/2009/12/candyman.html

The boogie-woogie fad lasted from the late 1930s into the early fifties,and made a major contribution to the development of jump blues and ultimately to rock and roll, epitomized by Jerry Lee Lewis. Boogie woogie is still to be heard in clubs and on records throughout Europe and North America.

One of my all-time favorites that parallels and is considered part of this genre which exudes confidence in the music is another great song that exemplifies this type of music Americana!

Willie Nelson – City of New Orleans




Spencer "Wolf" Smartt
Dallas, Texas
Email Me

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boogie Woogie