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