Fly Like An Eagle vs Hotel California

[MrScorpio]

Fly Like An Eagle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO33hod3HzI

Hotel California
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rHu_HiBLbQ

[Brickbat]

1. I heard "Hotel California" sung at an honest-to-God floor show in Russia two weeks after the Soviet

Union voted itself out of existence, and it was one of the most bizarre and moving experiences I've had. The vodka helped, of course, but I always think of that when I hear that song.

[lutefisk]

2. I'd like to hear more of that story.

Who, what, when, where, why, & how...

please

:hi:

[Brickbat]

5. January 1992 in Moscow...

I was studying Russian at Moscow State and our group had been assigned two young handlers from the university to show us the sights after classes, get us ballet and theater tickets, and so on. One night they took us to a restaurant with a "show." I kept asking what the show was, and finally one of the guys said, "It is...it is like nothing you have ever seen before."

As we ate, we were serenaded by a band, and one of the songs they sang was a slow-motion version of "Hotel California," sung phonetically. The crowd clearly loved it and was familiar with it, and many sang along. I was sitting with the handlers (my roommate and I had kind of hijacked them from the group during the term) and as they drank and sang, their faces were full of embarrassment, resentment and cynicism. It was a complex moment -- totally maudlin (because, seriously, "Hotel California"!), and yet exposing my privilege to myself in a way I didn't recognize until much later.

After we ate, the floor show began -- torch songs, acrobatics, dancing, hoop tricks...by that time our handlers had gone back to their cheerful, slightly contemptuous selves, good-naturedly mocking the performers under their breath to my roommate and I.

[mcollins]

3. We sang 'Fly like an Eagle'

In our jazz singing group in High School. It kind of put me off the song, I am afraid.

[Iggo]

4. Hotel California

In my first year as a guitar player, I sat up all night in the garage, two or three nights in a row, picking out that solo. No sheet music. No video. No tab. Just me, my guit, and my trusty cassette player.

I love that song.