Catapultdotblog.files.wordpress.com



The Warm Smell of Colitas, A Cautionary Tale as We Look Back to Hotel California by the EaglesOn a dark desert highwayCool wind in my hairWarm smell of ColitasRising up through the air….Hotel California--EaglesAntelope Sage or James’ Buckwheat [Eriogonum jamesii] can tolerate neither shade nor salt laden air that typify seashore winds. It is a perennial low growing bushy plant that is drought resistant and can flourish in infertile, poor soils and can withstand strong, desiccating winds. It forms large, dense mats of yellow to cream flowers bloom later than most other wild buck-wheats. It contains both male and female organs and it flowers in August until September. Its habitat includes sandy to gravelly desert soils and rocky flats that serve as mixed grasslands, sagebrush communities and extend in altitude to the montane woodlands. Its range includes the American Southwest including Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado and Indian tribes used it medicinally as a potential contraceptive, analgesic in childbirth and menstruation, a mood-lifter, a cardiac tonic, an eye wash, a breath freshener that sweetened the saliva and to treat belly aches by brewing a tea from the roots or whole plant. Like its other wild buckwheat cousins that inhabit the Southwest it is not a fragrant plant with its flowers being odorless. It grows with the agave and yucca, the cacti, mesquite, sagebrush, saltbush, blackbush, creosote bush, and the many colorful wildflower species of the American West. Grasses broadcast their ripe seeds by the warm winds. Wildflowers attract pollinators with hue, fragrance, texture and sugary nectar, and many, perhaps half of which only bloom at night and are fertilized by insect and animal night messengers by moonlight. Cacti, which include the diminutive to the giant saguaro [40 ft.] exist not just in the arid flatlands of the Sonoran, Mojave and Chihuahuan deserts but extend in habitat from the valleys, to the rocky flats and inclines, up to the tops of the one-mile high mountain summits of the American Southwest. Such a lovely place, Such a lovely placePlenty of room at the Hotel CaliforniaAnytime of the yearYou can find it here…Lead guitarist, song writer and singer, Don Felder—one of the original founding members of the Eagles –who composed the music for the song Hotel California but not its lyrics claims that the colitas terminology was not made-up by the band but referred to a desert plant that blooms at night, exudes a rather ‘pungent, funky smell’; whether Felder knew what he was talking about is debatable but there does exist a desert plant whose common name in Spanish is Colitas de rata, meaning little rat tails. Cola is tail, ita denotes the diminutive; a suffix that can be both descriptive and diplomatic. Venga, Chicas, colita arriba! Come on, girls, [little] tails up! If you cross-reference colita de rata with Anglican colloquial names for botanical plants, you at times get redirected to our desert plant, James’ Buckwheat or Antelope Sage. In fact, there is an iconic nursery rhyme that is often recited or sung to small children that hurt themselves as the wounded, cut or sore part is rubbed that emphasizes colita or the little tail as a talisman for healing: Sana, sana, colita de rana, si no sana hoy, sanara’ manana. The incantation, loosely translated, urges that things get better for the child by encouraging the little tail to heal and if not today then by tomorrow. For small bangs and scrapes, the charm invoked usually works well in that by the next day the child’s discomfort has subsided. Coincidentally perhaps, or ironic, is that for both the healing desert plant and the magical soothing nursery rhyme sung by parents and grandparents, there exists a connection in Spanish with ‘diminutive tails.’ In Chile, parents sing a slight variant saying: potito de rana, which is a rather polite way of denoting a child’s behind. It was Don Henley whose strength is writing lyrics that came up with most of the words including colitas in the first stanza after he was impressed by the instrumental demo with the working title of Mexican reggae given to him and Glenn Frey by Felder. According to Frey, he understood that the term was Mexican slang for the tender buds of cannabis that are at the very top of the marijuana plant. Irving Azoff, the Eagle’s manager backs up Frey’s claim that ‘the little tails’ represented the best, most potent part of the plant for getting high—the tips and buds at its apex. Colitas as jargon being introduced by the band’s Mexican road manager as ‘little buds’ also had an impact on the Eagle’s lexicon because of its more puerile meaning as Mexican slang for a clitoris. The delicate bud of female sensuality, the powerful epicenter of female sexual response. Such a connotation may have made it more memorable for the young Henley, but it does not fit that line in the song. It does mesh with Henley’s 2013 opinion of the song being a ‘journey from innocence to experience’ especially in respect to living what many looking in from the outside at them in the band as living in the fast lane of Hollywood high life; it also fits with the female presence within the song that is based upon Henley’s experience breaking up with his girlfriend Loree Rodkin.‘There she stood in the doorwayI heard the mission bellAnd I was thinkin’ to myselfThis could be heaven or this could be hell…’‘Her mind is definitely twisted, she got the Mercedes-BenzShe got a lot of pretty boys she calls friends’How they dance in the courtyardSweet summer sweatSome dance to rememberSome dance to forget’As Aristotle noted, the ability to see one thing as another is the basis for human creativity and its rather an easy reach to interpret ‘the warm smell of colitas rising up through the air’ as a metaphor for smoking a pungent marijuana joint. ‘My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim/I had to stop for the night’. It was Frey’s ideas that formed the basic outline for the themes used in the song, although Henley scribed most of the chosen words. Something different, a world that though enticing was spooky not only because of its inhabitants but also because it sucked away one’s will to leave. Like Hollywood glamor and the temptations of the Los Angeles scene, it was not an easy place to escape. Frey also was inspired by the band Steely Dan whose compositions he praised as bold in breaking previous convention with lyrics that ‘achieved perfect ambiguity.’ The steely knives line is a tribute to Steely Dan as well as a payback of respect for a reference to the Eagles band in one of their recorded songs. Songwriting involves merging words with music and as such is an imprecise storytelling art in delivering a precise message with its need for balance, contrast, repetition and rhyme. Vagueness, inference and varied interpretation open the door for what was written to appear prophetic as time passes on and events unfold. Henley’s lyrics are not particularly prophetic but one can look back and see insight. Lyrics can be like the still waters of a deep well which reflect images of cloud and sky that as depicted in the Hollywood movie Cold Mountain can be used to scry the future by scrutinizing the passing reflections in a mirror as one is held head down by others from the top of the well. Of course, what one sees depends not only on the passing sun and clouds above shining down, but also on the experiences, dreams, worries, aspirations, fears, wishes and emotions of the firmly-held, topsy-turvy observer. Your eyes see but your mind interprets the meaning of the shapes and images dancing upon the watery reflection; a process not insulated from our distortions, defenses and delusions. The oracles of Delphi augured the future for the wealthy King Croesus of Lydia who lavished them with gifts in order to hear their prophesies concerning his plan to attack the hated Persians. He like most of us heard what he wanted to hear when they predicted that a great empire would perish from the war. He confident in victory attacked his enemies, lost the war and it was his own empire that was destroyed. And still those voices are calling from far awayWake you up in the middle of the nightJust to hear them sayWelcome to the Hotel CaliforniaSuch a lovely placeSuch a lovely faceWhat a nice surprise, what a nice surpriseBring your alibis!The B side of the 7-inch vinyl single released by the Eagles on February 22, 1977 was entitled, “Pretty Maids All in a Row”. ‘Hotel California” ran for over 6 minutes on its featured side and the Eagles rebuked all efforts by the Asylum label to shorten it so it could transcribe to more conventional play times for radio. They got their way and fortunately got their say. Looking back over 40 years can be often like looking into the opposite end of a telescope----what do I see when I hear it now, what meaning do I glean today from its lyrics. As horror writer Stephen King said, ‘sometimes the embers are more revealing than the campfire.’ I see much that is still relevant to the problems and weird temptations of today. We are trapped by our cellphones and computer screens into an isolated narcissism, by our love for pleasant diversions and now as then many of us especially in youth yearn for the excitement and bling of the fast life. Me too, I still do. But most of all we are trapped by our fears that demonize us. I was a much younger man in 1969 but although different then much the same in many ways as now in 2020.So, I called up the Captain,“Please bring me my wine”He said, “We haven’t had that spirit here since 1969” …Mirrors on the ceilingThe pink champagne on iceAnd she said,“We are all prisoners here of our own devices”Looking back, I see the song rather myopically in light of the early 21st century opioid crisis; it serves as a cautionary tale for the sweet temptation of the warm smell of colitas, which like alcohol, are pleasures that trap especially those who are drawn to it far too young. Cannabis is the third most mind-altering substance used worldwide behind alcohol and tobacco if you do not consider the milder stimulant caffeine. Those adolescents that use cannabis and alcohol before age 15 years old have a much higher risk of developing drug abuse symptoms by age 28 years old. In Canada, 10% of 8th graders experiment with cannabis, a rate that increases to 30% by high school graduation. Teenage years represent an important window for proper brain development and early cannabis use at 13 or 14 years old may have impact on cognitive function and neurological development. In one Canadian study, just delaying cannabis use from 13 years to 17years old decreases the odds of manifesting drug abuse symptoms including dependence by age 28 years old by 31% for each subsequent year of abstinence. The higher content of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol in the cannabis of today, along with its increased legalization and availability increases the vulnerability of our youngest adults.And in the master’s chambersThey gathered for the feastThey stab it with their steely knivesBut they just can’t kill the beastLast thing I rememberI was running for the doorI had to find the passage backTo the place I was before,“Relax”, said the night man“We are programmed to receiveYou can check out any time you likeBut you can never leave”We have to ensure that our children do not check out too early from the pressures of life by abusing. For unlike the Mexican nursery rhyme sung to injured children, some wounds do not go away before the next dawn simply by lovingly rubbing. By R. Anthony Saritelli June 6, 2020-D-day AnniversaryDedicated to Mr. George Floyd, R.I.P. References:Hotel California-WikipediaLyrics for Hotel California by Eagles-SongfactsPlants of the collections/WildflowersPlants to Save the Planet Project website: Eriogonum jamesii-redirect to Colita de Rata online referenceWordward Spanish website: Sana, sana, colita de ranaRioux, C. Castelllanos-Ryan, N. Parent, S. Vitaro, F. Tremblay, RE. Seguin, JR. Age of Cannabis Use Onset & Adult Abuse Symptoms: A Prospective Study of Common Risk Factors & Indirect Effects. Can J Psychiatry 2018 July 63-7 pages 457-464. ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download