20 Most IMPORTANT Classic Rock Albums Ever Made
15. Hotel California - Eagles
As the 70's started to get underway, the California scene was starting to get a lot more mellow. While you had one side of the Sunshine State preoccupied with glammy rock and roll, there was the other that focused on the singer-songwriter types, with everyone from Joni Mitchell to James Taylor gaining traction. Everything may have seemed breezy at the time, but The Eagles came through with an album that was both hard and sensitive in equal measure.
Just from the opening track, Hotel California sends you on a journey, with the 8 minute titular odyssey of seedy characters and the greatest guitar solo of the decade. Most bands would pad out the rest of their album with filler with a song that good, but these guys were in for the long haul.
Every single track on this album has a lot to say, from the brutal grip of fame on "New Kid in Town" to the driving ode to excess on "Life in the Fast Lane." All of a sudden, here was a genuine rock and roll record that could impress both the mainstream rock fans and the mellow pop audience at the same time. With elements of soul, country, rock, and folk in the mix, the Eagles had created an album that was both a romanticized vision of California as well as a cautionary tale about those who decide to make the journey.