Hotels In Song
Posted in Lyrics, Nostalgia, Nirvana at 14:29 on 18 July 2009
I featured the real Nirvana‘s Pentecost Hotel recently. After the posting I began to think about songs featuring named hotels in their titles. There aren’t all that many that came to mind. Hotel California, obviously, and Heartbreak Hotel. A quick scan of You Tube – up to page 16! – only revealed Procol Harum’s Grand Hotel as one I hadn’t heard. (I’ve listened to it now and it’s a bit overblown.)
The only other named hotel song I can remember is this from Mike Batt. From the sublime (Nirvana) to the bathetic.
The Railway Hotel
Perhaps that bathetic should have been pathetic after all. Or is that too harsh?
Tags: Lyrics, Mike Batt, Nostalgia, Procol Harum
Jim Steel
18 July 2009 at 23:32
Nico’s ‘Chelsea Girls’is about people in New York’s Chelsea Hotel. You might be able to claim the whole album since it’s called ‘Chelsea Girl’. It’s a great album, despite all of the (justified) criticism of the arrangements. But if you do that, you’d have to count The Doors’ ‘Morrison Hotel’.
I can also name a couple of songs about motels, if that’s any help.
jackdeighton
19 July 2009 at 23:07
I was just thinking about songs with Hotel in the title.
XXXXX hotel
Or Hotel YYYYY
Jim Steel
21 July 2009 at 21:29
And I was going to mention ‘Willie The Pimp’ next.
Martin McCallion
23 July 2009 at 15:09
Leonard Cohen gets at least two: ‘Chelsea Hotel #2’, and ‘Paper Thin Hotel’.