#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
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From: Sekhar Narayanaswami
The Last Resort -- The Eagles, from the album _Hotel California_
(also featured on their latest release, _Hell Freezes Over_)
Note: This is how I learned the song. If you want to play
along with the recorded version, you need to drop everything
one half step (i.e. F->E, Bb->A, etc.). At the end of this post,
along with the fingerings for the listed chords, I'll list the
half-step dropped chords/fingerings also.
Corrections/Criticisms/Comments welcome
(Please mail these to
F Bb C
She came from Providence
C F
The one in Rhode Island
F Bb C
Where the old world shadows hang
C F
Heavy in the air
F Bb C
She packed her hopes and dreams
C F
Like a refugee
F Bb C
Just as her father came
C F F F F F+
Across the sea
She heard about a place
People were smiling
Spoke about the red man's ways
How they loved the land
They came from everywhere
To the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand
Or a place to hide
Down in the crowded bars
Out for a good time
Can't wait to tell you all
What it's like up there
They called it paradise
I don't know why
Somebody laid the mountains low
While the town got high
F F F F F+
Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm*
F F F F F+
Dm Dm Dm Dm Dm*
When the chilly winds blew down
Across the canyon
Through the canyons of the coast
To the malibus
Where the pretty people played
Hungry for power
To light their neon ways
Give 'em things to do
Some rich man came and raped the land
Nobody caught him
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes
And Jesus people bought them
They called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun
Sinking in the sea
(Key Change: changes from F to Ab)
Ab Db Eb
You can leave it all behind
Eb Ab
Sail to Lahaina
Ab Db Eb
Just like the missionaries did
Eb Ab
So many years ago
Ab Db Eb
They even brought a neon sign
Eb Ab
Jesus is Coming
Ab Db Eb
Brought the white man's burden down
Eb Ab Ab Ab Ab Ab+
Brought the white man's reign
And we'll provide the grand design
What is yours and what is mine
'Cuz there is no more new frontier
We have got to make it here
We satisfied our endlees needs
And justified our bloody deeds
In the name of destiny
And in the name of God
And you can see them there
On sunday morning
Stand up and sing about
What it's like up there
They called it paradise
I don't know why
To call someplace paradise
Kiss it goodbye
Ab Ab Ab Ab Ab+
Fm Fm Fm Fm Fm*
Ab Ab Ab Ab Ab+
Fm Fm Fm Fm Fm* (repeat this and fade)
-----
Chords Used:
Listed Chords: Chords Dropped 1/2 step:
F: 133211 E: 022100
Bb: x13331 or 688766 A: x02220
C: x32010 or 8aa988 B: x24442
F+: 133311 (Faug?) E+: 022200
Dm: xx0231 C#m: x46654
Dm*: xx0331 C#m*: X47654
After key change:
Ab: 466544 G: 355433 or 320003
Db: x46664 C: x32010
Eb: x68886 D: xx0232
Ab+: 466644 G+: 355533
Fm: 133111 Em: 022000
Fm*: 133121 Em*: 022010
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Sekhar Narayanaswami
"I wanna find myself a girl
Who can show me what laughter means
And we'll fill in the missing numbers
In each others paint-by-number dreams" -- Jackson Browne
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Tab Discussion, Comments, and Critiques
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No Picture
blake Average |
#1 by blake pratt at Sep 26, 2007 at 4:36 AM EST |
| Its genious. | |
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Connor Average |
#2 by Connor Mactee at Sep 27, 2007 at 1:27 AM EST |
| thats so weird that you say that, everytime i hear this song i think about taking everything from the indians. | |
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eric was here Professional Badass |
#3 by eric was here at Sep 27, 2007 at 9:30 PM EST |
| This song isn't anti-Christian at all. If it did they would no longer play it because 2 both Don Henley and Joe Walsh are born again Christians. It's about the over commercialization of everything, how no one can appreciate the natural beauty of something, and what is once beautiful is then raped for profit. It's a commentary on basically the capitalist way of life, not condemning it but simply pointing out what happens, and human nature. | |
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Joseph Wanna Be |
#4 by Joseph Downs at Sep 28, 2007 at 12:46 AM EST |
| This is the greatest song of all time and means so much to me. It is about basically everything said already. It is about the blinding force and power of religion and about "how the west was lost". It is about what happened to the native peoples (I say peoples because to call them Native Americans would be innacurate since many of those killed/displaced were not under the jurisdiction of the U.S. at the time, especially Hawaii). I don't think this song is too hard to figure out. The literal meaning is obvious: while the U.S. was fullfiling its Manifest Destiny, the western lands and peoples were getting exploited all for the benefit of the Christianized Easterners. And then when there was nothing left, they turned to the oceans and went after Hawaii. And the other part is that this is just a symbol of what people have done in the name of religion. Very few times have empires been formed in which the conquered were not of a different religion (Hitler's Germany and Napoleon's France are examples, but both were short lived). However, by holding religion over heads and making people "buy" Jesus or whoever the conqueror's god(s) is(/are ), they get weakened. But in the end, everything is worse off under the conqueror and its god(s). Finally, I see a negative prediction. By sailing to Lahaina, Hawai'i, like was done in the song and in real life, it shows that the process keeps going. Europe may have given up religion last century, but it'll sail back. It shows the circle of dominance. Remember, once the U.S. was the west of the song and before that it was the Lahaina. Empires will keep pushing around the world in the name of god.... | |
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Hobson Average |
#5 by Hobson at Sep 28, 2007 at 10:06 AM EST |
| i think this song describes how individuals can be innocent, but as a population, we destroy everything we touch...in this case, it describes land and how we run in holding a cross, as if god wants us to destroy his planet, and once we've grown bored of everything, we cry about how we fucked up. however, it's an empty guilt, because we just go and to it again... sorry, i'm a bit of a nihilist haha | |
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Chad Wanna Be |
#6 by Chad Barri at Sep 28, 2007 at 12:43 PM EST |
| somethnig that is once a "paradise" just gets way too over commercialized, over polluted, over worked, over etc. such as religon, nature, heaven, people, dreams, etc. | |
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Lucas Average |
#7 by Lucas Lawrey at Sep 28, 2007 at 3:49 PM EST |
| no you are ALL wrong its about the way the white man raped the indians.. raped their women.. stole their land.. killed them.. it's all in that song.. they did all that and called themselves chiristians and said they were worshipers of god | |
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gemma Average |
#8 by gemma o'neill at Sep 28, 2007 at 5:12 PM EST |
| I think this song is about, like everyone said, the destruction of the natural beauty of the country, but i think it also has a somewhat anti-Christian meaning also. Personally, I think Christians are trying to take over the world, and i know thats part of the religion- to spread it around, but it destroys other cultures, and when people complain about them seeming to take over the world, then they try to take it over more. Okay, could anyone guess im not christian? But for me it has a somewhat anti christian meaning.... i love this song(but not necessarily for that reason only) | |
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kyle Average |
#9 by kyle henry at Sep 28, 2007 at 6:15 PM EST |
| this is one of the best songs i have ever heard.... the higher notes he does are amazing with his voice.... it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up... its a genious song. the lyrics are great too ...there is nothing bad to say about it i cant believe no one has wrote any comments about it already. xxxxx | |
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Ransom Professional |
#10 by Ransom Marx at Sep 29, 2007 at 8:53 PM EST |
| I agree with the previous comments. I heard this song after my first visit to California and I remember thinking about how beautiful it must have been before all of these teleophone poles/wires, ugly out-of-place houses etc were built. A few months later I heard this song and it said exactly what I felt on my visit. The only commentary I will add is the line "in the name of destiny and in the name of God" points out how we (Americans and humans in general) always try to find a religious justification for our actions. I feel the destiny is an obvious reference to the term "manifest destiny" which was the American rally cry for expanding out territory from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific. At that time it was almost considered to be pre-ordained by God that we would occupy the western territory regardless of the Indians, French, Mexicans, etc who considered it their land. Also, for me, the line about singing in the churches on Sunday morning points out the inherent hipocracy of the Christian Right-Wing who talk about God and the mercy of Jesus in heaven but turn a blind eye to the poor and disadvantaged here on Earth and think only of increasing their own personal wealth. Great song! You can feel the emotion in his voice. | |
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Chad Wanna Be |
#11 by Chad Barri at Sep 30, 2007 at 3:13 PM EST |
| Wow, I've heard this song many times before, but I actually listened to it for the first time recently, and was completely blown away. To me, this song is a brilliant commentary on the destructive forces (against the environment and other cultures) of Western civilization and the Church. Furthermore, it implies an interesting theory on why people are so drawn to religion (and I'm not talking just Christianity here). Humans seem incapable of preserving the things they love (paradise), and yet we yearn for them continually. Religion of any form gives people hope that finding paradise is possible - whether in the afterlife (Heaven), through enlightenment (Buddhism), or any number of other means. The intriguing and implied twist is: can even heavenly paradise withstand humanity's destruction? | |
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mike Wanna Be |
#12 by mike zaborski at Sep 30, 2007 at 10:06 PM EST |
| If you've seen the Hell Freezes Over DVD Don Henley introduces The Last Resort by saying, "Everyone's heard of how the West was won, well this is about how the West was lost." Take from that what you will. | |
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HereWeGo Wanna Be |
#13 by HereWeGo at Oct 3, 2007 at 5:58 AM EST |
| This song is so very clearly an attack on the Church. It could not be any clearer in the lyrics. (Even if you ignore the tone when it refers to missionaries and the Sunday-morning singers, and the clever double meaning of the exclamation "and Jesus, people bought 'em" – "Jesus' people"? Even "Jesus-people"?) Very interesting, therefore, to hear that the Eagles are now born-again Christians yet still performing the song! Of course, the band were always spiritual and the point is that the faith itself is not their target. It's about the Native Americans' respectful ways with regards to what was a paradise on earth being turned over, and the "white man's" excesses/crimes and greed being outrageously justified in the name of God – they "brought the... burden down" with "bloody deeds", "raped the land" etc. etc. until the paradise was no more. The essential message of Christianty was never the target, but the self-righteous colonial nature of Bible-bashing settlers; the song is a warning to appreciate what we have on earth, whether you believe a God gave it to us or not. | |
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Wanna Be |
#14 by at Oct 3, 2007 at 12:08 PM EST |
| Hey, sorry about my comment. Ive gotten a few emails and realized my comment may have been offensive. Sorry to anyone offended! Didnt mean for it to be that way. | |
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THE AMAZING JOE Wanna Be |
#15 by THE AMAZING JOE KOOL!! at Oct 3, 2007 at 4:41 PM EST |
| Henley's increasing frustration regarding humanitarian issues and such really starts to manifest itself here, and continues on for the rest of his career...especially in his solo stuff. Just check out "sunset grill" from album Building the Perfect Beast" , his 1st solo album....or ""Dirty Laundry", which most of us have heard. He is such a great artist, one who you can really follow and watch change as he gets older- you can see it happen starting on the album "The End of the Innocence" on tracks like "the heart of the matter", as well as on his latest offering, "Inside Job". He is still pissed off, but you can see that he comes to peace with himself and his anger on these later works. -"you gotta put it all behind ya babe/because life goes on/you keep carrying that anger/it'll eat you up inside" | |
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Max Wanna Be |
#16 by Max Contreras at Oct 3, 2007 at 5:47 PM EST |
| wow...this is like the first song i've heard about rhode island (i live there)...and it does rock | |
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Matt Rhythm Player |
#17 by Matt at Oct 3, 2007 at 7:02 PM EST |
| this song is very hard to get. a friend of mine had to explain parts of it to me. "kiss it goodbye" is a great lyric. the song talks about our past in a deep way and yes Mixiblob i agree with you about making your hairs stand up on the back ofyour neck. | |
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no more mohawk Average |
#18 by no more mohawk :( at Oct 3, 2007 at 10:57 PM EST |
| To me, this song is about development. Development of land for financial gain, evangelization of people, and the ignorance we show towards both. "Down in the crowded bars, out for a good time, Can't wait to tell you all, what it's like up there And they called it paradise I don't know why Somebody laid the mountains low while the town got high" To me, this is about the desecration of the environment, and how we humans choose to ignore it. The "laying low" of the mountains is probably about mining or logging, and how the people in the towns just drink to celebrate the end of the weeks work. They drown their sorrows in drink and drugs, and ignore the damage they are doing. "Some rich men came and raped the land, Nobody caught 'em Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus, people bought 'em And they called it paradise The place to be They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea" Is pretty self-explanatory. Development, the destroying of the land and the building of homes, offices and shops. Calling it paradise, because it's a nice home, ad watching the hazy sun, possibly hazy because of pollution. This seems to be a very sarcastic lyric. "You can leave it all behind and sail to Lahaina just like the missionaries did, so many years ago They even brought a neon sign: "Jesus is coming" Brought the white man's burden down Brought the white man's reign" This takes a place like Lahaina, which really is paradise (I went there a few years back, so I'm not just shooting my mouth off here), and it's people with their culture, and evangelising them, to make them like everyone else. It's the development of a culture, which destroyed what was natural and beautiful about them. "Who will provide the grand design? What is yours and what is mine? 'Cause there is no more new frontier We have got to make it here" This sounds very angry. It talks about how there's no "new frontier" for us to explore, and because of that we can't move on from the mess we've made...we have to make it here. "And you can see them there, On Sunday morning They stand up and sing about what it's like up there They call it paradise I don't know why You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye" This is about Church-goers. Possibly the miners and loggers, the rich men who raped the land, and the people who bought from them, and the missionaries. At Church on Sunday morning, singing about getting into heaven, which is sometimes called Paradise, and how wonderful it will be up there, after they've died. However, as the song has shown, all the places we've called paradise we've managed to destroy, in favour of a man-made paradise. "They call it paradise I don't know why You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye" In a religious context, this states that calling the afterlife paradise is a misnomer. All the places we've called paradise we have destroyed, and therefore, hoping to get into heaven is unjustified, as we don't deserve it. After having called some place paradise, and kissed it goodbye, the same should then happen with our hopes of getting into heaven. This is one of the only Eagles songs I like (the other being Try And Love Again), and I just LOVE it. It's also my Dad's favourite song, and it's so powerful and emotional, it makes me want to cry every time I hear it. It's an absolute masterpiece; musically, lyrically and vocally. I am yet to hear a better song by this band. | |
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curt Average |
#19 by curt at Oct 4, 2007 at 7:05 PM EST |
| if you've ever seen the video for "hell freezes over" he basically explains it. in that he says "everybody talks about how the west was won... this is about how the west was lost" Somebody laid the mountains low while the town got high great lyric in that they're losing sight of the beauty that is nature and becoming more consumed with the human elements. Some rich men came and raped the land, Nobody caught 'em Put up a bunch of ugly boxes, and Jesus, people bought 'em And they called it paradise The place to be They watched the hazy sun, sinking in the sea he's talking about how california has a beautiful scenery and yet some rich guy went out there and built and colonized the coast basically and now the pollution clouds the site. And you can see them there, On Sunday morning They stand up and sing about what it's like up there They call it paradise I don't know why You call someplace paradise, kiss it goodbye think about this one for a moment. how many times have there been said that some place is "paradise". heaven is the only place we haven't gone in and build "ugly boxes" i think dave matthews band got his inspiration for "don't drink the water" from this song | |
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Ryan Average |
#20 by Ryan Van Halen at Oct 4, 2007 at 10:52 PM EST |
| he isn't talking about the history of rhode island. a lot of this song is figuratively speaking, which adds to how amazing it is. the first line "she came from providence", it implies that she's coming from the grace of god, and when he says "one in rhode island", he could mean quite a few things. the way i believe is that since he says it almost as a side note, he's talking about how people would use certain words to get where they wanted. i can't explain what i mean as well as it is in my head. =) i don't believe he's describing an actual place, but more describing how we destroy our own happiness, as in the last line "you call some place paradise, kiss it goodbye." once a place has attention brought to it ["can't wait to tell you all what it's like up there"], it slowly brings upon its own demise. up until this point, it's such a peaceful song, but then it almost seems sinister: then the chilly winds blew down across the desert through the canyons of the coast, to the malibu where the pretty people play, hungry for power to light their neon way and give them things to do" the next part talks about the same idea, how people started out with a good idea ["they even brought a neon sign that said 'jesus is coming'"], but it "brought the white man's burden down, brought the white man's reign". power is corruption. up until that moment, everything was good, but once someone took control, they ruined it. the next few stanzas is him expressing his anger, and the power in this is amazing. i love his voice. =) the last lines sum up the song... about how one day, this "paradise" that was once, is now simply a story they tell, nothing more. once you "call some place paradise... kiss it goodbye"... | |
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evan Average |
#21 by evan oei at Oct 5, 2007 at 7:53 AM EST |
| cant believe only us two have wrote comments.... its such a cool song wots wrong wiv ppl | |
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Jarrett Lead Player |
#22 by Jarrett Sandlin at Oct 5, 2007 at 6:24 PM EST |
| I would listen to "Hotel California" 100 times over this insipid guilt-drenched song. Clever lyrics - but who wants 7+ minutes of feeling bad? Sorry - it's just that Hotel California just rocks all other songs on the album! 1 2 Next | |
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Sam Average |
#23 by Sam the man at Oct 6, 2007 at 6:13 AM EST |
| It's about how we've distroyed the earth and how we don't appreciate the simple beauty of it. | |
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b-rad Lead Player |
#24 by b-rad at Oct 6, 2007 at 6:20 AM EST |
| I agree with HRslammer on this one, this song is NOT about Rhode Island at all. That's just the first few lines of the song. The song is about the westward expansion of the US and especially the development of California. Don't forget, gold mining was what founded California, no doubt, and it has been growing enormously ever since. What has founded it hasn't changed much in principle: the desire for new wealth. The new wealth he talks about through much of the latter part of the song is real estate development: "Some rich men came and raped the land, Nobody caught 'em Put up a bunch of ugly boxes" Those would definitely be the ubiquitous tract homes of California, which caused California to grow tremendously in the second half of the 1900s. | |
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Michael Rhythm Player |
#25 by Michael Roache at Oct 6, 2007 at 3:55 PM EST |
| Your comments are very insightful and your reasoning is quite interesting, but you're all wrong! This is a song about a girl from Providence, RI that went to college at Pepperdine University in Malibu, CA. A Church of Christ school that is on the land donated by The Seaver Family and named for George Pepperdine founder of Western Auto Supply. They are the "Jesus People" The little boxes are the dorms and buildings all surrounding a giant cross on the hill. This girl was walking or riding a bike down PCH and was strruck and killed by the President of the school who was drunk. There's no drinking in the Church of Christ and the fancy Republican layers got him off without any charges. Every year the mother of this girl spills red paint on PCH where her daughter was struck. if you play this song on the campus radio station...you get expelled. This is an abridged version, but gives you an idea of what it truly means. | |
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