Monday, July 30, 2007

Meaning to a familiar song...


Like most people, Alex loves music, but at 6 prefers grownup tunes rather than"baby" music (as he so respectfully calls it). Recently, Rod purchased a refurbished MP3 Player for he and Alex and uploaded some kid-safe songs for him to rock out to. The hardest part was trying to find some rap music that his still innocent-ears could hear, but we managed to find some Christian Rap that he likes...and Will Smith "Get Jiggy With It" is now a fave.


One of Alex's requests was "Hotel California" by the Eagles. Rod said he would have to listen to the words and make sure it was kid-friendly. It was a boarder-line decision since the word "hell" is mentioned, but we decided that if we talked to him about it, it would be okay. So one day while Alex is jamming out with his ear phones on he innocently exclaims, "Mom, I think there is a bad word in Hotel California. Can I tell you what it is?" I said, "Sure." He said, "Golitas...what does it mean?" I started laughing because I knew what word he was referring to..."The warm smell of colitas rising up through the air..." In actuality, I didn't know what the word meant but I told him I thought it was a type of flower.

Now my mission in life was to find out what the word "colitas" meant...or was that even the correct word in the song? After googling the lyrics to "Hotel California" and discovering that in fact, colitas was the correct word, trying to find out what it meant was another task. Google suggested that I mistyped and asked me if I meant colitis, which means an inflammation of the mucous membrane of the colon. Ooh! Surely, that can't be right! Don Henley can't be singing about the warm smell of an inflamed mucous membrane! After further investigation, I came across a website/chat room where people are pondering the lyrics to this song. Apparently, it has a lot of people stumped. Drum roll please....

[quote]It seems to translate as "little tips" or "buds" - presumably of the marijuana plant (Cannabis sativa) - where the tetrahydrocannabinol is most concentrated.[quote]

Okay, so I wasn't too far off the mark. I think for the sake of my 6 year old, we'll just stick with my version of a "type of flower." Marijuana plants do "flower", don't they? Ugh...now another mission...Google here I come!

1 comment:

Mika Ryan said...

Like mother like son - you also came up with some pretty interesting lyrics when you were little. I think it's pretty cool that the little guy actually knows about Hotel California....at that age I was oblivious.