There at three a.m.
on a dark and empty street
I was out walking
The demons kept my sleep

The music I recognized
Coming down from the open window above
The Eagles "Hotel California"
A song I dearly loved

It was the winter of 1977
Perhaps the coldest on record I know
All I remember was the cold and accumulations of snow

Mike had just bought the album
Invited me over to share
After we were blown away
The music cleared the air

We played it over and over
Every song on it was so great
The chill that hung in the air
Made it easy to relate

I walked back home after midnight
In the cold and frozen snow
Not realizing it was a  -10° below

The cold soon penetrated
I became concerned for sure
I was having my doubts and my skin was turning bluer


To make the story short
I ran to the door the last few feet
I fumbled with the keys
And fell inside into the heat

So now all of those memories come flooding back to me
There's someone up above and they can never leave

So I ease on down the way
out of range of the sound
And I am thinking to myself
To the words I am forever bound

"You can always check out
but you can never leave"