Singing For Satan--Part 2

 This week I continue my once-per-month series of posts regarding an informal study I undertook in the early 1990s regarding rock and pop music. The purpose of my study (and the background to it) can be read in the first installment of August 7, 2017. If you have not read that post, I strongly encourage you to do so before reading this installment. I will only repeat here the seven (7) evil elements that pervade today's music:

1. Violence/Murder/Suicide
2. Nihilism/Despair
3. Drug and alcohol glorification
4. Adultery/ Fornication and sexual perversion
5. The occult
6. Rebellion against lawful superiors
7. Blasphemy against God, Jesus Christ in particular, and the Church



 The exposing of the bands/artists continues.

The Eagles

 This rock group was founded in 1971 in Los Angeles, California. The original line-up consisted of Don Henley (drums, vocals, b. 1947), Glenn Frey (lead guitar and vocals; b. 1948, d. 2016), Bernie Leadon (guitars, vocals, b. 1947), and Randy Meisner (bass guitar, vocals, b. 1946). Both Henley and Frey would go on to have very successful solo careers as well.  Rolling Stone magazine ranked them #75 of the "100 Greatest Artists of All Time." The Eagles have never been considered a hard rock group, but rather a "melodic rock" or even a "country rock" band, due to the slow pace of most of their songs and the many ballads they sing. Like the group Journey they disprove the idea that only heavy metal groups are bad. 

 Despite protests from the band members and their adoring fans, The Eagles are seeped in the occult, blaspheme God, glorify drugs, and promote rebellion against lawful superiors, as will be shown below.

Occult Origins and Influences

 All the band members were raging drug addicts and alcoholics. The very name "The Eagles" was decided upon when they were under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug peyote. While drunk and stoned in a California desert, they chose the name in reverence to the "Chief Spirit of the Indian Cosmos." According to Time magazine, they wrote most of their songs while hallucinating on peyote (See Time, August 15, 1975 issue, pg. 4). 

  The song Witchy Woman is about witchcraft, alleged to be "good" or "white magick" (when spelled with a "k" at the end, it refers to the occultist "science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with the will" as opposed to Magic, which refers to slight-of-hand parlor tricks). Don Henley admits to the occult influence, yet tries to pass it off as a "phase" and not a big deal. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Henley stated: 

Another inspiration for the song [Witchy Woman] was the roommate of a girl I was seeing in the early 1970s. All things occult were popular in those days. Ouija boards, séances, palm reading, etc. A lot of the girls were into what was called "white witchcraft," that is, they were practitioners of folk magic for benevolent purposes, as distinguished from malevolent witchcraft or black magic. I think some of them practiced a little of both. I thought it was charming and seductive, but I never took any of it seriously. For the most part, it was just a phase people were passing through, part of the overall youth movement and the quest for spirituality, which included a re-enchantment with the "old ways." It was harmless fun.

Another inspiration for that song may have been the shamanistic aspects of the Carlos Castaneda books we were intrigued with at the time. In the late Sixties and early Seventies, the Peruvian-born Castaneda became a popular American author while earning his Ph.D. at UCLA. (See http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/eagles-complete-discography-don-henley-looks-back-20160610/eagles-1972-20160609)

The Church certainly does not view Ouija boards, palm readings, and the like as "harmless fun" or a "quest for spirituality." There is also no distinction between alleged "white" and "black" witchcraft because God condemns it all as evil. As I've written before, witchcraft, Ouija boards, and all other occult practices Henley mentions are condemned by both the Bible and Church teaching. "Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft,or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD; because of these same detestable practices the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you." (See Deuteronomy 18:10-12; Emphasis mine.) According to theologian Jone, "Spiritism claims to be able to communicate with the spirit world and endeavors to establish such commerce with it. Although spiritism is for the most part fraud, still the intention alone to enter into communication with spirits is gravely sinful. Therefore, it is mortally sinful to conduct a spiritistic seance or to act as a medium." (See Moral Theology, pg. 100; Emphasis mine).

 Moreover, Carlos Castaneda (d. 1998), was indeed a shaman who wrote a series of books that describe his training in shamanism. A "shaman" is defined as one who is "reaching altered states of consciousness in order to perceive and interact with a spirit world and channel these transcendental energies into this world." It is Castaneda's books that inspired The Eagles; a man who uses drugs to alter his consciousness and allow malevolent spirits (demons) access to himself. They can then use him to influence and possess others.

The Eagles' most controversial song is Hotel California. The band will tell you it's about excess in partying out in California. By now, you are probably convinced by the band's background that their explanation is a lie. So am I. The enigmatic song tells of the founding of the Church of Satan by the evil Anton LaVey, the founder of the Luciferian sect who died in 1997.  Below are the lyrics:

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy and my sight grew dim
I had to stop for the night.

There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself
'This could be heaven or this could be Hell'
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor,
I thought I heard them say

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face.
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year (any time of year) you can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, she got the Mercedes bends
She got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget

So I called up the Captain,
'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'we haven't had that spirit here since nineteen sixty-nine'
And still those voices are calling from far away,
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say"

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Such a lovely face.
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise (what a nice surprise), bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling,
The pink champagne on ice
And she said, 'we are all just prisoners here, of our own device'
And in the master's chambers,
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can't kill the beast

Last thing I remember, I was
Running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
'Relax' said the night man,
'We are programmed to receive.
You can check out any time you like,
But you can never leave!'

Hotel California refers to the infamous "Black House" where LaVey lived at 6114 California St, San Francisco, California from his founding of the sect in 1966 until his death in 1997. It was used for Satanic rituals and was bought because it was known to be used as a brothel ("mirrors on the ceiling" say the lyrics).
Heaven is written in lower case but "this could be Hell" is upper case. Note well, the fifth stanza calls up "the Captain" (Satan) who sacastically asks for wine, but "we haven't seen that spirit here since 1969." This is a reference to the authorship of the Satanic Bible (1969) and the institution of the invalid Novus Bogus "mass" of the V2 sect. Wine remains wine, and the "spirit" (Holy Ghost) is now gone. Below is a picture of the Black House.

Hotel California is also a a metaphor for Hell, because "you can never leave."

Backmasking is used in the song. Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward and the technique was first used by The Beatles in 1966. Many years ago, I worked for a year in radio as a part time gig. I literally heard the subliminal message played backwards. In Hotel California it clearly states, "Yeah. Satan organized his own religion."

Here are some "edifying" lyrics from Witchy Woman:

Raven hair and ruby lips
Sparks fly from her finger tips
Echoed voices in the night
She's a restless spirit on an endless flight
Wooo hooo witchy woman see how

High she flies (Emphasis mine)

The song One of These Nights contains these words:

You got your demons, you got your desires
Well, I got a few of my own.....
I've been searching for the daughter of the devil himself
I've been searching for an angel in white

I've been waiting for a woman who's a little of both (Emphasis mine)

You can't be on God's side and Satan's side for Christ said, "He who is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters." (St. Matthew 12: 30).

The song Good Day In Hell mocks the names written in the Book of Life: (See Apocalypse 3:5)

 The devil's on the phone, he laughs 
And says you're doin' the just fine 
In that big book of names I want to go down 
In flames 
Seein's how I'm goin' down (Emphasis mine)

He doesn't want his name in the Book of Life, but wants to go "down in flames" to Hell instead.

For Drugs and Against Lawful Authority

The song Chug All Night tells the tale of a man who wants to drink all night, every night with a woman while engaging in sex:

I believe we could chug all night
I believe we could hug all night
The band is loose and the groove
Is right you're so much woman I

Believe we could chug all night
On the day that I die, well
I just might scream
If I'm alive in the morning

The song James Dean is a tribute to the iconic movie actor who died in a car crash at age 24 in 1955. He was the symbol of rebellion. According to co-star Sal Mineo, "Jimmy Dean started the whole youth movement."  Dean desired rebellion, confrontation, and defiance of authority just for the sake of doing so. This attack of moral conventions was a subtle indoctrination of the youth that was a catalyst to the counterculture movement in the 1960’s. He is alleged by several sources (although some claim otherwise) to have derided Christianity as "those destructive influences of beliefs based on torture and blood and crucifixion." He also supposedly said, "I believe in freedom, not God." Dean was raised a Quaker, but is claimed to have been sexually abused as a youth, and was bisexual. The tribute song says:

You were the lowdown rebel if there ever was 

Even if you had no cause 

James Dean, you said it all so clean 

And I know my life would look all right 

If I could see it on the silver screen  (Emphasis mine)

Conclusion

Don't let the slow tempo of many Eagles' songs fool you. The band members want you to believe that the occult is harmless and "just a phase" they went through. Drugs and alcohol were also "a phase." Yet the evidence shows that they were flying high as an eagle on drugs, wrote their songs in that state, were involved in the occult and consulted books written by a shaman. They even have backmasking on  Hotel California about Satan, while claiming the tune has nothing to do with the devil.  You can shut your eyes to the evidence, or ditch their music and their lies.