The Eagles' 'The Last Resort' Is Their Greatest, Not 'Hotel California'

Los Angeles in the seventies was a different kind of wild, and no band understood its highs and lows better than The Eagles. Though founding members Don Henley, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner were not Los Angeles natives, they quickly became familiar with the city’s shadier realities, no matter how normalized they seemed at the time.

They immortalized those contradictions on what remains their most important album, Hotel California. While the title track is the song most listeners still revisit, one of the album’s more overlooked cuts exposes an even darker perspective on human progress and its consequences: “The Last Resort.” Not written as a protest song but unmistakably political, “The Last Resort” mourns the damage caused by gentrification and serves as a commentary on environmental change in the States.

United States, Los Angeles

eagles, last resort, hotel california, don henley, glenn frey, bernie leadon, randy meisner, los angeles, gentrification, environmental change