| The Spooks – Karma Hotel Lyrics | 7 years ago |
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One of my favourite songs and it's very deep for me because I am not a big hip hop fan but this song gives me the chills. So what is it with the song? The gospel chorus and intro, the link to Hotel California (the guitar riff) and the trinity passage of three different sins (pride, greed and lust) all are a great morality song preaching a message that - in today's social age - is just too common. So let's start from the top: 1) Intro and Chorus: If you have not listened to Hotel California, it's a similar thing - spooky hotel which is a prison - but what is a hotel? Jesus said there's plenty of rooms in his Father's house and he goes to prepare a place for us. Hotels have also got rooms and they are sold to us ready. Heaven and Hell - the final destination of life's journey - I presume, will have a place for us to stay so the Hotel allusion is once you check in, you don't check out (mentioned in both songs) but Karma Hotel is about what YOU do before you stay because once you are in, you're not checking out. 2: The three residents: All the three residents choose their life in the hotel and what they do pretty much chooses how it stays. Note, all the residents choose something that will make them feel better and they are all led astray by the excitement of what they are doing thus the Karma but, as per 1), it's very literally a choice: a room has been setup for them but Heaven or Hell (as in the chorus) is down to them. 2a) Pride: "It won't happen to me", "I know what I am doing", the illusion is that just because you abuse your life without consequences is not knowledge or a blessing. He throws in a 20 for something to escape his boredom and goes to the 14th floor (superstitious hotels don't have a 13th floor) , the fog clears (the fog is the illusion of life that we use to avoid/admit a problem - as the voice says, they have been waiting and there's no escape this time), the smell of Hell and War is the knowledge that he's doing something bad and plays Russian roulette (the spinning of a barrel sounds like a clock ticking) enjoys it an dies and ends up discarded and broken, another sad story, yesterday's news and forgotten. In this passage, pride in life (or what they know about life) and the wrong use of money (material means) destroys the man until there's nothing left. The drug ending is exactly the same but a modern parallel especially with the modern age where people are saturated with information and money but lack knowledge. 2b) Greed: "I need it all.", "I must have it all" - The gambler's greed sucks him in so he forgets about his family and his life and all he has is his money. The addiction is not actually about money, in my view, the greed is the time spent on the gambling. He's not looking for the buzz from the money, he doesn't lose on money but look how lonely the gambler is, he has crowds coming to cheer him, girls to spend time with him at his tables but his son, who might be off the rails, is not even in his mind. He loses weight, since no one cares for him, to keep gambling but he doesn't spend the money but he doesn't have anyone to spend it on and ages in a prison locked to the only "family" he knows. In the music video, a photo burns of his family and he's old and grey. In this day and age, a lot of time is lost in fake relationships, fame seeking and avoiding people who have your best interests, we hoard our time and like the gambler we don't spend it wisely and then, in the end, we are all sad, lonely and dwelling in something not real. 2c) Lust: "It's love" / "It feels so good." The girl gets led astray by Mephisto (sp?) and ends up a sex slave but its darker since its how the girl gets seperated from her family and friends, doesn't realise they need to respect themselves and becomes dependent on her neglect. The girl is very naive and, from the passage, young - she accepts the invite and joins in unprotected and then gets burnt in the end due to her lust for life. Eve, the first temptation, the first woman but also the first virgin woman too, is a great metaphor because Mephisto doesn't ask her name first because he sees her as property rather than a person. She enjoys the lust in the beginning but then goes cold when it's no longer fun but by then she is dependent on it she can't tell what is right and wrong no more and how to escape. Modern age, seduction happens over the web, sms and chat so much but, like Eve, do they know you or are they seeing money signs? The lust is not from the girl, the lust are from the predators and the predators dress neglect as a game (Doom) and adult activities (drink, sex) as agreeable. The trust from predators that infects you is not the same as family and friends - it's the neglect from their lust that makes you feel empty as it's not real. (Sexually, it's darker still in the age of Aids and STD's since the family you join literally could be a death sentence) |
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