The first verse of the song makes clear that the narrator is not talking about a woman but a place—Southern California, as named in the first line, for which “Hollywood” is a stand-in. The “lovers” are all those who exploited the place for profit, without reinvesting in its cultural, physical, economic, or aesthetic wellbeing. Principal among those are real estate developers, who Henley and Frey disparaged at length in “The Last Resort” on the Hotel California album the following year (1976):\n\n“Some rich men came and raped the land\nNobody caught \'em\nPut up a bunch of ugly boxes\nAnd Jesus people bought \'em.”\n\nHenley and Frey made clear the intent of both lyrics in the interviews that they gave and the benefits for which they played at the time. They had grown up in Texas and Michigan, respectively, and recognized L.A. as having the most narcissistic culture of any American city other than Las Vegas. \n\nThe other side of the lyric is “She gave much more than she’s taken.” There is more to L.A. that meets the eye. Beneath the tarnished glitter, there are real people doing real work that has contributed to the lives of humans all over the world.
The first verse of the song makes clear that the narrator is not talking about a woman but a place—Southern California, as named in the first line, for which “Hollywood” is a stand-in. The “lovers” are all those who exploited the place for profit, without reinvesting in its cultural, physical, economic, or aesthetic wellbeing. Principal among those are real estate developers, who Henley and Frey disparaged at length in “The Last Resort” on the Hotel California album the following year (1976):\n\n“Some rich men came and raped the land\nNobody caught \'em\nPut up a bunch of ugly boxes\nAnd Jesus people bought \'em.”\n\nHenley and Frey made clear the intent of both lyrics in the interviews that they gave and the benefits for which they played at the time. They had grown up in Texas and Michigan, respectively, and recognized L.A. as having the most narcissistic culture of any American city other than Las Vegas. \n\nThe other side of the lyric is “She gave much more than she’s taken.” There is more to L.A. that meets the eye. Beneath the tarnished glitter, there are real people doing real work that has contributed to the lives of humans all over the world.