A criminal case involving handwritten lyrics to the classic rock megahit “Hotel California” and other Eagles favorites went to trial Wednesday in New York, with three men accused of scheming to thwart band co-founder Don Henley’s efforts to reclaim the allegedly ill-gotten documents.
The trial concerns about 100 pages of drafts of the words to songs from the 1976 release “Hotel California,” which is the third-biggest selling album ever in the U.S.
Rare-books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi, and memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski face charges including conspiracy to possess stolen property.
“The defendants were not businessmen acting in good faith, but criminal actors,” Manhattan District Attorney Nicholas Penfold said in his opening. He said they “deceived and manipulated to try to frustrate” Henley’s efforts to recover manuscripts that were rightfully his.
The men, all well established in the collectibles world, have pleaded not guilty. Their lawyers have said the case “alleges criminality where none exists and unfairly tarnishes the reputations of well-respected professionals.”
The documents include lyrics-in-development for the songs “Life in the Fast Lane,” “New Kid in Town” and, of course, “Hotel California,” the more than six-minute-long, somewhat mysterious musical tale of the goings-on at an inviting, decadent but ultimately dark place where “you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”
If scorned by some as an overexposed artifact of the ’70s, the Grammy-winning song is still a touchstone on classic rock radio and many personal playlists. The entertainment data company Luminate counted more than 220 million streams and 136,000 radio plays of “Hotel California” in the U.S. last year.