Warm smell of *what*???

July 14, 2009 1:04 PM

In the song Hotel California by The Eagles, what is there a warm smell of during the opening verse? You can hear it 1:00min into the video linked above.

There's something of a discrepancy on lyric sites as to what the word actually is. Googling "coletus" just turns up results for "coleus" which is a plant. As far as I know, they don't actually smell, unless its Coleus canina, which apparently smells of urine, and is used to keep cats out of the garden.

posted by Solomon to Media & Arts (8 answers total)

Best answer: Colitas.
posted by mr_roboto at 1:05 PM on July 14, 2009

Best answer: Marijuana buds, according to Cecil Adams.
posted by Oriole Adams at 1:06 PM on July 14, 2009

Response by poster: Ah, coletas. Damn my hearing.
posted by Solomon at 1:09 PM on July 14, 2009

Here are about half a million other correct answers. Google search "hotel california lyrics"
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:20 PM on July 14, 2009

I take it back. Not all of those are accurate. But every single one of the first page of Google hits has "colitas." And the Wikipedia link explains what those are.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 1:24 PM on July 14, 2009

Not coletas. Coletas is Spanish for ponytails. Colitas, little tails, slang for marijuana buds, like Oriole Adams said.
posted by cobain_angel at 5:39 PM on July 14, 2009 [1 favorite]

Ok, so now that we've visited the straight dope and wikipedia links, what does "Colita de Rata" translate to literally? And do they have a "warm smell"? Or any particular scent? Or should we call bs on that interpretation?
posted by Reverend John at 9:06 AM on July 15, 2009

(Errr, and though babelfish failed me, Google seems to think its the rather obvious: "Little tail of a rat", is this right? And hey, for bonus points, how common is this name for the plant?)
posted by Reverend John at 9:08 AM on July 15, 2009