This song presents a musical critique of United States domestic policies and practices during the 1800's. The Last Resort examines the lasting environmental and social "costs" of the mass migration of people in the United States during the 19th century which came to be known as Westward Expansion.
In a more general sense this song serves as a warning to listeners about the dangers and consequences of unchecked urban development and the importance of ecology and conservation today. Don Henley explained in a 1987 interview, "The Last Resort, on Hotel California, is still one of my favorite songs... That's because I care more about the environment than about writing songs about drugs or love affairs or excesses of any kind. The gist of the song was that when we find something good, we destroy it by our presence - by the very fact that man is the only animal on earth that is capable of destroying his environment. The environment is the reason I got into politics: to try to do something about what I saw as the complete destruction of most of the resources that we have left. We have mortgaged our future for gain and greed."
http://www.learningfromlyrics.org/lastresort.htmlTurn the sound up and don't just go la la la : the lyrics are here -
http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=4800