<P> The term "colitas" in the first stanza ("warm smell of colitas, rising up through the air") has been interpreted as a sexual slang or a reference to marijuana . "Colitas" means "little tails" in Spanish; in Mexican slang it refers to buds of the cannabis (marijuana) plant . According to Glenn Frey, the "warm smell" is "colitas...it means little tails, the very top of the plant ." The Eagles' manager Irving Azoff appears to lend support to the marijuana hypothesis, however, Felder said: "The colitas is a plant that grows in the desert that blooms at night, and it has this kind of pungent, almost funky smell . Don Henley came up with a lot of the lyrics for that song, and he came up with colitas ." </P> <P> Other interpretations of the songs include heroin addiction and cannibalism . On the various interpretations, Henley said: "Some of the wilder interpretations of that song have been amazing . It was really about the excesses of American culture and certain girls we knew . But it was also about the uneasy balance between art and commerce ." </P> <P> The intro and verse's chord pattern counts eight measures, each one assigned to a single chord . Seven different chords are used in the eight measures . As the song opens, it is not until the eighth measure that a chord is repeated . The song is initially in the key of B - minor . The presence of E major gives a hint of B Dorian . </P> <P> The chords are played as follows: </P>

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