I made a thread about this song years ago but the argument came up again yesterday at work.
This isn't necessarily about what the lyrics are but rather what you hear. The lyric in question is,
Mirrors on the ceiling, what do you hear next. The pink champagne on ice or Depict champagne
on ice.

According to songfacts.com this is the lyric:
Mirrors on the ceiling
The pink champagne on ice
And she said, 'we are all just prisoners here, of our own device
And in the master's chambers
They gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But they just can't kill the beast.

I hear depict and for arguments sake I say it makes more sense. One, they already stated they haven't had
that spirit here since 1969 but I think the more compelling argument has to do with grammar. Mirrors on the
ceiling is a dependent clause as is the pink champagne on ice but neither clause describes the other. Also the
definite article in the second clause is unnecessary, adding it makes it sound muddled. Now, if you replace the
pink with depict both clauses make sense because the the mirrors could be cut into the shape of champagne
bottles and glasses.

Again, this isn't really about what the correct lyric is but rather what you hear. I hear depict, and then I formulated
an argument as to why I hear it.

Although I always heard the literal "the pink champagne on ice", the fact that it could be heard/interpreted as "depict champagne on ice" is valid, considering another lyric in the song "she got the Mercedes bends". That is the official lyric as written and printed, but of course it is heard as "She got the Mercedes Benz". So the song invites this blurring of hearing and literal lyric. As if everything is reflected in mirrors.  And I wouldn't necessarily say that the mirrors on the ceiling would be cut into the shape of champagne bottles and glasses, but that they are reflecting the champagne bottles below the mirror.  And, of course, "mirrors on the ceiling" always seems to imply a sexual connotation.

I always heard it as "Pink champagne on ice."

I was just telling my SIL this story the other day. When my cousin got married out in L.A. several years ago (I didn't go), my brother was so excited because he was going to be staying at the Hotel California. He told me when he told our dad that, Dad just said, "So?" My brother said, "Different generation."


Cat