CA in music -

[pinto]

Thought it would be fun to have a thread, all things CA, in music.

I'll start with one or two:

[pinto]

1. California Dreaming -

[Mr.Bill]

2. California Girls by The Beach Boys

When I was a kid in the 60s my dad's job moved us to California. I used to visit my cousins in Maryland in the summer and I was homesick for the east coast. One summer I was back east and I heard this song for the first time. I knew at that moment I was a Californian for life. I'm still here.

[pinto]

3. I Love LA (Randy Newman)

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. This is my favorite song about LA! Thanks for the post, pinto!

[pinto]

4. San Francisco Nights (Eric Burdon)

[KamaAina]

5. Oh lord...

[pinto]

6. +1

[DreamGypsy]

7. You can hear a song each time the wind cries, in the golden, rolling hills of ...

...California.

Redtail Hawk by Kate Wolf:

(on edit: darn,

[pinto]

10. Beautiful. (nt)

[DreamGypsy]

13. And we'll meet again with friends over red Sonoma wine...

...as god paints the sky above Pacheco.

I should have looked for this first. On her album Weaver of Visions, Pacheco segways beautifully into Redtail Hawk. I saw her perform it that way a couple of times.

This is from the album, not live, and the visuals are photos of CA. You can stop at about 2:45 into the video if you want, since you've already heard Redtail Hawk.

[msongs]

8. L.A. Shake!...by Msongs :-) nt

[demwing]

9. All I Wanna Do (Santa Monica Blvd)

[monmouth3]

14. We used to sing that all of the time here in West Palm and replace it with Okeechobee Blvd..LOL..n/t

[antiquie]

11. GD California Earthquake

&feature=player_detailpage

[demwing]

12. Santa Monica - Everclear

[DreamGypsy]

15. I'll even kiss a Sunset pig...

Joni Mitchell - California

[DreamGypsy]

16. On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair...

The Eagles

http://vimeo.com/10897457

[antiquie]

17. GD Standing on the Moon

&feature=player_detailpage

[DreamGypsy]

18. Goin' back to California, so many good things around. Don't wanna leave California

The sun seems to never go down.

California, from The Turning Point album, John Mayall.

[DreamGypsy]

19. And lest we forget the politicians of California, past and present, California Uber Alles...

...for the past and present Governor of The Golden State.

I am Governor Jerry Brown
My aura smiles
And never frowns
Soon I will be president...

[DreamGypsy]

20. Californication

The Red Hot Chili Peppers

[Journeyman]

21. California Bloodlines. . .

[DreamGypsy]

22. All the salty Margaritas in Los Angeles I'm gonna drink 'em up

Desperados Under the Eaves - the late, great Warren Zevon

And if California slides into the ocean
Like the mystics and statistics say it will
I predict this motel will be standing
Until I pay my bill

[DreamGypsy]

23. You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard.

Celluloid Heroes - The Kinks

Everybody's a dreamer, everybody's a star,
And everybody's in movies, it doesn't matter who you are.
There are stars in every city,
In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete!

[DreamGypsy]

24. Encino is like so bitchen, there's like the galleria and like all these like really great...

...shoe stores.

Frank and Moon Unit.

Kinda sad that this was Frank Zappa's biggest hit in the United States. Says something about American culture.

Call any vegetable and the chances are good
That the vegetable will respond to you.

[tularetom]

26. They don't write many songs about this part of California

Here's one:

[pinto]

35. +1

[Le Taz Hot]

36. Yeah, I was going to include a post from

"Hee Haw" as that's the way the Bay Areans and a few Southern Californians see us. "Us" being those of us who live in the "cesspool." (I'm told anything 60 miles east of the California Coast is a "cesspool.&quot But iirc, you agree with them so,

[tularetom]

37. Agree with them? To me there is no more welcome sight than driving down the grapevine

and seeing Highway 99 stretching off into the distance among the orchards and cotton fields. I know I'm home when I see that and I often wonder what it looked like to my dad when he first saw the same sight in 1936.

I can remember as a kid being able to see all the way from the Sierra to the Coast Range, swimming in the canals, smelling the fresh mown alfalfa on a warm summer night and I get nostalgic.

Granted the valley's not the same place it used to be. I live in the foothills now because my wife had respiratory issues (because the people who call it a cesspool allow their dirty air to blow down the valley). The mom and pop farms have been replaced by corporate mega food factories and we've paved over a lot of the most productive land. We have social problems that have been ignored for too long by our local politicians who are usually in bed with the developers.

But it's still home to me and there are three generations of our family living there, 25 or so of them right down to my 2 year old great grandson.

Nah, I'd never agree with any of the snobs who call this place a cesspool. I might joke about it but believe me I get pretty defensive when I hear that bullshit from Bay Area people.

Sorry if I gave you that impression.

[Le Taz Hot]

38. Well then it seems I owe you an apology.

My impressions/memory was obviously faulty. I apologize.

[XemaSab]

64. Kern River

[XemaSab]

66. Leroy's Dustbowl Blues does not appear to be on the YouTubes

Steve Earle and the Del McCoury Band. It's bomb, and it's got the line "It's a thousand miles from Broken Bow to Bakersfield and the highway's paved with heartache all the way."

[tularetom]

68. It may not be on the YouTubes but

it's on my iTunes.

Thanks for reminding me I had it.

Here's another one.

[DreamGypsy]

27. I'm looking for a chateau, 21 rooms but one will do...

...I don't want to buy it I just want to rent it for a minute or two.

Grateful Dead -West LA Fadeaway - June 30, 1995 - 3 Rivers Stadium - Pittsburgh, PA

&feature=player_detailpage

[Pyrzqxgl]

28. Some California Musicians that should be up here!

Mary McCaSLIN - Tom Waits - Gregory Page - Jack Tempchin - The Sons Of The Pioneers - lots more

[DreamGypsy]

30. Earlier in the day I thought about posting Tom Waits' San Diego Serenade...

...but when I went back and looked at the lyrics, there's really nothing California or San Diego centric.

I attended Tom's shows at the Warfield in San Francisco several times back in the 80's. They were great.

How about Tom's Going Out West...will this do???

[pinboy3niner]

53. There's also 'Chula Vista'

From San Diego's first 'Home Grown' album in 1973. Captures Chula Vista's essence...

[antiquie]

54. That might have been

the longest three minutes of my life.

[DreamGypsy]

29. A gold rush song. King of California.

My darlin' dear, please have no fear
For I think that it's fair to warn ya,
That I'll return to claim your hand
as the King of California.

Dave Alvin

[demwing]

31. Twofer coming straight outta Venice, CA

With a nod on both to Mr. Manzarek:

[demwing]

32. I left my heart...

where the hell did I leave my heart?

Oh yeah, that's where I left it.

[DreamGypsy]

33. Down on a half darkened street, fathers' and sons' lives repeat...on Lawless Avenues.

Jackson Browne

Manuelito's sister Rosa
Ran away with a surfer from Hermosa
Manuelito, cuida a Rosa
Hay mira como estan las cosas!
(Manuelito, take care of Rosa
Look at how things are)
But who could blame her after she saw
Every boy die who could have gotten close to her
Rosa es joven y solo quiere
ver la belleza del mundo
(Rosa is young and only wants
to see the beauty of the world)
Manuel said--
"You gotta fight for what you want in this life"
Just before they shipped him overseas to 'Nam
Otra guerra sin razon
Otra guerra sin fin, sin honor
(Another war without reason
Another war without end, without honor)
And she was fighting to understand
When they shipped Manuelito's body home
All she heard was one more shot
Echoing down lawless avenues

[DreamGypsy]

34. I was sitting somewhere, where was I sitting...

(thanks for the nudge to the classics, demwing)

I left my home in Georgia,
Headed for the 'Frisco Bay,
Seemed like I had nothing to live for,
And nothing's gonna come my way.

Otis Redding (from Wikipedia):

After appearing at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, he wrote and recorded &quot Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" with Steve Cropper. The song became the first posthumous number-one record on both the Billboard Hot 100 and R&B charts after his death in a plane crash. The Dock of the Bay became the first posthumous album to reach number one on the UK Albums Chart.

[demwing]

40. Well played

awesome song!

[antiquie]

39. John Denver: Berkeley Woman?

Cannot find a linkable.

[pinto]

41. Link via YouTube -

[antiquie]

42. Thanks!

Maybe if I could spell...

[Starry Messenger]

43. los angeles x

[Starry Messenger]

44. America - Ventura Highway

(one of my guilty pleasure songs...)

[Starry Messenger]

45. WILCO & BILLY BRAGG : CALIFORNIA STARS

Covering Woody Guthrie.

[Starry Messenger]

46. Chris Isaak - San Francisco Days (Live)

[pinto]

49. +1

Saw him locally before he hit the big time. Good stuff.

[Starry Messenger]

47. Little Boxes --Malvina Reynolds

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Boxes

"Reynolds was a folk singer-songwriter and political activist in the 1960s and 1970s. Nancy Reynolds, her daughter, explained that her mother came up with the song when she saw the housing developments around Daly City, California, built in the post-war era by Henry Doelger, particularly the neighborhood of Westlake.

My mother and father were driving South from San Francisco through Daly City when my mom got the idea for the song. She asked my dad to take the wheel, and she wrote it on the way to the gathering in La Honda where she was going to sing for the Friends Committee on Legislation. When Time magazine (I think, maybe Newsweek) wanted a photo of her pointing to the very place, she couldn’t find those houses because so many more had been built around them that the hillsides were totally covered.[2]"

[pinto]

48. for Lois...

[pinto]

50. Got to include this one. J. Joplin, 'Cry Baby' -

[Politicalboi]

51. Don't forget

The Doors.

[antiquie]

52. The Ramones

&feature=player_detailpage

[petronius]

55. Plane Wreck at Los Gatos

DEPORTEES
by Woody Guthrie
The crops are all in and the peaches are rott'ning,
The oranges piled in their creosote dumps;
They're flying 'em back to the Mexican border
To pay all their money to wade back again

Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye, Rosalita,
Adios mis amigos, Jesus y Maria;
You won't have your names when you ride the big airplane,
All they will call you will be "deportees"

My father's own father, he waded that river,
They took all the money he made in his life;
My brothers and sisters come working the fruit trees,
And they rode the truck till they took down and died.

Some of us are illegal, and some are not wanted,
Our work contract's out and we have to move on;
Six hundred miles to that Mexican border,
They chase us like outlaws, like rustlers, like thieves.

We died in your hills, we died in your deserts,
We died in your valleys and died on your plains.
We died 'neath your trees and we died in your bushes,
Both sides of the river, we died just the same.

The sky plane caught fire over Los Gatos Canyon,
A fireball of lightning, and shook all our hills,
Who are all these friends, all scattered like dry leaves?
The radio says, "They are just deportees"

Is this the best way we can grow our big orchards?
Is this the best way we can grow our good fruit?
To fall like dry leaves to rot on my topsoil
And be called by no name except "deportees"?

[petronius]

56. Ivan Ives - California

I think this part ought to be the SoP for the CA Group:

Ladies and gentlemen
Welcome to California
Don't forget your sunglasses, let's go

Sit back, sip that, you are now in California
Sniff that, relapse, where else can you lounge in morning/mourning
We back, rehab, you know that you really wanna
Get back, but we laugh, 'cuz we seen it all before (seen it all before)

[petronius]

57. Bad Religion - Los Angeles is Burning

Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of a blue
St. Anne's skirts are billowing
But down here in the city of the lime lights
The fans of santa ana are withering
And you can’t deny that living is easy
If you never look behind the scenery
It's showtime for dry climes
And bedlam is dreaming of rain

When the hills of los angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And los angeles is burning

This is not a test
Of the emergency broadcast system
Where malibu fires and radio towers
Conspire to dance again
And I cannot believe the media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle reality,
Catch it on prime time, story at nine
The whole world is going insane

When the hills of los angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And los angeles is burning

A placard reads
"the end of days"
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze

More a question than a curse
How could hell be any worse?

The flames are stunning
The cameras running
So take warning

When the hills of los angeles are burnin
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives are on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And los angeles is burning

[petronius]

58. Ice Cube - Ghetto Vet

[NBachers]

59. Roger McGuinn and Tom Petty- "King of the Hill"

A song I will follow over and over again. The Bret Easton Ellis L.A. imagery gets me every time.

Also, a bonus: The Raveonettes, "Ode to L.A." with my most enduring love, Ronnie Spector.

[NBachers]

60. Hey- This should've been the first one! "California Sun" by The Rivieras

[Jamaal510]

61. Keak da Sneak- "Oakland" ft. Mistah F.A.B.

[antiquie]

62. Spoken word artistry

but i've got a huge culture gap.

[XemaSab]

63. Natalie Merchant--San Andreas Fault

[XemaSab]

65. Tori Amos--A Sorta Fairytale

[XemaSab]

67. NOFX--Scavenger Type