"California holds a vital place in the American imagination."-
I don't really know what the American imagination is, and if I have one of those, or if it's some kind of collective consciousness stored with the launch codes in a mountainside in Colorado, but that sounds like the sort of thing someone would say in a situation like this. All I know is this week's songs are all about the Golden State.
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Up first, a beautiful song written by Wilco, using lyrics Woody Guthrie never got to use, from the truly classic Mermaid Avenue album by the aforementioned band and Billy Bragg. If not for an absolutely awe inspiring track entitled "Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key," one of my favorite songs ever recorded, this song would steal the scene from the ol' Bard of Barking. After hearing a song like "California Stars," who wouldn't want to get in their car, forget their Eastern troubles, and spend some a pensive lifetime in the Redwoods, looking skywards? Yes, driving from the East to those California Stars these days might cost a year's salary per fill up, but Woody Guthrie don't care none. Cuz he's dead. Isn't California the epitome of our collective American dream, not to mention the "vital place it holds in the American imagination?"
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Well, don't listen to the next song, then. Exeter, New Hampshire's own The Queers were just about fed up with all this California bullshit when Grow Up came out in 1990. Joe King reminds us all that, with his muddled thinking after spending some time on the Left Coast (perhaps with the aid of some heroin), that he "must have Coppertone on my brain."
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"So goodbye California, it's really been nice. Goodbye California, goodbye California, wake up or die." For what it's worth, this remains my favorite Queers song of all time. Come to think of it and looking around this list (and some very famous songs left off), songs about that megastate on the left part of the map have several standouts.
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So, Joe and the boys didn't care for California. Fuck it, Nantasket Beach is just as beautiful as Malibu in a way, if by "in a way" you mean you love watching syringes that washed down the Mystic River from a Chelsea methodone clinic wash ashore. That's a long trip, guy.
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Yeah, so the syringes aren't sounding so hot, and the North Atlantic is like 40 degrees in July. Maybe, despite "Goodbye California," I can make my peace with California. Wait? What? The Showcase Showdown didn't like it either? But isn't "213" simply vaguely anti-West Coast and never explicitly mentions the state of CA? What's that? You just wanted to find an excuse to play Boston's finest 90s punk band? Fine.
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I'm off California. It certainly doesn't make me feel in a dreamlike state where anything is possible, including but not limited to prog rock. But then I hear "California Dreamer" by Wolf Parade, off At Mount Zoomer, and at such a convenient time. This is may be my favorite track off the new album, but it is, in fact, VERY prog, and not for everybody. You need to be patient with it, listen to it a few times, and maybe you'll dream of California your own damn self.
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Up 5th (yes, this is a longer list), a truly lovely Frank Black solo track called "California Bound," from which this post gets one of its several titles. What many people don't know about ol' Black Francis Frank Black Charles Thompson IV is that he was raised by a very religious stepfather in southern California. That certainly influenced his songwriting, including this song. What many people do know is virtually every Pixies song includes references to either violence, sex, or weird biblical imagery, often all three. This song seems to be the story of born agains on a conversion campaign through California. No violent apocalypse. Well, except maybe at the end when he says "God willing I won't put you in the ground."
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Up 6th, one of the greatest and sadly forgotten punky poppy new wave tracks. Forgotten, that is, by most people who were not 20, into New Wave, and living in Los Angeles in the early 80s. "The Earthquake Song," by The Little Girls. I love this song. Whenever I start to forget why, as a child, I ever started to listen to music in the first place, it's songs like this that remind me why I do. Dumb, fun, and even makes a boring wallflower like myself want to move, at least a little. It includes some of the most ridiculous lyrics ever, including:
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There's gonna be an earthquake in this town
there will be houses falling down
the fire hydrants will blow up
the streets will crack, the pipes will pop
it's gonna kill my mom and dad
they are the only folks I have
but they better not blame me, cuz it's not my fault!
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Despite my irrational New English fear of constant, deadly earthquakes, makes me want to move out there so maybe I too, can "hope I don't wipe out in East LA."
So how about "California Uber Alles" by The Dead Kennedys instead? Do you know what this song is? It is the most dated track of all time, and it's meaning doesn't age well or make much sense. Sure, "Johnny Are You Queer?" by Josie Cotton hasn't aged well either for different reasons, but this one is laughable to anyone who knows anything about anything. Picture this: you're Jello Biafra. It's the very late 70s. You've grown quite tired of the vaguely hippie, but still corporate-affirming and status quo of the Jerry Browns of the world, and the ineffectual feel good of Jimmy Carter. The hippies are going to take over, and make everyone a soupy brained conformist, right? That's coming round the bend? No, dear, dear, stupid DKs. Ronald Fucking Reagan was coming around the bend, and now we're all in hell.
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Still a pretty raging classic, though.
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Lastly, "Sink with Kalifornija" by Youth Brigade, released in 1984. It may be the greatest Youth Brigade song ever. In my estimation, that's not really saying anything. Good song, though.
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Enjoy. Tracks 39-46 on that there player to the upper right. Scroll to the bottom, or listen to some past additions if you like. Yes, that was 8 songs.
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Honorable mentions: "California Girls" by the Beach Boys, everything else ever by the Beach Boys, another "California Girls" by Magnetic Fields, "California Dreamin'" by the Mommas and the Poppas (beyond beautiful...especially how smoking Michelle Phillips was in those days...and she co-wrote it!), "San Bernardino" by the Mountain Goats, "California Sun" by The Rivieras and the Ramones cover version, and let's just pretend that Tupac & Dre song too, even though I don't like that one.
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