There are a great deal of songs written about California. Why then, would I pick something so obscure when I could have chosen 'California Girls' or 'California Dreamin'? Well, just because they are some of the most famous California songs, it doesn't immediately qualify them as representatives of their state; not in my list, anyway. These songs don't make me think of California at all. The Beach Boys' song makes me think of the "stop" button while 'California Dreamin' actually draws to my mind brown leaves, grey skies, and winter's days - not the sunny respite that the song points toward. To me, that song is more of a winter classic than a summer anthem.
California, much like Australia, has a certain image that's often shown and idealised around the world - that of endless summers, beaches and bikinis. But, just like Tassie is hardly the epitome of an "endless summer", California also has areas where mountains, wilderness, and, even snow dominate the scenery. It seems there's much more to California than what the stereotype allows for, and it seems to me that all those Beach Boys' songs about "fun fun fun" and "surfin' USA" and "wishing they could all be California girls" are songs written about the stereotype - songs that could be used in a tourism campaign to get people onto an overcrowded beach. Don't get me wrong, I like the beach as much as the next man and I'm not trying pretend there aren't any beaches in California, that would be quite a claim! I'm just trying to work out why I don't like the Beach Boys very much.
The song I chose is from 'Mermaid Avenue' - Wilco and Billy Bragg's album of Woody Guthrie songs. It's really good. So the lyrics to this song are by Woody Guthrie and the music, tune etc is Wilco...
'California Stars' is a song that instantly evokes feeling and a strong vibe. It makes me think of California, because (despite its title) it's not really about California. I'm aware that doesn't make any sense so I'll try to explain: The Beach Boys' song 'California Girls' is about California; it's basically saying that girls from California are the best in the world. Wilco's song is more personal. It's about taking refuge and striving towards rest - "on a bed of California stars". This resonates quite strongly with me, and I dare say many others; it doesn't matter if you're thinking of California or not, it could be anywhere that means something to you. It's the song's vibe that does most of the work in taking me to California; the title just rounds it off. The experience of a place will come laced with feelings about being there, as well as some unrelated thoughts. I think this is how we remember places - if we truly remember them, we don't remember what they're supposed to look like, we remember our emotions about being there.
In the video I linked to, someone has put up some footage of their holiday to Northern California, with 'California Stars' as the soundtrack. It's kind of weird watching a complete stranger's holiday video - you feel a bit like an involuntary stalker. Or you're just bored to death. This video accompanies the song really well though, and when I watched it, I felt my brain was trying to remember a holiday that I never actually went on... weird.
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4 comments:
It's a beautiful song. There's a great story in Dylan's 'autobiography' about how he very nearly ended up getting all those Guthrie lyrics back in the 60s. I think that Billy Bragg and Wilco did a great job with them though.
P.S. The cover of Mermaid Avenue 2 has a great depression-era-esque photo of a tabby cat on it. It's on Kate's list of albums with great cat photos on the cover.
It would have been great to hear 60s Dylan putting those words to music... but I reckon Mermaid Ave turned out well, and could be more interesting/less predictable than if BD had done it.
What else is on Kate's list?
I really like the album cover.
I love that track and that album. However, I think the California song is California by Joni Mitchell of her Blue album.
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