YOU ARE HERE: zharth.net / Zharth's Music Log / Week 158 (California Paradise)
(Originally finalized on September 23, 2025)
Preface: This week, I'd like to tie up a loose end I left dangling over a quarter ago, when I did my theme dedicated to songs that mention the names of locations in their titles. As I alluded to back then, here's a list of songs dedicated to The Golden State, or some of its more notorious cities - a subject near and dear to the hearts of many in the entertainment industry.
Monday: The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin' [If You Can Believe Your Eyes And Ears, 1966]
Comments: One year after The Mamas & The Papas' debut, creative leader John Phillips would play a pivotal role in organizing the Monterey International Pop Festival, kicking off the Summer of Love. To promote it, he wrote the song in which Scott McKenzie sings, "if you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair."
Tuesday: Eric Burdon & The Animals - San Franciscan Nights [Winds of Change, 1967]
Comments: Also enamored of Monterey (which he, too, wrote a song about, after attending and sharing the stage with such high profile acts as The Who and Jimi Hendrix) was Eric Burdon, formerly of the British Invasion, and relocated to California (with a new iteration of The Animals) to soak in the hippie counterculture of 1960s America.
Wednesday: Led Zeppelin - Going To California [Untitled, 1971]
Comments: Eric Burdon wasn't the only British musician fascinated by the Haight-Ashbury scene - in live jams, Robert Plant could be heard to sing the lyrics from Scott McKenzie's San Francisco. This song from Led Zeppelin's fourth album - one of their prettiest acoustic numbers - is an ode to hippie songstress Joni Mitchell. The first time I flew "on a big jet plane" (going to visit a girl in San Francisco, no less), I played this song on repeat on my Sony Discman.
Thursday: The Runaways - California Paradise [Queens of Noise, 1977]
Comments: I'm not ashamed to admit that I got into The Runaways (formed by nefarious impresario Kim Fowley in the vicinity of Hollywood itself) from watching the biopic starring Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart (recommended, by the way) as Cherie Currie and Joan Jett, respectively. When this song from the band's second album was performed in the movie, I had to search it out and learn to play it - because it has a such hard, swinging riff.
Friday: Neil Young - L.A. [Time Fades Away, 1973]
Comments: Born in Ontario, Neil Young migrated to Los Angeles in 1966 to embark on what has proved to be a long and successful music career. This song from the dark horse album Time Fades Away (I owned it on vinyl before it was finally released on CD, as recently as 2020) emphasizes LA's dual nature. Despite smog, traffic, and the ever-present threat of geological collapse, the lure of fame and fortune calls out to people like a Siren's song.
Saturday: Rainbow - L.A. Connection [Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, 1978]
Comments: Having started out in New York, I can't pinpoint Ronnie James Dio's connection to Los Angeles - other than a chance meeting with Tony Iommi in a West Hollywood club named none other than The Rainbow (where Kim Fowley also recruited for The Runaways), which precipitated Dio's switch from Blackmore's Rainbow to Black Sabbath. Upon consideration, I can't rule out the possibility that Dio's earlier song with the band Elf, titled L.A. 59, refers to a highway in Louisiana, and not the California city...
Sunday: The Stooges - L.A. Blues [Fun House, 1970]
Comments: I don't know Iggy Pop's connection to Los Angeles, either - The Stooges formed out of Ann Arbor, Michigan. Although he does cite a performance by L.A. band The Doors as an impetus for the group's debut. Regardless, this closing track from their second album (which channels the utter chaos only hinted at in The Doors' Horse Latitudes) ably demonstrates The Stooges' unique blend of the avant-garde with proto-punk and blues rock sensibilities.
Honorable Mentions: Late as this theme is in the timeline of my music log, there were a few really good California-themed songs that I had to pass over, since they've already been picked for previous themes. Two of those are obvious choices - The Eagles' Hotel California, and The Doors' L.A. Woman (both of which are title tracks). The third is as good as it is obscure - California State Correctional Facility Blues by the Quicksilver Messenger Service, part of All These Blues. But if I had to pick an honorable mention, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least give a nod to California Girls by The Beach Boys (a family band!), also covered by David Lee Roth in 1985 on his EP Crazy From The Heat.