Bicoastal

I have never lived in the west coast of the United States. I have called New York, Washington, DC, and Boston (Cambridge) home in the last few years and the east coast lifestyle and sensibility, however one might choose to define them, seem to suit me very well. However, I find that songs about California seem to have found space in my list of favorite songs. Two of them are Joni Mitchell and Rufus Wainwright songs. Joni Mitchell’s ‘California’  is probably in my top five. A track from Mitchell’s superb album Blue, she accompanies herself on an Appalachian dulcimer while plainly singing about wanting to go home to California, a haven from the life she has been living. I love the simplicity of it–the lyrics, the sparse arrangement, and the purity of Mitchell’s voice.

Oh it gets so lonely
When you’re walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues

Then there is Rufus Wainwright’s more lively song about California. Most of the lyrics do not make sense to me, and the song seems to be more cynical, even sarcastic–”Life is the longest death in California“–rather than sentimental. I like the playfulness of it anyway. (Besides, how many songs mentions Bea Arthur by name?)

And if anyone’s missing the now defunct series ‘The O.C.,’ we also have the Phantom Planet’s song, which served as the show’s theme. Very pop but still enjoyable.

But what really inspired this post was Jill Sobule’s new song, ‘San Francisco,’ from her album California Years.

“I like to go to San Francisco
I like to go
Put flowers in my hair
I like to go to San Francisco
I like to meet
Some people there”

And in Golden Gate Park
She’ll throw a Frisbee
She’ll bring a dog
And she’ll meet a boy
And they’ll fall in love
And she’ll feel so free.

Listening to all these songs, especially Sobule’s, makes me wistful for a place I have never lived in…

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