What's Your Favorite California Song?

Speaker 1: 00:00 The New York Times has been asking readers that question for a couple of months now. And the list they've come up with is filled with much more than the usual suspects. Of course, the beach boys and the eagles are there, but so our led Zepplin Nico case, Johnny Cash, the California Soundtrack, they've compiled cover songs about California set in California or just feel like California, including artists ranging from Tony Bennett to Kendrick Lamar. Johnny me is John Parrella's, chief popular music critic at the New York Times. And John, welcome to the program. Speaker 2: 00:34 Great to be here. Speaker 1: 00:35 So where did the idea to put together a California soundtrack come from? Speaker 2: 00:39 Well, I gotta hand it to our California bureau. Um, the times has been aggressively covering California and they realized how much culture is part of California. And it was their idea. Um, I enthusiastically jumped in, but I handled all to our California desk. Speaker 1: 01:00 Let's go through with some of the title tracks on this playlist. Some of them are California classics, like the Beach Boys, good vibrations. Speaker 3: 01:09 Oh, hello. The cooler food and the way this m y plays Speaker 1: 01:23 California isn't mentioned in this song. What is it about this song besides that is by the beach boys that gives it a California vibe? Speaker 2: 01:33 Well, this is actually my ultimate California Song, um, which tells you what generation I'm in, but also it's like Oakland, California song for a lot of reasons. It's about the geography of California. It feels like California Speaker 3: 01:59 [inaudible]. Speaker 2: 02:01 It's about the incredible virtuosity that people put into California songs. Brian Wilson had the best studio guys at his disposal and he pushed him to the limit. It has that slightly psychedelic fantasy feeling and I always feel like California is America's fantasy factor. And so all of these things fit together in that song. Plus it's a beautiful song and I love the key change near the end. Speaker 1: 02:28 There's also some obvious choices here, like California dreaming and Tupac, California love. One of the songs I like best on the list is California soul by Marlina Shaw. Speaker 3: 02:45 [inaudible] like a sound, you hear that thing goes in, you eat a bunch of cans from sundown. It's all all in the Speaker 2: 03:00 Hay. He read everywhere, no matter what you do, it's [inaudible]. Speaker 1: 03:04 That seems like one of the songs that would get someone thinking about actually moving to California. Are there more like that on the list? Speaker 2: 03:11 I mean, California dream in which is a homesick song. So if you listen to the words, it's about being stuck in the rain somewhere. And you know, Lonnie for California, Joni Mitchell's California is not set in California. She's all over the world wishing she could get home California and in California is a great magnet for a, it was a magnet for westward emigration and it's a magnet for immigration obviously. I mean it is the earthly paradise if he could get away from the earthquakes, but the, you know, what California is this, the worry of it's cities is the story of it's farm workers is the story of um, it's hippies is the story of, it's just everybody who's there. Um, and to me, I'm a New Yorker. I'm on the wrong coast. Okay. I really should not pronouncing on this except that. Um, when you have distance from a place, sometimes you can see it. Um, in perspective, Speaker 1: 04:07 I mentioned the unlikely artists you have on the California soundtrack. What's led Zepplin doing on the list? Speaker 2: 04:13 Led Zeppelin going to California, that's their fantasy of California. And you know, their English, you, you know, they live in the rain. Um, they, they talk funny. So I mean California is, is, is even more of a fantasy to them than it is to me as an American. Speaker 1: 04:28 San Diego also gets a shout out. Here's San Diego serenade by Tom Waits. Speaker 4: 04:42 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 04:42 never saw them. [inaudible] Speaker 4: 04:51 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 04:51 we never saw the sun. [inaudible] Speaker 4: 05:00 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 05:01 never saw my mom's [inaudible] Speaker 4: 05:08 Nah, Speaker 1: 05:10 never earned the medal again. San Diego serenade by Tom Waits and it's on the New York Times California soundtrack. Now I'm thinking that it might be hard to make a soundtrack list for Vermont or Idaho, but what other states do you think might qualify to have their own playlist? Speaker 2: 05:29 Oh, a Texas. Yeah, I was thinking about that too. Yeah. Um, and in Tennessee, um, and Detroit and Chicago and New York City, people are proud of where they live and, and rightfully so. I mean, music arises out of the geography and out of the culture and out of the way people get together. Music is a social thing. Um, music and food are, are United in a way that, you know, Speaker 3: 05:58 did local food, the local music, the local wine all fit together. So maybe more cities than rural areas. But I bet there is some small town somewhere that just has a smoking local scene and people are writing about main street down somewhere. I'd love to find it out. Speaker 4: 06:19 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 06:19 never saw my mom's [inaudible] Speaker 4: 06:27 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 06:28 I never heard the Mellow d [inaudible] Speaker 4: 06:37 [inaudible] Speaker 1: 06:37 I've been speaking with John Parrella's, chief popular music critic at the New York Times, who's going to be in San Diego at the San Diego Central Library Friday evening. Talk more about the California soundtrack. John, thanks so much. Thank you. Speaker 4: 06:54 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 06:55 never. I knew I needed you until last minute. Speaker 4: 07:04 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 07:05 never [inaudible] Speaker 4: 07:13 [inaudible] Speaker 3: 07:13 never fed my heartstrings. [inaudible] Speaker 4: 07:23 [inaudible].