Hello everyone & Happy Friday! We have a special treat for you today. Here at LTRV we are obsessed with many things, but one of the things we love the most is the great state of California.
Why California, you ask? Well, here are a few reasons:
- It’s sunny and warm, like, all the time
- The Terminator was its Governor
- There are palm trees and beaches as far as the eye can see
- You never have to put on your snow tires
- William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper tycoon, built a castle in the countryside where he housed over 100 wiener dogs! Yes! The man was obviously more than a little eccentric, but he was a kajillionnaire so he could do whatever the F he wanted. We love wiener dogs, and it makes us happy to picture them frolicking around the hillsides at Hearst Castle
- It never rains in Southern California
- Beverley Hills, 90210 — only the best TV show of all time — was set there
I swear, if there was any way that I could get American citizenship I would be outta here so fast it would make your head spin. Except for the whole healthcare thing in the States, I guess…that would kind of suck. And the fact that California is kind of in a teensy bit of debt & all. But nothing’s perfect, right? I’d still move there in a heartbeat.
Sittin' on the...cement block..of the Bay
The Finn and I actually spent our honeymoon in Cali. We rented a car (a convertible, obvs) and drove down the Pacific Coast highway from San Francisco to L.A. You guys, if you ever get a chance to take that trip, do it. The landscape along that stretch of coast is just so breathtakingly beautiful, and there about a million amazing things to see. Our friends John and Claire basically planned our entire honeymoon for us on the back of a napkin during our first drunken night in San Fran, and we have to give them mad props because it was the perfect itinerary. We have so many amazing memories from that trip, from hanging out with the fishes in Monterey to dining at Clint Eastwood’s bar in Carmel, to chilling at the vineyards in Paso Robles. L.A. was a crazy trip in and of itself — we were staying right on the Sunset Strip and we partied at the Rainbow Bar & Grill (Zeppelin’s fav establishment), the House of Blues, the Viper Room, the strip club where Motley Crue filmed the ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’ video…ah, you guys, I’m tearing up just thinking about it all.
Zeppelin & assorted groupies party at the Rainbow
Anywho, to celebrate how much we love the place, we have put together a two-part playlist for you. You wouldn’t believe how many musicians out there are also fascinated with California — in fact there have been so many songs written about it over the years that we had more than enough to choose from for this mix.
So, as the temperature out there plummets, please enjoy our collection of songs about the golden land of sun, sand and surf. Part 1 is below. Stay tuned for Part 2!
In case you want to recreate our brilliant playlist for yourselves, here’s the track listing:
- California Sun – The Ramones
- California – Phantom Planet
- Lullaby – Shawn Mullins
- A Long December – Counting Crows
- California – Wave
- California Girls – David Lee Roth
- California – Lenny Kravitz
- Losing California – Sloan
- Hollywood – Madonna
- Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers
- California – Mylene Farmer
- California’s Dark – The Nightwatchman
- California Girls – The Magnetic Fields
- California Stars – Billy Bragg & Wilco
- In California – Neko Case
- Goodnight, California – Kathleen Edwards
Let Them Eat Vinyl 
November 11th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
I love this post, but I am so saddened to see that the Dead Kennedy’s were good enough to inspire the title of this blog, but not good enough to have either version of their song ‘California Uber Alles’ included in your list. And where may I ask is Chilliwack’s ‘California Girl’? Do you have an issue with Can Con? And what about Albert Hammond? He of the ‘It Never Rains in California’ fame? For shame, Spencer. For shame!
November 11th, 2011 at 4:08 pm
I figured it would be gauche to put the song the playlist was named after on the actual playlist? But rules are meant to be broken, and I love that song. Lenny Kravitz was on my orig lineup but his song’s not available in Grooveshark so I couldn’t include it on the playlist, so I think I’ll take him out entirely & replace him with Dead Kennedys. F YOU, KRAVITZ.
As for ‘It Never Rains in Southern California’…wait for it! There’s a Part 2! 🙂
November 11th, 2011 at 3:58 pm
P.S. how on Earth did you imbed that awesome jukebox in the blog? F’ing wicked. Those classes are paying off.
November 11th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
It’s Grooveshark! It’s super easy. I’ll show ya sometime if you want. You can create playlists & share them w/ people, it’s not just for blogs.
November 11th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
Merci mille fois.. California Über Alles and Paper Airplanes in Hanoi by the lake and Bangkok by the river. A toast to Let Them Read Vinyl and the Cleavers.. Wally, Beaver and Eldridge.
November 11th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
I think you will like Part 2 — it’s a little more ‘mellow’. Right up your alley!
November 13th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
[…] playlist, ‘California Über Alles’. If you missed it, you can listen to it here. And now we move on to Part 2! Honestly y’all, there are so many songs that have been written […]