What would you say is California's "signature song"?

[Utopian Slums]

Hotel California

[nslander]

Originally Posted by Wells5

Though written in the 1930s, Woody Guthrie's song "Do Re Me" describes the reality for a lot of folks in the Golden State today.

Lots of folks back East, they say, is leavin' home every day,
Beatin' the hot old dusty way to the California line.
'Cross the desert sands they roll, gettin' out of that old dust bowl,
They think they're goin' to a sugar bowl, but here's what they find
Now, the police at the port of entry say,
"You're number fourteen thousand for today."

Oh, if you ain't got the do re mi, folks, you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.

You want to buy you a home or a farm, that can't deal nobody harm,
Or take your vacation by the mountains or sea.
Don't swap your old cow for a car, you better stay right where you are,
Better take this little tip from me.
'Cause I look through the want ads every day
But the headlines on the papers always say:

If you ain't got the do re mi, boys, you ain't got the do re mi,
Why, you better go back to beautiful Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Georgia, Tennessee.
California is a garden of Eden, a paradise to live in or see;
But believe it or not, you won't find it so hot
If you ain't got the do re mi.

Nice, thanks for that. Also by Woodie: "California Stars". Maybe the best song he never recorded.

[StreetLegal]

Honorable mention: Dead Kennedys "California Uber Alles"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoA_zY6tqQw

[mateo45]

"You had one eye in the mirror as you watched yourself go by…. you're so vain, you probably think this song is about you…don't you, don't you?"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZmCJUSC6g

[bigdumbgod]

Originally Posted by StreetLegal

Honorable mention: Dead Kennedys "California Uber Alles"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoA_zY6tqQw

[Murder after Midnight]

Hotel California by far


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0G1Ucw5HDg

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by eureka1

For me, it's "Ventura Highway".

1000% agree! This song stands head and shoulders above all the others for me. In fact it haunted me after moving to Colorado, beckoning back to the California coast. Other songs are iconic representing eras gone by like the Beach Boys - California Girls, California Dreamin', etc... Or others that are more one dimensional like Californication. But Ventura Highway is timeless like some of the rock/folk songs of that 70s era. It's multidimensional characteristics paint a vivid picture of the sights, smells and sounds of coastal Cal. It places you there evoking those same senses like other kinds of good works of art do (paintings, photographs, poems).

It also helps that I spent a good portion of my youth driving through and surfing that region of coastal Cal.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQCjHC0m54E

Derek