New Monday #48
Happy Monday -
NAMM is about 10 days away. Dan and I are really excited about it - our first booth!
#16124, located in North Level One of the Anaheim Convention Center. Please stop by!
As most of you know, California is being ravaged by wildfires.
The fire is ravaging homes and communities, which is awful, but California, and the area that’s on fire, is a center of culture. Countless artists have lost their homes and studios. Architectural landmarks and historic businesses are gone. Fire surrounds the Getty Villa museum. We have friends who’ve lost their home studios. Mixer Bob Clearmountain’s home and studio are no longer.
At this point NAMM is full steam ahead—Anaheim is hours from where the fires are, and hopefully, things don’t get any worse.
So, I’m thinking about California a bit this week. California... California...
California...
Here’s a song to listen to... Tchad Blake’s Mix
The production team of Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake knocked it out of the park on this one. As a single it did ok, but it really got a kick when it became the opening theme to the TV show The OC. Tchad Blake mixed the album cut as well as the TV version.
'California' was also remixed by Jack Joseph Puig, I’m guessing for the single. It’s pretty different. Have a listen here.
It’s always cool and interesting to listen to the same tracks mixed by two different masters of the art form.
Here are the songwriter credits... this gets interesting: Alex Greenwald, Jason Schwartzman, Joseph Meyer, B.G. De Sylva.
California Here I Come
Jason Schwatzman the actor actually quit the band as his acting career took off. Alex Greenwald is the singer on the recording. Who the heck are Joseph Meyer and B.G. De Sylva?
They were songwriters at the turn of the century - not this century, the other one, like around 1922. Meyer wrote musicals, De Sylva was his decade’s version of Quincy Jones and then some, writing songs, producing movies, co-founding Capitol Records in 1944. The two men grew up in California and wrote a hit together for the singer Al Jolson. The song? California Here I Come! And evidently, they’ve got copyright on that title and phrase, and that’s how they wound up with a songwriting credit after both of them were dead.
California Here I Come was a HUGE Hit. There was an attempt to make it the state song, but alas, it didn’t work. California’s state song is this.
I know 'California Here I Come' from Bugs Bunny. This is the version in my head.
The Loony Tunes people went berserk with the song, using it in a ton of cartoons. Someone in internetland made a compilation of all the times it was used. Oh my god! What an amazing thing! I grew up with Bugs and Daffy and Elmer and the whole Loony Tunes crew.
Loony Tunes is the basis of my personality. Loony Tunes and SCTV.
Blue California
There are plenty of happy California songs. I think I prefer the depressing ones.
Joni Mitchell wrote a beautiful California, released in 1971 on her album Blue. Self-produced, with Joni handling all the songwriting and the lion's share of playing, Blue is on every list of top 100 albums of all times, 10 albums you must hear before you die, etc. Deservedly so. It’s so personal and deeply felt it’s almost painful to listen to, like a stranger coming up to you at a party and telling you about this awful breakup they just had, how terrible their life is, how love only leads to utter despair and on and on. You’ve just met this person. And now you’re wet with their tears.
Blue was a huge success, breaking into the top 20 in the US and England, and getting to #9 in Canada. There was a time when a deeply weird and complex break-up album like Blue could have a huge commercial impact.
Delta Spirit
Speaking of sad, break-up songs called California, there’s a gorgeous knife in the heart of a tune by San Diego’s Delta Spirit. I don’t usually think watching a video enhances a musical experience, but in this case, the music and the video foil each other, each telling their own story, the video more suggesting what characters in the song might be doing outside of the timeline of the song. And in the end... is the girl changed, or is she biding her time?
Watch California by Delta Spirit here. Heartbreakingly good.
That’s all for this week. I have to get back to NAMM prep. We’ll be sharing things with you all on our Facebook Page and Instagram.
Speaking of sharing, if you want to donate to help the victims of the fire, this is a good organization to donate to.
Stay safe, all of you.
Warm regards,
Luke