Steve Reynolds Program - Going To California
FW: fw: Read This! IMPORTANT!
If you know me, you know my preoccupation with forwarded emails and the underdiscussed influence they have on the national discourse. I really do believe these emails that fill the inboxes of the people who help forward them on contribute to the preponderance of misinformation and fundamentalist anger. I keep hoping that someone smarter and more disciplined than me will write a doctoral thesis/mass market book about the phenomenon that will help illuminate its negative effects on culture and politics. It hasn’t happened yet.
I write this now because my state’s senate has just passed a horrible violation of human rights in the guise of a bill “protecting children.” Of course, it’s vaguely written and can/will be used to punish the already marginalized. And I feel these self-deluded and self-righteous senators, led by the nose by ALEC and dark money groups, have had a lifetime of shallow philosophy shaped by the content of these emails from their friends and family, which make them more influential than the outsiders from the worlds of science and academia.
Dark times. Let me escape for a minute with a song I love.
Song #26
Going To California
by Led Zeppelin
I recently read a profile of/interview with Led Zeppelin from 1974 or so that Creem magazine or another publication like them did. This was at a time millions thought they were the greatest band on earth and they lived like it. They did stadium tours, put out a self-indulgent movie and outdid everybody in excess and style. So what did they want to talk about to Creem? How rock critics hated them.
As a comedian, I can kind of relate. If I think back on this one show in New Mexico that went really well, I still just remember this one audience member three rows back, to the far left, who was scowling at me. SCOWLING. What up with that? Did my impression of a heartbroken drill sergeant hit too close to home? What did they see that made them so mad? Better, actual comedians have commented on this phenomenon. Is it just a natural thing to do this?
So I get Led Zeppelin’s beef here. Who were these weirdos not on board? Was it because, like David Lee Roth famously said, “music journalists like Elvis Costello because music journalists look like Elvis Costello”?
I’m asserting it was Zep Fatigue. I had it when I was a kid when my friend played nothing but Zeppelin all the time. And though powerful and unique, Robert Plant’s voice isn’t anything I want to hear 24/7. The critic had to have had tired of the hype. Plus, the music journalist’s life depends on a variety of bands and artists to celebrate. You can’t cover one band every month, for crunge’s sake.
It took decades for me to seriously listen to the band. When I did, what hit me was how much each member contributed to the sound. That’s odd for me to mention on this choice since John Bonham doesn’t drum on it (though he’ll get his propers in the other Led Zep choice on the list), but this song is elevated by each of the three members on the track.
“Going To California” is famously about Joni Mitchell, earthquakes and that California vibe all from the perspective of a twenty-two year old Robert Plant. I’m not going to discuss the earnest lyrics which do not exactly make sense (who was arguing with Plant about the sameness of jet planes?), but they do convey effectively the idea of leaving for a better place than where one hopes to partake of its magic. That’s why Tom Joad left Oklahoma, though it was extreme poverty, not a girlfriend who raided his weed drawer and drank his wine, that prompted it.
It’s the perfect blend of melody, Page’s fingerstyle guitar with its double drop D tuning (that buzz on the low string is gorgeously warm), and John Paul Jones’s mandolin chiming in on its intro and augmenting the sound of Laurel Canyon and Wales married together that keeps the song beautifully evergreen. It provokes an emotion that makes you wonder how anyone can resist its charms, even the seven rock critics occupying Led Zeppelin’s minds.
Feetnote
This issue’s Song I’m Mad I Forgot To Put On The List is The World Is Spinning At 45 RPM by Pizzicato Five. In the 90’s we listened to crummy recordings of white guys not trying too hard and also this Japanese pop duo playing runway walkin’ tunes. It’s what we did. They are due a documentary for sure.