Album: Blue (1971)

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• Sitting in a park in Paris, France
  Reading the news and it sure looks bad
  They won't give peace a chance
  That was just a dream some of us had
  Still a lot of lands to see
  But I wouldn't wanna stay here
  It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here
  
  Oh, but California
  California, I'm coming home
  I'm going to see the folks I dig
  I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
  California, I'm coming home
  
  I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
  Who did the goat dance very well
  He gave me back my smile
  But he kept my camera to sell
  Oh the rogue, the red, red rogue
  He cooked good omelets and stews
  And I might have stayed on with him there
  But my heart cried out for you, California
  
  Oh, California, I'm coming home
  Oh, make me feel good, rock 'n' roll band
  I'm your biggest fan
  California, I'm coming home
  
  Oh, it gets so lonely
  When you're walking
  And the streets are full of strangers
  All the news of home you read
  Just give you the blues
  Just give you the blues
  
  So I bought me a ticket
  I caught a plane to Spain
  Went to a party down a red dirt road
  There were lots of pretty people there
  Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue
  They said, "How long can you hang around?"
  I said, "A week, maybe two
  Just until my skin turns brown
  Then I'm going home to California"
  
  California, I'm coming home
  Oh, will you take me as I am
  Strung out on another man
  California, I'm coming home
  
  Oh, it gets so lonely
  When you're walking
  And the streets are full of strangers
  All the news of home you read
  More about the war
  And the bloody changes
  Oh, will you take me as I am?
  Will you take me as I am?
  Will you?
  Will you take me as I am?
  Take me as I am Writer/s: Joni Mitchell
  Publisher: Reservoir Media Management, Inc.
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 4

• Mark from TallahasseeI'm with Tanya here. While both albums came out in '71, Mitchell wrote "California" a year earlier (around May/June '70) on her recently-acquired dulcimer (bought Sept. '69), right after leaving Greece for France, and first played it live in July '70. She then played "California" in the UK several times that Fall - live at Isle of Wight in August, recorded for a BBC "tele" program in Sept. (broadcast in October), then recorded in a radio show in October (broadcast in Dec.), then finally live again at the Royal Festival Hall in November. Zep had finished all of its '70 tours by September, and so could/would have seen her on the tv show in October, seen her live in November, and/or heard the radio show in December. If they were big fans as they claimed to be, they would have caught at least one of those performances, which dovetailed all to perfectly into their songwriting seclusion in Jan/Feb '71.
• Ekristheh from Halath"I'll even kiss the Sunset Pig" -- The Sunset Pig may have been a nickname for an extremely unpleasant traffic officer who used to pull you over for the slightest irregularities and say nasty things, especially to women, occasionally getting violent. Officer Paul Kramer had such a reputation and may have been the Pig Joni meant. In '89, Zsa Zsa Gabor slapped him after he used foul language while issuing her a ticket for an open liquor container. Cher reports having a run-in with Kramer around the same time.
  
  There is also a book called "Kiss the Sunset Pig", by Canadian author Laurie Gough, about a road trip she took from Ontario to California.
• Willie from ScottsdaleIt's a close call. Zep was already recording at Headley Grange in 1970, and both Blue and Zoso came out the same year. But both Jimmy and Robert were unabashed fans of Joni. Later in the 1970s (apocryphally) Jimmy was offered the chance to meet Joni, and was too shy to go through. :-)
• Tanya from La Verne, CaI have a sneaky suspicion that this was THE Joni song that inspired Led Zeppelin's "Going to California". It just makes perfect sense.

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