Saturday Morning Soundtrack "California Dreamin'" by The Mamas and the Papas (1965)

1965 might have been the best year in the history of rock music, and this week in The Soundtrack, has been the hardest yet. Just take a look at the Top 10 list from the year. It's a "who's who" of rock and roll royalty.

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I could see myself featuring any of those songs! Not to mention all the other great songs that came out that year, like Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic" and Bobby Fuller Four's "I Fought the Law," Dave Clark Five's "Catch Us If You Can"  and The Byrds's "Turn, Turn, Turn."  What a great time for music! I could list songs all day long and never tire out.

So I did what any wise person would do in my position: I cheated.

We live in a world full of Top 10 lists, so I figured, why not write about the eleventh ranked song on the year's end Top 40 list? And I'm glad I did. "California Dreamin'" isn't a forgotten tune by any stretch of the imagination--no buried treasure or hidden gem, this one--but that's alright; it's a song I've always loved.

Saturday Morning Soundtrack @ Youtube

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"California Dreamin'" -- The Mamas and the Papas (1965)

Maybe it's just that we're in the midst of a winter storm here, but "California Dreamin'" just felt like the perfect selection this week. I've always thought that the Mamas and the Papas got a raw deal on account of Cass Elliot's death. The band had been broken up by then--their flower-child folk rock unable to keep up with what founder John Phillips called the "new technological and compositional complexity that would leave many of us behind"--but the urban legend that Mama Cass died choking on a ham sandwich is all anyone remembers when this group comes up. (Note: she actually died in her sleep of a heart attack, probably the result of extreme weight loss tactics that damaged her heart).

There's a beautiful longing to this song that's reflected in the spare instrumentation (that lone guitar that opens the track and the back and forth vocal harmonies) and the simple lyrics:

All the leaves are brown
And the sky is gray
I've been for a walk
On a winter's day

In the most literal sense, our narrator(s) is living in New York and pining for California where it's not so snowy and icy. But it's more than just a song about geography and homesickness. It's about desiring safety, warmth, and place far away from "the cold," which taken metaphorically could mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. In fact, it's one of the reasons this song spoke so strongly to the 1960s counterculture. With the Civil Rights Movement continuing to gain steam, Vietnam War protests heating up, and hippies rallying around a cry for "peace, love, and harmony," a lot of young Americans found themselves "California dreamin' on such a winter's day."

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So what do you think? Did I get it right or miss the mark? Please, feel free to weigh in using the comments below. And, if you would like to write a Guest Entry for the "Saturday Morning Soundtrack" series where you creatively respond to one of your favorite rock songs, don't hesitate to contact me with queries.