The song lyrics were written by the band Van Halen, as they were asked to write a song for the 1979 movie "Over the Edge" starring Matt Dillon. The movie (and the lyrics, although more obliquely) are about bored, rebellious youth with nothing better to do than get into trouble. If you see the movie, these lyrics will make more sense. It's a great movie if you grew up in the 70s/80s you'll definitely remember some of these characters from your own life. Fun fact, after writing the song, Van Halen decided not to let the movie use it.
I'm in Los Angeles today
It smells like an airport runway
Jet fuel stench is in the cabin
And lights flickering at random
I'm in Los Angeles today
Garbage cans comprise the medians
Of freeways always creeping
Even when the population's sleeping
And I can't see why you'd want to live here
I'm in Los Angeles today
Asked a gas station employee
If he ever had trouble breathing
And he said "It varies from season to season, kid"
It's where our best are on display
Motion picture actors' houses maps
Are never ever current
So save your film and fifteen dollars
And I can't see why you'd want to live here
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings
We are not perfect, but we sure try
As UV rays degradate our youth with time
The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place
In the belly of the beast that is Californ-I-A
I drank from a faucet, and I kept my receipt
For when they weigh me on my way out, here nothing is free
But the Greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the streets
'Til the gutters overflow and Los Angeles thinks
I might explode
Someday soon
And it's a lovely summer's day
I can almost see a skyline
Through a thickening shroud of egos
Is this the city of angels or demons?
And here the names are what remain
Stars encapsulate the golden lane
And they need constant cleaning
For when the tourists begin salivating
And I can't see why you'd want to live here
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings
You can't swim in a town this shallow
As you will most assuredly drown tomorrow
It smells like an airport runway
Jet fuel stench is in the cabin
And lights flickering at random
I'm in Los Angeles today
Garbage cans comprise the medians
Of freeways always creeping
Even when the population's sleeping
And I can't see why you'd want to live here
I'm in Los Angeles today
Asked a gas station employee
If he ever had trouble breathing
And he said "It varies from season to season, kid"
It's where our best are on display
Motion picture actors' houses maps
Are never ever current
So save your film and fifteen dollars
And I can't see why you'd want to live here
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings
We are not perfect, but we sure try
As UV rays degradate our youth with time
The vessel keeps pumping us through this entropic place
In the belly of the beast that is Californ-I-A
I drank from a faucet, and I kept my receipt
For when they weigh me on my way out, here nothing is free
But the Greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the streets
'Til the gutters overflow and Los Angeles thinks
I might explode
Someday soon
And it's a lovely summer's day
I can almost see a skyline
Through a thickening shroud of egos
Is this the city of angels or demons?
And here the names are what remain
Stars encapsulate the golden lane
And they need constant cleaning
For when the tourists begin salivating
And I can't see why you'd want to live here
Billboards reach past the tallest buildings
You can't swim in a town this shallow
As you will most assuredly drown tomorrow
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I love this song I was listening to it today. This my opinion of this song. Okay here it goes, I think this song is about how he has a friend who is planning on living there and how he knows they will not make it.
"you can't swim in a town this shallow - you will most assuredly drown tomorrow."
I think he's criticizing the values of LA more than just the city itself...
"AN anti-L.A. song? Well, I've never seen it that way." Ben Gibbard, the Seattle-based singer for Death Cab for Cutie, insists he isn't a Los Angeles basher. "This song is a conversation. It's a lover trying to convince his loved one not to move to L.A. He's saying anything he can think of. It could be anywhere she's going, it just happens to be L.A."
latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/la-ca-socal8apr08,1,3686417.story
Only Death Cab can actually be cheered while singing this song in LA.
Yeah, I'd say that the song is more about him trying to stop someone from moving to Los Angeles (or trying to get him or her to move back) rather than trying to stop anyone from moving there. It's got some fairly accurate moments, though-- I don't have anything against L.A., though I'm not a frequent visitor, but seriously, you cannot breathe there and people are a little bit too fond of their cars.
It's a love song about L.A. in that he loves her and wants her to move away from the city. It seems fairly straightforward to me...
And proefound: The thing with a city is that it really is the people it attracts... I mean, isn't it? Very little of New York City's population was actually born there, but the sort of people who are attracted to the city are the ones that create its character. The locusts from the Greyhound are among the ones who shape the city's identity, and peoples' perception of this identity is typically a reflection on those locusty types that occasionally achieve notoriety or even fame rather than on natives.
Oh! "i hate california, EXCEPT sanfran. because its the least "california esque"
god i love this song totally criticizes california's morals, image, style its great it needs to be said, the place is a shit hole." You know what? You're right. The county whose trash bins were downsized because they're recycling so much-- what a shithole. And the town near Sacramento (not even San Francisco!) that holds the largest environmental film festival in the world is so shallow. No morals whatsoever. All the Californians happy about the legalization of gay marriage-- they're doing nothing for the image of their state! It's all so wrong.
I can't speak for southern California, but San Francisco might possibly be the most NorCal-esque city in California (except possibly Santa Cruz. I'm probably obligated to mention Sacramento since it's the capital and all that jazz, but most of us don't consider it to really be a city). I mean, you might still hate California, but if you love San Francisco so much yet manage to so thoroughly loathe the rest, you're either a filthy hypocrite, going mindlessly along with whatever your counterculture media sources tell you too, or just sadly ignorant.
alright, everyone thinks this song is about how much he hates LA, but its not. it basically about a friend, maybe girlfriend of his moving out to LA, and him trying to come up with excuses and reasons for her to not go.
exactly perfect delirium.
exactly perfect delirium.
regardless of if it's about him hating LA or not, he found enough reasons to make it seem as though he detests LA, and it's pretty darn convincing.
either way it's a great song
haha, believe it or not this song made me change my mind about living there.