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I'm in Los Angeles today, it smells like an airport runway. jet fuel stenches
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 $15.
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 receipts for
When the weigh me on my way out (here nothing is free).
The greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the street until the gutters
Overflow and Los Angeles thinks, "I might explode someday soon."
It's a lovely summer's day and I can almost see a skyline through a thickening
Shroud of egos. (is this the city of angeles or demons?)
Here the names are what remain: stars encapsulate the gold lame and they need
Constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.
You can't swim in a town this shallow - you will most assuredly drown tomorrow.
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 $15.
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 receipts for
When the weigh me on my way out (here nothing is free).
The greyhounds keep coming dumping locusts into the street until the gutters
Overflow and Los Angeles thinks, "I might explode someday soon."
It's a lovely summer's day and I can almost see a skyline through a thickening
Shroud of egos. (is this the city of angeles or demons?)
Here the names are what remain: stars encapsulate the gold lame and they need
Constant cleaning for when the tourists begin salivating.
You can't swim in a town this shallow - you will most assuredly drown tomorrow.
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Anyway, the reason I created an account was to complain about the last 2 lines-- this really doesn't bother anyone else? So LA is too shallow to swim in, yet you can-- nay, most assuredly WILL-- drown in it? I mean, the words themselves sound clever enough as long as you don't think about the actual meaning at all. Can't believe none of the 50-some prior comments mention this. Or the fact that "degradate" isn't a word-- but that bothers me less because Ben has copped to it in live performances. Not sure why he didn't just use "degrade" in the first place...
All that said, love the song ;)
loving all the comments from Californian's backing up the state.
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.
it sure sounds like it but when chorus hits with the line "And I can't see why you'd want to live here" it just confuses me and i cant see it being a love song bout la
latimes.com/entertainment/news/music/…