The Mamas & the Papas – California Dreamin'

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  General Comment:I think most of us know what the song is talking about, the character in the song longing for sunny California during a harsh winter day. We can picture one of the Mamas and Papas walking down a sidewalk in a desolated park, a church is nearby ( abandoned, except for the preacher inside), leafs blowing in the wind. You feel cold, just hearing the song. This song for me, being a fan of animated films and musicals, has the perfect melody for a villain song. I mean listen to ``YOU KNOW the preacher likes the CO-old...Prea..cher likes the cold.'' John Philips has such an edgy, devil-may-care vibe in that line, it sounds as if he is Snively Whiplash plotting a scheme. Of course, what really makes it feel like a perfect villain song is the final chorus at the end, ``...On such a winters day''. Michelle and Mama Cass really project at the ``Dream-ing'' part, and it really makes the song all the more climactic by the time the song ends. I know it sounds silly, that I think this is a villain song, but the melody really ranks up there with some of the best Disney songs I've heard.

  Flag Disneyfan8on April 27, 2013   Link

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  Song Meaning:Grew up listening to this song from the time I was 16. Liked the song mainly because I grew up in the cold Northeast.
  
  But this song completely changed for me the day I was driving along with my 24 year old daughter and when the song came on the radio she told me how much the song meant to her.
  
  You see, I live in southern California now and my daughter was born and raised here. She had just returned from a year in Afghanistan and she proceeded to tell me how the song spoke to her during her deployment.
  
  It gave the line, "I'd be safe and warm, if I was in LA" a whole new meaning for me.

  Flag thepitmanon February 04, 2013   Link

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  Song Meaning:Having grown up with the Mamas and Papas in the 60's and spending most of my time on the strip I think I have a good idea about the meaning of the song. They lived in the canyon like Morrison and most of he the musicians off the time. It is true that they used grass and acid but contrary to most beliefs not all songs of the time had hidden meanings. The fact that he shows an interest in going to LA is because it is cold but he can not leave now because he has expressed his feelings for this girl, l could leave today for LA if I had not told her of my feelings. I agree with the other commentator that stopping into the church and pretending to pray was to get out of the cold and the fact that the preacher likes the cold is because it brings people into the church. Finally as to the issues of cults Los Angeles has a reputation for cults and there have been some strange religious groups in the past like Amy Mc Pherson or more recently Scientology the only one that was really like a cult was the Manson Group and they were nothing but a group of girls that were influenced by a charismatic nut like Hitler. I spent my teen years riding horses at the Sphane movie ranch while Manson was there and there was no cult there, it was more the DA's pitch to get convictions. We don't call our current mass muderers a cult. By the way Mchenzie Phillips alleged single encounter with here father John only occurred because they were using drugs and had that not been the case John would never considered it. By the way my recollection is he died of Prostate cancer not drugs Mama Cass died in London and it was not drugs, it was a ham sandwich. Michelle Phillips now lives in Topanga .

  Flag DouglaswSnyderon January 03, 2013   Link

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  Song Meaning:>All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
  >I've been for a walk on a winter's day
  >I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A.
  >California dreamin' on such a winter's day
  
  [I was out walking on a gloomy winter day]
  [I realized if I was in sunny LA I’d be warm and comfortable]
  
  >Stopped in to a church I passed along the way
  >Well I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray
  >You know the preacher liked the cold
  >He knows I'm gonna stay
  >California dreamin' on such a winter's day
  
  [To get out of the cold, I stopped in a church and knelt pretended to pray.]
  [The pastor is pleased that the cold weather is draws people into his church.]
  
  >All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray
  >I've been for a walk on a winter's day
  >If I didn't tell her I could leave today
  >California dreamin' on such a winter's day
  >California dreamin' on such a winter's day
  >California dreamin' on such a winter's day
  
  [I was out walking on a gloomy winter day thinking of sunny LA]
  [I knew I could just pull up stakes and leave for LA today, but if I told my S.O. she wouldn't let me go]
  [But I kept thinking of sunny LA on that gloomy winter day]

  Flag jeselmiraon September 22, 2012   Link

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  My Opinion:I think this song is about feeling like you're in a bubble which is disconnected from the world. like you're living in a world of your own. so I think the cult interpretation fits but it could have something else in it

  Flag sahar56on August 08, 2012   Link

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  Song Meaning:what's the connection between these words?church,preacher,knees,pray

  Flag momi143on July 14, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I think the meaning behind the song is quite literal, but to me it has almost a sad 60's irony to it (to do with what happened with cults etc).
  
  All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray (spiritual emptiness)
  I've been for a walk on a winter's day (start spiritual quest)
  I'd be safe and warm if I was in L.A. (currently not his main priority)
  
  The second verse is about how the subject enters the cult:
  
  Stopped in to a church I passed along the way (enters cult compound)
  Well I got down on my knees and I pretend to pray, (adopts false spirituatily)
  You know the preacher liked the cold (cult leaders selfish motivation)
  He knows I'm gonna stay (cult leaders strong brainwashing power)
  
  The last verse sums it up,
  
  All the leaves are brown and the sky is gray (had a feeling of spiritual emptiness)
  I've been for a walk on a winter's day (started spiritual quest)
  If I didn't tell her I could leave today (the subject is now fully trapped having fallen in love with one of the cult followers).
  
  I think "California dreamin' on such a winter's day" tells us where we will be if we cant build our own spirituality.
  
  If the song really is just a pretty, melancholy song like the writers claim it to be, perhaps it is meant as a warning from god to man kind at the birth of post modern thinking, to tell us, that to be comportable in a modern world we must create and build on our own spirituality.
  
  This could also be seem as a dire warning about comming evil (the likes of charles manson etc).
  
  Or am I way off?
  Read more at songmeanings.net/songs/view/42543/

  Flag Sixtysixon June 27, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:No, no, no. You're all wrong. She's a hippie drug addict, so she's thinking of pot leaves, and the sky's gray because she'd rather be stoned, but can't because she's in church. She'd be stoned (safe and warm) if she was in california (more than likely at Berkley). The preacher likes cold (being sober). If she snuck out of church without telling her mom she wanted to go get stoned, she could do it. That's why it's a hippie song, because all hippie songs are in one way or another about getting stoned.

  Flagged sleevemeisteron June 07, 2012   Link

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  Song Meaning:It actually is a pretty literal interpretation of the time he spent in Lake George NY. You can find the house he stayed in at the top of the village. The church was near Bolton Landing. He stayed up there to kind of do his own rehab thing (which obviously didn't work very well) My mother helped with the house cleaning when he wasn't there.
  As beautiful as the Adirondacks are, it's not an area for west-coasters haha.

  Flag Diimarion May 13, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:I always thought this was a lovely song, but having visited Santa Barbara (from Illinois), several times, the song speaks to me. It's beautiful, haunting, and captures a longing that having been there, I always have a dream of going back. As my seventy year old former Rosie the Riveter mother said as we traveled south from LA to SB along the coast, "What a great big beautiful country!" Seventy years old and California had the ability to move her. Beautiful.

  Flag wanderlustwomanon March 08, 2012   Link

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