Spent my days with a woman unkind
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine.
Made up my mind to make a new start
Going To California with an aching in my heart.
Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.
Took my chances on a big jet plane
Never let them tell you that they're all the same.
The sea was red and the sky was grey
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today.
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake.
Seems that the wrath of the Gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow;
I think I might be sinking.
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
I'll meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high.
To find a queen without a king;
They say she plays guitar and cries and sings.
La la la la
Side a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin' to find a woman who's never, never, never been born.
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams,
Telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems



Lyrics submitted by kevin, edited by Mellow_Harsher

Track duration: 07:06

"Going to California" as written by James Patrick (jimmy)/plant Page

Lyrics © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

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Going to California song meanings
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157 Comments

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  • 0
    My Interpretation:It's about a person who believes in a fantasy, and ends up lost because of it. The male version of stairway to heaven. Going to California with an aching in his heart because someone told him there's a girl out there with love in her eyes and flowers in her hair.

    What a great fantasy! but that's all it is. As the song goes on you realize there is no girl. California, as he knows it, is a myth. And he's traded his life for that illusion. And now he has nothing and at the end he's just telling himself it's not as hard as it seems.
    Flag leemodon February 28, 2013   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Always liked this song, but as I got older I always wondered if there isn't a satirical element to it. Is he making fun of the whole 60's, free love, hippie movement?

    Or maybe he wrote it in seriousness at the time, but it sounds slightly satirical now.
    Flag Jgilberton July 17, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:We're always standing on a hill in our mountain of dreams. I listen to this song when I want to remind myself going after them isn't as hard as it seems.

    If I was about 20 in the late 1960's, my dream would be going to california by plane as well. That was where people went to find love and happiness, a chance to live differently than their parents.
    Flag jseckinger29on March 13, 2012   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I think it is about irony. I think he leaves his unloving girlfriend and heads to California to start over, in search of the perfect angelic woman. On his way the plane crashes into the sea(blood in the sea)I am unsure if there is also an earthquake, but he does not believe he will live to see tomorrow. Angels awake he ascends to heaven. I think the last line is his reflection. He longed to start over and find his angel and ironically that is exactly what he was given.
    Flag MONSTERCHICon August 07, 2011   Link
  • 0
    Song Meaning:This song is actually a response to Joni Mitchell's song "California"
    Flag tswiftchickon June 11, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:Robert Plant, from several SPIN magazine interviews on Going to California: "might be a bit embarrassing at times lyrically, but it did sum up a period of my life when I was 22. the song is about me reflecting on the first years of the group, when I was only about 20, and was struggling to find myself in the midst of all the craziness of California and the band and the groupies..." Plant also reveals that the girl with the flowers in her hair is Joni Mitchell, who he was infatuated with at the time. the line "to find a queen without a king, who plays guitar and cries and sings" is a reference to Mitchell's song "I had a king". The second verse about the quaking ground is about Plant's first experiences with earthquakes, which, apparently was how the song started out, as a song about Californian earthquakes, before taking shape into something bigger.
    Flag bigdaddyliciouson May 30, 2011   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:"Took my chances on a big jet plane, never let them tell you that they're all the same."
    I always thought a big jet plane was synonymous with LSD. With the rest of the verse saying how trips can differentiate upon different usage. But that is what I hear. Probably way off. Billy Madison,"What you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
    Flag NevtakSerion February 12, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To find a queen without a king,
    They say she plays guitar and cries and sings... la la la

    Favorite line from this song. In the context Plant seems to indicate she doesn't exist, but to me I know she does. I just do.
    Flag gradxon February 06, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I am so surprised that no one takes in the melody, the singers voice, and the flow of the song as meaning. They always focus on the words! For example, "Tryin' to find a woman who's never, never, never been born."- while listening to the song- comes off humorous. I listen and interpret him sininging these lines while smiling. Totally takes on a new meaning instead of just reading the words.
    Flag thezutonon October 31, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin song, who's also my favorite band. The medley between the guitar and mandolins along with Plant's soft yet powerful voice reminds me of a medieval expedition of some sort. It is definately one of my favorite songs of all time if not my absolute favorite, and I wish Page wrote even more songs like these. This song is the definition of timeless.
    Flagged GuitarGuy43on July 02, 2010   Link

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