Added: 3 years ago
From: carann5
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  • I know this song was written in regards to the Dust Bowl, because about 40% of Guthrie's songs were about the dust bowl, but the fact that it can be for anyone about anything is what makes it great. It's not just about young love, when you think of it as about the dust bowl you know it's a song about a dream for a better future and a peaceful life with the person you care about most. a place of solace.

  • adriana...songs that take you to a place or time are the songs that will stay with you forever. when i was 17 i too, spent a warm night with friends and on the way home the radio played " reflections of my life " by marmalade... hold onto those songs forever. they will never let you down. you wrote beautiful words.

  • @vazmo14850

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts and memories!

  • This is the song we're going to use for our curtain call at our production of John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath". It's going to be absolutely beautiful.

  • Ah love this song.

  • Great song. Super corny video.

  • I want this to be played at my wedding and my funeral.

  • Thought it was carping until the unwatchable video kicked in.

  • This was my first dance at my wedding :)

  • don't know if i should thumbs up or thumbs down this....LOVE THE SONG...but the disconnect between it and the video is nowhere near close to funny. more like pathetic.

  • @knoskillerr666 I think he is in the background, Jeff's up front. Sounds like 3 or 4 singing to me???

  • @knoskillerr666 Jeff Tweedy from Wilco is the vocalist.

  • song just gives me goose bumps

  • this song just gives me goose bumps

  • Why can't I share this lovely piece on facebook? Thank you for putting it up in any case!

  • @wookie20f

    I really don't know.  I tried to put some of my videos on Facebook too, but couldn't. If I find out, I'll let you know.

    Thanks for your comment!

  • @carann5 it let me upload to FB...you know you can copy the url and post it into your status on FB as an alternate way of sharing...just fyi...good luck

  • @wookie20f just copy the link and paste it as a comment...FB automatically creates a posting with uploader comments/video preview when you paste the link on your wall...

  • Yes I'd give my life

    To lay my head tonight on a bed

    Of California stars

  • I love WILCO!

  • horrible video. looks like some kind of christian product

  • @ktbaby077 Just a Hater. Crawl back into your miserable hole and feel sorry for yourself..... what have you Ever Produced ?

  • @Westsideswimcoach wow..ha you're terrible

  • If you like this I strongly suggest you get the DVD “Man In The Sand” it shows the whole process of the collaboration of Wilco and Billy Bragg to bring together the album Mermaid Avenue. I know this because my sister Kim Hopkins was the director.

  • on an evening in late may of 2007, my five best friends and i decided to celebrate our last day of (high school) classes by building a bonfire on the beach in little compton. several hours later, we were all totally exhausted. everyone piled into my car at two in the morning and i drove to will’s house. the windows were rolled down, the air was warm, the skies were clear… and this song began to play. it was perfect. I read this somewhere and found it absolutely beautiful.

  • @adrianasaysrawwwwr

    Wow! I love it. Sounds like a magical day ending with a great song. It would have been even better if you lived in California.

  • @adrianasaysrawwwwr Oh yes....only in RI........

  • @adrianasaysrawwwwr embrace those moments. never let them slip away...

  • Did Billy Bragg actually contribute to this track at all? That's obviously Jeff Tweedy on the vocal.

  • @mdumas43073

    Although Tweedy sang the lead on a few songs on the album, I'm pretty sure this one was Bragg. It just doesn't sound like Jeff Tweedy.

  • @carann5 No, this is obviously Tweedy's vocal. The liner notes have Bragg playing acoustic guitar, but the arrangement was all Tweedy & Bennett.

  • @carann5 This one is Jeff Tweedy. Note the lack of East London accent.

  • @kaufmadsce

    Yes I did notice that, after listening to both. Tweedy deserves more credit.

  • @carann5 This one is Jeff Tweedy.

  • @carann5 If I know anything about the world, I would have to say that the lead vocal is DEFINITELY Jeff Tweedy. I'll give you my first born child if it isn't.

  • @kipstir

    I will have to agree.  Every song in the album says Billy Bragg and Wilco. Both Billy Bragg and Jeff Tweedy do the vocals and since Tweedy leads Wilco it may very well be him on this song. I have listened to both and it sounds a lot more like Tweedy.

  • It's pleasant music, quite solid arrangements, not too original but deserving. Not sure that the video brings much to it.

  • wouldn't you like to just lay back, and enjoy something.... :D good song

  • does anybody know the bass tab for this

    

  • lol a bass?

  • love the picture this song paints

  • @ViaChicago3441

    Thanks for your comment!

  • Comment removed

  • The collection of pictures that you have chosen does ruin the song. The comment must have been deleted, but it was stated pretty eloquently earlier. This is not about upper class people drinking in their private vineyards and sleeping with their laptops on in hammocks. Its about Guthrie's experience heading west during the Great Depression, and just wanting to get there.

  • @TheGatosarnoso

    I don't delete comments unless they are pretty darn nasty or contain vulgar language. If it was deleted it was accidentally. I appreciate all comments, even negative ones. If you know what Guthrie was experiencing when writing this song then I would love to see you create a video to it using more appropriate pictures. Or create one to any other song that you like. Thanks for commenting.

  • @TheGatosarnoso

    I agree completely with what you're saying. But whats so wrong about people making their own personal interpretations?

  • @DeathBySitar Yeah you have a good point, I just disagree with the pictures haha. Its like putting passionate war pictures in "Give Peace A Chance". Although that could just be for irony...

  • @TheGatosarnoso Quite true; it good to appreciate context of music/art/the human experience - but someone posting these images is fine - its someones current interpretation. i travel - i've seen oklahoma city grow up and become prosperous, and i enjoyed reading the grapes of wrath and tales of dust bowl and great depressions struggles. we should not forget the past and our history - and celebrate the present, maybe Gutherie was truly prophetic in dreaming of "that lovers class of wine".

  • @TheGatosarnoso It doesn't ruin the song you snob, I dont even watch the slide shows.

    Just enjoy the music and stop tearing at what somebody else took the time to put together

  • @ClassicRocker30 if I one a video of "Imagine" glorifying Hitler I think even you Mr. Classick Rocker would speak up

  • @TheGatosarnoso not quite comparable and barely intelligible, I understand what mr gurthrie was trying to depict however I think to some the chill/relaxed nature of the song and lyrics lend themselves quite nicely to the romantic images the creator of the video picked.

  • @ClassicRocker30 yeah I messed up on spelling. I understand your second part though, totally relatable.

  • Respond to this video... I concede that it is the shallower of the two directions he could of gone.

  • Comment removed

  • @ClassicRocker30 and you call me barely intelligible, what the heck is this?

  • @TheGatosarnoso

    I think the pictures are great.

    The emotional context of a song is to be determined by the listener.

    That is the whole purpose of music.

    Furthermore, there is not a goddamned thing wrong with rich people or even rich people with vineyards.

    Your post reeks of the same kind of parasitic, communisto cult rhetoric that motivated Steinbeck's Grapes-of-Wrath revisionist view of Guthrie's America.

  • @scottfunkhouser well this is my interpretation. Besides, calling Steinbeck a revisionist of Guthrie is absolutely ridiculous, as Steinbeck was writing books before Guthrie was publishing music. Guthrie was always a warrior for the poor, and so he would find something wrong with the rich oppressing him and his fellow working man. Steinbeck and Guthrie both wrote to address the same thing: the destruction of the poor by the means of the rich. Your McCarthy-like catch phrases only make it worse

  • @TheGatosarnoso

    First of all, you moron, Steinbeck and Guthrie were contemporaries.

    Regarding your cultish demonization of the rich:

    The last time I checked the rich give jobs to the poor.

    Only in the twisted mind of a goose-stepping sozialist parasite could

    giving people jobs equate to destruction.

  • @scottfunkhouser of course they were contemporaries, but that doesn't mean that Steinbeck didn't start before Guthrie. If you claim that every rich man is a generous king who hands jobs out to the poor, I can not argue with you, because you are too deeply sunken into your own ridiculous misconceptions. The rich man that does have a passion for creating jobs is a great man in my eyes, but I don't see too many of those these days (cough cough Goldman Sachs)

  • @TheGatosarnoso You'll never get through to the pretensious idiots. They believe themselves crucial and beneficial to the world,anyone can enjoy what they didn't bloody thier knuckles earning and ignoring reality,money doesn't make morons geniuses. I can imagine Woody writing this song while sleeping beneath the stars,nor because it was the "in" thing to do but because he had no choice. Like alot of others sleeping tonite under stars...and tarps...and plastic bags...

  • @evolve991 Hey thanks a lot, that really made my day! I've been getting a lot of criticism, and I'm glad theres someone out there on my side. Yeah, I couldn't agree more! Yeah, I imagine him under some old oak tree in the summer, pretty much along those lines haha. Yeah its disgusting how the homeless have been treated in the past century, and how people often dismiss them as either nuts or lazy. I think often they're just lost or in transition.

  • @TheGatosarnoso The homeless now are working people who didn't have a Mom or Dad or uncle,cousin,friend to give them that one ounce of help before they slipped through the cracks. They're your old neighbors,coworkers,people you never thought would become homeless. We've almost been there a dozen times and it still comes creeping around looking for a weakness to exploit a few times a year. The pampered,the fortunate,the pimps of corporations have no idea what they've created. They will though

  • @evolve991 yeah just usually people that got had one unlucky slip. My great uncle actually is living in Seattle homeless, by choice though. The Vietnam War left him scarred mentally so I think it was hard for him to fit into modern society anymore.

  • @evolve991  yep.

  • @TheGatosarnoso Or maybe the pictures depict the contents of the dream.

  • "My", Music is timeless.. I just found this tune.. now I'm Billy Bragg Fan!

  • WOW! Heard this little diddie at the end of the King of California film. In about 15sec of the lyric I new I needed to download this song. Looked up the Soundtrack of the film and discovered Wilco's version. Unbelievable great song. The fact that is was written by Woody Gutrie is no supprise. Have you ever heard the Bosses version of This land is Your Land? I thought California Dreaming was the Best California Song ever written. As a 4th Gen Californian I say Tupac, Woodie/Wilco smoked you!

  • Woody's songs are well known. The tons of lyrics with no music are not so well known. Billy Bragg and Wilco did exactly what Woody did,turned people's stories (Woody's) into ART!

  • What a wonderful song... If only all music was this great and everyone carried this attitude... can you imagine???

  • @Physcimaniac31 it be boring as hell

  • woody guthrie song

  • First time I heard the song was after watching "King of Kalifornia" fell in love with it immediately. Was so glad to find it on here. then to find out that it is an Woodie Guthrie tune made it even better. Thanks for posting this great song.

  • @oohlookapooh

    You're more than welcome and thanks for commenting!

  • No offense was intended. Just putting in my two cents. Perhaps I should just make my own vids and keep my mouth (hand?) shut.

  • Evergreen. Just truth. Straight, honest. Must respect this :)

  • hey carann5: i love this song! it has such a sad cadance though. like me! maybe thats why i love it so much.

    well, peace out

  • uaaaa! no se q tiene esta cancion q la nescesito escuchar y escuchar. la se tocar en la guitarra, a pesar q aunq parece engañosamente lenta , la letra va a galope tendido y tiene un contra tiempo del demonio. y es en ingles. y suena tan triste...

    q se yo. lo unico q se es q no se nada...

  • @feoeo

    Yo realmente no entiendo whatg que usted está diciendo ... si te gusta la canción

    y el video o no. Pero gracias por comentar T-Man..

  • just...wow

  • @carann5: are you sure woody guthrie wrote the lyrics *sometime before his death " and not afterwards? ;)

  • My favorite song of all time.

  • This was in light rotation over at FRSD 96.9 FM, San Diego's mid-2000's pirate station....only station in town that would jump from this to the most obscure straight-edge bands.

    Free Radio San Diego you will not be forgotten!

  • Very nice. I love this song. I emailed to a friend from California who I have not seen in 41 years and we are hooking up next month.

  • This song make me feel like Im on Xanax

  • @spinksjinx1 so it makes you forget everything?

  • @LegalizeTheGreen215 No, makes me feel calm and tranquil.

  • the most amazing song ever. (:

  • awesome song and an awesome video..I need to watch this every once in awhile ever since I found it on here. Thank you for posting it.

  • The first time i ever heard this song was 2mins ago. At the end of a movie called king of california :)

    i cried..with the movie, n the song came in at perfect timing.. I love it.

  • @crippledinside92 ,yeah i also really injoyed the movie. Differnt refreshinhg storyline. I think its important to go for your dream even if it's a longshot. Thats what makes this country so great .... The song was aa perfectily placed in thr movie.

  • @jikelgo i have always been afraid of going for my dreams :/ but sometimes the end result is worth the being afraid :)

  • Ace.

  • so many memories coming up ....

  • i love this freakin song by Wilco and the Vid is great.. good job on it!

  • awesome video. this is a beautiful and moving tribute to a great song and man. i'm sorry other posters here can't keep their negative attitudes to themselves. songs are open to individual interpretation, and if you think you can do a better job, make your own g__dd___n video, fer cryin out loud!

  • that was horrible. i went to type in california and some stupid song called california girls by katy perry came up, it was horrible. what has the world of music come to, nobody knows what good music is nowadays at least any of people my age (15)

  • so damned good.

  • i'd like to rest my weary bones on a bed of california star wars.

  • i only know this song bcuz Andrew Heringer sang it at Sugarloaf Fine Arts Camp =) like this if u know Andrew *i dooooo*, if you have gone/go to/are gona go to Sugarloaf *wuv it 2 bits!!*, or have heard him sing it, =)=)=) <3<3<3 tanky, wuv u all lol *little blue man, like if u no wat the little blu man is*

  • mama, play this at my funeral

  • Comment removed

  • My only misgiving with this album is that Bragg and Tweedy came to loggerheads over some stupid issues - song order or some bs. I wish this partnership had survived Mermaid Ave.

    Still, a great album and I think we're lucky to have it.

  • Great great song!

  • This brings me so much joy. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you! PS. I play it again and again. Luv, S

  • I love this song. I grew up listening to Billy Bragg <3 <3

  • adoro esta musica, esta no filme " rei da california"

  • Comment removed

  • Great Song.. It changed my mood with every note.. I like......

  • goooooooooooood song i lovet

  • great song

  • I heard this song for the first time about a month ago, while listening to Listener Supported Radio in New York City (WBAI - 99.5 FM). I had to find out the name of the song and was amazed that they gave the info at the end of the show!! This Song Rules!! Very Simple, Musically Ingenious...Shout outs to Community Radio.

  • musical perfection

  • i like this a lot. nice work! very beautiful!

  • For years I thought I the lyrics said "I'd like to drink my troubles all away" Hmm

  • Yup!

  • wow, great work! you really captured the essence of the song perfectly :D

  • I just spent 45 minutes looking for this song online. FOUND IT!

  • i love this song!

  • i've enjoyed this song a very long time; It was also used as a herd grazer after phish festival 8. I cant remember which night, but i was happy to see they chose it.

  • @dog52916 the song misunderstood is from the album Being There(their best album) not Summerteeth. Love the song Shot in the Arm and Via Chicago from Summerteeth.

  • Bragg had nothing to do with this particular song. The words are Guthrie and the tune is 100% Jay Bennett and Jeff Tweedy the later singing it.

  • @alienhuman thank you

  • The best song ever made.

  • Woody Guthrie rules. I would have like to have heard him sing this song.

  • yay im the 99,999 viewer!

  • hey me too

  • God i looove this song!!!

  • great song.king of california is a good movie too.

  • Bill bragg is amazing. Not heard any of Wilco's own stuff though, anyone got any good songs i should listen to by Wilco?

  • def. check out sky blue sky, yankee hotel foxtrot and ghost is born. start w yhf. that is my favorite album of all time... rolling stones #3 of the decade...def check it out

  • Okay thanks! (Y)

  • are these albums or songs?

  • Yeah, bman pretty much nailed it. Wilco's great. Listen to whatever albums of theirs you can find

  • Wilco's album Sky Blue Sky is fantastic, as well as a Ghost is Born. Some of my favorite songs are "Forget the Flowers," and "Impossible Germany" and "Hate it Here." You really should just listen through their entire collection, they're a fantastic band.

  • @lillynboo Start with the album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The first song you should hear is "I Am Trying to Break Your Heart." If you like that you should move onto their album Summerteeth - a good song on Summerteeth is "Via Chicago"

  • why dont you start with summerteeth misunderstood is the greatest to see live with the continuous nothings !

  • This is really beautiful music. favorited.

  • Honestly never knew how brilliant Woody Guthrie was until Mermaid Avenue. Great stuff!

  • i always loved this song...it's been made better since i saw `king of california'.

    what a hoot!

    nice work Carann 5;-D

    this whole country could use a `Woody Gutherie' infusion

  • Thank you so much! I really appreciate such nice comments!

  • @carann5 So Very good.. Thank you so very much "Hamdelsun" is right.... America needs to get back to "Woody Gutherie" how did we lose touch with such a great person? Makes me cry. And miss my younger days when music meant more than work, and Family and friends was all you had.... And needed. Thank you Thank you Thank you.

  • @hamdelsun Hahaaha, yeaj thats where i first heard this song, like 3hours ago, was a great film eh? Micheal douglas is a nut-job in it !! hahaha.

  • @hamdelsun King of California was the first time i heard this song

  • @hamdelsun Everyone needs some Woody in them.

  • Bravo. That is one extraordinarily beautiful song. Guthrie must be looking down from those stars and be proud of what he hears. I thought the montage was awesome.

  • So glad you liked it and thanks for the very nice comment!

  • great song, but that montage was the HONKIEST of montages....

  • Yes, thank you. It is one of my favorite songs but this montage BLOWS.

  • such.a.good.song.

  • woody guthrie actually told bob dylan that he could have these songs

  • @ theoldcrow13

    wrong! it was his widow who gave them the rights to produce the music. he was long dead when this was produced

  • I thought it was woody guthries daughter?

  • yeah i know but before woody guthrie dyed he told bob dylan that he could have all his unfinished songs but when dylan went to get them they would'nt let him have them

  • It was kinda neat except there is no bass in this song and that "bass animation" is truly awful. This is like a 1996 screen saver.

  • no bass are you high? you can hear it.

  • If he was high he'd definitely hear it lol.

  • Tone deaf, perhaps?

  • great song, crappy video

  • @7777srd crappy video?? I love it

  • My friend, the images here are ALL WRONG and not at all in keeping with the spirit of Guthrie's lyric. dont you get it?

  • I think songs, like artwork are open to interpretation. What does the song mean to you?

  • Well, clearly the lyric is highly poetic, so any literal representation of stars and such, and couples cavorting is off tone.

    Secondly, it is a song that expresses the grace Guthrie felt travelling around the country, as he did, as best he could -- on the rails, in cars, buses, walking. That raw feeling of being free and open is humbly prophetic. To show images of suburban couples, hammocks, which is a middle class dream, and show guys jumping at the lyric Jump Up -- my heavens, WRONG.

  • WRONG according to your interpretation but who could really know what Guthrie was thinking or what he really meant or felt when he wrote it? I created the video according to what I hear in the song but thanks for your poetic perception.

  • Well, of course it's according to my perception. What else do I have. I don't want you to think me rude. On the contrary, I take it for granted that this sort of thing is for the purpose of evoking a response, and I would very much want to hear polemic going on if I were the one posting it.

    Maybe it's time I stop bellyaching and post my own vids. What do you think?

  • That would be great to see a video done by you to any of your favorites, especially since you've been on YouTube for almost 3 years. But be careful what music you choose to use because it may be banned due to copyright issues.

  • @carann5 Hi. Thank you for the suggestion. Honestly it never even occurred to do something myself. I just thought to comment on other people´s stuff. My turn. Wish me luck.

  • @mwoldin Pretension is such a very unattractive human character trait.

  • @mwoldin Get that stick out of your ass and stop thinking you know what this song is about more than anybody else. Its a beautiful song and just as long as you enjoy it and it makes you feel good thats all that matters.

  • @YuckOneStudios Is there anything written here that was necessary to express?

  • @mwoldin

    How can you tell that these are suburban couples from the video?  Don't rural folks use hammocks? Don't urban folks sip wine? How you can you they are suburban?

  • @mwoldin Mr. know it all over here....

  • @carann5 You nailed it.... One of the best videos on the net. I love it and have it on facebook.

    I love Calif. with all my heart... But stuck here in Phx. for some time.. When I think of my old life and my kids I play this video... Sometimes I cry.. Sometimes I just think of home and dream about happy times.

    I know one day I will go back home... and I will sleep under the calif. stars again... God I miss Escondido so much.. This song takes me home...for a little while anyway.. Thanks..Marcus

  • Woody guthrie was soooo lucky to get these musicians to put music to his lyrics.. Almost every track on both albums are very very good!

  • one of my favourites : ) this song brings me some bittersweet memories

  • i can only turn this song up. it's so old-school classic to me~ "all of it"

  • I find this song to be perfection.

  • Evergreen. For good and bad times. Everything is good :)

  • Chickens and Hangers?