Billy Bragg & Wilco - California Stars

This song comes from the 1998 album, Mermaid Avenue. The lyrics to all the songs on this album were written by Woody Guthrie sometime before his death in 1967 and put to music by Billy Bragg and Wilco about 30 years later. The words to this song paint a picture of sleeping and dreaming beneath the beautiful California stars.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Billy
• Bragg
• Wilco
• Woody
• Guthrie
• Mermaid
• Avenue
• California
• stars
• alternative
• country
• folk
• pop

[vazmo14850]

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.

[carann5]

@vazmo14850

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and memories!

[wookie20f]

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

[carann5]

@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!

[TheGatosarnoso]

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.

[adrianasaysrawwwwr]

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.

[nb321cmrc]

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

[TruBlondeRocker]

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.

[jwallguitar]

@evolve991 yep.

[TheGatosarnoso]

@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]

@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

[TheGatosarnoso]

@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.

[evolve991]

@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...