Camper Van Beethoven Would Like All the "Northern California Girls" to Come Home
Camper Van Beethoven has a message for all you wayward Northern Californians: Come the hell home!
Myles Boisen via Facebook Camper Van Beethoven recording in Oakland.
The band's upcoming album, La Costa Perdida (out Jan. 22), is named after the wild stretch of coast along Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Having spent their formulative years in Riverside, Santa Cruz, and S.F. -- and recorded their latest album in Oakland -- David Lowery and Co. are no strangers to the allure of California, both the myth and the real thing.
"Northern California Girls," the album's first single, is basically a plea for all you Cali expats to come the hell home. It's a sweet, soft bit of psychedelic country-folk (a sort-of ode to the guys who penned "California Girls"), with lyrics that betray a conviction that California is the best place to live. Especially the northern half of it.
Do they really believe it? Lowery says the song began as a tweak on the Beach Boys, whose Big Sur period inspired La Costa Perdida. But whether it's mean to be taken at face or not, this lovelorn plea offers a lot of reasons why wayward Northern California Girls should come home. Check it out:
Northern California GirlsNorthern California girls say, "Baby come home now"
You don't belong there
Everybody knows this but you
Don't you miss the ocean
Don't you miss the weather
Don't you miss me just a little bit
Northern California girls say, "Come home from Texas"You could take fast train
Baby take the next plane
You'd be home by supper time
There ain't nobody like me
Ain't nobody like me out thereNorthern California girls say, "You don't know what you're missing"
I got a good job stay home and play the guitar
You can raise the children barefoot on the beaches
Teach 'em how to surf and play baseball
Northern California girls say, "Come home from Brooklyn!"You could take a fast train
Baby take the next plane
You'd be home by suppertime
There ain't nobody like me
Ain't nobody like me out thereNorthern California girls say, "Everything happens for a reason"
You did what you had to do
Now it's time for you to come homeNorthern California Girls
Northern California Girls
Northern California Girls
Northern California Girls
-- @iPORT
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