California
Joni Mitchell - 1971
Will you take me as I am? Although this song does include a rather exciting reference to the Sunset Strip Riots that gives me back my smile (see For What It's Worth), I love it for other reasons.
In Mitchell's own words, "California" is a "letter back home." This song articulates Mitchell's feelings about how no matter how far she travels, she always seems to come back to her love for California and the creative, expressive environment fostered there. The verses in the song where specific locations are identified were actually written in those places. It is written in a narrative style, where time is not so much of a defining structure as opposed to location.
This song was first released as the B-side to another single Mitchell was putting out. It was released in 1971, what many consider the height of the counterculture movement. California in particular was an epicenter for counterculture, adapting and producing cultural phenomena like mod girls, discotheques, and GoGo boots. Mitchell is widely considered a defining artist of the counterculture music movement, advocating for peace in her music. Her cultural identity, values, and experience influence her writing, and in this way, California is a representation of Student Learning Outcome #5, Meaningful Voices.
Whenever I'm a few minutes away from landing on a flight back home to California, I listen to this song. "Oh, make me feel good, rock-and-roll band, I'm your biggest fan/California, I'm coming home" is astonishingly on the nose. Even though Mitchell grew up in Canada, she loves the Golden State the same way I do. The place I grew up and the music I grew to love go hand in hand, and they both guide my writing. It's a lovely feeling, to know that even after over 50 years, California is still a place of social innovation and culturally defining music if you know where to look. And if you don't, just start at the Whisky a Go Go.
Sitting in a park in Paris, France
Reading the news and it sure looks bad
They won't give peace a chance
That was just a dream some of us had
Still a lot of lands to see
But I wouldn't want to stay here
It's too old and cold and settled in its ways here
Oh, but California
California, I'm coming home
I'm going to see the folks I dig
I'll even kiss a Sunset pig
California, I'm coming home
I met a redneck on a Grecian isle
Who did the goat dance very well
He gave me back my smile
But he kept my camera to sell
Oh the rogue, the red red rogue
He cooked good omelettes and stews
And I might have stayed on with him there
But my heart cried out for you, California
Oh, California, I'm coming home
Oh, make me feel good, rock 'n' roll band
I'm your biggest fan
California, I'm coming home
Oh, it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
Just gives you the blues
Just gives you the blues
So I bought me a ticket
I caught a plane to Spain
Went to a party down a red dirt road
There were lots of pretty people there
Reading Rolling Stone, reading Vogue
They said "How long can you hang around?"
I said a week, maybe two
Just until my skin turns brown
Then I'm going home to California
California, I'm coming home
Oh, will you take me as I am
Strung out on another man
California, I'm coming home
Oh, it gets so lonely
When you're walking
And the streets are full of strangers
All the news of home you read
More about the war
And the bloody changes
Oh, will you take me as I am?
Will you take me as I am?
Will you?
Attached: a video of Charlotte Door, a local SoCal music artist, covering Joni Mitchell's "California" at an acoustic backyard show.
Meaningful Voices
Student Learning Outcome #5
Throughout my time in ENGL 109H, I have realized that my values and personal experiences influence my writing to a great extent. Firstly, the content of my writing is determined or heavily guided by what I am proximate to. My Litany Poem was about my experience in the music scene and the love I have for both the people and the music itself, and my Systems Literacy narrative also included stories and anecdotes from people I’ve met through a shared love of music. The legal controversy I chose for my Essay 2, even though it was significantly more difficult to find information about, was about the Santa Susana Field Lab and its environmental impact on the surrounding area. I chose it because I grew up in Southern California at the edge of the San Fernando Valley, about five miles from the site, and I wanted to know more about it. Though sometimes I struggle or feel discouraged with connecting my personal experiences and values to literary works, I create my best work when I’m passionate about the subject matter. In the future, I fully expect to continue this pattern. I might not write about the exact same topics I did when I was eighteen, but I’ll write about things I love just the same.
Supporting Artifact
Unit 1 Litany Poem, titled "Groupie"
My spirit, it is loud and abrasive
Softness never came naturally.
The way I am heard
My lyric, my word
Isn’t born of the sand, sun, or sea.
Wear an old band tee with blue jeans
Or a skirt that doesn’t cover the thighs
To the dirt that I hold dearest
In the smoke where I breathe clearest
Enveloped by warm, hungry eyes.
And I’ll dance like I’ll die if I ever dare stop
With a friend that I love like a brother
Listening to the same bands
We were holding the same hands
Before we ever held each other.
When I’ve started to out-dance my own body
And I’m spinning out towards the concrete
I see the face of God
And then, with a nod
He pulls me back onto my feet.
Then he begs, “purify me, little angel?”
In an unfinished song’s first verse
And I listen to him sing
Because I thought the only thing
I could ever do was make people worse.
He’ll soon tell me all I don’t mean to him
Bright and loud, like a dying star
But the words that I write
Are painted in white
On the back of his six-string guitar.
My friends with mysterious origins
Or names they refuse to reveal
Mask all their regret
With a fourth cigarette
Hearts of gold and fists of steel.
Some question why I’m so religious
When I am so far from my grace?
But I pray to the sound
Of bands so underground
That the devil is playing the bass.
Though I constantly craved creation,
I didn’t think I was born for poetry.
But from what I’ve uncovered
I’ve delightedly discovered
That music makes a poet out of me.
Supporting Artifact
Excerpt from Opening Write #1, 8/28/25
Think About Your Hometown, Place, or Community: What kinds of different languages do you use in these communities? Why?
When I’m not in California, and someone asks where I’m from, I tell them I’m from LA. If they say “Where in LA?” I now know that they are also from California, or at least know it well enough to know the difference between the valley and the city. For LA being such a large city, a shocking few of us are actually from there. I wouldn’t personally consider Woodland Hills to be LA, but it is in the county, and no one really knows where LA starts and ends anyway. This is the language that residents of Southern California use when outside the state. Inside the state, however, is a different story. A well-known aspect of Southern California vernacular is saying “The” before freeway names, which I didn’t know that other people don’t do. This is because unlike most other places, SoCal had several freeway systems before they were federally given to cities. These freeways had names already, such as The San Bernardino Freeway (now known as the 10), The Golden State Freeway (the 5) and, of course, Pacific Coast Highway (the 1). When the numbering system started to become mainstream, the “the” stayed. I refer to things belonging to Southern California as “our” because I have a lot of love for the region and culture. And, whatever you do, don’t ever say Cali. It’s basically another way to say “I am not from here and I think that everyone in California is famous.” I’m not sure why, actually.When I’m not in California, and someone asks where I’m from, I tell them I’m from LA. If they say “Where in LA?” I now know that they are also from California, or at least know it well enough to know the difference between the valley and the city. For LA being such a large city, a shocking few of us are actually from there. I wouldn’t personally consider Woodland Hills to be LA, but it is in the county, and no one really knows where LA starts and ends anyway. This is the language that residents of Southern California use when outside the state. Inside the state, however, is a different story. A well-known aspect of Southern California vernacular is saying “The” before freeway names, which I didn’t know that other people don’t do. This is because unlike most other places, SoCal had several freeway systems before they were federally given to cities. These freeways had names already, such as The San Bernardino Freeway (now known as the 10), The Golden State Freeway (the 5) and, of course, Pacific Coast Highway (the 1). When the numbering system started to become mainstream, the “the” stayed. I refer to things belonging to Southern California as “our” because I have a lot of love for the region and culture. And, whatever you do, don’t ever say Cali. It’s basically another way to say “I am not from here and I think that everyone in California is famous.” I’m not sure why, actually.