We haven't even reached the real Santa Ana season yet, and yet the hellish feeling of being trapped in a SoCal with a conflagration at our backs is all too with us these days. Even if it's not true at this moment.
So instead of posting about climate change again (oh gawd) I'm going to post a wistful song about the SoCal wildfire season, just discovered via the often-amazing Aquarium Drunkard, in this case a jaw-droppingly great compilation of early Laurel Canyon rock called L.A. Burnout.
Which includes numerous famous hits — "For the Roses," "L.A. Freeway," and "It Never Rains in California" — but also includes a lot of wonderful songs I missed the first time around, including the Mamas and the Papas' "Safe in My Garden" and Neil Young's "Revolution Blues," which sounds like the Charlie Manson story.
Here's the wistful one:
The chorus seems all too appropriate:
When you go out in the street,
So many hassles with the heat;
No one there can fill your desire.
Cops out with the megaphones,
Telling people stay inside their home.
Man, can't they see the world's on fire?
Somebody take us away…take us away…
When will it never rain in Southern California again?
(Sorry.)
Kit Stolz 