Sunshine and smut: The 10 albums that define California
The ethos of rock and roll doesn’t care about where the musician comes from. As long as there’s the spirit of the music in the artist’s heart, anyone from some nowhere town can make it in the industry if they have the right idea. While a handful of the greatest artists of all time hail from England or the East Coast, artists like Eagles and Tom Petty have made songs that epitomise the California lifestyle.
Ever since the dawn of the entertainment industry, the world of Holywood and Los Angeles had been a hotbed for any up-and-coming talent the world had to offer. Although there might be a fair amount of fluff spread throughout the years, there are just as many artists willing to tear at the foundations of what rock stood for to pave the way for an entirely new genre of music.
For decades, seeing the California rock scene evolve has been like watching every modern trend in real-time. From the adoption of psychedelic rock in the 1960s to pivoting towards punk rock and metal in the 1980s, it’s easy to see the trends change and how the quality material slowly gets separated from the artists that didn’t have much going on behind the makeup and glitter.
Although California is the idealised version of the American dream, these albums showcase the ups and downs of living in Tinseltown, from the fantastic runaway fantasies to the lowest depths one could experience. California may be a bastion of a sun-filled paradise, but when looking a little closer, there are even more dirty stories to tell hiding underneath that first coat of glamour.
The albums that define California:
10. Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
California has always been where artists came to have their voices heard. Although many political movements may have originated in the 1960s in the wake of the Vietnam War, the activism showcased back then was quickly being taken over by artists who had nothing on their minds except sex, drugs, and rock and roll. At a time when artists like Winger and Ratt were packing clubs, Rage Against the Machine were asking pressing questions most were too scared to ask.
Taking the attitude of hip-hop and infusing it with colossal hard rock riffs, Rage Against the Machine scored an amazing hit against the system across their first ten tracks, with Zack de la Rocha singing about the injustices going on in the legal system on tracks like ‘Killing in the Name’ and ‘Take the Power Back’. While the lyrics may have had a precision that was impossible to match, Tom Morello’s guitar was what changed the game.
At a time when artists were still trying to shred, Morello’s unique approach blended the guitar hero and the DJ, making avant-garde sounds that became hooks on their own regardless of the lack of musical value behind them. Even though the band arrived on the scene in the wake of the grunge revolution, Rage Against the Machine gave fans a look at the dark side of California, with nu-metal still standing in its shadow to this day.
9. Songs for the Deaf – Queens of the Stone Age
The rock and roll lifestyle wouldn’t be what it is today without a little bit of chemical dependency. From The Beatles taking psychedelics to Black Sabbath creating their undying anthems to marijuana, there are normally a few drugs that can help spark creativity in songwriters at any given moment. While Queens of the Stone Age was already known as one of the ultimate stoner bands, Songs for the Deaf hit closer to where the band lived.
Imagined as a long car ride through the desert, the band’s third outing was about capturing the feeling of going through the seediest parts of California. While fans could get acclimatised to tracks like ‘No One Knows’ or ‘Go With the Flow’, the rest of the album is cut up by different radio segments, all while the band play the most demented music they can as they make their way out to Joshua Tree.
By the time the band finish on ‘Mosquito Song’, the listener is still coming down off their aural high, knowing that they’ve made a long journey and still trying to figure out what the hell hit them on the way there. Although Songs for the Deaf contains some of the greatest rock and roll of the 2000s, it’s also an album you may need to sell your soul to experience correctly.
8. L.A. Woman – The Doors
As the psychedelic movement began in earnest, The Doors had slowly taken over as kings of the California rock sound. While the Grateful Dead had their place in the Haight-Ashbury scene, the words of Jim Morrison, coupled with the spooky backing instrumentation of his bandmates, created a sound that gave fans the dark side of Flower Power. Although any Doors project reeks of The Sunset Strip, L.A. Woman is a love letter to what the California lifestyle was all about.
With the band returning to their bluesy roots, most of the album deals with the lifestyle that comes with a record contract. Outside of Morrison’s poetic musings like ‘Cars Hiss By My Window’, tracks like ‘Riders on the Storm’ speak to the sullen souls that have been burned out in Hollywood, forever lost to the city that they thought held the key to their dreams.
Although the rest of the album is a good snapshot of California in the early 1970s, the title track is the sound of Los Angeles distilled into seven minutes, as the band build to a musical orgasm as Morrison sings about his mojo rising every time he nurtures the women of LA. California is not for the faint of heart, and L.A. Woman is the perfect example of what the city can be at its best and worst moments.
7. Wildflowers – Tom Petty
Ever since moving out west, California adopted Tom Petty as its own. Though Petty always wore his southern roots on his sleeve when visiting his native Florida, the sounds of Los Angeles left an indelible impact on him, playing tracks that reeked of artists like The Byrds and The Beach Boys. While any of Petty’s records have sunshine baked into the grooves, Wildflowers cuts to the core of what the California dream meant to him.
Working with Rick Rubin, Petty is at his most naturalistic on this album, writing tracks via osmosis on songs like ‘It’s Good To Be King’ and ‘You Wreck Me’. Even though Petty often spoke about being in a good headspace he was in when working on the album, the most cutting tracks are when he balances out the sunny euphoria with tales of heartbreak.
Much like Bruce Springsteen was doing on the other side of the country, Petty was writing about characters that were going through the hardest decisions of their lives, like the forlorn kid looking for some peace on ‘Crawling Back To You’ and the man that leaves his family on a whim in ‘To Find a Friend’. California may be a place of dreams, but Petty knows that one can only appreciate dreams when they realise what the sad reality looks like sometimes.
6. Suffer – Bad Religion
The entire music world seemed to shift on its axis when punk rock landed on American soil. Although Ramones had kicked everything off from New York, the next influx of artists from England, like Sex Pistols and The Clash, were tearing down the traditional rock star idol. Things had to look different in California, and the underground punk scene spat out some of the most feral kids to come out of rock and roll.
While Bad Religion originally started with the album How Could Hell Be Any Worse?, Suffer was the moment they capitalised on their potential. With Greg Graffin and Brett Gurewitz trading lyrical gems off each other, every song seems to be a political essay crammed into a two-minute package, like the assault of ‘You Are The Government’ and the title track.
This is a California rock record, though, and one of the main appeals of Bad Religion is their knowledge of vocal harmony, singing in unison with triad chords that sound something like Brian Wilson being fed through The Cramps. Bad Religion wasn’t looking to be the biggest rock band in the world, but Suffer is the sound of punk kids with nothing to lose, shouting out their frustration with the world as loud as they can.
5. Appetite for Destruction – Guns N’ Roses
For most of the 1980s, the California rock scene was dominated by hair metal. Although Van Halen may have kicked the door down a few years prior, the Sunset Strip quickly became ground zero for anyone looking to make a name for themselves in the music industry, with everyone from Poison to Winger moving to the city to chase their dreams. While Guns N’ Roses may have looked no different initially, their debut marked the moment when the genre could be taken seriously.
While other artists focused on the party aspect of hair metal, Appetite for Destruction reads like a diary of what it’s like to live in Los Angeles. From the moment ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ begins, the band are painting vivid pictures about what it means to be in the gutter, from their kiss-off song ‘My Michelle’ to dealing with the monkeys on their back on ‘Mr Brownstone’.
Even though the band earned their reputation as LA’s most dangerous act, songs like ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ proved that they had a heart underneath the chains and cowboy boots, with Slash delivering an emotional solo whenever he got the chance. The hair metal scene may have been thriving throughout the 1980s, but Appetite for Destruction was so good it practically killed the genre by comparison.
4. Rumours – Fleetwood Mac
California is not been known to be kind to the heart. As many artists like to move to the land of sunshine to chase their dreams, just as many find themselves lying in the gutter wondering where everything went wrong. Although Fleetwood Mac eventually reached the top of the mountain, they didn’t get there with their hearts in one piece.
Throughout the making of Rumours, every band member dealt with fallout from their relationships, going after each other with their material. Across tracks like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’, Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham are seething with anger, whether that’s about laying into themselves or taking their frustrations out on each other, all while Christine McVie cries out in pain on songs like ‘Songbird’.
Although the band may have been able to put the album together begrudgingly, the end product was the epitome of rock and roll sunshine, becoming an FM radio staple with nearly every single track getting airtime on the radio. While the band were fracturing behind the scenes, it took that musical chain to keep them tethered to one another.
3. Pet Sounds – The Beach Boys
The archetype for every California rock band circles back to The Beach Boys. In the days when The Beatles were first making their way to America, Brian Wilson was busy writing the biggest teenage symphonies known to man, turning tales of having fun on the beach into solid gold on ‘California Girls’ and ‘Surfin USA’. There was always room to take it further, though, and Wilson’s willingness to experiment changed rock overnight with Pet Sounds.
Locking himself in the studio with session musicians The Wrecking Crew, Wilson put together an album that could be taken seriously as a full body of work, bringing sophisticated arrangements to songs like ‘Wouldn’t It Be Nice’ and ‘Don’t Talk (Put Your Head On My Shoulder)’. Although there was a more serious tone this time around, it never was a hindrance to the California atmosphere, with the band’s soothing harmonies gliding across every single track.
While Wilson was inspired by The Beatles to work outside the norm, the Fab Four would eventually repay the favour, creating Sgt Peppers as a response to what Wilson had created. Although The Beatles may have been able to reshape music forever, Wilson did get there first by realising his California dreams.
2. Hotel California – Eagles
At the dawn of the 1970s, sunshine was dripping off the music of California. While the Vietnam War was still raging, there was an influx of new musicians looking to make everyone have a good time again, with Linda Ronstadt and Gram Parsons writing immortal tunes across Los Angeles. While the Eagles may have had their genesis in this scene, Hotel California was the moment they transcended every other act at the time.
Framed as a concept album about what moving to LA is like, every song has a lesson to teach about what California stands for, with the title track acting as the dramatic curtain draped over the entire album. While songs like ‘Life in the Fast Lane’ glorify the rock and roll lifestyle in some fans’ minds, tracks like ‘New Kid In Town’ and ‘Victim of Love’ are the sour side of love, talking about the miles that one puts on their heart and how easily replaceable they can be in ‘The City of Angels’.
Even though the Eagles were born and bred as Californians, Hotel California is a reminder that not everything is what it’s cracked up to be. Many artists may have realised their dreams when moving out West, but as Don Henley is wont to say, it’s easy to find yourself chasing the American Dream before realising you’ve been caught in an American nightmare.
1. Californication – Red Hot Chili Peppers
If there were to be a musical definition of Red Hot Chili Peppers, it could very well be “music derivative of California”. Although the band have been known primarily as a funk rock band throughout their tenure, the radiant bliss of their melodies, coupled with Anthony Kiedis’s love of his adopted home, has been defining what many people see as California. While Blood Sugar Sex Magik may have been the first album to introduce the band on a grand scale, Californication is a better look at what California has in store for the uninitiated.
After dealing with their fair share of demons and years lost to drugs, every member of the band seems thankful to be alive across every track, taking inventory of their wounds, both physical and emotional, on ‘Scar Tissue’ and ‘Otherside’. While the manic energy is still prevalent on songs like ‘Around the World’, the focus is on being past the intense side of life, blending Beach Boys sunshine with old-school funk breaks on songs like ‘Easily’ and ‘I Like Dirt’.
And while Kiedis likes to talk about every aspect of the state that raised him, the title track is the purest form of what California has to offer, boasting a pretty melody while also criticising the harsh realities that have come to define Hollywood over the years. Californication still shows the band proud of its roots, but their view of California isn’t just a state off the edge of America. California is a state of mind to them, and if one isn’t careful, they can easily get swallowed by the monster.
