Week 1: The Letter A, Part 1

52 weeks, 26 letters

An alphabetical list of artists and associated tales

Week 1: The letter A, part 1

America "Ventura Highway"

For whatever reason, many groups have used locations for names, be it a city, (Boston, Chicago), state (Kansas, Oregon) or continent (Asia, Europe). Two displaced Army brats took on the moniker "America" to make sure the local Europeans knew they weren't faking their accents. Understandable, but I have often felt given their soft-rock style and songs about the desert, sunshine and, well, California, that maybe they should have been called "California" instead.

Or maybe not. I think that more than any other state, California encapsulates most parts of America, good and bad. Pick a state, we've got that: Agriculture and oil, hippies up north and the DOD down south. Sunny shores, majestic mountains, and amazingly scenic deserts. There are cotton fields and casinos here. And of course, miles and miles of highway for that most American of all things, the automobile.

One day when I was in third grade, our teacher was showing us an academic film, when she noticed we weren't exactly focused on its educational aspects. Finally, between the collective gasps and giggles, one girl had the courage to ask "What are they WEARING?" 
"Oh" said Ms. Alderdice, "That's just California. They are always ahead of everyone, those clothes will be here in three or four years."

Well I had seen enough Star Trek to know you can't live in the future, you can only be stuck in the past. Right then, with the certainty only a child can have, I determined to live in California someday.

California is not just a mash-up of America. Places like Silicon Valley, Napa Valley, and Hollywood are uniquely Californian. There are no other cities quite like Los Angeles or San Francisco. And then there's the Southern California coast, where I live now. It's hard to describe the optimism and freedom a day of being near the ocean, soaking up the sunshine and navigating the open highway can bring to you, even on a bad day. This song captures that wispy warm feeling, even for those that have never been here. It's superb Sunshine Pop¹, and most certainly Californian. 

¹Which makes it all the odder that a certain symbolic someone latched onto not the sunshine, but the opposing Purple Rain part.