“Beverly Hills” – Weezer
The smart nerds of Weezer had their biggest hit with their crunching tribute to the most famously affluent neighborhood in America. www.youtube.com/embed/HL_WvOly7mY
“Celluloid Heroes” – The Kinks
This is a sepia toned examination of the hopes and smashed aspirations of Hollywood Boulevard. The song takes the famous Walk of Fame and the great actors of the past as a seductive symbol of the American dream of fame and fortune. www.youtube.com/embed/yp_QkUVZGPc
“Malibu” – Hole
“Malibu” was recorded back during the extremely short window between the death of Courtney Love’s husband, Kurt Cobain, and her complete devolution into a raving, Twitter-addicted, gossip-column casualty. During the mid-Nineties, Love’s band, Hole, actually released a couple of albums worthy of the title of rockand-roll’s most talented widow. In “Malibu,” she took a pointed look at the beauty and sadness of the famously scenic beach town. www.youtube.com/embed/v0CYB5V9e64
“On the Nickel” – Tom Waits
This heartfelt little ballad is a melancholy tribute to the bums living on the streets of downtown LA. LA’s skid row was on Fifth Street downtown and is called “The Nickel” by locals. The song inspired a respectedbut-little-seen movie of the same name, written by and starring Ralph Waite (Pa Walton!) and using this Waits’ tune as the theme song. www.youtube.com/embed/8055IqijQzo
“Valley Girl” – Frank and Moon Unit Zappa
Famously cranky and wacky cult artist Frank Zappa had his only hit single with this song, a tribute to the stuck-up, vapid girls of the San Fernando Valley. Daughter Moon Unit had her fifteen minutes of fame after introducing the specter of Valley-speak to the world. www.youtube.com/embed/ufYYOXiEtxM
“Ventura Highway” – America
While there is not actually a “Ventura Highway,” Ventura, California is in the northern hills of Los
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Angeles. The song was loosely based on a family trip that singer/writer Dewey Bunnell had taken when he was young. They got a flat tire next to an exit sign for Ventura, and while his dad was changing it, young Dewey was fascinated by the strange shapes of the clouds, which he refers to here as “alligator lizards in the air.” Janet Jackson later heavily sampled the tune for her hit “Someone to Call My Lover.” www.youtube.com/embed/Dd2Ch6WBeQU
“Santa Monica” – Everclear
The words “Santa Monica” were never once used in this Nineties alt-rock fave, this darkly desperate song was based on Everclear lead Art Alexakis’ life. When he was young, his girlfriend committed suicide. Soon afterwards, he tried to take his own life by jumping off of the Santa Monica Pier. The song has an older Alexakis looking back at his past and trying to come to terms with it. www.youtube.com/embed/MW6E_TNgCsY
“Dead Man’s Curve” – Jan & Dean
Dead Man’s Curve was a particularly serpentine section of Sunset Boulevard between Westwood and Bel Air. The song follows an eventually fatal street race between a Corvette Stingray and a Jaguar XKE through LA, name-checking several city landmarks. Ironically, two years later, singer Jan Berry was seriously injured in a car crash not far from the curve. After a nearly fatal car crash by famous voice actor Mel Blanc in the Sixties, the city finally tamed dead man’s curve, spreading the turn out to make it safer. It is still a dangerous stretch, though, as demonstrated in a high-speed movie chase down the stretch between Jeff Bridges and James Woods in the Eighties drama Against All Odds. www.youtube.com/embed/Anq4wdZc2Ow
“Hollywood Hot” – The Eleventh Hour
This dirty, disco-fied tribute to Seventies Hollywood was written by Four Seasons’ producer Bob Crewe and disco singer Cindy Bullens. Odd trivia fact: One of the singers in the Eleventh Hour was Kenny Nolan, who went on later in the decade to have huge hits with the sappy love ballads “I Like Dreaming” and “Love’s Grown Deep.” www.youtube.com/embed/41zljLphtAw
November 2012 | The Modern