Mr. Los Angeles
The what, why, how, and when of the song (including an early demo)
You can only poke fun at the things you love. If you don’t love what you’re poking fun at, then it isn’t really “fun” anymore, is it?
I take a lot of pride in being from LA. There are a lot of stereotypes it is guilty of (some explored in the song), but there is also a particular, solid, even admirable energy to someone that hails from this town. There is a perspective from songwriters like Warren Zevon, Jackson Browne, Randy Newman or even Tupac or Beck that has a world weariness to it that I’ve always personally found charming; a razor sharp sagacity that borders on cynicism but never quite fully succumbs to it. There’s always a hint of faith in the Universe despite recognizing its absurdities. I’m not saying other writers don’t portray these qualities as well, I’m just saying that I believe that LA has its own brand.
New York seems slightly a little more fed up (I’m thinking about Lou Reed, Jay Z, Julian Casablancas, Fiona Apple), the south feels a little more traditional when walloping us with its heavy truths (Hank, Willie, Dolly, Waylon, and on and on), and obviously there are other qualities that help bind together regional attitudes (grunge in the Pacific Northwest, folks like Prince, Prine and the Replacements all being from the Midwest, etc.) but I’m starting to feel icky about too much generalizing, and I just wanna talk about the LA of it all anyway.
Back to the top -
In order to really love someone or something (in this case, a city), you also need to be able to see its wholeness, which includes the parts that are hard to accept at times.
And as that statement concerns this post - I think there’s an inevitable self-involvedness that comes along with being in this city a long enough time. And that’s not strictly a bad thing. I think it’s understandable. After all, it’s where people are often most encouraged to indulge in their creativity and artistic abilities. It results in sometimes getting tricked into believing you live in the center of the world. Which I think can be a useful feeling to access for creatives, as long as we don’t get lost in it for too long.
When you reach the other side of this commitment to maximum dream fulfillment, it can sometimes result in a we’ve-seen-too-much kind of atmosphere. No one is too concerned with whatever anyone else’s latest achievement is. There’s a constant feeling of “cool. What’s next?” which sounds like it could be deflating but has actually been really inspiring in my experience. The response often ends up being “ok. No one is too impressed with whatever I’ve got going on. They all have their own thing. Which means if I’m gonna do this, I’m doing it for me and for the right reasons” (or at least as close as I can get to the right reasons but that’s for another post). Maybe I’m the victim of an abusive relationship with the city I am from, but I really do believe I’ve found a way to get the most use out it’s broader disregard of or lack of pride in any specific members of its community. Oof, sounds harsh. I really don’t mean it to be. I hope what I’m trying to get at is coming across.
Anyway, all this contributes to my fascination with the place and my efforts to keep writing about it. The lyrics of Mr. Los Angeles showed up to me in the shower and by the time I was out and brushing my teeth, I had all the words written in my head. Then I went to the living room, grabbed the guitar and came up with the simplest progression I could that supported the words. A few days later I made a goofy demo (which you can hear below) on protools using a drum machine app on my phone.
When it came time to record the song in the studio, we actually started with this progression, but it just kept feeling dead. Just ask Mike or Griff. Then when we went home after day one of attempting this song and I racked my brain for other approaches. That’s when I remembered the riff from a couple posts ago (remember that early demo of Everything Is Permanent?!) but I didn’t remember where the riff was from. I didn’t put together until many months later. Anyway, once we had that riff, our approaches started coming together quick.
Fun fact: I actually didn’t write the Taco Bell verse until we were already recording the song. It must have only been hours old by the time it got put to tape.
Well there you have it. Hope the read was enjoyable. Below paid subscribers will find the early synthy demo of this one. Talk (back) soon!