"Californication Uber Alles: The West and Rock 'n' Roll, 1980-2005"

These clips, mostly from YouTube, illustrate my current research on the relationship between the American West and popular culture sampled through rock music.

Prelude:

Beach Boys, "Surfin' USA"

Mamas and the Papas, "California Dreamin'"

Jefferson Airplane, "White Rabbit"

James Taylor, "Sweet Baby James"

1980-2005:

The Blues Brothers band gets into trouble playing "Gimme Some Lovin'" at Bob's Country Bunker, but then redeems itself and wins the crowd by playing the Rawhide theme. (Excerpt from The Blues Brothers)

The Dead Kennedys took the Rawhide theme in a different direction. 

"California Uber Alles" (music only--no video)

"California Uber Alles" (live performance)

"We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" (music only--no video)

"We've Got a Bigger Problem Now" (live performance video, 1984)

Black Flag's "Damaged" drew Kurt Cobain to punk.

Van Halen's "Hang 'em High" from a 1982 concert.

With "Jump", Van Halen paved the way for more use of keyboards by heavy metal bands.

David Lee Roth tapped into the Beach Boys' imagery with his cover of "California Girls".

Bon Jovi updated cowboy imagery to fit the lives of touring musicions in "Wanted Dead or Alive". 

Bruce Springsteen sings about a bleak and violent West in "Nebraska".

Springsteen continued using bleak imagery of the West in subsquent works such as "The Ghost of Tom Joad", "Sinaloa Cowboys", "Galveston Bay", "Reno", "Black Cowboys" (with commentary from Springsteen about the song's origins).

Living Colour asks, "Which Way to America?" and answers, "Go west young man!"

The Pacific Northwest spawned grunge and Nirvana, which provided arguably the best-known incarnation in "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

Bikini Kill, who recorded an anthem for the Riot Grrrl movement with "Rebel Girl," also came out of the Northwest.

Although formed in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. tapped western imagery in several songs including "Electrolite," "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us," and "All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)."

Paula Cole has John Wayne and the Marlboro Man in mind when she asks, "Where Have All the Cowboys Gone?".

But Kid Rock aspires to an entirely different cowboyhood in "Cowboy."

The Red Hot Chili Peppers offer a revisionist telling of the West's history in "American Ghost Dance" and offer comments on their home state in "Californication."

Rage Against the Machine tackle race and immigration issues in the West in "Down Rodeo" and "Maria."

Dengue Fever, a band whose sound combines surf music and Cambodian pop, reflects cultural innovations made possible by immigration changes since 1965. The sound of "Seeing Hands" offers an interesting sonic palette and the video has some interesting western imagery.

Brian Wilson, the creative genius behind the Beach Boys, finally brought out his long-awaited SMiLE project in 2004. In many ways it echoes the classic California-as-Eden themes that mark the Beach Boys works, but in others it reflects themes associated with the New Gray West. The best examples include "Roll Plymouth Rock," "Heroes and Villains," "Cabin Essence," and "Blue Hawaii."