click a star to vote
Nov 2nd 2007!⃝First of all, yeah, the band later realized that the fictional character Dani California may have something to do with the song, at the time they wrote it, she didnt. Music is a form of art, and you can't understand art unless you understand the artist and the way that they were feeling about the world at the time they created their piece of artwork. Also, this song, in my opinion is the greatest song in the world because it discusses the main problems with the world in a poetic, beautiful, and metaphoric way. With that being said, let us take the lyrics line upon line:
We must begin with the title of the song. As many of you have mentioned, it is a mashup of the words California and fornication. But what many of you have failed to notice is that the word is not Californication. This is very important. It puts the stress on fornication, where it belongs. California also does not refer to California as a whole, because, why would the Chillies knock on their hometown state? No, instead it is referring to Hollywood because, when we think of California, what do we really think of? We think of the idiot celebs living there in Hollywood. (as a side note, the Chillies themselves are celebs, something that they adress later in the song). Now, the word fornication does not refer to the act of fornication itself, per se, but it could. Instead what it is metaphorically referring to is the overall lifestyle of Hollywood. Because of the popularity of blockbuster movies and other such things, modern celebrities have achieved an iconic, almost Godlike status in our society. They can have whatever they want, and more importantly they can do whatever they want. Everyday we hear about something that some idiot celebrity did (mocking an entire minority group, shaving their head bald, denying things that everyone already knows to be true...) This is their lifestyle, and more importantly, they don't even care how much they are destroying their lives. But the beauty of Californication is not pointing out this simple fact because we already know this. But the reason that Californication is so awesome is because it tells us that this lifestyle is, through movies, television, and the internet, spreading everyone, young and old alike beginning to think that they, like these celebrities can simply throw their lives away in exchange for endless partying.
"Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your minds elation"
Picture a little girl sitting in front of a television. She is watching a show involving spies from China. On the show, they are uncovering secret plans from the US government or whatever, that part doesn't really matter. But what the show is really doing is not stealing the US's plans, but the mind of that little girl. For those of you who don't know how to use a dictionary, "elation" means great happiness. While that little girl is watching that television program, she believes that she is happy because it is relaxing and she knows that tomorrow at school, everyone will be talking about it, and she will be able to chime in, making her more popular and thus happier. But this is not the real feeling that we get from television. Really, our brains are rotting, and more importantly, we are letting somebody elses thoughts get into our brains. In this case, it is the producers, writers, directors, and editors thoughts creeping into this little girls brain in the form of the actors portraying the part of Chinese spies.
"Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations"
This is just explaining the above scene that I have already depicted for you. All that this little girl can think of is these words that these spies are saying. First of all, that only impounds the message the the director and so forth are trying to send to her even more in her head. But also, she is slowly learning that this is the ideal. Whoever the actor is has a dream job. He says a few lines in a recording studio and then goes out and parties for six days. This is a slow learning process and not something that happens all at once.
"And if you want these kind of dreams
It's Californication"
This is just the Chillies introduction to the rest of the song. Chilling. Creepy.
"It's the edge of the world
And all of western civilization"
This is referring to the geographical location of Hollywood itself. How much more western than Hollywood can you get? Also, it is the height of our western ideals. Ever since socrates spoke out and Julius Caesar took over a nation, our European ancestors and ourselves have always valued self advancement. We are out there living our lives mostly for the sake of being noticed by others. I have a shiny car and a huge house-this is just our symbolic way of saying to the world LOOK AT ME! Nowhere on the planet is this more prevalent than Hollywood. It almost seems as if the Paris Hiltons and Brittany Spearses of the world are as stupid as they are on purpose for the sake of getting more attention. It is saddening but true
"The sun may rise in the East
At least it settles in the final location"
This refers to two things. First of all, as mentioned above, western civilization as we know it began in ancient Greece. To most of us, that is far away in the EAST. Now that we have all moved west, the "final location" for western civilization is Hollywood. The other thing that this refers to is Hollywood sunsets. Think of old westerns where the cowboy rides off into the sunset. That sunset is painted. The sun in that painting will never rise nor set anymore. It is in its final location.
"It's understood that Hollywood
sells Californication"
Our first direct reference to Hollywood
"Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging"
One way to get yourself notices is to look fantastic. But we are mortal humans, so we age, and as we do, we look less and less fantastic. So what do rich celebrities do? Plastic surgery. Unfortunately, it is not just celebrities participating in this unfortunated tradition of masking your humanity. Typical housewives will blow their lifes savings on plastic surgery. It is unfortunate
"Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging"
First of all, "chin" does not refer to the bottom of your face. It is talking about China, once again, and your deep, personal desires. Secondly, this refers to the inner battle in, say, a typical housewife, who does not particularly want to cave to the social pressures of looking young and beatiful all of her life. I am certain that she would be just as happy to have a loving husband and children. But consider her thought process: if I look worse, my husband might cheat on me, my children will be embarrassed to be with me in public, etc. So she does cave and gets her plastic surgery.
I am out of time for today. Maybe sometime in the near future I can continue to educate you all on the true meanings of this song.
