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Los Angeles
Available on:
Listen/Buy:
Guitar Tab: http://www.frankblack.net/tabs/song.asp?song=fb-losangeles
Lyrics:
I met a man
He was a good man
Sailing and shoring
Dancing the beta can-can
Making me foreign
Oh yeah
I want to live in Los Angeles
Not the one in Los Angeles
No not the one in South California
They got one in South Patagonia
I want to live in Los Angeles
Not the one in Los Angeles
They got a bunch down in Moleville
They got a bunch more still
I want to live in Los Angeles
Not the one in Los Angeles
They got one in twenty-five two five
Works just like a beehive
I want to live in Los Angeles
Not the one in Los Angeles
Counting helicopters on saturday night
The symphony of the fair light
I hear saying Los Angeles
In all the black and white movies
And if you think they Star-Spangled us
How come we say Los Angeleez?
I'll wait in Los Angeles
I'll wait in the pouring sun
No way
For not anyone
No way
I met a man
He was a good man
Sailing and shoring
He got a betatron man
Talking that foreign
Oh yeah
I'll wait in Los Angeles
I'll wait in the pouring sun
No way
For not anyone
No way
Notes:
- The short-lived series on the VH1 cable network, "Late World With Zach," used Los Angeles as its theme song. Frank Black was actually scheduled to appear in an episode, but that episode was never filmed for some reason.
- A video for this single was directed by John Flansberg of They Might Be Giants (making it the first non-TMBG video he directed) and, at one time, had a decent amount of rotation on MTV. The video appeared in an episode of Beavis & Butt-Head (titled "Incognito," originally aired September 10, 1993)
- Hard rockers Finger Eleven recorded a cover of "Los Angeles" on a demo, which was never officially released
Los Angeles was used on the playlist for the video game Tony Hawk's American Wasteland.
Quotes:
"I think I finally figured out my new song, 'Los Angeles', this morning. They got one in South Patagonia, they got another Los Angeles in Mexico, they got so many Los Angeleses. Bangkok has a Los Angeles, I read recently. I imagine there's a lot of places in the world named City Of Angels. I wrote about a futuristic one too: 'They got one in 2525, where it's just like a beehive.' I mean that kind of Los Angeles you might see in a film like Blade Runner."
- Frank Black in VOX, Issue 30, March 1993
"I was under the influence of a lot of coffee when I wrote this song, so I don't really remember what it's about, but I think it's about linguistics"
- Frank On Stage, 9/96
"Jocks like my records, too," Frank claims. But surely lines like "I met a man/He was a good man/Sailing and shoring/Dancing the cancan/Making me foreign" require a higher intelligence to unravel--or maybe they're just nonsense in the time-honored dada tradition.
- Metroactive Article, 1996
"What do you mean by 'I want to live in Los Angeles, not the one in Los Angeles'?"
Frank Black says, "It's a reference to other places in America called Los Angeles."
- Online Chat, 5/98
Definitions and References:
be·ta·tron (n.)
A magnetic induction electron accelerator capable of accelerating electrons to energies of several hundred million electron volts.
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