Loss Leaders

Friday, February 24, 2006

My favorite Los Angeles Song



Download Los Angeles Blues . I would have included a link to buy the record from Amazon but it is not available! I bought a copy at Amoeba so I didn't think it was out of print...

The record is one Peggy's coolest concept records from the 1960's. Produced by Quincy Jones, "Blues Cross Country" is a set of upbeat blues about various American cities. Peggy Lee combines more general travel songs like "Come Fly With Me" with specific geographic standards like "Basin Street Blues," "St. Louis Blues," "I Left My Sugar (In Salt Lake City)," "Goin' to Chicago Blues" with original collaborations with Q on "Los Angeles Blues," "New York City Blues," and "The Train Blues." One thing that makes "Blues Cross Country" special is that Peggy Lee wrote lyrics for 4 songs on the record which was rare for a singer known more an interpereter of other's material ...

"Los Angeles Blues" is my favorite song about LA because the lyrics express that the City of Angels is the best city in the US of A and does so with a nostalgia that is especially touching in the year of the demolishing of the Ambassador:


Lyrics:
"If you have sunshine and beaches how can that be so hard?
And maybe oranges and grapefruit growing in your own back yard?
If you had mountains and the ocean and a great big smiling sky...?
There is very little that is blue here so the blues pass Los Angeles by.

Everybody has a BBQ. Everyone goin' swimming too.
With that kind of living how can you be blue?
You can go to a mountain and ski down the side.
You can go to the beach and take a surf board ride.
City Of the Angles has a lot of pride but the blues have passed it by!

And the folks are nice in the tropical clim' although they talk about the weather lots of the time.
They call it unusual if the rain comes down.
They don't believe in blues in this old town.

You can go to the desert in an hour or two.
Where the sun and sand are so good for you.
Where living's that easy how can you be blue. Yes the blues have past it by.
You can live in the valley where the grass is green.
Or you can live on a hill with a view to be seen.
People do say that on a real clear day you can see Catalina (though it's pretty far away).

Oh you can watch the Rams or Angels or Dodgers play on a sunny California smog-free day. If the boy's are winning it's easier to say that the blues have passed Los Angeles by!"

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