I have been trying to figure out how to work the Red Hot Chile Peppers’ (RHCP) 1999 hit, Californication, into a blog. I had known and liked the song for some time. Who doesn’t? But other than simply liking the song and having a general sense of what it was about, I had never listened closely. Of course, the title itself has almost the entire meaning of the song within it. I had recently read economist Russell Robert’s Hayekian novel, “The Price of Everything.” It is a simple yet spiritual characterization of the mystery of what Hayek called the “spontaneous order” in human organization.
Then, when on my Stairmaster one day listening to the song, I heard a phrase that could have been written by the Capitalist philosopher, Joseph Schumpeter. I replayed the song and then also picked up the same spiritual sense I got from the Robert’s novel. Now, when the endorphins get going in exercise, many strange thoughts come to mind. But I needed to take a closer look at the song.
Given my belief that the economic and political philosophy of the real California is responsible, not only for its own bankrupt and corrupt condition, but for a good percentage of America’s current condition, I wondered what RHCP lead singer and lyricist Anthony Kiedis saw about California back in 1999—right at the height of its power and wealth during the technology boom. Upon reading the lyrics, (really, listening to the song) one is brought into a dark world. The escape hatch is hard to see, but it is there. While its diagnosis is damning, it also provides a spiritual message of hope. And yes, it can relate to everyday decisions about many things, including even politics. Thus, I decided the best way to work it into a blog was simply to “interpret” it and see what happens. In doing so, I also get to have fun with it like the other, uh, geeks on SongMeanings.
The “portmanteau” word, Californication, could be replaced with “Californification” (or Californization). This would be the equivalent of saying “beautification” in discussing “beautifying” the world. But the coincidence of California’s spelling produces the delightful extra feature of putting the word “fornication” inside this blend word. In other words, the “Californification” of the world can equally be re-written as the “Californication” of the world. Pretty clever by Kiedis. “Californication,” for RHCP, represents the false “premise” and false “promise” offered by a decadent and amoral culture. It is not just California, but it definitely is also California.
Interpretation of poetry or song lyrics is of necessity subjective. Great lyrics have such a clean structure, they permit great interpretive latitude. Not that “anything goes,” because it doesn’t. However, a well structured and dense “metaphorical” lyric provides room for the reader/listener to fill in some of their own content. While I do not know what Anthony Kiedis exactly had in mind, I believe my “interpretation” is consistent with the song’s prose and structure. So here goes my full exposition.
First, here’s a link to a recording of the song with lyrics embedded in the YouTube video:
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The following are the lyrics in full.
Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your mind’s elation
Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations
And if you want these kind of dreams
It’s Californication
It’s the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the East
At least it settles in the final location
It’s understood that Hollywood
sells Californication
Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging
[Chorus]:
First born unicorn
Hard core soft porn
Dream of Californication
Dream of Californication
Marry me girl be my fairy to the world
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard
It’s Californication
Space may be the final frontier
But it’s made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon’s not far away
It’s Californication
Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody’s been there
and
I don’t mean on vacation
[Chorus]:
Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl’s guitar
They’re just another good vibration
And tidal waves couldn’t save the world
From Californication
Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Sicker than the rest
There is no test
But this is what you’re craving
I will approach this interpretation by verse by verse initially, then conclude with a summary.
Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your mind’s elation
Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations
And if you want these kind of dreams
It’s Californication
We are introduced to our Californication world without too much fanfare. One can imagine walking down the streets of any big city and seeing the various tarot card readers, “Eastern” mystics, and fortune tellers. These “psychic spies” prey on the naive who willingly give up their freedom, for cash of course, to find out their fake destiny. There is also the classic fantasy going back 90 years of heading for Hollywood to become a “big star.” But these “little girls” from Sweden (or Detroit, Des Moines, New York) will likely get a dose of Californication for their trouble instead.
It’s the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the East
At least it settles in the final location
It’s understood that Hollywood
sells Californication
Dual meanings here as Kiedis starts increasing his complexity. The literal meaning is simple. The “West” is generally considered to be Europe and North America (although to be accurate it culturally includes New Zealand and Australia). The (almost) most western part of “Western Civilization” is California. The “East” is Asia. In our world of time, the first morning sunlight happens just west of the international date line in the Pacific Ocean. More metaphorically, however, it is understood that Civilization began in China 5000 years ago. He now introduces his first hint—more to come– that Civilization’s final location “in time” may occur in “California.” The “edge” of the world is also the edge of time, not just a physical location.
Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging [Chorus:]
First born unicorn
Hard core soft porn
Dream of Californication
Dream of Californication
He now begins to personalize and it is clear that the initial tone of sadness has now changed to mockery. He taunts the purveyors of Californication as desperate beings try to deny time in a vain and futile attempt for immortality (“Celebrity Skin” was a Grammy-winning hit on the same topic of plastic surgery released in 1998 by Courtney Love’s group, Hole. Her late husband Kurt Cobain is referenced later in the song). The “chorus” is, I think, pretty clear. The “unicorn” is an ancient fictional beast and appears throughout literary history. The one that seems to fit here is as a symbol of purity. The unicorn was often represented as being tameable only by a virgin maiden. In Catholic mythology, from late Antiquity (300-600 AD), it represented Christ being incarnated. It was depicted in art having its head on the Virgin Mary’s lap. Later, in a non-religious framework, it represented chaste love and faithful marriage. So we are born to have love in a relationship, monogamous love—but our culture drives us to Californication’s “hard core/soft porn.”
Marry me girl be my fairy to the world
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard
It’s Californication
This verse, which at first does reveal an island of hope in a world of despair, also describes the fatal attraction of Californication. It is impossible to know whether this verse is really “first person” or just a representation of two people. I chose the latter. He depicts a presumably young couple. The man/boy promises devotion as his teenage bride discovers all she can about pregnancy, “getting high on the information”. But Kiedis describes the groom getting distracted and will do anything—what could be more despairing than “buying” recognition?— to get his “star on the boulevard”. That’s Californication.
Space may be the final frontier
But it’s made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon’s not far away
It’s Californication
This verse’s overall meaning is clear, although the specifics have multiple interpretations (maybe by design) and have too many “degrees of separation” to go into all the details. The overall meaning is that Californication threatens the existence (spiritually, if not physically) of our civilization. The first two lines refer to the media’s ability to create illusions and distort reality. Cobain is Kurt Cobain, Kiedis’ friend. “Spheres singing songs off Station to Station” is difficult to get precise. David Bowie had a hit album in 1976 called “Station to Station.”Nirvana (and their spin-off band “Foo Fighters” after Cobain’s death) often appeared together with Bowie. Nirvana covered a Bowie song The Man Who Sold The World. But that song was not on the Station to Station album, but an earlier album. Who and what are the “spheres”? Pythagoras was the first to link music, math and the universe into a “mystical” image called the “music of the spheres”. This is the most plausible meaning as the next line, “Alderon’s not far away” clearly refers to the home planet of “Princess Leia” in Star Wars which was destroyed by a “Death Star”—(its “Californication”).
In World War II, Allied pilots would often see strange fiery sphere like objects in the sky which they could not shoot down. This happened throughout 1944. This, by the way, is a phenomenon that has never been explained. Pilots and their command originally thought these were new German weapons so they called them “kraut-fireballs”. When they realized the UFOs were unlikely to be of German origin they were then called “foo-fighters.” So are “the spheres” the Foo Fighters? Maybe, but they never sang songs “from Station to Station.” In any event, the main character in “The Man Who Sold The World” is a timeless demonic figure “who sold the world”. The main character in the song “Station to Station” is the “Thin White Duke”, a character who “makes “white” stain”. These “characters” were dark, mysterious and seemingly demonic—of the Californication world.
So where do we stand? The lyricist seems to be missing his deceased friend. Cobain is likely one who shared his vision of the world, as did, presumably, Bowie. But the bottom line of this verse is “Alderon’s not far away” i.e., the “destruction” of the earth. (The original sheet music apparently uses the spelling “Alderon.” But the planet in Star Wars is spelled “Alderaan”).
Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody’s been there
and I don’t mean on vacation
Kiedis is unambiguously criticizing our culture’s obsession with birth control and/or abortion. It could also mean a critique of those in power. But “those who praise” are all of us to some extent. “Those who praise” are also the the purveyors of the values of Californication. We have all been to “California” and “I don’t mean on vacation.” We cannot just point fingers at others but we need to look in the mirror.
Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl’s guitar
They’re just another good vibration
And tidal waves couldn’t save the world
From Californication
This verse lead me to this insane attempt to “interpret” this song. The first two lines make the point made by many philosophers and artists, but made most famous by Joseph Schumpeter’s phrase “creative destruction”. The term, in economics, means progress happens through the destruction of old industries/businesses/technologies to make way for better use of man’s creative talents. (There are no more buggy whip makers, as they say). What is the author getting at? The second two lines are a representation in specifics what is meant by the first two lines. It also is an image of “infinity,” “perspective,” and “relativity.” The “single fact” of a plucked guitar string (or any “fact” or “set of observations” of life) should be viewed from many different angles. At the level of the infinitesmally small, in this case, the vibration of the guitar, we have catastrophe. At the level of the Universe (“music of the spheres”) it is just another “good vibration”–ha. This is not related at all to the concept that all values are “relative.” Quite the opposite. Its just that “things” are more complex than they may at first appear. One constantly is required to step back and view life from different “relative” angles to see the full truth. These first four lines are timeless and represent one of the two strands of “hope” in the song.
The last two lines of the verse are a biblical reminder and warning. Even Noah’s Flood (which cleansed the world to start anew), or “tidal waves” cannot save the world from Californication. Now that is harsh.
Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Sicker than the rest
There is no test
But this is what you’re craving
We close out with a final sarcastic burst. You better pay up a lot to stop time (already known to be impossible). He seems to be goading the “Californicators” to just do it, “this is what you’re craving.” But why, he asks, “There is no test” and you cannot break the “spell of aging.”
Lets put it all together. We know this “Californication” thing is “bad” but what is it? Californication is libertinism, crass materialism, solipsistic interactions and spiritual emptiness. It is our modern secular world, in short. Who knew RHCP shared something in common with cultural conservatives? What is the “better way”? The “unicorn” and “teenage girl with the baby inside” point the way. This is the first strand of the message. It is natural and beautiful to have a loving monogamous relationship between a man and a woman. Not exactly new “news” but in a Californication world it almost seems radical. The second strand of the message, the “earthquake in the girl’s guitar”, provides clues on how we should view the world. It is mysterious and beautiful and we have lost sight of the “wonder” that is really omnipresent. The song is trying to reintroduce a sense of wonder, awe, humility, “simple” complexity and mystery into our world. It is all around us—-but we do not see it at all. We may as well be Alderaan. It’s Californication.