No, the lyric is (more or less) “I come from Alabama With a banjo on my knee. I’m going to Louisiana, My true love for to see.” There’s also a Tin Pan Alley vaudeville-era song called Alabammy Bound.
Billy Joel, Stop in Nevada (“Oh, and now she’s headin’ out to California…”)
Also We Didn’t Start the Fire (mentions “Disneyland” and “California baseball”)
Kris Kristofferson, Me and Bobby McGee (“From the coal mines of Kentucky to the California sun” and “Then somewhere near Salinas, Lord, I let her slip away”)
Steve Miller Band, Keep On Rocking Me Baby (“Philadelphia, Atlanta, L.A. /
Northern California / Where the girls are warm”)
No, it just popped into my head while I was thinking about this thread and the thread about Great Driving Songs.
I’ve had Live Texas Tornado by the Sir Douglas Quintet on vinyl for at least 25 years and converted it to CD several years ago. It’s a great road trip album and I still listen to it now and then, even if I don’t do near as much traveling as I used to.
More from Frank Zappa - “Cucamonga,” “San Ber’dino,” “Billy the Mountain,” “Who Needs the Peace Corps?”
Those are ones where the California setting is central to the song. There are tons of others that mention California or places in California in passing. There’s also “If We’d All Been Living in California,” but that’s not an actual song.
(Talk to Me of) Mendocino Kate and Anna McGarrigle
And it’s on to Southbend, Indiana
Flat out on the Western plains
Rise up over the Rockies and down on into California
Out to where but the rocks remain
And let the sun set on the ocean
I will watch it from the shore
Let the sun rise over the redwoods
I’ll rise with it till I rise no more
Actually, as far as being forgotten, it seems like they run an article about it in the SF Chronicle every five years or so to say “Hey, remember this?”
