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I Live in California
Metadata
- title
- I Live in California
- meaning
- Big Hug opener: Ohio kid performing California: beach selfies, fake surf cred, swim in unaffordable weed, waiter dead on CSI, vegan holistic AF with cocaine weekends.
- year
- 2021
- release
- Big Hug
- releaseType
- album
- artist
- Scoobert Doobert
- artistId
- #scoobert
- credits
- Written, performed, and mixed by Luke Francis Walton. Mastered by Riley Knapp.
- spotify
- https://open.spotify.com/album/3dW4LbP8381fYkKBdBxiFn
- youtube
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGywF3QeCuc
- officialVideo
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGywF3QeCuc
- apple
- https://music.apple.com/us/album/big-hug/1585121212
- press
- outlet
- slackcitybitch — New Music Friday pick
- url
- https://www.instagram.com/p/CRZ7ruPB4-d/
- desc
- July 16, 2021 — @slackcitybitch review of I Live in California (alternative/indie); pop hooks, funky guitar, California-sun blunt energy, psychedelic summer song.
- themes
- California
- Big Hug
- class
- satire
- midwest
- wellness
- isrc
- QZHNC2182458
- isrcSource
- soundexchange
- draft
- false
Lyrics
Ima Ima take a selfie hanging at the beach in Winter Rub it in my hometown's face Ima Ima tell my family I surf like every day Though I never even caught a wave Yeah I'm from Ohio From Cali back to Cleveland I am never leaving No Ima take you down to California We can swim in the marijuana That no one can afford yeah We all live with our momma Take you down to California We can cruise in a beat up Honda We all do what we gotta To live in California I'm a waiter on the westside Got cast in an episode of CSI Yeah, I play a dead guy What about it I'm holistic AF Got a crystal for that good energy Tell everyone I'm vegan Cocaine on the weekend Ohio From Cali back to Cleveland I am never leaving No Ima take you down to California We can swim in the marijuana That no one can afford yeah We all live with our momma
Content
The Big Hug opener is a thesis in one joke: performing California while the math doesn't work. Luke solo, October 2021. An Ohio kid takes a selfie at the beach in winter and tells his family he surfs every day, though he never even caught a wave, then loops back home anyway. From Cali back to Cleveland, I am never leaving. The no reads as a defiant stay, not an escape fantasy.
The chorus sells the state as bargain-bin paradise, where you swim in the marijuana that no one can afford and everyone still lives with their momma: legal-weed glamour against the rent crisis, hustle as regional identity. The westside waiter cast as a dead guy on CSI, the crystals, the vegan posting, the cocaine on the weekend: same good-vibes hypocrisy as High Society on KŌAN a year later.
It sets the table for the record. Approachable post-pandemic weirdness rather than dread, the California myth as a softening device and not just camouflage. Pairs with Heffalumps and Woozles and I'm an Idiot (Big Hug album essay).