"I Wish They All Could Be Calif. Girls": What's it mean?

Parent Cafe
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<p>I wondered what momof2 had to do with inca’s too!</p>

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<p>Yeah, but the Beach Boys aren’t singing about Texans…</p>

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<p>No complaints here! Wife"s parents are from Cookeville and La Mesa. Texas!</p>

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<p>When I was a teen and that song was popular, I thought it meant that the Beach Boys thought California girls were tops. Later, I realized that the lyrics indicate that girls in all parts of the country are special, and the Beach Boys wished that all of those wonderful girls would move to Calif.</p>

<p>I can’t believe that this is a thread on CC. I thought I was the only one who ever puzzled over those lyrics.</p>

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<p>It would be interesting to see if this statement is part of the Googleverse.</p>

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<p>According to my favorite band, the best girls were found outside of the US ;):</p>

<p>“Well the Ukraine girls really knock me out
They leave the West behind
And Moscow girls make me sing and shout…”</p>

<p>Ahh, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. Back to the original topic, I second Northstarmom. The Beach Boys finally got their wish - lots of great girls from all over the country are now flocking to CA’s great colleges!</p>

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<p>NSM is right. The song clearly extols the virtures of girls from all over the U.S. then laments that they can’t all be living in CA. It’s a really sweet song for that reason. </p>

<p>Actually, I often feel the same way about colleges and universities — so many delightful, intriguing, beguiling institutions all over the country. I wish they all could be CA colleges. (Or at least West Coast and closer to home.)</p>

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<p>jazzymom, ditto!</p>

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<p>OK, now I’m LOL thinking about “California Colleges”. Lyrics, anyone?</p>

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<p>I believe the Beatles song, Back in the USSR was meant to be a satire of California Girls.</p>

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<p>Back in the USSR is the best Beach Boys song ever.</p>

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Which kind of girls do you want to meet? Caltech girls or valley girls?</p>

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<p>Now I thought they they wished that the girls could come to CA to have their own wonderful attributes plus the CA girls stellar attributes</p>

<p>…“the girls are look so tan…”</p>

<p>So that the stylish East Coast girls could still be stylish but also tan and look great in a bikini. Just my take.</p>

<p>So that would be somewhere in between the two interpretations because the girls would be in CA but they would also be LIKE CA girls.</p>

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<p>Re: Back in the USSR – I don’t think it’s satire so much as homage, though silly homage. And here I mean silly as a compliment.</p>

<p>So much of the White Album is pastiche.</p>

<p>So, Pet Sounds produced Sgt. Pepper and Sgt. Pepper produced poor Brian Wilson’s nervous breakdown. The Beatles and the Beach Boys were singing to each other, absolutely.</p>

<p>And I agree with Curm. In their class, Beach Boys are tops. (Jan and Dean are pretty good too.)</p>

<p>I am glad CC takes up all the important cultural questions, not just the academic ones.</p>

<p>Inquiring minds do want to know.</p>

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<p>Nice work, jazzymom! I wouldn’t have thought that anyone could take this thread and make it relevant to CC. Maybe the moderators will have to move it over to a real forum now!</p>

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<p>Heh…I always figured it meant the songwriter lived in California and wished he could have ALL the nation’s cute girls in the same state with him.</p>

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<p>Shall we make it a multiple choice exam? (to refer to a recent poetry thread) :)</p>

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<p>In his 1984 interview with Playboy, McCartney said:</p>

<p>“ I wrote that as a kind of Beach Boys parody. And ‘Back in the USA’ was a Chuck Berry song, so it kinda took off from there. I just liked the idea of Georgia girls and talking about places like the Ukraine as if they were California, you know? It was also hands across the water, which I’m still conscious of. 'Cuz they like us out there, even though the bosses in the Kremlin may not. The kids do. And that to me is very important for the future of the race.[4]</p>

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<p>from the web

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<p>“(actually Mom of 2, I’ve often wondered if you were in CA or an indigenous Peruvian Mom of two :-)”</p>

<p>I had always read that as mom of 2 Inca :)</p>

<p>“Which kind of girls do you want to meet? Caltech girls or valley girls?”</p>

<p>There are other varieties you know…Northern California girls have beauty and the brains ;)</p>