I won't be turning on my mic, but I will be making notes about much of what I'm playing right here... starting with the fact that I was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the city Bob Hope grew up in, Arsenio Hall and Drew Carey came from and Dennis Kucinich never left...

So we begin on the banks of the Cuyahoga River...

Frankie Yankovic - Cleveland The Polka Town
... Among other things, Cleveland IS a Polka Town... It must be noted that Frankie Yankovic and Weird Al Yankovic (who you will hear later) are not related...

Drew Carey - Original Theme to The Drew Carey Show (Moon Over Parma)
Presidents Of The United States of America - Cleveland Rocks
... The evolution of Cleveland, as Drew Carey's sitcom adopted the Presidents' version of the Ian Hunter song later in its run...

Jefferson Starship - Stairway To Cleveland
Crosby Stills Nash And Young - Ohio
... Kent State University is about 30 miles from downtown Cleveland...

Television's Greatest Hits - Route 66 Theme
Tex Beneke - St. Louis Blues March
Steely Dan - East St. Louis Toodle-Oo
... In 1961, my father was promoted and transfered to 'the L.A. office', so we packed up the car and headed west, joining Route 66 in St. Louis and following the historic highway the rest of the way...

Nat King Cole - Route 66
Weird Al - Albuquerque
... one of the few places on the long trip I still remember was Albuquerque, mostly because 5-year-old me liked the name... (This totally self-indulgent magnum-opera is not the last you'll hear from Weird Al, or, more accurately, Alfred Yankovic)

BTW, when I saw Weird Al performing live in San Luis Obispo, he performed this song...

Depeche Mode - Route 66 (Beatmasters Mix)
Spike Jones & His City Slickers - Barstool Cowboy From Old Barstow
The Mountain Goats - San Bernardino
... crossing the border into California through a couple of the towns mentioned in the Route 66 song... (yes, more Mountain Goats later) ... Next up, a bunch of songs celebrating California...

Led Zeppelin - Going To California
The Mamas & The Papas - California Dreamin'
Deanna Durbin & Robert Paige - Californ-i-ay
... "free avocados for everyone", how can you beat that?

The Rivieras - California Sun
The Beach Boys - California Girls
Tupac Shakur - California Love
Lesley Gore - California Nights
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

... Okay, now we're coming into L.A...

Arlo Guthrie - Coming Into Los Angeles
Lyle Lovett - L.A. County

... having come to L.A. from the East/MidWest, it was inevitable my middle-class whitebread atomic family would move in to the San Fernando Valley...
Bing Crosby - San Fernando Valley
The Flying Burrito Brothers - San Fernando Road
The Cars - Panorama
... not really what this song is about, but as a grown-up married responsible adult I lived for a few years in the Valley communication called "Panorama City"... which was a lot less beautiful a place as the name suggests...

...in fact, I lived less than a mile from where the Galleria referred to in this song was being constructed... 'Valley Talk' hadn't developed into its own language yet, OMIGAWD! ...
Frank Zappa (with Moon Unit Zappa) - Valley Girl

The Doors - L.A. Woman

Randy Newman - I Love L.A.
... I can't let this pass without mentioning for the umpteenthousanth time when I was getting a ride to the airport (for unhappy family business) and realized I was on Imperial Highway in a convertible driven by a woman co-worker who could be described as a 'big nasty redhead', thus achieving Randy Newman's ironic/iconic L.A. Lifestyle...

Boz Scaggs - Hollywood
Steely Dan - West of Hollywood
... I've lived in the West Los Angeles community of Palms, which was several miles further west of Hollywood than West Hollywood, in North Hollywood and in Studio City, which is between Hollywood and North Hollywood...

The George Garabedian Players with the Awful Trumpet of Harry Arms - Hooray For Hollywood
Counting Crows - A Long December
The Kinks - Celluloid Heroes
... so much for Hollywood, let's now visit some other L.A. suburbs...

(this musical trip has grown like Audrey the Plant in Little Shop of Horrors... we should reach our destination in about an hour...)

Felix Figueroa and his Orchestra - Pico and Sepulveda
... I worked for several years a few blocks from this famous intersection, best known among the locals as the location of Anawalt Lumber...

Jan & Dean - Little Old Lady From Pasadena
Weezer - Beverly Hills
Weird Al - Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies
Kay Kyser & his Orchestra - When Veronica Plays the Harmonica
... I first discovered this song while going through my parents' collection of 78s... it was the flip side to Kay Kyser's version of "The Woody Woodpecker Song"...

...it must be noted that I have never seen a little old lady driving a hot rod in Pasadena, a hillbilly in Beverly Hills (but during a field trip to a TV studio in Hollywood, I saw Irene "Granny" Ryan in makeup from 20-30 yards away) and most of the harmonica players in Santa Monica are NOT named Veronica...

... okay, now we start to get into the negatives...
X - Los Angeles

Albert Hammond - It Never Rains In Southern California
Spike Jones - It Never Rains in Sunny California
... actually with all the drought years in the last decade, the old boast has gotten (sadly) much truer...

Parker Brothers -Your California
Propellerheads - Take California
The Eagles - Hotel California
... yeah, you knew we'd have to check in there sooner or later..

...but if you're getting out of L.A., there are worse routes than the Ventura Freeway, which that wacky America band decided needed a cooler name for their song...
America - Ventura Highway
... in fact, I lived for more than 15 years a block or less away from the Ventura Freeway portion of Highway 101, and am now 180 miles away, but I can still see the 101 from my front door...

Albert Hammond - 99 Miles From L.A
...and 99 miles from L.A. will put you at the south/east end of Santa Barbara...

...so now we arrive at my new home, San Luis Obispo, and the original inspiration for this set, an odd little rarity from "Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes". If you didn't know, Weird Al Yankovic attended Cal Poly University here in "SLO Town", where he recorded his first 'Dr. Demento Hit', "My Balogna", at the college radio station... actually in the Mens Room down the hall for the acoustics. And he also did this tongue-in-cheek song for a local tourist promotion, without accordion OR 'Weird' designation... yes, it's really him...
Alfred Yankovic - Take Me Down

The Mountain Goats - Dance Music
...another musical artist associated with San Luis Obispo is John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats, although his family moved out of the area at almost the same age MY family moved out of Cleveland...

Ted Wulfers - San Luis Obispo
...and finally, a brand new song that really does speak well of this area, from a country-folk-rock singer-songwriter's album of mostly Christmas music (HUH?!?) titled "What Would Santa Do?" But hey, who expects anything simple or straightforward these days? Still, if I have my way, Ted Wulfers will become the Jimmy Buffett of the Central California Coast...

What more can I say? Good night, and good tunes...

Shit sorry I missed this.

I listened to this all day while packing and I loved it.

This will absolutely be repeated in its entirety (since I ended up putting so much attention into it); I'm tentatively reserving a big hairy timeslot tomorrow evening @ 7PM Pacific.