California Dreamin'
The Mamas & the Papas Lyrics
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)
On a winter's day (on a winter's day)
I'd be safe and warm (I'd be safe and warm)
If I was in L.A. (if I was in L.A.)
California dreamin' (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day
I passed along the way
Well, I got down on my knees (got down on my knees)
And I pretend to pray (I pretend to pray)
You know the preacher like the cold (preacher like the cold)
He knows I'm gonna stay (knows I'm gonna stay)
California dreamin' (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is gray (and the sky is gray)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)
On a winter's day (on a winter's day)
If I didn't tell her (if I didn't tell her)
I could leave today (I could leave today)
California dreamin' (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: John Edmund Andrew Phillips, Michelle Gilliam Phillips
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
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California Dreamin' is a song by The Mamas & the Papas, first released in 1965. Celebrated as an anthem of West Coast hippy bliss, John Phillips wrote the song in a state of depression in 1964 after a cheerless winter's walk through New York's Central Park. It's a song not of joy, but of immense pain. The pain of wanting to be somewhere else.
The song is #89 in Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
The song is #89 in Rolling Stone's list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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Sara 47
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is grey (and the sky is grey)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)
On a winter's day (on a winter's day)
I'd be safe and warm (I'd be safe and warm)
If I was in L.A. (if I was in L.A.)
California dreamin' (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day
Stopped into a church
I passed along the way
Well, I got down on my knees (got down on my knees)
And I pretend to pray (I pretend to pray)
You know the preacher like the cold (preacher like the cold)
He knows I'm gonna stay (knows I'm gonna stay)
California dreamin' (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day
All the leaves are brown (all the leaves are brown)
And the sky is grey (and the sky is grey)
I've been for a walk (I've been for a walk)
On a winter's day (on a winter's day)
If I didn't tell her (if I didn't tell her)
I could leave today (I could leave today)
California dreamin' (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day (California dreamin')
On such a winter's day
Gerard O'Connor
@Woop Chicken The Truth about Cass Elliot
Getty Images / NBCUniversal / NBC
By: Anonymous
Published: 6 years ago
One of the most pervasive untruths of the celebrity world is the myth of how Cass Elliot died. The popularly repeated story, which asserts that she choked to death on a ham sandwich, pokes mean-spirited fun at the talented singer's weight and misses the tragedy of her early death at age 32. And, incidentally, it's a lie.
We're not the first ones to try to set the record straight about the ham sandwich story. But on Elliot's birthday, we'd like to join the crowd as another voice of reason and offer more truths about Elliot, in celebration of her too-short life and awesome talent.
Truth: A blow to the head did not improve her vocal range – she was always that good. Elliot claimed that she was only invited to be part of The New Journeymen (the band that was later to become the Mamas and the Papas) after she gained three notes at the top of her range – thanks to an unfortunate collision between a copper pipe and her head. In Elliot's version of the story, she had a headache for two weeks after the accident and then, miraculously, she was singing higher. She could then hit the notes in The New Journeymen's songs, and the rest was history.
Except that the story is highly suspect. Not only is the idea of a head wound opening up one's vocal range very unlikely; friends of Elliot and the rest of the group have since asserted that her range was just as impressive before the accident as it was after – there was no change. The real reason she was kept out of The New Journeymen, they say, wasn't a limited singing ability – it was her weight. She didn't fit band founder John Phillips's image for the group, so she wasn't asked to be a part of it (though she hung around with the band members quite a bit). Eventually, Phillips realized how fantastic her voice made their songs sound, and he got past her appearance and made her a band member. Elliot made up the pipe story to cover for her embarrassment and Phillips's prejudicial attitude.

Truth: She was to thank for the name "The Mamas and the Papas." After Elliot joined the group, The New Journeymen needed a new name. They tried The Magic Cyrcle, but they didn't particularly like it. One evening while the band was sitting around watching TV and thinking of names, they saw the Hell's Angels on a talk show. When one of them referred to female bikers as "Mamas," Elliot was electrified, jumping up and yelling, "Yeah! I want to be a Mama!" Michelle Phillips joined in, and Denny Doherty and John Phillips figured they could be the Papas, and thus a legendary name was born. With it came Elliot's enduring nickname, Mama Cass.
But don't call her Mama. Once her time with the band was done, Elliot embarked on a solo career under her own name. Some early solo recordings billed her as Mama Cass, but she became more and more frustrated with the moniker that wouldn't go away – to the point of titling her 1973 TV special "Don't Call Me Mama Anymore." And truly, we don't call Michelle Phillips "Mama Michelle" or Denny Doherty "Papa Denny" – so the sticky nickname starts to feel like yet another comment on Elliot's size. Let's stick with calling her Cass Elliot, as she wanted (even if Sammy Davis Jr. couldn't manage to introduce her that way).

Truth: She didn’t choke. The unfortunate story of Elliot’s cause of death was started by a careless coroner called to examine her. He saw a ham sandwich and a Coke on a table next to the bed where Elliot's body lay… and he jumped to a very quick conclusion, stating that Elliot, not displaying symptoms of any other sort of trauma, must have choked while eating and drinking lying down. The story jibed with the general impression of Elliot as gluttonous, so it stuck.
But that examiner missed one pretty crucial fact: the sandwich was untouched. The investigating police officer noted that in his report, and a full autopsy showed that the actual cause of Elliot's death was a heart attack. She hadn't choked on anything.
Jason Leslie
@lilorbie lilorbie the only social media Outlet I have is Facebook.
But that's mostly to keep in touch with a few friends and relatives.
I wonder if people would believe it if you tweeted that the world was flat😂.
But I'm sure you've heard of schools that have tried to use things like Facebook to overstepped their boundaries and suspend kids for doing activities off of school grounds, out of school hours involved things like hunting we're going to the shooting range with a relative. Many of the schools have gotten sued for doing that.
God help us all if the courts ever favored the school & not peoples rights away from school. You might,if possible, have more parents home schooling our kids.
But they've already tried it with the " video homeschooling" because of covid.
Karo -
My dad loved this song, he'd listen to it at night while enjoying a drink. He passed away yesterday morning and now I'm here at midnight, reminiscing, and missing him so much. I love you dad. Rest in peace 10.8.1951 - 22.12.2021.
Stang Schulmeister
May he rest in peace. Sorry for your loss.
Soph ach
R.I.P ❤❤❤
Basil II Makedonas
My condolences
ian docherty
A good innings to be fair. His legacy is quite clearly a good one. Much of the same here. 04/09/1954 - 21/10/2021
CS Wong
@Jack Sprat 😪
Harry Balls
The backing vocal harmonies over top of the suspended chords are so beautiful it almost makes you cry
solarisengineering15
@Guns N' Games That's too bad, I hope you're doing okay these days. That line always reminds me of going to church with my family (some of them are religious, me not so much though I went out of tradition.) There's a disconnect there in experiencing the same thing but assigning totally different significance to it that haunts me.
Fábio Silva
A melhor música
UnexpectedWonder
Indeed.