The title track of this Red Hot Chilli Peppers album has some odd lyrics about Bowie and Kurt Cobain.

I was wondering who might have interpretations with regard to these lyrics or the song in general.

Psychic spies from China
Try to steal your mind’s elation
Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations
And if you want these kind of dreams
It’s Californication
It’s the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the East
At least it settles in the final location
It’s understood that Hollywood
Sells Californication

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Celebrity skin is this your chin
Or is that war your waging

Chorus:
First born unicorn
Hard core soft porn
Dream of Californication
Dream of Californication

Marry me girl be my fairy to the world
Be my very own constellation
A teenage bride with a baby inside
Getting high on information
And buy me a star on the boulevard
It’s Californication

Space may be the final frontier
But it’s made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon’s not far away
It’s Californication

Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody’s been there and
I don’t mean on vacation

Chorus

Destruction leads to a very rough road
But it also breeds creation
And earthquakes are to a girl’s guitar
They’re just another good vibration
And tidal waves couldn’t save the world
From Californication

Pay your surgeon very well
To break the spell of aging
Sicker than the rest
There is no test
But this is what you’re craving

Chorus


Bowie in Australia 2004 | Join the Community

In reply to:

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Space may be the final frontier
But it’s made in a Hollywood basement
Cobain can you hear the spheres
Singing songs off station to station
And Alderon’s not far away
It’s Californication

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The way I see this verse:

Space figures heavily in Bowie's music but it's suggested as a fabrication (made in a Hollywood basement).

The spheres might refer to either celestial spheres (planets, stars, etc) or spheres as in power, control, influence and in the latter case, Cobain is influenced by Bowie.

Now Alderon is the doomed planet from Star Wars and it's 'not to far away'.

It's about to explode just like Cobain.



Bowie in Australia 2004 | Join the Community

It's Alderan actually...

I bear more grudges
than lonely high court judges

I thought it was Alderaan?

Believe everything I say,especially the lies.

This song, along with Under the Bridge, are the best songs the Chili Peppers have ever done.

I don't think the reference to space is Bowie-related at all. By saying it was fabricated in a "Hollywood basement," the reference is clearly to various conspiracy-buff theories that the moon walk never happened on the moon, but was filmed in Hollywood to dupe the public.

I think the reference to Kurt Cobain is due to the fact that the perils of fame, wealth and stardom hastened his demise. Cobain was clearly unhappy being what he had become, and he destroyed himself in the desperation to get away from the image he felt he had to uphold and the pressures of success. By asking Cobain if he can "hear the spheres singing songs off Station to Station," perhaps Keidis is wondering out loud whether Cobain might have escaped his lowest point if he just didn't give in to it and take his life. Bowie's life was in disarray around the time of Station to Station, yet somehow he survived it--he used his music to expell all the pain, anger, insecurity, and pain that Cobain ended with suicide. As Brian Eno once told Bowie, "music is where you can crash your plane and walk away from it." So Bowie used his art to express his dispair--to experiment, and whether the experiment worked or failed, he could walk away from it to experiment another day. Cobain was not placated by channeling his pain into his art, and thus walked away from life itself.

But then when Keidis closes the verse about Cobain and Station to Station with "And Alderan’s not far away, it’s Californication," he seems to be expressing a very glass-is-half-empty view. In the end, even if artists deal with their pain through their art, the "doomed planet" is still not far away. But this time the doomed planet is Earth. It's going to Hell in a handbasket--and taking all of its people (artists included) with it.

zigbot

In 1976, Bowie was indeed at a similar stage of self-destruction to that of Cobain.

Although I am not sure whether Bowie necessarily 'used' his music to work through his problems, Station to Station does contain his spiritual healing song (Word on a Wing).

So all things considered, yes this does seem like a pretty logical period for Keidis to cite in reference to Cobain.

What initially threw me was the references to space and spheres (which is more of a Ziggy thing than STS).



Bowie in Australia 2004 | Join the Community

Dude, it seems that my geek days are over.

I bear more grudges
than lonely high court judges

That's what you get from helping out a laby girl.

Arse-licking Christ, false Christ, little self-hatred Christ, Sex Christ, Death, dumb and blind Christ, Hanging in a garden shed Christ, Anorexic Christ, Idiot Christ

In reply to:

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What initially threw me was the references to space and spheres (which is more of a Ziggy thing than STS).

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You know, before I really spent a lot of time listening to this album, I thought it refered to space stations, though that is not supported at all if one listens with any amount of intelligence.

GDE
get dukewhite to Europe
Twelve just wasn't enough!

It makes more sense (to me) that the Space/ basement lines are a reference to Star Trek, as a picture of a more or less idylic human future that is in truth completely fabricated, while Alderan and the rather self destructive humanity of Star Wars are closer to what's real.

"You won't eat our meat, but you glue with our feet."