anonymous 2007-05-19 15:51:38    

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I think this song is about California where most movies and music are made, are in a way brain warping the world because all over the world people look at these movies and this lifestyle and take to it ."Little girls from Sweden
Dream of silver screen quotations
And if you want these kind of dreams
It's Californication"

anonymous 2007-06-14 23:26:12    

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Well I think that this is about the life in hollywood and what califoria has to offer.

anonymous 2007-06-21 00:12:09    

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I believe that this song is entitled "Californication" yes to combine the two words, but more importantly to show the two things most "important" to Americans today...sex and a the influence celebrities have on us. It is saying that California is not all it's cracked up to be- but not the state...the state of mind. When they talk about space being made in a Hollywood basement they're saying that humans are so advanced that we can now do something that before only God could create. Everyone builds up the glamorous life until they realize that it will only destroy us. As for that sun- rising in the east-- that represents the beginning of civilization...if it sets in the west being California, that means- ok, civilization will end with this life that we're creating, but that's ok at least we'll go out glamorous. I dunno....I think it just has to do with how celebrities and the media have so vastly influenced and changed our lives. It's fitting then that California be the state used....then again, it's only in every other Chili Pepper song created ever.

anonymous 2007-06-22 22:21:34    

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Ok... Really it is say that california is fake in every way the people, the movies, just to name a few. And " A tennage bride with a baby inside" is about Dain California the girl who was in By The Way and Dain California.

anonymous 2007-06-22 22:26:55    

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Also "the sun may rise in the east at least it settles in a finer location" is saying that California is an ok place better the the east coast and it doesn't have to set in Hollywood

anonymous 2007-07-05 16:23:28    

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Guy earlier mentioned Californication being from a bumper sticker and explained the meaning of the sticker. I interpret the bumper sticker and the title of the song to be very similar in meaning. "Californication" is the process of becoming California-like rather than the common Cali - fornication (Sex) interpretation. I live outside of the US and have never heard of the bumper sticker, I just always interpreted the title of the song this way. -ation is a suffix used often for this purpose. Anyway, that's just how I always interpreted the title.

anonymous 2007-07-15 18:35:38    

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Alright first off who ever said it is about Dani California is partly right,but not 100 percent. Californication is talking about how superficial Hollywood is. Dani California is mentioned "teenage bride,with a baby inside getting high on information",but the song isn't entirely based on her.

anonymous 2007-08-22 19:02:44    

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I think you all have good points but I believe he says about how Hollywood infects people's life and how they try to be like the Hollywood stars. Since cheating is similar to fornication and because hollywood is in california he puts those words together making californication... That's it I think.

anonymous 2007-09-03 16:56:44    

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Uhh its obviously about the California way of life, space may be the final frontier but its made in a Hollywood basement, that's about the whole U.S going to the moon being a hoax, hardcore soft porn is about the pornography business in California,

It’s the edge of the world
And all of western civilization
The sun may rise in the east
At least it settles in a final location.

^^ This means the sun rises first in new york, and in the eastern u.s and it sets last in California

Earthquakes, Pay your surgeon very well to break the spell of aging, that's about plastic surgery there's so many examples

anonymous 2007-09-25 11:03:01    

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I think it is more than clear that Californication is a perfect picture of the global effects of capitalism. The progressive loss of criticism, the tendency to buy any innecessary object that is presented to us ("It's understood that Hollywood sells Californication","pay your surgeon very well to brake the spell of aging" ). In addition to that, it also shows the fascination that the system (in order to survive) creates towards what it can produce ("space may be the final frontier but its made in a hollywood basement"). Nowadays, fashion is more relevant (or it is given more relevancy by the media) than the fact that a million people have died in the Iraq invasion or that half of the world's population lives in unacceptable conditions. The distance poles between the richest and the poorest is growing bigger every hour. But still, here we are, those who work defending the interests of the big companies, why?
"Born and raised by those who praise
Control of population everybody's been there and
I don't mean on vacation"

anonymous 2007-10-24 19:53:15    

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What is the part about first born unicorns?

anonymous 2007-10-25 00:32:45    

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Ok I think it's about how people around the world are looking at California as a great land of opportunity. The other idea is that the leaders in California are so independent from the rest of the world that they have their own separate ways of life. (note in the beginning of the video that California is its own island)

anonymous 2007-11-02 13:44:14    

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First of all, yeah, the band later realized that the fictional character Dani California may have something to do with the song, at the time they wrote it, she didnt. Music is a form of art, and you can't understand art unless you understand the artist and the way that they were feeling about the world at the time they created their piece of artwork. Also, this song, in my opinion is the greatest song in the world because it discusses the main problems with the world in a poetic, beautiful, and metaphoric way. With that being said, let us take the lyrics line upon line:

We must begin with the title of the song. As many of you have mentioned, it is a mashup of the words California and fornication. But what many of you have failed to notice is that the word is not Californication. This is very important. It puts the stress on fornication, where it belongs. California also does not refer to California as a whole, because, why would the Chillies knock on their hometown state? No, instead it is referring to Hollywood because, when we think of California, what do we really think of? We think of the idiot celebs living there in Hollywood. (as a side note, the Chillies themselves are celebs, something that they adress later in the song). Now, the word fornication does not refer to the act of fornication itself, per se, but it could. Instead what it is metaphorically referring to is the overall lifestyle of Hollywood. Because of the popularity of blockbuster movies and other such things, modern celebrities have achieved an iconic, almost Godlike status in our society. They can have whatever they want, and more importantly they can do whatever they want. Everyday we hear about something that some idiot celebrity did (mocking an entire minority group, shaving their head bald, denying things that everyone already knows to be true...) This is their lifestyle, and more importantly, they don't even care how much they are destroying their lives. But the beauty of Californication is not pointing out this simple fact because we already know this. But the reason that Californication is so awesome is because it tells us that this lifestyle is, through movies, television, and the internet, spreading everyone, young and old alike beginning to think that they, like these celebrities can simply throw their lives away in exchange for endless partying.

"Psychic spies from China

Try to steal your minds elation"

Picture a little girl sitting in front of a television. She is watching a show involving spies from China. On the show, they are uncovering secret plans from the US government or whatever, that part doesn't really matter. But what the show is really doing is not stealing the US's plans, but the mind of that little girl. For those of you who don't know how to use a dictionary, "elation" means great happiness. While that little girl is watching that television program, she believes that she is happy because it is relaxing and she knows that tomorrow at school, everyone will be talking about it, and she will be able to chime in, making her more popular and thus happier. But this is not the real feeling that we get from television. Really, our brains are rotting, and more importantly, we are letting somebody elses thoughts get into our brains. In this case, it is the producers, writers, directors, and editors thoughts creeping into this little girls brain in the form of the actors portraying the part of Chinese spies.

"Little girls from Sweden

Dream of silver screen quotations"
This is just explaining the above scene that I have already depicted for you. All that this little girl can think of is these words that these spies are saying. First of all, that only impounds the message the the director and so forth are trying to send to her even more in her head. But also, she is slowly learning that this is the ideal. Whoever the actor is has a dream job. He says a few lines in a recording studio and then goes out and parties for six days. This is a slow learning process and not something that happens all at once.

"And if you want these kind of dreams

It's Californication"
This is just the Chillies introduction to the rest of the song. Chilling. Creepy.

"It's the edge of the world

And all of western civilization"
This is referring to the geographical location of Hollywood itself. How much more western than Hollywood can you get? Also, it is the height of our western ideals. Ever since socrates spoke out and Julius Caesar took over a nation, our European ancestors and ourselves have always valued self advancement. We are out there living our lives mostly for the sake of being noticed by others. I have a shiny car and a huge house-this is just our symbolic way of saying to the world LOOK AT ME! Nowhere on the planet is this more prevalent than Hollywood. It almost seems as if the Paris Hiltons and Brittany Spearses of the world are as stupid as they are on purpose for the sake of getting more attention. It is saddening but true

"The sun may rise in the East

At least it settles in the final location"
This refers to two things. First of all, as mentioned above, western civilization as we know it began in ancient Greece. To most of us, that is far away in the EAST. Now that we have all moved west, the "final location" for western civilization is Hollywood. The other thing that this refers to is Hollywood sunsets. Think of old westerns where the cowboy rides off into the sunset. That sunset is painted. The sun in that painting will never rise nor set anymore. It is in its final location.

"It's understood that Hollywood

sells Californication"
Our first direct reference to Hollywood

"Pay your surgeon very well

To break the spell of aging"
One way to get yourself notices is to look fantastic. But we are mortal humans, so we age, and as we do, we look less and less fantastic. So what do rich celebrities do? Plastic surgery. Unfortunately, it is not just celebrities participating in this unfortunated tradition of masking your humanity. Typical housewives will blow their lifes savings on plastic surgery. It is unfortunate

"Celebrity skin is this your chin

Or is that war your waging"
First of all, "chin" does not refer to the bottom of your face. It is talking about China, once again, and your deep, personal desires. Secondly, this refers to the inner battle in, say, a typical housewife, who does not particularly want to cave to the social pressures of looking young and beatiful all of her life. I am certain that she would be just as happy to have a loving husband and children. But consider her thought process: if I look worse, my husband might cheat on me, my children will be embarrassed to be with me in public, etc. So she does cave and gets her plastic surgery.

I am out of time for today. Maybe sometime in the near future I can continue to educate you all on the true meanings of this song.

anonymous 2007-11-07 09:47:14    

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Alderon is a planet in the Star Wars movies. He is saying that the film studio or whatever isn't far away (becaue they are in Hollywood, where movies are filmed and whatever), but actually, the Star Wars movies were filmed in New Zealand

anonymous 2007-11-14 13:44:44    

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I'm the guy with the huge post before, and I don't really have time, but I have to correct something I wrote. When I was talking about the title of the song, I meant to type that it is not called Californiacation. Maybe that was edited out, but it's very important to the rest of my essay.

anonymous 2007-12-10 18:48:37    

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The word Californication means "when a western civilization influences another place"

I think this song is about how California influences the world..i agree about this..b because we are in the west n he talks of how everyone dreams of being in California and being famous and popular. It shows how fake people can be just to get to be famous.

anonymous 2008-02-04 17:06:47    

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I think the song is talking about how obsessed everyone had become with California and Hollywood, and how it isn't as great as it seems.

anonymous 2008-05-22 15:55:07    

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Californication is about how new ideas are spreading through the world primarily starting in Hollywood (like in movies and such) reducing cultural taboos on subjects (like sex, etc.)

BFSSSS 2008-05-25 00:24:00    

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This is pretty much about how california is everywhere, they're trying to explain that everybody looks at cali like a good place but is destroing the world in ways that anyone notice.and is not a sexual reference. "Californication" is really just the act of the world being affected and saturated by the art and the culture being born and raised in california.

well only that.