California Kids

"California Kids" is the lead track on eponymous White Album. The song was first released as "California" (Japanese: カリフォルニア), a standalone single by pop/rock duo Scott & Rivers (consisting of Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo and Scott Murphy of the band ) on iTunes in December of 2014. The song was later reworked in English as "California Kids", for inclusion on The White Album in 2016. A new recording of the original Japanese song was later released under the title "California Sunshine" (Japanese: カリフォルニア サンシャイン) on Scott & Rivers' sophomore album, Nimaime, in 2017.
===Appearances===
*"California" (digital single) (2014)
*Weezer (The White Album) (2016)
*Spotify Sessions (2016)
*Nimaime (2017)
==Overview==
"California Kids" was co-written by Rivers Cuomo with songwriter Dan Wilson (of the band ). Wilson previously collaborated with Cuomo on the song "Ruling Me" from Weezer's 2010 album, Hurley. The phrase "California kids" was inspired by Cuomo spending time on the beach in Santa Barbara with his family and being struck by the realization that his children were growing up in California and how that contrasts with his East Coast upbringing in Connecticut."Guest DJ: Weezer's Rivers Cuomo" All Things Considered 10 May 2016. https://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/05/10/477368704/guest-dj-weezers-rivers-cuomo
In early 2015, Cuomo told fans that an English version of "California" was being considered for inclusion in the pilot episode of DeTour, a television series—loosely based on Cuomo's life—pitched by creator for the Fox network in 2015. Though the show was not picked up and did not air, the pilot (which leaked online in 2023) features the song (within the diegesis of the show), performed acoustically by series protagonist Michael Sturges ().
"California Kids" was the only song kept from a group of 235 demos that Cuomo and producer Jake Sinclair listened to in early 2015 when beginning work on what would become The White Albumsee Wannabeezer, and it was the inspiration for the album's "beach/nautical theme." The lyrics feature a "pack of heroic slackers," according the the album's iTunes description. The song was accidentally made available for streaming on Apple Music in the US on February 25, 2016 and shared among the fan community before it was taken down again by Apple. 
"California Kids," performed live and acoustically, was released on the band's Spotify Sessions EP in 2016.
==Reception==
The song received a middling review from Teenage Victory Songs, representing the moderately positive reception that band's more diehard fan base has shown the song. NPR ranked the song as the 55th best song of 2016.NPR. "Top 100 Songs of 2016" https://apps.npr.org/best-music-2016/list/top-songs/
==Video/Audio==
The music video was directed by SCANTRON and Jade Ehlers and premiered on YouTube on March 9, 2016.
<youtube>GMeu0ZubufU</youtube>
===Scott & Rivers===
<youtube>DG6LxGy8kpE</youtube>
==Personnel==
===Weezer===
*Rivers Cuomo – guitar, lead vocals
*Patrick Wilson – percussion
*Brian Bell – guitar, backing vocals
*Scott Shriner - bass guitar, backing vocals
===Scott & Rivers===
==Lyrics==
<tabber>
|-|California Kids=
When you wake up
Cobwebs on your eyelids
Stuck in rigor mortis
Just get going
Till you hit the ocean
And you turn Californian
You don't have to have the answers
Don't you worry, don't you worry
It's gonna be alright
If you're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw you a lifeline
And if you're up all night
Thinking 'bout something you did
The California kids
Will show you the sunshine
In your bare feet
In mid-January
Swimming in the mystery
Second guessing almost everything
Don't you worry, don't you worry
It's gonna be alright
If you're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw you a lifeline
And if you're up all night
Thinking 'bout something you did
The California kids
Will show you the starlight
All your old friends
Chilling back in Boston
You never forgot them
It's gonna be alright
If you're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw you a lifeline
And if you're up all night
Thinking 'bout something you did
The California kids
Will show you the sunshine
The California kids
Will show you the starlight
|-|California/California Sunshine (JP)=
ため息　凍る窓に　白い世界
遠くに　海を仰ぎ　カリフォルニアに
見えない　ゆく未来　不安を　ぬぐうと
It's gonna be alright　沈みかけても
カリフォルニアの　陽を浴びたら
くじけそうで　眠れない日も
カリフォルニアの　そこにサンシャイン
真冬に　素足でビーチ　まわるフリスビー
水際　波たてば　潮風　ふきつけて
It's gonna be alright　沈みかけても
カリフォルニアの　陽を浴びたら
くじけそうで　眠れない日も
カリフォルニアの　そこにサンシャイン
誰にも　わからなくても　僕だけの場所
It's gonna be alright　沈みかけても
カリフォルニアの　陽を浴びたら
くじけそうで　眠れない日も
カリフォルニアの　そこにサンシャイン
カリフォルニアの　そこにサンシャイン
ショー　ミー　ザ　サンシャイン
|-|California/California Sunshine (ENG)=
Translation courtesy of AllThingsWeezer user Swede
Intro:
My breath freezes on the window, the world is white (i.e. snowing outside)
Verse:
Looking across the ocean, far away, to California
An unseen future to clear away anxiety
Chorus:
It's gonna be alright, even if you're about to sink,
if you bathe in the California sun
Even on days when I can't sleep
there is sunshine in California
Verse:
A frisbee's spinning while we're barefoot on the beach in the middle of winter
The waves roll in at the water's edge, the sea breeze blows
Bridge:
A place just for me that no one else knows
Outro:
Show me the sunshine
|-|DeTour Pilot=
When you wake up
Cobwebs on your eyelids
The audience is waiting
You don't want to
Fake another moment
Sometimes you can try too hard
You don't have to have the answers
Don't you worry, there's no worry
It's gonna be alright
If we're on a sinking ship
The California kids
Will throw us a lifeline
And if we're up all night
Thinking 'bout something we did
The California kids
Will show us the sunshine
...
Thinking 'bout something we did
The California kids
Will throw us a lifeline
</tabber>
==Known recordings==
==See also==
*List of Weezer songs
*List of Rivers Cuomo songs
*Scott & Rivers
==References==
Category:Scott & Rivers songs
Category:Weezer songs
Category:Rivers Cuomo songs
Category:Songs on Weezer (The White Album)
Category:Weezer songs produced by Jake Sinclair
Category:Allmusic track picks
Category:Songs on Spotify Sessions
Category:Songs on Nimaime
Category:Songs in languages other than English
Category:Co-writing credit