California (Mylène Farmer song)

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“California”
Single by Mylène Farmer from the album Anamorphosée
Released	March 26, 1996
Format	CD single CD maxi 12" maxi Digital download (since 2005)
Recorded	1995
Genre	Pop
Length	3:58 (single version) 4:59 (album version)
Label	Polydor
Writer(s)	Text : Mylène Farmer Music : Laurent Boutonnat
Producer	Laurent Boutonnat
Mylène Farmer singles chronology
"L'Instant X" (1995) "California" (1996) "Comme j'ai mal" (1996) Alternate covers CD single - Digipack CD maxi - Germany Anamorphosée track listing "California" (1) "Vertige" (2) Live à Bercy track listing "Vertige" (2) "California" (3) "Que mon cœur lâche" (4) Music Videos II track listing "L'Instant X" (3) "California" (4) "Comme j'ai mal" (5) Mylenium Tour track listing "Dessine-moi un mouton" (3) "California" (4) "Pas le temps de vivre" (5) Music Videos II & III track listing "L'Instant X" (3) "California" (4) "Comme j'ai mal" (5) Les Mots track listing "Les Mots" (1) "California" (2) "XXL" (3) RemixeS track listing "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" (7) "California" (8) "Libertine" (9) Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy track listing "Dans les rues de Londres" (4) "California" (5) "Porno graphique" (6)

"California" is a 1995 song recorded by the French artist Mylène Farmer. Third single from her fourth studio album, Anamorphosée, the song was released on March 26, 1996.

[edit] Background, writing and release

Farmer wanted to release "California", one of the most daring songs of the album, from the marketing of Anamorphosée. However, it was released many months after, as the third single, but was widely aired on radio. Many fans regard this song as one of the most emblematic of Farmer.^[1]

Among the different media for this single, there was a CD single distributed in a limited triptych digipack edition, and a CD maxi containing 6 titles - this one is the only CD maxi in Farmer's career still for sale because, given the number of tracks, it is referenced by Universal as a "mini-album" and is re-edited. "California" was also released in Germany with a new white cover. Regarding the various remixes, they are the result of collaboration between Laurent Boutonnat / Bertrand Châtenet ('LAPD remix' and 'wandering club mix'), and various American DJs : Niki Gasolino & Peter Parker, Nils Ruzicka, and Ramon Zenker.^[1]

The song is available on Anamorphosée in its original version, and on the best of Les Mots in the shorter radio version. It should be noted that, surprisingly, the song is placed at the beginning of the second CD, just before "XXL" and "L'Instant X", which doesn't comply with the chonological order. The song was also performed at the time of the 1996 tour in a remixed techno version ('Wandering mix'), and in a calmer version during the 2000 and 2006 tours.^[2] Therefore, the song features on the live albums Live à Bercy, Mylenium Tour and Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy. It was also remixed in 2003 by Romain Tranchart and Rawman for the compilation RemixeS.

[edit] Lyrics and music

"California" is the only song from the album Anamorphosée to refer to the singular name of the latter and was the second Farmer's song with an English title, after "Beyond My Control".^[3] The song begins with different sounds evoking the street : a door that slams, an English voice in a loudspeaker, a siren of an ambulance. Farmer then referred to her desire to live in America to make a new start in her life.^{[4] [5]} The song has a "nagging rhythm" and "Anglo-Saxon sonorities".^[6]

It is a song with a highly elegant vocabulary where alternate puns and lyrics in French and English ; it is a clear tribute to California. There are many literary references : for example, the phrase "Vienne la nuit et sonne l'heure et moi je meurs / Entre apathie et pesanteur où je demeure" alluded to the French poem Le Pont Mirabeau, written by Guillaume Apollinaire, in which there is the verse "Vienne la nuit sonne l'heure / Les jours s'en vont je demeure".^[2]

[edit] Music video

Mylène Farmer as the rich woman in her car in the video "California".

Mylène Farmer as the prostitute in the video "California".

The video was directed by the American movie screenwriter and director Abel Ferrara. Farmer had contacted him after seeing his film on a similar theme, Snake Eyes, with Madonna.^[7] She wrote the screenplay in collaboration with him. The video, a 5:18 Requiem Publishing production which cost about 200,000 euros (600,000 according to another source^[8]), was shot for three days and two nights in Los Angeles (Sunset Boulevard). The man who plays Farmer's lover is the American actor Giancarlo Esposito, and these are real prostitutes who appear in the video.^[9]

At the beginning of the video, a young and rich couple (Farmer and Esposito) is preparing to attend a reception where they are invited. Meanwhile, a prostitute and a pimp (also played by Farmer and Esposito) are violently quarrelling. In her car, the rich woman looks the prostitutes on the sidewalk and then sees her double threatened with a knife by her pimp who eventually murdered her. After the society reception, the rich woman gets bored and therefore goes to the toilet where she disguises herself as a prostitute and joined those outside. She makes love with the pimp and savagely killed him to avenge the murdered prostitute.^{[10] [11] [12]}

The first images of the video were published by the French magazine Voici which had managed to acquire illegally some shots during the filming.^[2] In an interview on Paris Première in 1996, Farmer explained that the video, which was analyzed on Arte in July 2002, doesn't reflect her perception of California, adding : "It is a little caricature I would say. It is still polarized or focused on prostitution. Los Angeles is not only prostitution. […] I always wanted to play a prostitute and I admit that for "California", it is spontaneously comes. And so I called Abel Ferrara who often evokes prostitution in his films".^[13] This was the last time that Marianne Rosensthiel photographed Farmer during the shooting. The video was aired for the first time on March 20, 1996, on M6.^{[14] [15]}

[edit] Chart and TV performances

"California" was performed (in playback) by Farmer in a single TV show : "Les Années tube", broadcast on TF1 on May 18, 1996. At this occasion, the singer used a lascivious choreography and she also sang "Sans contrefaçon".^[16]

In France, the song debuted at number 7, its peak position, on May 30, 1996. It kept on dropping the seven weeks after but regained 16 places the two followings weeks. After that, the song began again to fall but rather slowly, and managed to remain in the Top 50 for 17 weeks. It was the third best-selling single from Anamorphosée.^[17] The song was also one of the most aired on radio in 1996^[18] and was ranked #63 on the End of the Year Chart.^[19]

In Belgium (Wallonia), the single had great difficulty staying several weeks in a row on the Ultratop 40 Singles Chart, after its first appearition on May 4, 1996. Indeed, it re-entered then four times and reached number 22, on August 3, which was nonetheless the worst peak position of the five singles from the album Anamorphosée. It left the chart on September 7, after 14 weeks of attendance^[20] and was the 86th best-selling single of 1996.^[21]

[edit] Cover

In 2004, Cedric, an unknown singer who participated in a programme on the radio station NRJ, covered the song in a R&B version. It was not released as a single.^[4]

[edit] Formats and track listings

[edit] Versions

Official versions

Unofficial mentionable fan remixes^[22]

• Kalifornia suicide mix (4:32)
• Non-hysteria mix (5:24)
• Quaalude mix (6:20)

[edit] Credits and personnel

• Text : Mylène Farmer
• Music : Laurent Boutonnat
• Editions : Requiem Publishing
• Photograph : Claude Gassian
• Design : Com'N.B

[edit] Charts, certifications and sales