Shores of California

"Shores of California" is the third single by The Dresden Dolls duo, taken from the second studio album Yes, Virginia....

Personnel

• Amanda Palmer - piano, vocals, lyricist, composer, songwriter
• Brian Viglione - drums, guitar

Music video

The music video for this single parodies the video^[1] for David Lee Roth's version of "California Girls". It featured Amanda Palmer, Kelly, David J (an original member of the band Bauhaus), Margaret Cho, Jason Webley, as well as the The Dresden Dolls's Dirty Business Brigade and other fans that had been encouraged to take part in a band newsletter that was released prior to production. The music video was directed by Andrew Bennett of Shoe String Concert Videos^[2] and produced by Frank Caridi. On the official video on YouTube, it should noted that Brian was not available on the day of filming, which explains his absence from the video.

Lyrical references

The final line of the first chorus refers to protozoa "climb[ing] onto the shores of California": protozoa are single-celled organisms in the same plant kingdom as algae and certain types of non-fungal mould.

The song's lyrics include the lines "That's the way Aristophanes and Homer / Wrote 'The Iliad' and 'Lysistrata'." Aristophanes and Homer were Ancient Greek writers, a dramatist and poet respectively. Despite the ordering of the lyrics, it was Aristophanes who wrote Lysistrata, and Homer who wrote The Iliad. The Dresden Dolls' official lyrics page notes this by adding to the line in the lyrics: "That's the way Aristophanes and Homer / Wrote 'The Iliad' and 'Lysistrata'.(Not In That Order)"

Notes

External links

• Watch "Shores of California" on YouTube
• Watch "Shores of California": The Making of on YouTube
• Video Static's review
• The Dresden Dolls official site including lyrics and downloads