"in california" is a song written and performed by Bill Wurtz. It was released on May 30, 2017. "in california" is not available on his YouTube channel, but it is available on SoundCloud, Spotify, and Apple Music.
Bill has confirmed "in california" wasn't based on any real life experiences.[1] He hasn't released a video for it so his future songs could come out sooner.[2]
Background/Meaning[]
The song was written in/around August 2011, around 6 years before it was recorded. In 2011, marijuana wasn't fully legal in any state. Bill says "the reason it is about California is because that is the state that was most well known for marijuana usage at the time, because i think it had recently become legal medically." He said that in every other state mentioned in the song (especially Alabama), it was completely illegal. The other states mentioned in the song were chosen for aesthetic reasons.[3]
The last line of the song references the legalization of gay marriage, which was only legal in some places at the time. It was legal in California at the time of writing.[4]
Bill used a randomized selection to choose his next song. It chose "in california", which Bill says "would be ok except for the fact that i had already had multiple marijuana references in songs before that." He, however, ultimately went forward with the selection.[5]
Lyrics[]
[Verse 1]
In California, you can smoke marijuana
In California, you can smoke marijuana
In California
In California
In California
In California, you can do what you wanna do
[Verse 2]
In Alabama, you can smoke marijuana
In Alabama, you can do what you wanna (I can, I went there)
In Alabama
In Alabama
And in Alabama
In Alabama, you can do what you wanna do
[Chorus]
It's alright
It's alright
Everybody makes the rules, oh
It's alright, it's just fine
'Cause America was made for you
[Verse 3]
In West Virginia, you can smoke marijuana
In Pennsylvania, you can smoke marijuana
In Arizona
Up in Colorado
Even in Indiana
In Minnesota you can do what you wanna do
[Chorus]
It's alright
It's alright
Everybody plays the fool, oh
It's alright
It's just fine
'Cause America was made for two
[Outro]
In California, you can smoke marijuana
In
In (the heck was I gonna say?)
In California, you can love who you want to