Cass Elliot Community Forum

Has there ever been a definitive word on what exactly the lyric is for California Dreamin'?

Everything I see has a line to the effect of "You know the Preacher liked the cold. He knows I'm gonna stay." but obviously, this makes no sense. Surely, the correct lyric is, "You know the Preacher light the coal. He knows I'm gonna stay.", right?

It makes sense, and sounds like what was sang by both Barry and Denny.

Maybe someone could ask Michelle?

I think the lyric makes perfect sense. It is a cold winter's day. John and Michelle, who would not normally go into a church, find a warm place to stay in a church in NY. The preacher in the church likes the cold weather because he knows he'll have a captive audience for preaching because the alternative is going back out into the cold weather. At least that is the story I think John and Michelle were telling with the song.

Dave

Nope, it's "You know the Preacher likes the cold. He knows I'm gonna stay." I have like 100 covers of this song and every single says "You know the Preacher likes the cold. He knows I'm gonna stay." Hall of Fame 1998 live version sounds like that. Also the Mamas and Papas Original Karaoke and it's lyrics says that, I bet that they don't put false lyrics in those ones. Preacher likes the cold because he is used to it, Michelle isn't. And yeah, Michelle and John just went into chruch because there was warm.

Here's my idea of the song:
"You know the preacher lights the coal, he knows I'm gonna stay" - John and Michelle are gonna stay into the church where they stopped because it's a winter's day, it's cold outside and the preacher lights the coal and they can get warm with it - as John explained in the Straight Shooter biography: "...stopped into a church to get warm because we were cold...".

Albert.

Okay, I found another proof. This is from The Mamas & The Papas Guitar Songbook:


Only odd thing is that there it says "liked". I just noticed that in CD version they all say "liked" but in Monterey Pop live version Denny's says "liked" and Cass and John says "likes". In Hall of Fame 1998 live version everybody says "likes" and in many covers it's always "likes". So you choose. The whole part is in past tense exept "He knows I'm gonna stay" so I guess they would have put "He knew" but it sounds stupid.

Lol, Tri.Moon, no karaoke, songbook, or anything you see anywhere else is proof of anything. The people making those things do not consult the writer/s of whatever song it is they're working on as to what the correct lyrics are. They just use whatever lyric they think they hear, or that they've read somewhere else (nowadays, I assume, generally just a lazy search on Google...).

The only proof there could be is to hear John Phillips say "this is what the lyric is intended to be...", and that's probably not gonna happen any time soon...

I have been in many churches in NYC through the years and not once did the preacher light the coals for me. Not once, ever!!!!

Here's a video clip from the vault! It doesn't really answer the question of the lyrics, but is a good explanation of the origin of the song. I'm with the "you know the preacher likes the cold" crowd. To me, "the preacher lights the coals" does not make much sense. Anyway...



Charles