#82 Camp Pendelton – Echos of New Roman Times.
Camp Pendelton- Camper Van Beethoven.
Last year Camper Van Beethoven released La Costa Perdida (loosely “the lost coast”) which is a set of songs about Northern California (see Northern California Girls or Come Down the Coast as examples). This year Camper Van Beethoven releases the companion piece to this album “El CaminoReal.” This time the album thematically focuses on Southern California and Baja California.
Whereas La Costa Perdida was a look back at the “back to the country” hippy period of northern California with references to Jack Kerouac, Richard Brautigan, The Grateful Dead and even The Beach Boy’s “Big Sur” period this one is firmly planted in the present and further down the coast in Southern California.
The best way to look at the new album is to draw a contrast between the two. On La Costa Perdida the ocean is calm, benevolent and feminine; on El Camino Real the sea is “filled with darkness, secrets and chemicals.”
Camp Pendelton is the 4th track on the new Camper Van Beethoven album El Camino Real. The song tells the story of a marine in either Iraq or Afghanistan (most likely Afghanistan). He is manning a remote outpost somewhere and in his head he is speaking to his wife:
“Keep the children safe
dress them the same
cause I have changed
I’ve changed forever”
The idea is that he is fully aware that he is suffering from the effects of his long deployment. Maybe PTSD although it’s not really clear to me and I wrote the song. You might compare him to the character in The Hurt Locker. Although the similarity is purely coincidental because this is the one song that we didn’t write FOR this album. This song has been kicking around since 2003 in the form of of a half finished demo. This was when Camper Van Beethoven was working on their alternate history sic-fi rock opera New Roman Times. In fact it was intended to be a track for that album. It would have loosely fit in somewhere between White Fluffy Clouds and Might Makes Right. We didn’t include it because it seemed like we didn’t need this “in between” stage of his character development. I sort of forgot about the song.
Skip forward 8 years and I was looking for B-sides for La Costa Perdida and I came across the demo for this song. What a surprise! How could we leave this unreleased?
Fortunately it’s set in Southern California and considering that Camp Pendelton and Twenty Nine Palms take up 85% of the landmass of Southern California (joking folks) it seemed like it was perfect for the album.
Buy the album at your local record store
Camp Pendleton
I have dreamed immortal suns
I gazed upon the fiery surfaces
and I have fought down burning roads
The highways littered with our humanity
I see your face safely at home
Baby keep the home fires burning
Keep the children safe
and dress them the same
Because I have changed I’ve changed forever
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
I have dreamed immortal sun
I gazed upon the fiery surfaces
always fear but never falter
onward forward Christian Soldiers
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the lights on down
Pump up the violence bring the ordnance on down
©2014 Camper Van Beethoven
300 Songs 
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