Clouds Over California

This song is about the demise of friendship & the need to sweep up the dust & move on.

"It's about being friends with someone for a long, long time & then finally just going 'You know what? This isn't working. I'm done with this. Don't call me anymore.'"

This song is so good. The double bass drum rhythm is so much more wholesome and evolved. It shows that they actually have rhythm and skill. Dez's demonic vocals is a lot more sophisticated that most. Ironic as it may sound. And the guitar-work is so melodic and edgy. Awesome composition!

I don't think this song is about the "demise of friendship" as Sonic Raider said, or about a degrading social standard in California. Devildriver's more sinister approach makes me think that their songs don't convey any moral meaning, or any lessons to be learned as most people wish to interpret. I'm think they're, giving out the message for the youth of California to follow the word of the fallen angel, and to spread the chaos throughout society.

That's just my opinion anyway.

Realy kickass song, I fucking love it

If that's the way it's gonna be Then I'll fuckin go it alone!

I think this line is the key to the meaning of this song if any. Ironically, the last line is the one missing line.

As a metalhead, vocalist and lyric writer, I can say that not all songs are necessarily "about" anything specific. Most decent writers will compromise a coherent meaning in favor of syllable structure or even rhyme. It's more important that you feel something, even if the actual words themselves aren't grammatically correct, or aren't clearly conveying an idea. Sometimes words just come and just fit right with the music. Sometimes they come out in the wrong order, or sometimes they are utter nonsense, but they just work with the song. Lyrics don't HAVE to be about anything. In fact, on Live's second album "Secret Samadhi", Ed Kowalczyk says while writing lyrics for the album, he focused on finding words that sound good together, have the right syllables and fit the song, with no specific meaning or idea behind them.

That said, sometimes songs ARE about something, and it seems most artists are more eager to dicuss a song's true meaning in this case. Otherwise, you'd be hard pressed to find anything, in any interview, that could be definitive of a song's meaning. I've searched around quite a bit and can't find anything other than Dez mentioning people ask him about the meaning of Clouds Over California, in the context of how some songs are clearly about something, and some are less clear. But he doesn't actually go into the meaning. I've heard he said it's about marijuana legalization but that's not the DevilDriver I know. I know vocalists sometimes fuck with the audience about what the songs are about. Tool is famous for that. Maynard will straight up lie (tongue in cheek) about what a song is about. Even the titles of their songs are deliberately misleading: 'Prison Sex' or 'Hooker with a Penis' are song titles meant to confuse people with no sense of humor.

Dez, like most lyricists, write about some things more often than others. In every DevilDriver album, you will find at least one song that is clearly about how some people are total fucking liars, cheats, abusers, etc. A lot of his lyrical content is about the behavior of people in his life in the context of people not being who they say they are or being hypocrites, or fakes. The latest album "Trust No One" is clearly about that and many of the interviews leading up to it have Dez talking about all the betrayal and friends turning out to be enemies, and how he had to cut a bunch of people off that were bringning him down/fucking him over.

So Clouds Over California may be about something, but more than likely, it's not and even if is, it probably made more sense when Dez was writing it, because of what was going on in his life at the time.

Those are arguably the best-written songs, as opposed to the ones written with a formula, or trying to make a statement.

Ask Jonothan Davis what "rum-buh-bah-doh, rum-bum-beep-bop" means.

i dunno about what sonic raider said but at ozzfest last year dez said that the song was about marijuana being legalized in california?

I look at the lyrics and think about the huge fires that took their reign over California last year. Sending everybody into chaos. Even somebody like Snoop Dogg, whose house was burned down, I think. What a tragedy? Now he's living in a dogbox at the local pound. =P DEVILDRIVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What's the G-O with the film clip? Rich little middle-class emo Dez and his ipod skater gang..?

This song is about gays in California. Think about it with that in mind, I shouldnt need to explain it.

I to think it is about the wildfire of calefornia 2007. If it was about legalizing marijuana being legalized in california, i really don't think that devil driver is the kind of band to curse that.

But take a look at this picture http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/AERONET_La_Jolla.2007297.aqua.250m.jpg/800px-AERONET_La_Jolla.2007297.aqua.250m.jpg That looks like one damn cursed cloud to me.

I edited these lyrics to add a missing line:

If that's the way it's gonna be -Then I'll fuckin' go it alone- I'm a saint in sinners eyes

It's a pretty important line that may have been mistakenly left out of the liner notes but is clearly in the song. It happens all the time. I've seen many liner notes with typos. I have yet to dig through my old CDs and verify it is missing for sure.

If anyone thinks I'm wrong; that the lyric is something different, please let me know. If you have the actual liner notes, that would be even better. Either way, from the context of the song, and keeping in mind Dez' general attitude and writing style, it fits perfectly and fits the theme of the song.