Jimmie Haskell – ”California ’99” (1971)

Some albums are more fun to own than to listen to. Jimmie Haskell’s California '99 is one of these. The record must be defined as some sort of rock opera with a rather odd content. Recorded in the early 70's it looks into the future, to the faraway 80’s and 90’s. USA is bankrupt, people eat insects that in turn feed on cannabis (which grows in the central region of the country, in the insects and marijuana corridor). USA is also renamed California and love is for the lower classes, almost forbidden. And not to mention, there are no clocks anymore, instead music is played - slow tempo in the morning and then faster and faster as the day goes by. To know what time it is, you just listen to the music.

The main character chooses not to be part of the military, instead he gets an alternative assignment, Situation 19 - Love as your burden. He must love three people simultaneously, namely Claudia, Jessica Stone and Barbara. Moreover, he must find and fall in love with them in that specific order. He gets two years to do this, he fails it will be the military anyway.

Yeah, the story goes something like that. Tom Gamache wrote it. When I’ve read online about the album a lot of people come back to the idea that the creators must have smoked large amounts of dope. Wonder why...

Jimmie Haskell has been a productive person, both as a writer and arranger of music. He has also acted as a conductor a lot during his career. He has received an Emmy and a number of Grammies. Besides various artists, Jimmie has been involved in a lot of soundtracks, such as Big and The Color Purple.

The music at California '99 is nothing out of the ordinary, honestly, and not as weird as the story. The album consists of about as much story telling as music. Personally I think the narration becomes a bit boring after a while, even though the story itself is crazy enough. But if you’ve heard it once, you don’t need to hear it again. Different guests appear - Joe Walsh, Big Wanda And The Wombats, Jimmy Witherspoon and others. Some songs are covers, while others are written by Haskell. An odd bird on the album is The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down where Jimmy Witherspoon sings. A perfectly OK song, but a little odd in this context. The record ends with a cover of Peter Townshend's Underture.

The best thing about the album is the cover. You can unfold it into a poster, as large as six album covers. Some weird photos with accompanying descriptions on one side, and a map of the United States (no, California, of course) on the other. That’s kind of neat.

As mentioned, the music on the album might not justify a purchase, but the foldable cover along with the generally freaked out content still makes it fun to have in the collection. How the story ends is not revealed here, look up the album for yourselves.

Tracklist

Side A

1. Overture

2. Appopopoulisberg

3. The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down

4. Jessica Stone

5. To Claudia On Thursday

Side B

1. Prelude

2. California Fairy Tale

3. Barbara

4. Underture