Going to California

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General information

Going to California is the third track and the third single from Recover, Vol. 1. It was released on Amy Lee's YouTube channel with an accompanying music video on December 1, 2015. The song was originally by Led Zeppelin.

Amy posted this statement on Facebook about how her manager had recorded the guitar for fun, and that she instantly felt that she had to sing it:

This song is a classic that I've loved for as long as I can remember. It puts me at peace. My friend and manager, Jordan, had recorded the instrumentation for fun and when I heard it a few months ago I knew instantly that I had to sing on it. Listening to mommy sing usually helps get Jack into that elusive sleepy place, and this song has been a regular rotation nap-time hit around our house this fall. As I was preparing for the November Evanescence shows, I just really wanted a moment like this in our set. So I showed this version to Troy, who made it a personal challenge to master a finger-picking based song, which was outside his comfort zone (not that you could tell - he sounded amazing!). We had so much fun playing it live! It's a pleasure to sing a song publicly that is such a part of who I am offstage - my roots, the style of music we always played around our house when I was growing up, and still at every family gathering, singing and playing music with my Dad. I hope you enjoy it!

Versions

Studio versions:

Going to California

• Recording date: 2015
• Status: Released
• Released on: Recover, Vol. 1 (track #3)
• Length: 3:23

Lyrics

Spent my days with a woman unkind
Smoked my stuff and drank all my wine
Made up my mind to make a new start
Going to California with an aching in my heart
Someone told me there's a girl out there
With love in her eyes and flowers in her hair

Ah, ah, ah

Took my chances on a big jet plane
Never let them tell you that they're all the same
The sea was red and the sky was grey
Wondered how tomorrow could ever follow today
The mountains and the canyons started to tremble and shake
As the children of the sun began to awake

Seems that the wrath of the Gods
Got a punch on the nose and it started to flow
I think I might be sinking
Throw me a line if I reach it in time
I'll meet you up there where the path
Runs straight and high

To find a queen without a king
Says she plays guitar and cries and she sings
Side a white mare in the footsteps of dawn
Tryin' to find a woman who's never, never, never been born
Standing on a hill in my mountain of dreams
Tryin' telling myself it's not as hard, hard, hard as it seems

Ah, ah, ah

Video

The music video was made and directed by Eric Ryan Anderson, who also created the front cover of the EP. It shows Amy in her home studio recording the vocals and walking around a garden singing the song, with various layered effects from one shot to another. The entire video is in black and white.