I still haven’t driven Mulholland
I don’t know if she’s a place in my soul
But at least I got to stare down the ocean and pray
I’d never be any farther from home

I saw the smoke clouds loom in the distance
Never had a real chance to alight
Was a bad luck blessing, a vital sign
Saw me back in my rifle sights

Saying I don’t mind if rumors start to grow
I’d assumed we all already knew

California kills; it’s just a matter of time
California kills; it’s just a matter of time
Twisting like a knife
Always only drunk and in decline
As we all know, California kills

My cycles spin in a dream verse
Where I could be understood in my time
But in the liminal waking hours, I find
Just some ghosts that we left behind

Forever running from the demon of Dearheart
Forever trying to keep the memory alive
For every nightmare slain, twenty-seven soft hands
Clutching loaded dice in the night

Faith and sex and God and fog and love and faithless fear
Leave me with my thousand-unit stare

California kills; it’s just a matter of time
California kills; it’s just a matter of time
Twisting like a knife
Always only drunk and in decline
As we all know, California kills

You can’t make love a political issue
Life’s leaning hard to miss you
Long to see it every day
You can’t make love like they’re trying to trace you
You’re gonna bind the arms that embrace you
Everyone’s got their own thing going on
And on and on and on

So I don’t mind if rumors start to grow