Tag: Coming Into Los Angeles

Seeing the news and blog posts on the 50th anniversary of Woodstock made me think of this song. I bought the Woodstock triple album set in the late seventies or early eighties…this song I liked automatically. It’s catchy and is about as anti-authority as you can get. The imagery is fun in this song… Chicken flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer and Walking in the hall with his things and all
Smiling, said he was the Lone Ranger

This is the song that really got me into Arlo…though I had heard City of New Orleans. After hearing this I wanted to check out his music.

Arlo wrote this song and it was on his second album Running Down the Road. The great Clarence White played guitar on this song. Other musicians on the album were Ry Cooder, Gene Parsons, and James Burton. The song didn’t chart because it’s pretty clear why (Coming into Los Angeles, Bringing in a couple of ki’s, don’t touch my bags if you please
mister customs man)…but the album peaked at #54 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1969.

The best-known version is the Woodstock version.

Studio Version

Woodstock

Coming Into Los Angeles

Coming in from London from over the pole
Flying in a big airliner
Chicken flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer

Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man, yeah

There’s a guy with a ticket to Mexico
No, he couldn’t look much stranger
Walking in the hall with his things and all
Smiling, said he was the Lone Ranger

Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man

Hip woman walking on the moving floor
Tripping on the escalator
There’s a man in the line and she’s blowing his mind
Thinking that he’s already made her

Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man

Coming in from London from over the pole
Flying in a big airliner
Chicken flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer

Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man, yeah, all right