Petaluma has inspired many songs over the years

Over the years Petaluma has been an inspiration to many singers and songwriters, beginning with the very first town settlers.

The majority of the original settlers came from the East Coast, bringing with them money and refinement. They used music as a way to prove Western sophistication to those back home. All types of musical instruments, specifically pianos, were brought out West. Music was the most common form of entertainment and everyone learned to play an instrument.

Throughout history there was always a need for cows, chickens, and butter, making Petaluma a very cash-rich area. Even during the poorest of times, such as the great depression, people in Petaluma were indulging in the arts.

Petaluma has thrived over the decades, feeding off of its neighbor San Francisco, and with this success, the music scene grew.

“We have an amazing climate. We are 25 minutes away from the beach and 40 minutes away from one of the biggest metropolitan cities. It’s very inspirational,” said Susan Villa, president of the Petaluma Museum.

At the turn of the century, Howard Hanson penned the words and music to the historic “Petaluma Song.” Its chorus praises the Egg City with the lyrics, “There’s a country in the West where there’s poultry by the millions/Way out in California, oh it’s cackle, cackle, cackle, or it’s quack, quack, quack, in the country ’round Petaluma.”

In 1973, Norman Greenbaum of “Spirit in the Sky” fame released “Petaluma,” an all-acoustic album that would be the last studio effort of his career. The album, which featured guitarist Ry Cooder, included songs with titles such as “Dairy Queen,” “Country Lad,” and “Grade A Barn” that forever immortalized the country life in what was then a rapidly modernizing town. On the title tune, he sings, “I’m out in Petaluma, spending my days/Tell me how many eggs can a chicken lay.”

Soon after the release of “Petaluma,” Greenbaum, who had left the music scene and moved to Petaluma, opened a goat farm. The cover art for the album shows him standing on a farm, in overalls, clutching a chicken.

Folk singer Susan Werner recorded “Petaluma Afternoons” on her 1998 album “Time Between Trains.” She describes a day spent with friends in Petaluma by singing, “Sonoma County on a Sunday/Not a cloud in the sky … They always end too soon/These Petaluma afternoons.”

Avant-garde microtonal composer Harry Partch composed and recorded “And on the Seventh Day Petals Fell in Petaluma” in the mid-1960s while he was living in Petaluma. Partch died in 1974.

Marshall Nanis’ CD, “Authentic Blues for Jews,” includes the song, “Petaluma,” on which he laments a string of bad luck after his 13th birthday and sings, “I was bar mitzvahed in Petaluma/I should have known back then.”

The Working Stiffs scream their way through “Petaluma Riot City” and The Freak Accident’s “Never Going Back to Petaluma” expresses some anger about P-Town: “I’m never going back to Petaluma/Till I can buy the place and burn it to the ground/I’m never going back to Petaluma/Till all I see are ashes all around.”

“Music in Petaluma has always been more than just professionals. It is also wanna-bes who just want to keep the arts alive,” said Villa. “I think you need to just live in Petaluma and that says it all. You don’t have to be creative to get the juices flowing; we have it all right here.”

(Contact Casey Pomicpic at argus@arguscourier.com)