As a refresher, this is a bit of a geography lesson, looking at oddball places that musicians have chosen to sing about, or at least include in their lyrics. And next on the list, number six, is...
Avalon, California
"In a noisy bar in Avalon I tried to call you, but on the midnight watch I realized why twice you ran away"
In "Southern Cross" Crosby, Stills, and Nash manage to elicit images all very appropriate to the theme of the song: Sailing ships on the southern oceans, tropical oceans, and staring up at the great constellation of the Southern Hemisphere. Not to mention the pangs of a a heart overcoming a lost lover through a love of the sea.
However, in the midst of such hallowed tropical locations as the Marquesas and Papeete, Avalon stands as kind of an odd third-wheel. For one, this is no low-lying tropical atoll with white sandy beaches and coconut palms. There are no stories of Polynesian adventures or 18th Century explorations. In fact, there isn't even any closeness to the Southern Hemisphere, considering Avalon sits some 2,300 miles north of the Equator, and some 8 degrees of latitude past where the Southern Cross may be seen at its highest point during the year.
In all reality, a little town on rocky, rugged Santa Catalina Island off the coast of LA with golf courses, a ballroom and some 3,200 resident Californians is getting pretty far from the rest of the imagery purveyed by the song.
Sure the name sounds like a good chunk of paradise, but even if they were going for a two syllable place to fit into the flow, wouldn't Tonga, Fiji, or even Sydney have fit the bill a little more appropriately?
Though, perhaps, there is a reason. Could it be that this mariner considered his departure from Avalon for the Southern Seas to not only sever his connection with a cheating ex, but also with the world he associates with her, trading it in for a life sailing between distant islands?
Or is Avalon actually referring to somewhere else, such as the suburbs of Geelong and Sydney in Australia? Could be, but the bands origins in California seem to suggest otherwise
Perhaps we will never know for sure, but either way, the featured line still creates a great visual of a heartbroken sailor in a smoky island bar at the moment he makes a choice that will reshape his life, even if that bar is many miles away from his beloved Southern Cross.
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