The lawman said "El Centro on five dollars a day?
You must be dreamin' kid"
How long did you want to stay,
Cause Son that's just the price of admission
Are you out of your mind?
If you wanna stay here, you damn well better listen

(CHORUS)

Cause you see son
We got nine square miles of beautiful brown turf
0 murders per 100, 000
And we could care less about the surf
We're the center of a promisiing commercial region
We got rotary and lions club, and damn good American Legion
I said I'm just tryin' to get to the Golden State
I hear there's jobs everywhere
And the weather is great

And He said "Oh, I see you don't believe this is California
I guess the folks back in where ever didn't warn you
See, it ain't all swimming pools and movie stars
You're lookin' for that place that may as well be Mars"
You little shit

(CHORUS)

And then he said "We've got points of interest and good museums and golf
But if you really want your heart broke
We're just a little bit soft
If I had a nickel for everytime I've seen your kind
I'd be so rich I'd probably lose my mind"

And I said okay
I think I get what you're sayin
It's that you can't always get what you want
Without payin, okay
You see here