The Cascades

Los Angeles County, June 21, 1995

The song, ‘The Cascades’ was written earlier this month (August, 2011) and is part of the album; ‘County of Angels’, a musical look at the stories behind some of the landmarks in Los Angeles County in a timeline format from First Nation people to the Beach Boys. This song is a whole lot of fun to play and  has a spoken narrative lyric with a sung chorus. A video sample will be up on YouTube sometime in the future.

THE CASCADES                  © Radio Flier Music

On November 5, 1913, William Mulholland woke up a happy man
30,000 people coming to celebrate, the day the water came in

By buggy, wagon, car & rail, to watch the water cascade down
And pour out of the hills of Newhall, into Los Angeles town

Then the band stopped, the crowd got quiet, he stood high in the morning air
He thanked the crew and financiers, but speeches were just not his fare

He said “This rude platform is an alter, and on it we dedicate for all time”
The crowd came to see the water run, so short speeches were just fine

(Chorus) And the water came tumblin’ tumblin’ tumblin’
The water tumbles away
All the way from the high sierras
For the town of LA …. down the great cascade

He paused as if he was forming words, and simply said “That’s all”
The people roared as he sat down, for soon the water falls

Time came to call him back, to give the sign to open the valves
Men turned the hilltop wheels, and water tumbled down the canal

And the crowd went nuts….filling cups like water was candy
And for a reason no one knows, the band played ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’

The speech to turn the aqueduct over, was scrapped ‘cause it just wouldn’t fit
Mulholland simply turned and said “There it is Mr. Mayor, take it!”   (Chorus) 

To this day, water cascades down, and Mulholland slept a happy man
But in fifteen years his alter perished, with the collapse of his St. Francis Dam (Chorus)

Plaque inscription: NO. 653 THE CASCADES - This is the terminus of the Los Angeles-Owens River Aqueduct, which brings water 338 miles from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada to the City of Los Angeles. Begun in 1905, the great aqueduct was completed November 5, 1913. The Mono Craters Tunnel project, completed in 1940, extended the system 27 miles to its present northernmost intake near Tioga Pass. Location: 0.1 mi N of intersection of Foothill Blvd and Balboa Blvd, 4 mi NW of San Fernando
USGS Quadrangle Sheet Name: MINT CANYON
Google maps: 34.323653,-118.499104