California Freeway:
An AI Song Experiment

On 15 September 2026, I needed to run an errand, but family members had taken all three of our cars. The phrase “All the cars are gone” popped into my head, to the melody of the first line of the lyrics from the Mamas & Papas hit song “California Dreamin’.” I immediately wondered how I could parody the entire song by calling it “California Freeway.” Saying “all the cars are gone” didn’t make sense if the freeways were clogged, so I thought to change it to “all the cars are here.” On looking at the rest of the lyrics, it seemed that it would be fitting to retain the winter references. It occurred to me to wonder what AI would do if I got it to help finish such a parody, so I asked Gemini AI this question: “Rewrite the lyrics of ‘California Dreaming’ as ‘California Freeway,’ starting with the line ‘All the cars are here.’” This is what it produced—in fewer than ten seconds:

All the cars are here

And the sky is grey

I went for a drive

On a winter’s day

I’d be safe and warm

If I was in LA

California freeway

On such a winter’s day

Stopped into a station

I passed along the way

Well, I got down on my knees

And I began to pay

You know the pump man likes the cold

He knows I’m gonna stay

California freeway

On such a winter’s day

All the cars are here

And the sky is grey

I went for a drive

On a winter’s day

If I didn’t tell her

I could leave today

California freeway

On such a winter’s day

I liked the addition of stopping at a gas station and the reference to the “pump man.” Most normal mortals pump their own gas in California these days, but back when the song was a hit in 1966, I believe gas station attendants still pumped gas, so the “pump man” felt like it fit the era. Did AI figure that out or did it get lucky? And I loved the change of “pray” to “pay,” especially with the ever-increasing cost of gas (our skyrocketing prices would drag anyone to their knees). On the other hand, despite the winter context, I wasn’t keen on the “safe and warm” reference, so I thought to refer to road rage instead. I revised the first verse as follows:

All the cars are here

And the sky is grey

I went for a drive

On a winter’s day

But I got me road rage

Since I was in LA

California freeway

On such a winter’s day

On such a winter’s day

The last verse needed some tweaks too, so here’s how I extended the narrative:

All the cars are here

And the sky is grey

I was now in jail

On a winter’s day

Cuz my temper flared

I can’t leave today

California freeway

On such a winter’s day

So now the question is, who wrote this? It was my idea, and AI helped. Was it behaving like a caddie on a golf course, carrying my clubs and suggesting a five-iron or a wedge for this shot or the other? I did still make the final decisions, and added my own refinements, swinging the club, as it were, but I also accepted a few of AI’s “ideas,” particularly the station/pump and pay references. Who “owns” those? Is golf a flawed metaphor? If I were a musician, and performed a version of this song, could I claim it to be mine and receive all the song royalties for a parody? Parody, it should be noted, is protected as fair use under copyright law, but who was “using” or “writing” the song’s lyrics in this case? I would say that these lyrics are at least mostly mine, but could I say they are completely mine? If I had been looking to rhyme a particular word, would using a rhyming dictionary (whether printed or online) be any different from asking AI for a line about losing control of my emotions? Or any different from pressing Shift+F7 in Microsoft Word to give me a synonym for “feelings”? I first thought to say “Cuz my feelings snapped,” but changed it (thanks to a thesaurus) to “Cuz my temper flared,” which felt much more colourful. The core idea and most details of this parody are mine, but unresolved ethical and even legal issues remain, not even counting the environmental hit on whatever data center my little query shot out to.

But wait, there’s more, as there always is with AI. What if I were to ask AI to generate a musical performance of these lyrics, and put together a music video? I could have “fun” posting that to social media, and get viral hits on YouTube, and make a bit of extra cash from it. That’s part of the AI allure. I know YouTube has rules that limit monetization from low-effort AI-generated videos, but how would it affect a video such as this? Who’s to say unless I tried it?

So I tried it. Or at least, I tried making a song, if not a video. I edged my way to Suno.com and entered this prompt: “Please make a song called ‘California Freeway’ as a parody of ‘California Dreamin’,’ using the following lyrics (and include a guitar solo)” (and I also included my refined lyrics). In less than a minute I had a catchy three-minute guitar-driven “masterpiece,” and the process amazed me by how quick and easy it was. Suno ignored the original melody, which was fine, but anyone listening to my version of the lyrics, unless they were born yesterday, would get the allusion. What do you think of this song? And hey, whose song is it?