Hollywood

The song "Into the Great Wide Open" is really interesting because of the aspects of the California Dream it conveys. For example, when Eddie gets on the bus he goes to Hollywood in search of opportunity like most people do. The future is wide open for him. He gets a girl there and learns how to play music, eventually becoming recognized. This is something that less people are able to accomplish but still a component of life for some in Hollywood. He eventually surpasses Van Halen on the charts, which would be hard to do at this time. The fame gets to his head and he is consumed by the fallacies of society in Hollywood. This causes him to drop in the charts and causes a relationship failure with the woman that actually means something to him. He ends up right back at the tattoo shop at the end as the result of Hollywood chewing him and spitting him back out.

This theme is something that is present in Day of the Locust because of the same location of Hollywood.  I feel that Todd shares some aspects of the experience that Eddie Rebel had in the video due to the life of Hollywood being filled with ups, downs, and curveballs. The pursuit of something that is hard to attain in a city that is full of falsely lead aspirations is something that is present in the video and the book.