In 1938, famed mystery writer Raymond Chandler penned a short story entitled "Red Wind" published first in Dime Detective Magazine and currently found in the collection: Raymond Chandler: Collected Stories. Red Wind is another local name for the Santa Ana wind. The Chandler story has been dramatized on television and radio, most recently as a 1996 episode on Showtime's Fallen Angels. Danny Glover received an Emmy nomination for his role in this adaptation playing detective Philip Marlow.
In the story, Chandler describes the Santa Ana thus:
"There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands' necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge."
"Red Wind" (1938)
A writer could get staggering drunk on the high-proof lore surrounding L.A.'s notorious Santa Ana winds.
During a Santa Ana blow, the viciously hot and blasted days give way to insufferably hot and noisy nights. Trees thrash our rooves and fling branches all over the street.
Bad Religion calls them "the murder winds."
The other side of murder, and certainly no myth.
"Los Angeles Is Burning" - Bad Religion
Somewhere high in the desert near a curtain of a blue
St. Anne's skirts are billowing
But down here in the city of limelights
The fans of Santa Anna are withering
And you can’t deny that living is easy
If you never look behind the scenery
it's showtime for dry climes
And bedlam is dreaming of rain
When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning
This is not a test
Of the emergency broadcast system
When Malibu fires and radio towers
Conspire to dance again
And I cannot believe the media Mecca
They're only trying to peddle reality
Catch it on prime time, story at nine
The whole world is going insane
When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning
A placard reads
"The end of days"
Jacaranda boughs are bending in the haze
More a question than a curse
How could hell be any worse?
The flames are stunning
The camera's running
So take warning
When the hills of Los Angeles are burning
Palm trees are candles in the murder wind
So many lives on the breeze
Even the stars are ill at ease
And Los Angeles is burning.
Note; Thanks to a comment I'd copied the lyrics wrong from a silly source. I should've gone straight to the source, but got lazy.
Now fixed. Thanks.
