Part of the reason I’m so concerned with domestic terrorism is that, while few will say this openly, there can be no doubt that Train is just as dangerous as to our way of life as Nickleback and Mumford & Sons are. I heard an absolutely amazing Train song while getting my hair cut earlier today, Save Me San Francisco, the most ridiculous place name-dropping I’ve heard in years, at least since “Heart of Rock N’ Roll”, and I would argue that it’s worse since it’s NoCal/Pacific Northwest specific. (Also too, some “I been this, I been that” and a lot of clichéd instrumentation.)
Got me thinking…what are your favorite songs that prominently mention places? I’d like both songs you actually like (I’ll go with “Saginaw, Michigan” and any of a host of songs that talk about Louisiana) and ones that are ridiculous (“Keep On Rocking Me Baby”, etc.).
piratedan
Since I’m in the Grand Canyon State…..
Get Back/The Beatles – Tucson, AZ (where JoJo is from) and for a while McCartney kept a residence here (strangely enough)
Take It Easy/The Eagles – Winslow, AZ (where girls with flatboard Fords are from, naturally)
Napoleon
Youngstown by Springsteen (which just happens to be where abouts I grew up)
Doug Milhous J
@piratedan:
Take It Easy always seemed gratuitous in that song. Love JoJo tho. EDIT: I mean the Winslow Arizona seemed gratuitous.
Trollhattan
“The desert” is pretty generic place-name dropping but for lyric-smithing at its worst, this.
I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name,
It felt good to be out of the rain.
In the desert you can remember your name,
‘Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.
La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
La, la, la la la la, la la la, la, la
Will take me longer to come up with one I like.
Rowdy P. Nutt
I am from Arkansas, so I might pick bluesman CeDell Davis’ notorious “If You Like Fat Women (Come Down to Pine Bluff, Arkansas),” itself a reworking of Bukka White’s Pine Bluff, Arkansas. But seriously, I would add “Omaha” by Waylon Jennings, Robert Earl Keen’s “Corpus Christi Bay,” “Walking to New Orleans” by Fats Domino, and “Dirty Water” (Boston) by the Standells. And many more…
Original Lee
Allentown by Billy Joel
One I don’t really like but have (sadly) heard a lot:
I’d Really Rather Be in Rochester
gogol's wife
@Rowdy P. Nutt:
This is so funny. My husband and I were driving back from Cambridge yesterday, and I suddenly said, “What’s that song where they sing ‘that River Charles'”? He had no idea what I was talking about, but I couldn’t get it out of my head, and I googled it when we got back and was reminded of “Dirty Water.” I had not thought about that in probably 45 years.
Jay B.
Roadrunner by The Modern Lovers. It actually makes Route 128 sound exciting.
Trollhattan
@Trollhattan:
Thought of one–“Lake Charles” by Lucinda Williams.
Richard W. Crews
fix your site! It’;s unreadable, or at least unpleasantly unreadable. The speil; is laid out ONE word wide. I’m not enjoying stopping by!
Jay B.
The worst? That Journey song about South Detroit, where there is no South Detroit.
Mnemosyne
I will take Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans,” which is not about the city, but about the train of the same name.
gogol's wife
I always liked the way Steely Dan sang “up in Annandale” in “My Old School.”
Caliph Garrett
We’re an American Band–Grand Funk Railroad (How many other rock songs namecheck Little Rock and Omaha?)
Buzzbomb–Dead Kennedys (Highway 50 and Ely, NV where Pat Nixon was born)
Paul Gottlieb
“Saginaw, Michigan” is obviously the best: The combination of all those clever near rhymes for Michigan and the satisfying story content make it a clear winner. Someone needs to shoot that horse with no name.
MomSense
there is a house in New Orleans
they call the rising sun
toberdog
It takes a lot to laugh.
Shana
“The Ice of Boston” by Dismemberment Plan
“Don’t Go Back to Rockville” REM
gogol's wife
Of course if you get started on standards, Johnny Mercer and such, there will be no end.
ETA: e.g. Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe
pacem appellant
I love “Where do you go to my Lovely” by Peter Sarstedt. Rue de Saint Michelle melts me every time.
As for hate, I’ll go with “California Love”. Though I’ll sing along to it, just to say Sactown.
Violet
Galveston. Glenn Campbell.
Amir Khalid
Off the top of my head:
Penny Lane, The Beatles
Sweet Baby James, James Taylor
Allentown, Billy Joel
Youngstown, Nebraska, Bruce Springsteen
Bleecker Street, Simon & Garfunkel
…
Napoleon
I should have also mentioned I’m Shipping Up to Boston by the Dropkick Murphys.
Origuy
Then there’s Starship’s “We Built This City”, which managed to be ambiguous about which city they’re talking about. It appears on several “worst song” lists.
You may now commence hating me for putting this earworm in your brains, as I am hating Doug J for causing it to be in mine.
Steve
Dire Straits had this classic called “Telegraph Road” (it’s like 14 minutes long, so you probably didn’t hear it on the radio unless the DJ had to take a piss). Telegraph Road is also a semi-major highway in the Detroit area and while I was growing up, I used to amuse myself by thinking the Dire Straits song was about that same highway even though they’re a British band and it was obviously about something else. Years later I found out that it actually was written about that very street. Mark Knopfler came up with it while they were riding the tour bus up from Toledo or somesuch.
patrick II
“Sweet Home Alabama” is a good enough song I like it despite hating the actual Alabama. It is the musical equivalent of a sympathy fuck.
Dcrefugee
Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again
David
New Orleans Ladies Leroux
Rowdy P. Nutt
“Raining in Port Arthur’ by the Gourds…and I would second Lucinda Williams’ “Lake Charles” as nominated by trollhattan at #9.
KG
Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans is one of my favorites. I Love LA is kind of annoying, having grown up in southern California.
And for the all encompassing answer: I’ve Been Everywhere, Man (even if it was annoyingly used in a commercial)
ETA: also too, Uneasy Rider by Charlie Daniels, both the original and the sequel in 88.
Vlad
“Life During Wartime” by the Talking Heads.
Heard about Houston? Heard about Detroit?
Heard about Pittsburgh, PA?
gogol's wife
I also have to vote for “Kansas City,” having been born there.
No One of Consequence
“Willin'” – Feat
… Well I been from Tuscon to Tucumcari,
Tehachapi to Tonopah…
Been to all four in a VW microbus. 8)
Peace,
– NOoC
piratedan
Anyway Town/Spongetones – is supposedly about Charlotte NC
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcqV5PVEZWQ
Napoleon
@Steve:
That is a great song.
Violet
And one of my very favorites: “Point Me In The Direction Of Albuquerque” by The Partridge Family. Campy classic.
Southern Beale
Shawn Mullins place-name drops all the time. “L.A.’s kinda like Nashville … with a tan.” Gets the LOLZ all the time. In fact, that Soul’s Core album has all sorts of place names as song titles. “Twin Rocks, Oregon” and “Gulf Of Mexico.” I think one of my favorites is “September In Seattle.”
I also love Ray LaMontagne’s “New York City’s Killing Me.” Great song.
James E Ppwell
Sweet Little Sixteen & Every Picture Tells a Story
Cacti
“Carolina In My Mind” by James Taylor
And in case anyone was wondering, he was talking about North not South.
John
A really old one by Hank Snow: “I’ve been Everywhere”
cleek
(Rochester’s own) Colorblind James Experience – Considering A Move To Memphis
Southern Beale
An old classic from the ’70s is “Baker Street.” Anyone remember that one?
Sentient Puddle
Given that I grew up in Albuquerque, I’m going to have to go with some Weird Al.
Elaine Benis
“The Bluest Skies are in Seattle” ~ Perry Como
Chet
“Toolmaster of Brainerd”, Trip Shakespeare. It’s really the ultimate song about Minnesota.
Cacti
@Southern Beale:
Gerry Rafferty is teh awesome.
Shell B.
“Stranded in Iowa” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band.
Because I am.
toberdog
The ultimate on the road song: Truckin’, by the Dead.
Arrows of neon and flashing marquees out on main street.
Chicago, new york, detroit and it’s all on the same street
***
Dallas, got a soft machine; houston, too close to new orleans;
New yorks got the ways and means; but just wont let you be, oh no.
MomSense
Route 66!
Trollhattan
“Mendocino” by Sir Douglas[J] Quintet is about as hooky as a song can be.
James Brown’s “Night Train” rattles off quite a few locales.
Shakezula
@gogol’s wife: Show Biz Kids.
C Nelson Reilly
J.J. Cale – Tulsa Time
Leon Russell – Home Sweet Oklahoma
Anoniminous
For anyone who is or has lived in San Francisco executing someone singing, playing, or merely thinking about “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” is justifiable homicide.
eemom
@No One of Consequence:
damn, you posted that while I was looking up how to spell Tucumcari, Tehachapi and Tonapah
@Steve:
Telegraph Road is one of the all around bestest rock songs EVAH, imo…..from the intense poignancy of the lyrics to the killer guitar run at the end. Brilliant stuff.
Haydnseek
Streets of Bakersfield. I just logged on. Didn’t read any of the comments. That is all. ETA-if a city or town is merely mentioned in a song does not mean that the song is about that city or town. Just sayin’
Cris (without an H)
Two from Chuck Berry: “Sweet Little Sixteen” (Boston, Pittsburgh, Texas, San Francisco, St. Louis, New Orleans) and “Back in the USA” (New York, Los Angeles, Detroit, Chicago, Chattanooga, Baton Rouge, and St. Louis)
Shell B.
@Southern Beale: My favorite song of all time. Foo Fighters did a respectable cover not too long ago.
piratedan
@gogol’s wife: oooo, good call with Wilbert Harrison!
and these from the Sir Douglas Quintet
Mendocino – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBNUhyYiRvM
Plus these oldies from Gene Pitney, “24 Hours from Tulsa” and R. Dean Taylor’s “Indiana Wants Me”
San Antone – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6MdYSSjpkk
although technically the 2nd one is from the Texas Tornadoes
scav
Randy Newman has a nice line in place based songs. Many are strongly imbued with places, but Dayton Ohio, 1903 and Louisiana 1927 are obvious ones. Dixie Flyer too.
Amir Khalid
Some more:
Royal Orleans, Led Zeppelin
America, Simon & Garfunkel
Folsom Prison Blues, Johnny Cash
Memphis, Tennessee, Chuck Berry
Lodi, Creedence Clearwater Revival
What’s the title of that Chuck Berry song about a journey from Norfolk, Virginia to Los Angeles?
Steeplejack
@Richard W. Crews:
Jesus Christ, people have told you repeatedly in previous threads that you (probably) need to select View | Zoom | Zoom Text Only in your browser. It does you no good to helicopter in, make your complaint (repeatedly) and then not check back to see if anyone offered a solution.
And apparently it never occurs to you that everyone else is not experiencing the same phenomenon you are.
Shakezula
Rolling Stones – Far Away Eyes. I don’t know if it counts as prominent but sarcasm aimed at evangelists is always good.
REM – Rockville. Allowed ripping on the local Rockville, which is indeed a place where years are wasted.
Trollhattan
@eemom: Story goes Lowell George played it for Frank Zappa, who promptly told him to go start his own band and stop wasting his time iwth the Mothers. True? Maybe.
piratedan
@Amir Khalid: that’s Promised Land, been covered by damn near everybody too :-)
plus Indiana Wants Me by R. Dean Taylor and 24 Hours from Tulsa, by Gene Pitney (or the Dusty Springfield version is great too)
cleek
also, re: Train
http://ok-cleek.com/images/traingang.jpg
that’s my wife (middle), two of our friends, and Train. she went to high school with their keyboard player (on the left). i took the pic.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
R. Dean Taylor Indiana Wants Me
Albert Hammond It Never Rains In Southern California
Trollhattan
@Shakezula:
“I ran 20 red lights in his honor” never fails to get me laughing.
eemom
Got a wife in Chino, babe and one in Cherokee
First one says she’s got my child but it don’t look like me
Howard Beale IV
Train does Led Zeppelin.
Napoleon
@Steve:
BTW, in a similar vein from Knopfler on one of his solo albums is “Speedway at Nazareth” that manages to name check 13 different places on the North American open wheel auto-racing circuit circa 2002 (both he and I are big fans of it).
Steeplejack
Atlanta Rhythm Section, “Doraville”!
“It’s funky but it’s pretty.” (I used to live in Doraville.)
ETA: Actually a good slide show on that video. Got me a little nostalgic.
Cacti
Sweet Little Sixteen – Chuck Berry
They’re really rockin’ in Boston
In Pittsburgh, PA
Deep in the heart of Texas
And round the ‘Frisco Bay
All over St. Louis
Way down in New Orleans
All the cats wanna dance with, Sweet Little Sixteen.
Bishop Bag
Omaha!!! Moby Grape!!! Although the city is never mentioned in the song lyrics…
Doug Milhous J
@eemom:
Good song, even for a Dead-phobe like me.
No One of Consequence
@Trollhattan: Nope. Close though. Lowell was shown the door by Zappa, who refused to entertain druggies or those with such proclivities…
– NOoC
p.s. Sorry Eemom… ;)
p.p.s. Personal beef: I love Rafferty’s Baker Street, but I hate, and I mean with the intensity of a thousand suns, HATE the sax riff in that song that they only use like…. 800 times! And the shitty high-to-low note shift by the guitar or bass that sounds remotely like a car downshifting. Those two fucking *NOISES* ruin that otherwise awesome tune.
p.p.p.s. YMMV… of course…
Haydnseek
@cleek: Thank you for this. Best enjoyed on vinyl, but any media will do. Not on topic, but “A Different Bob” is still greatness.
Amir Khalid
@piratedan:
Thanks. It was just outside the reach of my memory.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Oh, and there’s Glenn Miller’s I’ve Got A Gal In Kalamazoo and Johnny Mercer’s On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.
cvstoner
Can’t believe no one has mentioned “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra.
Damn, I’m getting old!
Cris (without an H)
@Anoniminous: Reminds me of the sign on the wall of the stage at Preservation Hall in New Orleans:
Haydnseek
@Haydnseek: I tried to delete the ETA. My bad, as it didn’t address the topic.
eemom
@Shakezula:
@Trollhattan:
another lyrical masterpiece!
….there she was, sittin’ in the corner….a little bleary…..worse for the wear and tear…..
I always think of that when I’m a little…..well, bleary.
Cassidy
Rockaway Beach- The Ramones
MikeJ
In college I did an entire airshift playing songs that mention Memphis.
Matt Smith
Love “Lost in Austin” – by I can’t remember whom, but it’s cleverly written and filled with references to specific spots every local knows. I can’t find any sign of it online, but I have it on CD somewhere. I’ll have to look around for it.
I do see a couple songs online named “Lost in Austin” that have no local references. Those aren’t it.
Jamey
James Brown’s version of Night Train. (Not sure who wrote the original tune).
Montysano
Well, since I live in Alabama, I’m required by law to like “Sweet Home Alabama”. But I prefer Neil Young’s “Alabama”. Jon Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery” is pretty sweet too, also.
hoppipolla
“Albuquerque,” Neil Young
“Louisiana, 1927,” Randy Newman: “The river has busted through all the way down to Plaquemines,/ Six feet of water on the streets of Evangeline”
and would the opposite of a place-name song be “Everyone Knows This is Nowhere”?
cvstoner
Also:
Georgia on my mind by Ray Charles
I Love L. A. by Randy Newman
City of the Angels by Journey
Waysel
“Wanted Man”. Johnny Cash sang it. Dylan wrote it.And Amir, “Promised Land” is the Chuck Berry song yer thinkin of. The Band did a nice version.
Steve
@No One of Consequence: I feel like I could shake a million hands without ever meeting anyone besides yourself who says “I love that song Baker Street, but I hate the sax part.”
Steeplejack
Lovin’ Spoonful, “Coconut Grove.”
ETA: Damn, how could I forget “Nashville Cats”?!
hoppipolla
@cvstoner: cuz it’s a horrible song everyone would like to forget?
cleek
@Haydnseek:
that whole album is stellar. and it’s the only reason i own a turntable (because LP was the only format i could find it in)
burnspbesq
“Bowling Green,” Jesse Winchester
“Nicaragua,” Bruce Cockburn
“Los Angeles,” X
“Las Vegas Turnaround,” Hall & Oates
“Good Morning Aztlan,” Los Lobos
“San Diego Serenade,” Tom Waits
? Martin
TMBG ‘New York City’
Would be appropriate to bookend that with another location song, ‘Holiday In Cambodia’:
Arm The Homeless
I will admit to being a huge fan of Counting Crow’s August and Everything After.
Omaha is by far my favorite song on that album. I can’t not tap my foot when that song comes on. In fact, I have purchased the album multiple times just for that song.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
And, since my musical tastes are all over the place- and because I know you like the band, Doug, how about Sonic Youth’s Death Valley 69? Has there ever been a better love song about Charlie and Sadie Mae?
cleek
Robyn Hitchcock has too many place songs to name, but one of my favs is: No, I Don’t Remember Guildford
and Alison Krauss’ Atlanta is always nice.
also… the every place mentioned in a bob dylan song map.
reflectionephemeral
I quite liked “Sulphur to Sugarcane” from Elvis Costello’s last album. Not too many songs mention Ypsilanti or Worcester, Massachusetts.
It appears that no one’s mentioned “Dancing in the Street” or “Back in the U.S.S.R.” in this thread, so, now they’re mentioned.
I quite liked “Heart of Rock N Roll” when it came out and I was about 8, and never did, or wanted to, shake that liking.
@Jay B.: There’s also no such thing as “the East Side of Chicago”, pace Paper Lace’s “The Night Chicago Died”, a song I associate with overoptimistic Boston radio DJs leading up to the 1986 Super Bowl.
ADDED: I’ve also been a big fan of Lyle Lovett’s “L.A. County” for most of my life. And there are fine songs called “Baltimore” by Lyle, Randy Newman (covered by Nina Simone), and Gram Parsons.
Cacti
OOOOOOOklahoma! Where the wind comes sweeping down the plain. – Rogers & Hammerstein
Steeplejack
Neil Diamond (pre-Las Vegas), “Brooklyn Roads.”
The Dangerman
“Let The Day Begin” by The Call, with a reference to the Viet Nam Memorial in DC (“here’s to the wall that bears their names”).
BTW, that song was literally brand new when it was the very last song played on The Edge, perhaps the last of the good radio stations in LA (also, RIP, KMET). Now the airwaves are just shit in LA when passing through town (though Jim Ladd still does some cool stuff with Head Sets). Are there any great streaming stations for thinking persons rock?
Steeplejack
King Curtis, “Memphis Soul Stew.”
No One of Consequence
@Steve: I know what you mean. There were a lot of other choices they could have made other than to reuse that sax-crap for Every.Single.Frigging.Bar… Almost *completely* identical from refrain to refrain. Yeeeeeeesh. Glad to know there are at least two of us…
– NOoC
SatanicPanic
@Haydnseek: Streets of Bakersfield or Streets of Baltimore?
I hate that Weezer “Beverly Hills” song. I like Weezer, but that song sucks. Absolutely nothing clever about that one.
Roger Moore
@Amir Khalid:
He drops a ton of place names in “Wanted Man”. Some others:
“Little old Lady From Pasadena” – Jan and Dean
“Free Fallin'” – Tom Petty
Steeplejack
Fever Tree, “San Francisco Girls (Return of the Native).” Psych-o-delic!
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
The Lakes of Ponchartrain. Not the best version, but still.
sb
Dave Alvin, “Harlan County Line” is the one I really, really like.
Ridiculous? “Xanadu” by Olivia Newton John. I know it’s fictional but, jeebus.
PaulW
My brother has counted out the number of songs that use US Hwy 441 in their lyrics.
Every time I hear “American Girl” by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers I think of Gainesville.
Leo Artunian
Least favorite: This barely qualifies, but the first line of Jim Croce’s “Big Bad Leroy Brown:” “The east side of Chicago is the roughest part of town.” That’s because the east side of Chicago (were there one) would be in f*kin’ Lake Michigan!
Favorite: The Pretenders’ “My City Was Gone:” “And Muzak filled the air / from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls.”
BTW, Train is very big in my bailiwick of NW PA, since lead singer Pat Monahan is a native of Erie.
Shakezula
@Southern Beale: Yes. It came out when I was quite tiny and for whatever reason my 5 yo brain loooved that song. However, the only song by the FFs I can not stand – Their remake.
No One of Consequence
@Arm The Homeless: I love that album too. I thought their lead singer was going to be a much bigger deal than he turned out to be. Unique voice, and very very emotive. With some serious work, and good luck, good studio/touring musicians, he could aspire to Van Morrison. Aspire to that is.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Steve: “Telegraph Road” is probably the greatest song in rock history. However, it is one of the two worst Detroit Geography fails in rock history, too. The original Fort d’Etroit is nowhere near Telegraph Road and no one founded it by walking anywhere.
burnspbesq
“You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive.” Written by Darrell Scott. Lots of good covers. I think I prefer Patty Loveless’ version, although Brad Paisley’s is probably better known because of its use on “Justified.”
piratedan
well as a tip of the baseball cap to our esteemed blog host….
Take Me Home, Country Roads (Almost Heaven West Virginia) – John Denver, also noted for Colorado Rocky Mountain High.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
@Jay B.: This, of course, is the other great Detroit Geography fail in rock history. There is a south Detroit, kind of. It’s called “Windsor” and if that’s where you’re from, your native language is Canadian.
Steeplejack
The Animals, “Monterey.”
Howlin Wolfe
“I Like Jersey Best” as sung by John Pizzarelli. Not from there, though.
“Kahn (sp?) the Elephant Boy” (I think that is the title, not sure, by John Prine, which mentions the jungles of East St. Paul (although there is only an East Side of St. Paul, not a suburb of St. Paul called that, unlike West St. Paul and South St. Paul.
“Route 66” mentions a whole bunch of towns very coherently, contrary to the Huey Lewis tune (which I quite like, anyway).
wasabi gasp
Rufus Thomas – The Memphis Train
Haydnseek
@SatanicPanic: I am aware of Weezer, but have never heard them. I was referring to the original Buck Owens song, and the later Dwight Yoakam version that brought the song to a younger audience. It also works great when arranged as a straight ahead rocker. The song is a fucking gem.
Violet
ZZ Top’s “La Grange.
A haw, haw, haw, haw, a haw.
FlipYrWhig
Fountains of Wayne, Hackensack
Fountains of Wayne, Someone to Love (Brooklyn, Schenectady)
Decemberists, Valencia
shilohsmama
“Dancing In The Streets” – Martha and the Vandellas, 1964
Melissa
Two by Doug Sahm:
Take me back to Tulsa, I’m too young to marry
Is anybody going to San Antoine or Phoenix Arixzona, any place is allright as long as Ican forget I’ve known ya.
and the great Nina Simone, Mississippi God Damn.
MikeJ
@SatanicPanic:
I think that was sort of the point of the song. It was a big, stupid, annoying song written from the POV of a big, stupid, annoying person who bought the concept of Beverly Hills as the ultimate signifier of the good life.
Amir Khalid
@Leo Artunian:
I guess he made up a nonexistent part of Chicago so there’d be no one from there to take offence.
Steeplejack
Missing Persons, “Walking in L.A.”
shilohsmama
“Dancing In The Streets” – Martha and the Vandellas, [email protected]Steeplejack:
Ivan Ivanovich Renko
I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, and such a fine sight to see-
It’s a girl, my Lord, in a flat-bed Ford slowin’ down to take a look at me…
(was in Winslow more than once, and never did any girl in a flat-bed Ford even drive past… )
Flying Squirrel Girl
“Nebraska’s so flat that I don’t care. I’ll never use this map have I made it clear? I don’t know jack but I stay sincere…” – moe.
Shakezula
@Trollhattan: Yes, awesome. And that fake hick accent. I now like to think of it as a musical diary of the Glimmer Twins’ first exposure to the WTF that is American Corporate Evangelism.
Of course, if they released that song today there would be massive displays of synchronized butthurt.
FlipYrWhig
@sb: “Xanadu” is where they have that stately pleasure dome, right?
burnspbesq
@The Dangerman:
Hell yes. KCRW! and KEXP from U-Dub.
Also too, by the time I moved to LA in 1979, KMET and KLOS both sucked. K-West was better. KROQ was better than both. And KNAC was the best of all. There was widespread disagreement from the locals, but having grown up listening to WNEW-FM and WLIR, I had benchmarks for comparison.
Arm The Homeless
@No One of Consequence: Their second album, Recovering the Satellites was what killed them for me. It was a much slower, plodding attempt at angsty music. It just never grabbed me. But I still think their live stuff is really good. At least they had one amazing album which is more than I can say for a lot of bands in their genre.
Steeplejack
Nina Gordon, “Straight Outta Compton” (NSFW).
geg6
Coming Into Los Angeles by Arlo Guthrie
Coming in from London
From over the pole
Flying in a big airliner
Chickens flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer?
CHORUS:
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
Don`t touch my bags if you please
Mister Customs Man
There`s a guy with a ticket to Mexico
No, he couldn`t look much stranger
Walking in the hall with his things and all
Smiling, said he was the Lone Ranger
CHORUS
Hip woman walking on a moving floor
Tripping on the escalator
There`s a man in the line
And she`s blowing his mind
Thinking that he`s already made her
CHORUS
Coming in from London
From over the pole
Flying in a big airliner
Chickens flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer?
CHORUS
James Gary
Neil Young, “Albuquerque.” Or as Neil sings it, “Aaa-aaa-aaa-aaa-llll…buh-quer-que.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppkrb0VhN9A
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Leo Artunian:
To which fucking horrible translation of the song have you been listening? The lyric is:
Well the south side of Chicago
Is the baddest part of town
different-church-lady
Blues in the Night
Steeplejack
Marty Robbins, “El Paso.”
Amir Khalid
@piratedan:
And speaking of songs recorded by John Denver, how about this ode to Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio?
Napoleon
@Leo Artunian:
Huh? the song says South Side of Chicago, not East Side.
raven
Dayrl and Train
Say it isn’t so.
sweet.
Scout211
Creedence Clearwater Revival: Lodi
Lodi is very near where I live and the song isn’t very complimentary to Lodi, but I like it (and that was one of the requirements of this little exercise).
reflectionephemeral
Also, it is a truth universally acknowledged that Counting Crows were the Train of the 1990s.
raven
@Napoleon: It’s tough in the fucking lake.
Steeplejack
Bobby Bare, “Detroit City.”
SatanicPanic
@MikeJ: I’ll buy that interpretation, but I still don’t want to listen to it.
Another question- city worst served by the songs about it? I’d go with San Francisco
shilohsmama
Goin’ Back To Indiana – Jackson 5
raven
I’ve Been Everywhere
Roger Moore
@burnspbesq:
+eleventy
ribber
Pixies, “UMass”
No One of Consequence
@Arm The Homeless: Yeah, I did not like Recovering the Satellites as much. It had a couple of good tracks, but they gave the guitarist too much volume for the whole album (not just a song or too where he was way heavy for level, but the whole thing stem to stern) and he just doesn’t have the chops for that.
I always liked that song of their about Einstein, but didn’t think it was on the first album or second….
– NOoC
Tractarian
A Tribe Called Quest – Award Tour
(lyrics)
(video)
The Dangerman
@burnspbesq:
As I recall, KMET tried to get out of the death spiral with a format change, after which, yes, they lost their edge. Curiously, I just looked up The Edge (the Station) and it was heavily KMET refugees. KLOS was always fairly vanilla, but the Seventh Day was always fun.
We’ll have to part ways there…
…oh, but you recovered. KNAC pretty much played Guns and Roses before anyone (in LA, at least) as I recall. Fine station.
dedc79
Southtown Girls – The Hold Steady
Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ – Titus Andronicus
As for bad geographic name dropping, Let Me Back In – Rilo Kiley (who i normally like, by the way)
raven
Champaign Illinois, Carl Perkins co-written with Dylan.
Steeplejack
@Haydnseek:
“Streets of Bakersfield” is a great song. (Off to YouTube it again.)
Rowdy P. Nutt
From Chuck Berry’s minor classic, “It Wasn’t Me” comes the greatest lyric in human history: “I met a German girl in England who was going to school in France, she said we met in Mississippi at an Alpha Kappa Dance, it wasn’t me…”
catclub
@cvstoner: plus, I left my heart in san fran cisco.
Moonlight in vermont
I love paris.
Does the reference to the Copa Cabana count?
Origuy
I used to like “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” until I moved here. Now I’m fucking sick of people referring to it when they talk about the city. The song itself would be ok, it’s just brought up unnecessarily.
Mnemosyne
@Origuy:
I heard that song in the mall the other day. It made me think that certain people would have been better off staying on drugs.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Steeplejack:
That song kills me. The only other song with the ability to do the same thing to me is The Jam’s Down In the Tube Station At Midnight, which, due to the reference to Wormwood Scrubs, probably also fits Doug’s parameters.
catclub
Bad, bad Leroy Brown!
raven
John Prine Saigon
Charlie Daniels Still in Saigon
SatanicPanic
@Haydnseek: I love the Mexican sound Dwight brought to it, really cool
d. b. cooper
The entirety of Illmatic
piratedan
@Steeplejack: or his cover of Streets of Loredo….. and Marty does make a reference to Dodge City, Kanssas City and Amarillo in his song Running Gun.
@Amir Khalid: you got me stumped on that one, but I have to admit that that I don’t have the entire John Denver catalog :-)
Violet
@raven: But I’ve Never Been to Me.
raven
Paris Blues
Southern Beale
Funny, I didn’t know Foo Fighters had remade Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street. Heh.
Well since we’re talking Brits, another place name song I love is Heather Nova’s London Rain.
MikeJ
The Needle has Landed – Neko Case
Haydnseek
@burnspbesq: KWST was very good. KROQ great, then descended into brit/synthpop/haircut dance music. But KNAC! Great station. Promoted many of the great rock/metal shows in the LA area. Almost singlehandedly turned Blue Oyster Cult into a perennial LA draw with the shows at the old Long Beach Auditorium and later the Long Beach Arena. Say what you want about the tenets of BOC, at least they’re an ethos.
MCA1
@Chet: Good and obscure to anyone not from ‘sota call. However, some of us from the Cities might think The Hold Steady have a spot there with Stuck between Stations and especially Southtown Girls, the latter of which is so intimate in its detailing of Bloomington and directions to the mall that it takes me right there every time.
Oddly, my favorite Minnesota band’s two best place titled songs are Wichita and Nevada, California. And another of my favorites as a whippersnapper was the Gear Daddies’ Dream Vacation, which was actually about Wisconsin Dells (I guess I liked it because of the condescension toward said area). They also had a lark of a live song they used to joke around with called the Minnesota Polka, which was silly but the lyrics kind of summed up Minnesotans, too.
Lastly, while we’re on the subject, obligatory shoutout to Highway 61 Revisited.
I don’t like songs that just list a bunch of places where someone’s been. Songs named after places but not really about those places, while they qualify for this exercise Doug’s set up, won’t rise to the top for me, although they may be good songs (think Counting Crows’ Omaha – great song, but doesn’t actually have anything to do with Omaha, as far as I can tell). Detailed descriptions of places and street names and things in lyrics rise high for me – I’ll throw in “Well I’m standing on the corner of Lafayette, across the street from the public, heading for the Lone Star Cafe…”
FlipYrWhig
@Tractarian: I left my wallet in El Segundo!
raven
Halfway around the world tonight
In a strange and foreign land
A soldier packs his memories
As he leaves Afghanistan
And back home they don’t know too much
There’s just no way to tell
I guess you had to be there
For to know that war was hell
Chorus:
And there won’t be any victory parades
For those that’s coming back
They’ll fly them in at midnight
And unload the body sacks
And the living will be walking down
A long and lonely road
Because nobody seems to care these days
When a soldier makes it home
They’ll say it wasn’t easy
Just another job well done
As the government in Kabul falls
To the sounds of rebel guns
And the faces of the comrades
Being blown out of the sky
Leaves you bitter with the feeling
That they didn’t have to die
Chorus
Halfway around the world tonight
In a strange and foreign land
A soldier unpacks memories
That he saved from Vietnam
Back home they didn’t know too much
There was just no way to tell
I guess you had to be there
For to know that war was hell
And there wasn’t any big parades
For those that made it back
They flew them in at midnight
And unloaded all the sacks
And the living were left walking down
A long and lonely road
Because nobody seemed to care back then
When a soldier made it home
The night is coming quickly
And the stars are on their way
As I stare into the evening
Looking for the words to say
That I saw the lonely soldier
Just a boy that’s far from home
And I saw that I was just like him
While upon this earth I roam
And there may not be any big parades
If I ever make it back
As I come home under cover
Through a world that can’t keep track
Of the heroes who have fallen
Let alone the ones who won’t
Which is why nobody seems to care
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
John Lee Hooker The Motor City Is Burning
Gin & Tonic
Nobody’s mentioned The Girl From Ipanema?
When she walks, she’s like a samba that swings so cool and sways so gentle
Southern Beale
@Origuy:
I feel that way about “Ventura Highway.”
rikyrah
What say those Bradley Manning defenders now??
LiberalPhenom@LiberalPhenom
Manning released the names & contact info of 74,000 U.S. servicemen & women in Iraq, which our Navy Seals recovered when they got OBL. Wow!
Steeplejack
Beginning of the End, “Funky Nassau.”
cleek
Old Crow’s Wagon Wheel is a great one for shouting out place names.
sb
@burnspbesq: Loveless really nailed it. I can’t think of the guy who ended season 1 or 2; the guy who wasn’t Paisley but he was also great. And I like Alvin’s version, too.
Like you said, lots of great covers.
RSA
@Arm The Homeless:
I’ll cop to the same, and having lived in Baltimore for some years, I’ll mention “Raining In Baltimore.” (Also “Rockville,” by REM, as others have mentioned, not too far away.)
AliceBlue
“Blue Sky” – Allman Brothers (“Goin’ to Carolina, won’t be long till I’ll be there”). Also “Statesboro Blues”.
“Jackson” – Johnny Cash and June Carter
Steeplejack
Archie Bell and the Drells, “Tighten Up.”
“In Houston we just started a dance called the Tighten Up. This is the music we tighten up with.”
geg6
Oh, and how can I forget…
Local rock legends, The Clarks, singing Cigarette with the always memorable (for Western PA anyway) line about the Fayette County Fair and women with big hair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKNbAKJCci0&feature=share&list=PLBF0F52C0754FEBE2
cleek
@rikyrah:
the fucking BBC called him a hero (…pause… “…to some”) this AM. i almost drove my car into a ditch during that pause.
No One of Consequence
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Billy Bragg – Rotting on Remand also mentions … “the stench of Wormwood Scrubs…”
– NOoC
peach flavored shampoo
No brainer….Lower 48 by the Gourds. They mention every one of the 48 states in the lyrics.
jackmac
“Lake Shore Drive” by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah. Great song about Chicago’s lakefront roadway.
“From rats on up to riches, 15 minutes you can fly …”
Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0saZiLV7-7E
MikeJ
Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle
Animal Collective have an album named “Merriweather Post Pavilion”, which is a venue right outside DC.
Trollhattan
@Steeplejack:
Worked a summer job with a guy from Nassau, who was always good for an eye-roll whenever I broke out “Mini skirts, maxi skirts, Afro hairdoos”
It was a factory, so there was lots of boredom to overcome.
belieber
Liquor and whores
Liquor and whores
Cigarettes and dope and mustard and bologna
Liquor and whores
I went down
Drinkin’ at the Legion
I met a girl she was nice
She was pretty and pleasing
She said “Hey boy
We should do some marrying”
I said sure but before we do
There’s something that you should know
I like
Liquor and whores
Liquor and whores
Cigarettes and dope and mustard and bologna
Liquor and whores…
Then one night down at the legion
She walked in, I was drunk on gin
Dancin with a lady friend
She said hey boy, You’d better fly the fuck home
I said no cause five little words I coulda
Swore I said to you
I like
Liquor and whores
Liquor and whores
Cigarettes and dope and mustard and bologna
Liquor and whores…
raven
Sweetwater Texas Charlie
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
Happiness is the Road
I met this man
In Utrecht, Netherlands
The Golux
@No One of Consequence: Also from the mind of Lowell George:
It’s just a country town but patients come
From Mobile to Moline, from miles around
Nacogdoces to New Orleans, in beat up old cars or in limousines
(Rock And Roll Doctor)
The prophet Nostradumbass
Werewolves of London
eemom
With the caveat that I’ve never even been to Chicago [blush], I think the confusion re Leroy Brown is with “The Night Chicago Died”, which starts out talking about “the East Side of Chicago, back in the U.S.A, back in the bad old days.” And it’s by a Brit group, IIRC.
Haydnseek
@different-church-lady: Yeah, that one’s really tough to beat. Great song. The fact that it was performed by great singers didn’t hurt. I favor the Joe Williams version, until I hear Billy Eckstine singing it. We win either way. Good choice.
raven
Red Steagall – Under the “X” in Texas
Rosalita
Amarillo by Morning…
Haydnseek
@Steeplejack: Ya know, that’s so full of win that I just wanna walk down my street and fall in love with a Mexican girl………..
raven
The Commander
House of Blue Lights
there’s fryers
broilers
and Detroit Barbecue Ribs. . .
Amir Khalid
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
That reminds me: Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner
Bill E Pilgrim
Please tell me that you aren’t conflating San Francisco and “The Pacific Northwest”.
I’ve never really understood why “The Pacific Northwest” actually. Is “The Northwest” too vague? Would people think you meant “The Atlantic Northwest” if you didn’t include the word Pacific?
Roy G.
My vote is for Lou Reed’s ‘Romeo had Juliet’ – quite possibly the most evocative song about the City evar:
I’ll take Manhattan in a garbage bag
With Latin written on it that says
“It’s hard to give a shit these days”
Haydnseek
@Steeplejack: Damn, you’re good. Very good.
Cris (without an H)
@The Dangerman:
Without knowing exactly what you mean by the term, I’ll heartily recommend Radio Paradise.
(coincidentally, as I went to grab the link, they were playing “Faraway Eyes.”)
dance around in your bones
Hammond Song – The Roches
geg6
@Vlad:
Did you know that Chris Franz was from Pittsburgh? Wasn’t born here, but spent his school years here, graduating from Shadyside Academy, a very tony prep school.
JGabriel
DougJ @ Top:
Flowers of Guatemala* — REM
Summertime In England — Van Morrison
(*Actually a protest of post-WWII US interventionism, and the deaths it caused, in Guatemala — and the world in general, really.)
Bill in Section 147
California, Woodstock and A Case of You by Joni Mitchell, Going to California by Zeppelin, San Franciscan Nights by Eric Burdon and The Animals, Back in the USSR by the Beatles and a whole bunch mentioned above. Some I like because the music is awesome and some because the place I was in my life when I loved them and some for nostalgia.
dedc79
Basically any song from Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois and Michigan albums.
Jacksonville is one example . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWOgs5bLqG0
Mark H
Well, whether you like it or not, you have to mention “I’ve Been Everywhere” by Johnny Cash, because he pretty much mentions every city in the US.
raven
The Commander
When I was just a little bitty kid I remembered one time Mama said
Daddy sends you all his love from Frisco Bay
I didn’t understand till I was grown
why my Daddy didn’t spend a little time at home
Instead of runnin’ around the country that way
Now I’m looking at the world through a windshield
And see everything in a little bit different light
I got a sweet little thing I’m wantin’ to see in Nashville
And I’m down around Dallas and a’rollin’ on fast tonight
Long strips of rubber that you see
Were burned off of this rig by the likes of me
And they’ll ride along the highways in this land
I’m gonna sign my name in this diesel smoke
And let the ones that come behind me choke
Now I’m looking at the world through a windshield
Watchin’ it a flyin’ by me at the right
I got a sweet little thing I’m wantin’ to see in Nashville
And I’m down around Dallas and a’rollin’ on fast tonight
I’ve pushed this rig through sleet and rain
And I’ve driven through the rough terrain
Of the Rockies to the docks of old L.A.
On down that old Pacific shore, sing north and headin’ for Baltimore
Of somethin’ ‘bout two thousand miles away
Now I’m looking at the world through a windshield
Watchin’ it a flyin’ by me at the right
I got a sweet little thing I’m wantin’ to see in Nashville
And I’m down around Dallas and a’rollin’ on fast tonight
written by Del Reeves
raven
Dave Dudley
Six Days on the Road
dedc79
@The Dangerman: KCRW’s Eclectic 24 is pretty good, but it includes electronic, jazz, etc.. in addition to rock.
MaryRC
@MomSense: Don’t forget Winona!
Cris (without an H)
Wakko Warner sings the 50 states and their capitols
geg6
@Cassidy:
Damn, good one. Wish I’d have thought of that one.
raven
@Mark H: Already did but Cash just covered it
The song “I’ve Been Everywhere” was written by Geoff Mack in 1959 and made popular by the singer Lucky Starr in 1962.
The song (as originally written) listed Australian towns. It was later adapted by Hank Snow for North American (predominantly United States) toponyms and by John Hore (later known as John Grenell) with New Zealand toponyms (1966).
Haydnseek
@SatanicPanic: I was fortunate enough to hear it live at the Universal Amphitheatre in Los Angeles when they were at the top of their game. Great show……
The Dangerman
@Cris (without an H):
From the introduction at RadioParadise, I’d say you nailed exactly what I was seeking. Up and playing now (and will check out the UW’s streams later).
Cris (without an H)
Do you know the way to San Jose?
geg6
@Leo Artunian:
I think the line is “on the south side of Chicago”. But I could be wrong.
muddy
I can’t believe no one has said Ohio, Neil Young. Also My City Was Gone by The Pretenders, also about Ohio.
Hey ho where’d you go Ohio?
raven
@Montysano: They’s flies in the kitchen
zombie rotten mcdonald
“Thank God This Isn’t Cleveland” by Sigmund Snopek.
Bill E Pilgrim
I wonder which place has had the most songs written about it. I’m not saying I know for sure which it is, but this would be hard to beat.
bk
New Madrid
raven
It’s worth it to read all the versions of I’ve Been Everywhere.
Verse 1 Aussie
Tullamore, Seymour, Lismore, Mooloolaba, Nambour, Maroochydore, Kilmore, Murwillumbah, Birdsville, Emmaville, Wallaville, Cunnamulla, Condamine, Strathpine, Proserpine, Ulladulla, Darwin, Gin Gin, Deniliquin, Muckadilla, Wallumbilla, Boggabilla, Kumbarilla.
geg6
Okay, how about one that I detest?
Detroit Rock City by one of the worst bands in history, KISS.
j
“Champain Illinois” by the Old 97s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQuXuHBneOw
I mentions Chicago, Champain, Springfield and Dallas.
The lead singer reworked the words from Dylan’s “Desolation Row” and asked him if it was OK. Dylan listened to a tape and said, “Hell, go and record that thing”.
If you die fearing God
And painfully employed
You will not go to Heaven,
You’ll go to Champain, Illinois
MikeJ
The Young Fresh Fellows had an album called “The Fabulous Sounds of the Pacific Northwest” with interstitial travelogue bits.
Hey what’s your hurry? I see. You’ve listened to the sounds of the Pacific Northwest and now you just can’t wait to go look. Fine. But we had one more important sound we wanted you to hear….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9uUmz7xyJA
raven
Bob Dylan – Duquesne Whistle
weird fucking video
burnspbesq
@rikyrah:
I’m sure they’ll think of something. They always do.
JerryN
“They Don’t Play No Country On The East Side Of New York” by The Hangdogs and “Rockin’ The Bronx” by Black 47 (hell about half of Black 47’s songs, come to think of it).
Citizen_X
Crass, Nagasaki Nightmare
DKs, Moon Over Marin
Slayer, South of Heaven
And there are my apocalyptic picks!
raven
@j: Written by Bob and Carl Perkins and originally released by Carl. Being it’s my hometown I studied up on it.
Bill in Section 147
@MikeJ: She doesn’t need those tapes back.
Bill E Pilgrim
@No One of Consequence: That may be my favorite “place” song.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD7uZ8PsJ9I
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Steeplejack:
Every song you’ve linked so far was on a mix I made for a musical four-year old about seven years ago (titled something like Places You’ll Go and How You’ll Get There, all place names and modes of transportation). He still listens to it.
Here’s one that I don’t think you’ll get to though.
Lambert, Hendricks and Ross Bijou
Vlad
@geg6: I didn’t know that!
I went to Fox Chapel, so I used to see kids from Shadyside all the time, at sports and such.
No One of Consequence
@Roy G.: Brother give me another toke. Those downtown hoods are no damn good. Those Italians need a lesson to be taught. That cop who died in Harlem, you’d think they’d get the warning: I was dancing when I saw his brains run out on the street.
Love that album. One of my top 20 of all time. Good stuff.
– NOoC
p.s. New Sensation; Last Great American Whale; Busload of Faith, Dirty Boulevard, etc. Pretty much every track is awesome. Totally underrated album, imho…
geg6
And just to wash away the dirt from KISS, how about some delicious Ian Hunter and Cleveland Rocks?
http://youtu.be/6_1uEIdjRQU
wasabi gasp
Gladys Knight & The Pips – Midnight Train to Georgia
Rowdy P. Nutt
@rikyrah: I love that song!
Tonal (visible) Crow
Part of the reason I’m so concerned with Benghazi is that Nancy Pelosi isn’t a warm Northern California girl, but keeps her balalaikas ringing out to her ultra-lib’ral lib’ral lib’ral base, also too all of ’em.
MCA1
@reflectionephemeral: Take that back immediately! Just kidding – I see some surface similarities, but one band made a debut album with T-Bone Burnett that was both a critical and commercial success, then followed it with mostly darker-edged stuff that tilted toward Springsteen’s Nebraska period and Van Morrison, and the other made a debut album that tried to sound like Counting Crows’ bigger radio hits, and then tried to pen a bunch of singles thereafter. I’m not saying Counting Crows was a massively important band, or one that was all art and no commerce, but I don’t think they’re nearly as indictable as Train, and while their influences are discernible, they’re not nearly as blatantly derivative (and certainly weren’t so in 1993 or ’94 or whenever they hit the scene and we were in the late stages of grunge and pretty much no one was making old school radio rock that sounded like the early ’70s, contra Train, who decided to try to sound like Matchbox 20 after Matchbox 20 had already released a couple albums).
Citizen S
“Crescent City” by Lucinda Williams. Great song. Works in a couple of Cajun french phrases and a few places from the New Orleans area.
The prophet Nostradumbass
Sublime – April 29, 1992 (Miami)
geg6
@Vlad:
Chris Franz is responsible for getting me into CBGBs my first time there back in the 70s. He knew my then-BF from the art scene in NYC and he got us into the place without getting us killed or beaten up. And then I got to go back many times, two of them to see Talking Heads.
Bill E Pilgrim
Okie from Muskogee
Followed shortly thereafter by “Hippie from Olema”
“We still take in strangers if they’re haggard” was the best line, Merle’s band being “The Strangers”
zombie rotten mcdonald
Really? Over 200 comments and no one mentions “London Calling”?
Consider it mentioned.
Mr Stagger Lee
From the movie Slap shot, A little south of Saskatoon by Sonny James. El Paso by Marty Robbins, part of the song is now in the fight song of Uuniversity of Texas-El Paso, and my favorite rap song California Love by 2Pac & Dr. Dre.
CVS
@hoppipolla: I think there are several million people who would disagree with that. And not all of them live in New York.
Citizen_X
“In the darkest depths of Mordor…”
Always seemed to me an odd place to meet a girl.
lojasmo
Trip Shakespeare, Tool Master of Brainerd
MCA1
@Citizen_X: and a fair one, at that.
JGabriel
cleek:
Damn. How could I forget Robyn Hitchcock for this thread:
I Often Dream Of Trains
Trams of Old London
Fell in love with that album the day it was released and never fell out.
.
cleek
@Bill E Pilgrim:
in the US, it has to be Memphis.
Cris (without an H)
It barely counts, but screw it: The Fields of Athenry
Tonal (visible) Crow
@Citizen_X:
Plenty ‘a girls there, if you don’t mind Orc-kin.
Tone In DC
@Shakezula:
LULz.
Synchronized? Well put.
Brother Machine Gun of Desirable Mindfulness (fka AWS)
I’m not seeing any Luckenbach, Texas
Steeplejack
@MCA1:
Agreed.
The prophet Nostradumbass
The Tubes – White Punks on Dope
Haydnseek
@zombie rotten mcdonald: Truly an egregious sin of omission. I’m surprised it didn’t appear sooner. If this reminds someone to mention “London Bridge is Falling Down,” I will personally travel to wherever they live and give their dog or cat a severe talking-to. In case you’re wondering, zombie rotten, I’m not trying to give you shite, I’m just havin’ a bit of fun. London Calling should have been in the top 5.
nalbar
Geese, people
Surfin’ Safari by the Beach Boys. It names every great surf spot in southern California, and beyond. Many are places non surfers never heard of. Such a great in joke.
.
Bill E Pilgrim
@cleek: Definitely a lot of songs about it. This would seem be saying it’s New York though. And I guess these lists are just something someone compiled so who knows, but going by that one, NYC beats Paris hands down, yow.
Wait a minnit “Stayin Alive” is a song about New York?? Maybe a little padded after all.
Steeplejack
@Haydnseek:
I just gave up on looking for a Felina a few years ago. Sigh [. . .]
geg6
@The prophet Nostradumbass:
Ooooooo, another really good one.
SatanicPanic
Pet Peeve- the song Going Back to Cali– seriously people, does any native Californian who is not a deuche refer to California as Cali? I have yet to meet one. If I were famous I’d write a song called “Going Back to New Yorkie” just to see how New Yorkers like it.
Citizen_X
Shonen Knife: My Favorite Town, Osaka
Villago Delenda Est
@Jay B.:
“Daddy was a cop on the east side of Chicago. Back in the USA. Back in the bad old days”
(the east side of Chicago is under Lake Michigan)
flounder
Jawbreaker, West Bay Invivtational
Steeplejack
Waylon Jennings, “Luckenbach, Texas.”
MikeJ
@Bill E Pilgrim: That is a woefully incomplete list. LEaves out 18 Miles from Memphis, Just Dropped in to See What condition My Condition was in, Memphis Hip Shake (The Cult), and at least 100 others.
cleek
@Bill E Pilgrim:
wow! that’s a lot of NY songs.
Citizen_X
@SatanicPanic: Well, he said he didn’t think he was going back there, anyway.
catclub
Istanbul was Constantinople.
One place with two names. Perhaps they like it better that way.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: Ridin into Memphis – Dash Rip Rock
I’ve Been to Memphis – Lyle Lovett
Sequestered in Memphis – The Hold Steady
Steeplejack
The Trade Winds, “New York’s a Lonely Town.” The weirdest surfer song of all time. But I love it. It always reminds me of Christmas, for some reason. (Probably the sleigh bells.)
Higgs Boson's Mate
@nalbar:
An excellent song, but not every great surf spot by far. They didn’t mention Rip-Your-Legs-Off cove or the San Diego seamount.
catclub
Take me home, to Bayonne
Villago Delenda Est
@Bill E Pilgrim:
It’s “The Pacific Northwest” to distinguish it from the original “Northwest”… Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan, and part of Minnesota.
We don’t mind it, really. Just as long as you don’t move here.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Since I’m splittin’ for work, I can drop this’n and avoid the slings and arrows.
Glenn Campbell Wichita Lineman
Throwing this out there without irony. Jimmy Webb FTW, motherfuckers!
Steeplejack
Liked Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” the first 30 times I heard it, have hated it the subsequent 3.5 million times.
Villago Delenda Est
@Napoleon:
Yes.
The south side of Chicago is the badest part of town, and if you go down there you better just beware of a man name of Leroy Brown.
Brock
@cleek: Memphis Rock n Soul Museum has a list of 1074 songs that mention Memphis. It does list covers multiple times, but still. http://www.memphisrocknsoul.org/over1000songs
Amir Khalid
@Bill E Pilgrim:
We can try to understand
The New York Times’ effect on man
Them’s deep lyrics, man …
moderateindy
@Leo Artunian:
You aren’t from Chicago, otherwise you would know that there is an Eastside, and plenty of folks consider themselves East siders. Ever heard of the area they call Dago Park?
Bill E Pilgrim
@Villago Delenda Est: Yes that makes sense. I figured it was something like that.
Don’t worry, I already lived there once ;) Another transplanted San Franciscan, but it was just for work and then I left. Great place.
flounder
I once saw a guy named Brian Kenny Fresno play in a bar.
Every song was about what a shithole Fresno California is. He played an instrument called the Warrguitar.
Here’s a great one called “Ma dog, ma truck, Madera” about how Madera is just a little stupider than Fresno.
cleek
@Brock:
holy crap.
Napoleon
@muddy:
I saw them at Blossom Music Center in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio back in the day. When they got to the line in that song “from Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls” the crowd went nuts.
Steeplejack
Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, “San Antonio Rose.” Loves me some steel guitar. Also love it anytime someone says “San Antone.”
Kib
Save up all your bread and fly trans love airways
To San Francisco U.S.A
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Steeplejack:
And if you haven’t been cronkin’ at dawn then you’ve missed the full spectrum of surfing SoCal.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Amir Khalid: Plus that’s not even the place, it’s a newspaper;)
Did anyone mention New York State of Mind yet? That’s possibly the only song about New York I actually like.
tinare
I’ve always loved these lyrics from Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”
“Kathy,” I said as we boarded a Greyhound in Pittsburgh
“Michigan seems like a dream to me now”
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw
I’ve gone to look for America
I also like Walking in Memphis.
Higgs Boson's Mate
@Kib:
He will bring you happiness in a kite,
He’ll a ride away on silver bike,
And apart from that he’ll be so kind,
As consenting to blow your mind….
Cris (without an H)
As a surfer, he explored the beaches of Southern California, from La Jolla to Leo Carrillo. And up to Pismo.
Just One More Canuck
For my fellow Canadians:
Running Back to Saskatoon – Guess Who
Sudbury Saturday Night – Stompin Tom Connors
Tragically Hip – take your pick; New Orleans is Sinking, BobcaygeonN a whole bunch of others
Villago Delenda Est
I went from Phoenix Arizona all the way to Tacoma
Philadelphia Atlanta LA
japa21
Showing my age, but Chicago by Ol Blue Eyes was pretty good.
A seasonal song, but Christmas in Dixie by Alabama is good and includes, among others, LA, Chicago and Detroit.
Villago Delenda Est
@tinare:
Also “counting the cars on the New Jersey Turnpike…”
Bill E Pilgrim
Who can forget the immortal Last Train to Clarksville?
tinare
The Weepies also had a song called “San Francisco”
Cris (without an H)
@moderateindy: also, Dude, “Dago” is not the preferred nomenclature.
Villago Delenda Est
@Elaine Benis:
Not true not true not true. They’re grey, they’re depressing, you don’t want to visit Seattle, ever, it’s filled with melancholy Norwegians that drive, top speed, 5MPH in Ballard…
Citizen_X
@Steeplejack: Wasn’t that named Greatest American folk song of all time, recently, by, er, somebody?
Also: I Hate Winnipeg by the Weakerthans, best love/hate song about a town ever.
Steeplejack
@piratedan:
Marty Robbins is a geographical name-checker deluxe. “Ballad of the Alamo” (“In the southern part of Texas, in the town of San Antone”), etc., and another of my favorites, “Big Iron.” “To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day.”
I loved that album Gunfighter Ballads when I was a kid (it was my mom’s), and it holds up surprisingly well in a genre kind of way.
cleek
Horse Flies – I Live Where It’s Gray. it’s about the Finger Lakes.
Villago Delenda Est
Has anyone mentioned Randy Newman’s songs, like “Burn On” and “I Love LA” (which he calls “pure chamber of commerce”)
moderateindy
Portland Woman, NRPS
Colorado Girl, Townes Van Zandt… although I like Steve Earle’s version better
Guy Clark, Dublin Blues …..
I wish I was in Austin
In the Chili Parlour Bar
Drinkin’ Mad Dog Margaritas
And not carin’ where you are
But here I sit in Dublin
Just rollin’ cigarettes
Holdin’ back and chokin’ back
The shakes with every breath
Tonal (visible) Crow
“Hitch a Ride” by Boston: “Day is night in New York City….”
“Taxi” by Harry Chapin: “It was rainin’ hard in ‘Frisco….”
Apropos of Republicans’ hard and thankless hearts, “Plane Wreck at Los Gatos Canyon” by Judy Collins: “You’re flying back to the Mexican border….”
And of course (for you irredeemable DFHs), “Puff the Magic Dragon” by PP&M: “Puff the Magic Dragon, lived by the sea, and frolicked in the autumn mist in a land called Honalee….”
Steeplejack
@Citizen_X:
Yeah, the Bob Wills Preservation Society, probably. LOL.
Chat Noir
Arizona — Mark Lindsay.
Ukiah — Doobie Brothers. Was at a work function in San Francisco 13 years ago and was served lunch by a guy who’s name tag said “Ukiah, California” as his hometown. I said, “The Doobie Brothers wrote a song about your hometown.” The guy was thrilled that someone actually knew that little factoid.
Hugely
Joppa Road by Ween (i think its the one in Bucks County not the one in Baltimore)
” at the Sun-o-co “
Citizen_X
@japa21: Somebody already mentioned New York, New York, and Sinatra also did I Like Paris, LA’s My Lady, and In Foggy London Town.
Bill E Pilgrim
One that know one will know but among the best.
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
That’s why “standin on the corner, Twelfth Street and Vine” makes “Kansas City” a good one. Very evocative.
Calouste
@Bill E Pilgrim:
The original Northwest in the US was the territory between the original 13 states, the Mississippi river, Kentucky and Canada. Northwestern University for example is in Illinois.
Villago Delenda Est
@flounder:
“You call these grapes? They taste like Fresno!”
Steeplejack
Johnny Horton, “Battle of New Orleans.” “In 1814 we took a little trip along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip’.”
And who can forget “North to Alaska”?
gogol's wife
@Steeplejack:
We took a little bacon and we took a little beans, and we fought the bloody British at the town of New Orleans.
You’re hitting some good ones. El Paso has to win the prize as far as I’m concerned.
ETA: North — to alASka, go north, the race is on. (I’m not googling, so these may be imprecise.
eemom
Come to think of it…..doesn’t there have to be SOME kind of land mass that corresponds to “east side of Chicago”?
Chat Noir
Running Back to Saskatoon — Guess Who
Are You Going to San Francisco — Scott McKenzie
Steeplejack
Michelle Shocked’s “Come a Long Way” is a great paean to Los Angeles. (Can’t find a video.)
Also, since I belatedly noticed that Doug said “places,” not “cities,” I’ll throw in another favorite of mine: Bobby Womack, “Across 110th Street.” Quintessential ’70s urban funk.
Bill E Pilgrim
@Calouste: Thanks, Villago beat you to it.
gogol's wife
@eemom:
Someone upthread said there is a neighborhood considered the “east side.” Sounds plausible.
You have to go to Chicago! It’s the best!
Tonal (visible) Crow
Ah yes (and one of the best), “Crawling Back to You” by Tom Petty: “Waiting by the side of the road, for day to break, so we could go: down into Los Angeles, with dirty hands and worn-out knees….”
raven
@Tonal (visible) Crow: Most things I worry about, never happen anyway.
Tonal (visible) Crow
And we can’t forget “We’re Not Gonna Take It” by The Who: “Welcome to the camp, I guess you all know why we’re here….”
TEL
PIL “Seattle” – which is mostly about how much John Lydon hated that city. I like the song, even though I like the city of Seattle a lot more than PIL did.
Keith G
Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio…
… is like being nowhere at all. All through the day how the hours rush by. You sit in the park and you watch the grass die!
John Denver was very unkind (the song was written by Randy Sparks) to the county seat of my home area, but I still loved that troubadour.
edit :
I see Amir Khalid also mentioned this. But Amir, were you a 13 year old living Toledo adjacent when this came out?
Steeplejack
Can’t believe no one has mentioned Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey.” Although I guess it’s not specifically about Tupelo the place. But not to worry: Bobbie Gentry name-checks it in her great Southern gothic song “Ode to Billy Joe.”
And, although he doesn’t name a specific place, Jesse Colin Young conjures a great sense of place in “Ridgetop.”
Amir Khalid
@Tonal (visible) Crow:
Deportee (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos) is generally considered a Woody Guthrie song. He wrote the lyrics as a poem that was published in a newspaper, since he was ill by then to work on a tune with his guitar. It was Pete Seeger who made the song famous.
Steeplejack
@Bill in Section 147:
Woodstock! Either version, CSN&Y or Joni Mitchell.
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
I’ll even throw in Matthew’s Southern Comfort.
Amir Khalid
@Keith G:
No, of course. But John Denver had a worldwide following back in the 1970s.
Steeplejack
Some good (and not merely gratuitous) place-checking in Simon and Garfunkel’s “America.” “It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw.”
Gian
Passage to bangcock… Rush
One night in bangcock… Murray head
El pas so marry Robbins
Book… peter Gabriel (perhaps not the shout out port Elizabeth preferred)
Tonal (visible) Crow
@Amir Khalid: Thank you for the correction. I had forgotten that history in the glare of Collins’s great performance.
Pappy G
Bob Dylan – You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go
I’ll look for you in old Honolulu / San Francisco, Ashtabula
Cris (without an H)
For a couple of reasons, both according to my Kansas-raised mom. That intersection is in a historically black neighborhood (and a “cradle of jazz” to boot), so the location has a backstory that isn’t explicit in the lyrics. Also, the intersection itself doesn’t exist any more, so the line is now a slice of history.
Gian
Forgot
Please come to Boston… Dave loggins
moderateindy
@Cris (without an H): Perhaps not, but that’s what all the Italian guys that I know that lived there called it.
Tonal (visible) Crow
Ah! The best of them all: “Amsterdam” by Jacques Brel: “In the port of Amsterdam there’s a sailor who sings, of the dreams that he brings from the wide-open sea….” The forgotten Fred Holstein gives a fabulously passionate performance of this song on his album “Chicago and Other Ports”.
Steeplejack
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again):
I love LHR! But I’ve been restraining myself from veering off into jazz. There’s a hell of a lot of place-names there, too.
For some reason this suddenly reminds me of Gil Scott-Heron, “We Almost Lost Detroit.”
YellowJournalism
@Shell B.: Thanks! i just put that on my “to download” list.
bk
You’ll catch them surfin’ at Del Mar,
Ventura County Line,
Santa Cruz and Trestle,
Australia’s Narrabeen,
All over Manhattan,
and down Doheny way….
At Haggerty’s and Swami’s,
Pacific Palisades,
San Onofre and Sunset,
Redondo Beach, LA,
All over La Jolla,
and Waimea Bay
Steeplejack
@Steeplejack:
The Viscounts, “Harlem Nocturne.” This song has been covered by about 10 million jazz artists. Like Sonny Stitt.
Cris (without an H)
@Gian: I actually love that song, mostly unironically. It’s a great depiction of the twentysomething flake who always thinks he’s found himself, until next year when he finds a new self.
“You can sell your paintings on the sidewalk near a cafe where I hope that I’ll be working soon.”
quannlace
“Can’t believe no one has mentioned “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra.
Damn, I’m getting old!”
****************
No you’re not. What about the grandaddy of ’em all. “I Left My Heart In San Francisco.”
Course I was six the first time I heard it.
Robin and Linda Williams pack a lot of geography into “Famous In Missouri.”
‘I was famous in Missouri
Everybody knew my name
From Kansas City to old Saint Louis
I knew how to play the game
Now it sure feels strange
To be in South Dakota
Down on the range….’
quannlace
“Can’t believe no one has mentioned “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra.
Damn, I’m getting old!”
****************
No you’re not. What about the grandaddy of ’em all. “I Left My Heart In San Francisco.”
Course I was six the first time I heard it.
Robin and Linda Williams pack a lot of geography into “Famous In Missouri.”
‘I was famous in Missouri
Everybody knew my name
From Kansas City to old Saint Louis
I knew how to play the game
Now it sure feels strange
To be in South Dakota
Down on the range….’
gogol's wife
@Cris (without an H):
I just saw this: “During the ’20s and ’30s, Kansas City’s 12th Street became nationally known for its jazz clubs, gambling halls and brothels. The area was immortalized in the song ‘Kansas City,’ which features the refrain ‘I’m goin’ to Kansas City, Kansas City here I come…’ In 2005, a piano-shaped plaza was built at the intersection of 12th Street & Vine to pay tribute to the song that made the area famous. The plaza features interpretive displays about the area’s heyday as an entertainment district when jazz clubs and gambling halls lined 12th Street, and visitors can pose for pictures under a replica of a historic 12th Street & Vine sign. Around the same time the park was dedicated, the famous tune was adopted as the city’s official song.” I haven’t lived there for quite a while, and I wasn’t much of a frequenter of 12th & Vine anyway. Interesting.
quannlace
Jimmy Driftwood’s “We Sailed for St. Brendan’s Fair Isle”
j
@Just One More Canuck: I like the Kings’ line from This Beat Goes On/Switchin’ to Glide:
“Hey little Donna
Do ya still wanna?
You said to look you up
When I was in Toronna”
(Yeah, they cheated…”
eemom
@Steeplejack:
Of which today is the day! Third of June….
Roy G.
@No One of Consequence: Perfume burned his eyes/pulled in tightly to her thighs/then something flickered for a minute/then it vanished and was gone.
The soundtrack of life when I lived there. I’m with ya – it’s a gem.
jackmac
@moderateindy: I’m from Chicago and it’s the SOUTHEAST Side. There is no EAST Side.
Also, “The Night Chicago Died” is a horrible song.
Steeplejack
@Calouste:
Yeah, even as late as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction in the 1920s characters talk about being from “out West,” e.g., Chicago, Detroit and Minneapolis.
Kathleen
@John: Love that one! I think it’s been “sampled” in a recent pop hit but I don’t know the name or vocalist. Also, too, “Dancin’ In the Streets” (Martha Reeves and the Vandellas – “They’ll be dancin’ in Chicago. Down in New Orleans. Up in New York City….” And James Brown’s “Livin In America”. And “MTA” by The Kingston Trio.
Kathleen
@Cacti: Love that song.
j
@moderateindy: “East Side” is a neighborhood community on the far South Side, located on the east side of the Calumet River and the Lake Calumet harbor, hence the name.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Side,_Chicago
dance around in your bones
@Steeplejack:
I was going to mention Michelle Shocked’s Anchored Down in Anchorage but she has been somewhat ::ahem:: controversial lately.
Hey Chel you know it’s kinda funny
Texas always seems so big
But you know you’re in the largest state in the Union
When you’re anchored down in Anchorage
No One of Consequence
@Roy G.: I concur. I loved Velvet Underground from way back, but Lou Reed cemented himself in my internal ‘Lexicon of Cool’ with New York. As much a part of my personal soundtrack (for when they make the inevitable biopic for NOoC, heh) as Exile on Mainstreet, Waiting for Columbus, Who’s Next, Stone Roses, One for the Road, Houses of the Holy, Sneakin’ Through the Alley with Sally, Thick as a Brick, Full Moon Fever, The Last Waltz, Moving Pictures or Blood on the Tracks. (So many more, but time’s a wastin’…)
– NOoC
quannlace
Saginaw?
Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘America’
Cathy, I said, as we boarded a greyhound in Pittsburgh
Michigan seems like a dream to me now
It took me four days to hitchhike from Saginaw….
Anna in PDX
Gosh there are so many songs I love that mention places
Paradise by John Prine
Someone already mentioned Angel from Montgomery also by John Prine
No one has mentioned All my exes live in Texas, ha ha
I once7heard a cover of “Cocaine” that went “It’s not in Oregon, it’s in Washington, it’s alright, it’s alright, it’s alright…. Spokane”
City of New Orleans by Arlo Guthrie, actually about the train, but a lot of lyrics about where it is going and coming from
Harper Valley PTA (I skimmed this, didn’t see it, can’t believe no one has mentioned it)
Well the rest just went out of my mind and I better get back to work
Origuy
One of the best Christmas songs ever: Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
Steeplejack
@eemom:
You’re absolutely right!
Also the anniversary of an accident that put me in the hospital for 16 days when I was 12 years old. Thanks for reminding me!
Steeplejack
@dance around in your bones:
Heh, hate the hater, not the hater’s good songs.
The Other Chuck
Tom Waits’s “Singapore” and “Telephone Call from Istanbul”. The lyrics to the second one go something like this:
Delk
The entire Illinois album by Sufjan Stevens
The Other Chuck
And after those two supremely awesome Tom Waits songs, I’ll go ahead and plant an earworm you’ll hate me forever for: Falco, “Vienna Calling”
zombie rotten mcdonald
@catclub:
It’s been very strange. We went to see They Might Be Giants on Friday night, and since then it seems like half the blogs I visit mention the band.
Al Swearengen
“And the Hammering in my Head don’t stop on the bullet train from Tokyo…To Los Angeles”
Roy G.
@No One of Consequence: And it was allllright.
dance around in your bones
@Steeplejack: That’s what I thought, but the Fear of Flaming kept me mute.
I loved Michelle Shocked back in the day.
Bjacques
The Cockroach That Ate Cincinnati, Pico and Sepulveda (from Forbidden Zone), and Godzilla by BOC. You’re welcome.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
City of New Orleans – Arlo Guthrie
New York, New York – Nina Hagen
dance around in your bones
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
Saturday Night Herman Brood
(Ok, no city except for someone named Reno – but for some reason I always listened to Nina Hagen and Herman Brood together.)
j
@Leo Artunian: Anyhoo, (as I catch up, and the whole “East Side” thing has been beaten to death) the lyrics are :
Well the SOUTH SIDE of Chicago…”
Which was never the “baddest” part of town. The West Side always held that “honor”.
LeRoy Brown was a real person, though.
He was an Army AWOL (just like our appointed CinC., G-Dumb).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad,_Bad_Leroy_Brown#Inspiration
Scamp Dog
Saginaw, my home town!
Vlad
@geg6: That’s a pretty awesome story.
RandomMonster (formerly HE Pennypacker, Wealthy Industrialist)
California Dreamin’.
Perfect Tommy
All the Way From Memphis – Mott the Hoople
Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed
Rockaway Beach – Ramones
Woman From Tokyo – Deep Purple
Sad_Dem
Since I see “I’ve Been Everywhere” has been accounted for, I’ll go for the hyperlocal:
“Emotional Weather Report,” Tom Waits, mentions how windy the corner of Sunset and Alvarado in LA is, the band Silversun Pickups took their name from Silversun liquor at Sunset and Silver Lake, and Beck’s “Debra” mentions Zankou Chicken, Sunset and Normandie.
Jacel
Leonard Cohen’s “First We Take Manhattan”.
And don’t forget Walt Kelly’s immortal Pogo holiday song, “Deck Us All With Boston, Charlie” that immediately goes on to namecheck “Walla Walla, Wash. and Kalamazoo.”
j
@Haydnseek: How about “London Bridge” by Bread?
It’s about Lake Havasau City AZ buying the actual bridge, disassembling it and moving it, and making it a tourist trap in the middle of the Arizona desert.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mt46Lvi1XeQ
The keyboard player also did the piano on “Bridge Over Troubled Water” by S&G.
SiubhanDuinne
Stars Fell on Alabama
Moonlight in Vermont
Gary, Indiana
(My Kind of Town) Chicago Is
Chicago, Chicago (that Toddling Town)
A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I Got a Gal in Kalamazoo -zoo -zoo -zoo
(I’m Going to) Jackson
Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City
Wichita Lineman
Country Roads (West Virginia)
Why, Oh Why, Oh Why-Oh (Why Did I Ever Leave Ohio?)
I’ll Take Manhattan
Autumn in New York
April in Paris
The Poor People of Paris
A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square
London Pride
Norwegian Wood
Istanbul Was Constantinople
Vello
“Our Song”: which gave Yes a reason…
… to give Toledo OH a shout out.
Cowgirl in the sand
Geeze guys – California Dreamin’
Every Picture Tells a Story Rod Stewart
…down in Rome I wasn’t getting me none…
Vello
“Our Song” which gave Yes a reason….
j
@moderateindy: Especially since that area was heavily Polish, Slavic & Czech. (A few Lithuanians were thrown in just for spice). The Italian immigrants were kept to a small corner of the 10th Ward, and they weren’t really trusted at the steel mills either. Hence the local name for the park.
Just look up the names of the churches in the area in order to get a feeling of the dominant ethnic populations.
Every ethnicity needed some “other” group to dump on in order to make themselves feel superior.
dswagz
I’ve been everywhere, Man. I’ve been everywhere.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov4epAJRPMw
moderateindy
@j: Yeah , I know what the area is like ethnically. Besides the few Italian guys I met from the area, I knew a few Polish guys as well, although they may have actually been from Hegewisch. Anyway my point was the guys that I knew that lived near Eggers Woods would say that they were from the East side of Chicago, which is good enough for me. Not to mention that there is actually an area on the map of Chicago explicitly called East Side. Of course, I ignored addressing the original flaw of the incorrect lyric because that had been covered by a couple of folks.
Just Me
How is this just not a great train song…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfaWCjtJcgU
Mike Nilsen
Cities – by The Talking Heads
No Sleep Till Brooklyn! – Beastie Boys
Mikita21
Jonesboro, Illinois. — Tom Waite
Kokomo, Indiana. — Vaughn Monroe
Maybe it’s Because I’m A Londoner. — Vera Lynn
Tillsonburg. — Stompin’ Tom Conners
Sudbury Saturday Night. — same
Valencia. — Tony Martin (1950)
Dusk in Upper Sandusky. — jimmy Dorsey
Seattle. — perry Como
Lady of Spain. — Eddie fisher
From Russia, With Love. — Matt Monroe
Talk to me of Mendocino. — Kate & Anna McGarrigle
Lost my Sugar in Salt Lake City. — Julie London
Salt Lake City. — the beach boys
Rhode Island is Famous For You. — blossom Dearie
Louisiana 1927. — Marcia Ball
Managua, Nicaragua. — Peggy Lee
They’ve Got an Awful Lot of Coffee In Brazil. — Frank Sinatra
& now my head hurts………
cleek
i hate the song, but…
Diesel – Sausalito Summer Nights
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Steeplejack:
They also had a song called My Home in San Antone. Also Take Me Back to Tulsa (mentioned above already).
@reflectionephemeral: Baltimore is a great and harrowing song. @SiubhanDuinne: You Missed “A Foggy Day (In London Town)” and London by Night. Billie Holliday did a great version of the former.
I wish I was In New Orleans by Tom Waits. He’s got a bunch of them.
Impossible Germany by Wilco – also mentions Japan.
Aint Nobody Who Can Sing Like Me by Woody Guthrie (also California Stars by the same).
Shattered by the Rolling Stones. How has that not been mentioned yet?
Joe
LA Woman by the Doors is an epic ode to a city
Tony Alva
From a town known as Oyster Bay, Long Island
Rode a boy with a six-pack in his hand
And his daring life of crime
Made him a legend in his time
East and west of the Rio Grande…
edub
The part in Wagon Wheel (OCMS version is still the best) where he practically shouts “Johnson City, Tennessee!”
Also Chula Vista by Possum.
mikita211
What a playlist!!! adding, hopefully not duplicating…..
Johnsburg, Illinois — Tom Waites
Kokomo, Indiana — Vaughn Monroe
Dusk In Upper Sandusky — Jimmy Dorsey
From Russia, With Love — Matt Monroe
When The Swallows Come Back to Capistrano — the Ink Spots
Seattle — Perry Como
Tillsonburg — Stompn’ Tom Connors
Sudbury Saturday Night — Stompin’ Tom Connors
Valencia — Tony Martin (1950)
Managua, Nicaragua — Peggy Lee
The Coffee Song — Frank Sinatra (they’ve got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil)
Take Me Back To Tulsa — Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Convoy — C.W. McCall (also mentions Tulsa & others)..also should be played this Friday, as the date is mentioned…..”in the dark of the moon on the 6th of June…..”
Down Argentina Way — the Andrews Sisters
What Do They Do On a Rainy Night in Rio — Bugs Bunny
Michigan Rag — Michigan J. Frog (c’mon, you know it!!!)
The North Atlantic Squadron (a bawdy Canadian service song of WW II — google it!)
Blood Red Roses — Mathew’s southern Comfort
You’re The Reason God Made Oklahoma — David Frizzell & Dotty West
Idaho — The Four Seasons (“Grandma’s stew, the cows and you…..”)
Louisiana 1927 — Marcia Ball, Van Morrison
Sweet Kentucky Ham — Rosemary Clooney version (Dave Frishberg comp.)
Me & Lenny On A Plane — Jay Leonhart (mentions flying to L. A. with Leonard Bernstein)
Moon Over Parma — Drew Carey
Cincinnati Dancing Pig — Red Foley
East St. Louis Toodle-Oo — Duke Ellington
& now my head is starting to hurt…….
mwbugg
Paradise by John Prine. From Wikipedia “The song is about the impact of coal mining both while in activity and what happens to the area around the Green River in Kentucky once the coal mining ends. The song references the Peabody Energy Corporation, and a now-defunct town called Paradise in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.”
Sad_Dem
@edub: “Chula Vista”–now there’s a great one!
“All I Wanna Do,” Cheryl Crow, until the sun comes up over Santa Monica Boulevard.
“Echo Park,” Keith Barbour
“MacArthur Park,” Jimmy Webb
“Sunset Grill,” Don Henley
“Traces of the Western Slope,” Rickie Lee Jones
“Smooth Operator,” Sade
“Under the Bridge,” Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Contrabando y traicion,” Los Tigres Del Norte
“Pacific Coast Highway,” Hole
Sad_Dem
Also: Songs in the Key of Los Angeles
polyorchnid octopunch
Black Day in July – Gordon Lightfoot
Mikita21
Baltimore Oriole. — HoagyCarmichael
Mention My Name In Sheboygan. — the Everly Brothers
Waterloo Sunset. — The Kinks