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Songs About Cities.

M

Mitchell

Level of Coral Feather
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What songs about cities can we come up with?

A few come to mind.

New York:

New York City Rhythm-Barry Manilow.

New York State of Mind-Billy Joel

New York, New York : Frank Sinatra, AND Liza Minelli.


Philadelphia:

Philadelphia Freedom-Elton John

Streets of Philadelphia., The Boss, Bruce Springsteen.


Chicago- Two by Mr Francis Sinatra that come to mind.

Chicago Is My Kind Of Town.

Chicago, Chicago, That Toddlin Town.

Los Angeles.

Los Angolenos-The Great Mr William Joel.

Any others, and yes, cities outside the US can be included, since we are a world wide forum.
 
Viva Las Vegas:

File:VivaLasVegasElvis.jpg


Why Elvis? Tarantino should have been alive during that era, and shot the movie: "From Dusk Till Dawn"! It would be in black and white, but the foot fetish thing would be awesome!

Oh music... The "Rat Pack" should have recorded the soundtrack.
 
Lots of tunes about San Francisco,.... from Tony Bennet leaving his heart there,... to Scott McKenzie's hippie ballad about going there. Billy Joel's Allentown was a good song. And don't even get started on all the songs about towns in Texas.
 
Thanks, guys.

Pied,. I used to know two people from Allentown when I was in college, and they absolutely hated the song. They claimed that it essentially "defamed" the town, and didnt present life in Allentown as it really was. I drove through it many times when I lived in Lancaster, but never got a feeling for what it is really like there.
 
Los Angeles:

I Love LA by Randy Newman

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I Love LA by Brian McKnight

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New York:

Empire State of Mind by Jay Z and Alicia Keys

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"Black Day in July", the song about the Detroit Race Riots of '67 by Canadian folk singer Gordon Lightfoot is generally unknown in the States because it was banned from airplay in Detroit when it came out in 1968.

Radio stations in 30 other major American cities also boycotted the song and didn't play it either. I can't seem to embed it so here's a link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPXL3iEVnCM
 
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Prime, I love the song I Love LA. Havent heard of the other one you mentioned.
 
Mitchell said:
Prime, I love the song I Love LA. Havent heard of the other one you mentioned.
Click to expand...

The one by Jay Z/Alicia Keys was a very popular song when it came out. It is like an anthemn for NYC lately. I also added another LA song...
 
'For Boston' (Dropkick Murphys), 'A Rainy Night in Soho' (The Pogues), 'Olympia, WA' (Rancid), and 'Durham Town' (Tony Martin & Sugarwood).

They're some of my favourite 'city songs' 🙂
 
London by Night - Frank Sinatra.

Paris in the Springtime - Frank Sinatra.

A Town Called Amsterdam - Jacques Brell.

Memphis - Johnny Rivers
 
I never heard of any of the ones you mentioned Phillip, sorry.

Scribe mentioning Memphis made me think of another song about Memphis.

Walking In Memphis: Marc Cohn.

I guess that song is sort of about the city of Memphis. When Mr Cohn sang:

"I'm walking In Memphis. I saw the ghost of Elvis, on Union Avenue, followed him up to the gates of Graceland, and I watched him walk right through. "
 
Mitchell said:
I never heard of any of the ones you mentioned Phillip, sorry.
Click to expand...

Lol, that's OK; they're fairly obscure songs anyway!

Some more I've thought of: 'Los Angeles Is Burning' (Bad Religion) and 'Rockaway Beach' (Ramones).
 
I may have heard of those songs, not sure.

Another song about New York. ''

Off a solo album by Paul Simon's longtime singing partner.

Art Garfunkel sang a song that was released in 1981 called ""A Heart In New York", which definitely discussed the city. He said "New York, looking down on Central Park, where they say you should not wander, after dark".
 
Mitchell said:
Thanks, guys.

Pied,. I used to know two people from Allentown when I was in college, and they absolutely hated the song. They claimed that it essentially "defamed" the town, and didnt present life in Allentown as it really was. I drove through it many times when I lived in Lancaster, but never got a feeling for what it is really like there.
Click to expand...
_______________________

Interesting, Mitch. I went back and checked all the lyrics and yeah, I can see their point, provided they were more "establishment" than "young rebel." Still a good piece of music, however. And hey,... from the same geographic neighborhood,... Joni Mitchell's "Good Morning Morgantown." Great song. I also liked Glenn Campbell's "Galveston."
 
Adele - "Hometown Glory"

Sufjan Stevens - "Chicago" (though the entire album this originates from is about Illinois)

The Pogues - "Dirty Old Town" (a cover, but it's good)

The Pogues - "Fairytale of New York" - best Christmas song ever

The Specials - "Ghost Town"

Johnny Cash + June Carter - "Jackson"

Fleet Foxes - "Mykonos"

Cat Power - "New York"

Simon + Garfunkel - "The Only Living Boy In New York" (whiny song written by Simon about/to Garfunkel when he went off to be in a movie)

Bob Dylan - "Oxford Town"

everything by Dropkick Murphys is about Boston

everything by Duke Ellington is about New York

Common - "Chi-City"

Kanye West ft Chris Martin - "Homecoming"

Frank Sinatra - "My Kind of Town"

Elvis Presley - "In The Ghetto"

Tom Waits - "Heartattack & Vine"

Beatles - "Blue Jay Way"

Guns N Roses - "Paradise City"

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Under The Bridge"

Will Smith - "Welcome to Miami"

CCR - "Born on the Bayou"

The Animals - "House of the Rising Sun"

 
Kansas City Lights. Steve Wariner, 1982.

Amarillo by Morning. Written in 1973 by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser, Stafford recorded and released the song that same year. George Strait's 1983 cover was a mega-hit. Houston, San Antiono and Santa Fe New Mexico are also mentioned in the song.

El Paso by the late great Marty Robbins, 1957.

Luckenbach, Texas. By the late Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, 1977.

Just a few off the top of my head.

How did I miss Galveston by Glem Campbell, 1969.
 
"Kansas City" I have read there are three hundred versions of this song.
 
This thread could go on forever,..... the topical matter is virtually infinite. How did I overlook Kansas City and Memphis?,.... two total classics. And I used to play El Paso on stage. Randy Newman's song "Burn on" was about Cleveland,... so was Drew Carey's intro tune for his sitcom,... Cleveland Rocks. The Battle of New Orleans?
 
These people, a boy and a girl who were friends for their lifetimes, are my age, and for whatever reason, applied together to go to my college in Long Island. They were from Allentown, and for some reason, just hated the song.

I remember the S and G song that Mairead mentioned. Simon was very angry with Garfunkel when Garfunkel went to do that movie, Catch 22, in 1969, close to the end of their music partnership.
 
"Los Angeles" by Frank Black (also known as Black Francis of the Pixies)
"Moving to LA" by Art Brut
"Memphis" by The Pixies
"Memphis" by Johnny Rivers
"All the Way From Memphis" by Mott The Hoople
"Nantes" by Beirut
"We're from Barcelona" by I'm from Barcelona
"Perth" by Bon Iver
"Talkin' New York" by Bob Dylan
"Omaha Stylee" by 311
"New York City Cop" by the Strokes
 
Midnight in Moscow by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen,... sometime in the 60's,... a truly great jazz piece. (check it out on YouTube) Chattanooga Choo-Choo,.... just for fun. Birmingham by Randy Newman. Old Cape Cod, orig. by Patti Page, and given a good boost by Bette Midler. Little Old Lady From Pasadena by the Beach Boys. Key Largo by Bertie Higgins, 1982.
 
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