Places Mentioned in Songs

[ozover50]

You beat me to the punch on Freddy Cannon's 'Palisades Park', Mike. That song always gave me visions of a carnival or fun park on a beach or pier somewhere.

[bosco64]

Not to hijack this thread, but I grew up around Palisades Park as a kid, and I could remember my dad taking me on the "Batman Slide" when I was about 6 years old. Sadly, not too long after that, they tore it down to build hi-rise condos. My dad even worked there as a teenager; lots of encounters with 1950's era celebrity types such as Buster Crabbe, Howdy Doody with Buffalo Bob, John Saxon and Dion (without the Belmonts) and countless others I can't recall.

Returning to original thread right now...

[charlyg]

Please come to Boston
Miami Strut
Kansas City
Jesus just left Chicago
San Francisco NIghts (been mentioned but it struck a chord when I was a yonugster)
City of New Orleans
Back in the USSR

I'll be back, I can think of some more that got my attention, but gotta get some work done!

[charlyg]

Wait wait.

Kokomo
Penny Lane
Strawberry Fields
How about the Long and Winding Road? always wondered where that was!!!!!!

[janglerocker]

Songs that make me think of their location:

Beatles - Strawberry Fields
Beatles - Penny Lane
XTC - Towers of London
XTC - Red Brick Dream (Swindon Town)
The Clash- Gunx of Brixton
The Clash - London Calling
The Jam - A Bomb in Wardour St.
I just gotta post this video -


....more to come.

[winston]

It's interesting how a song can invoke memories. When I was 16 I had a few too many at a club in Brighton and could not make it back to my hometown of Southampton. That night I sort of slept under the Brighton Pier with a few friends and other assorted but interesting individuals.

The very first time I heard "Pinball Wizard" and the line "from Soho down to Brighton" it struck a major chord. The band I had gone to see in Brighton? The Who.

[rickenbrother]

There are are so many songs that mention New York City and while I lived there, I always thought that was cool when I heard one of those songs. Now I get homesick, except in winter, after the holidays are over.

[teb]

The song that I probably liked the most was Route 66. It conjured up a vision of an unending ribbon of a four lane highway with countless places with strange names that would be fun to visit.

Me too! Actually, Rt. 66 was mostly two-lane and what was neat about it was that it wasn't just an unending ribbon. It was kind of like an ant farm. The pavement and the little slices of civilization on either side of it were like a cross-section of rural America at the time. You didn't bypass the towns, you went right through the hearts of them at 25 miles per hour and saw what was there. Life in many of those places revolved around the highway, as did a goodly portion of many of the local economies. The more people you could attract and get to pull over, the more customers you got - so it wasn't unusual to find something like a doughnut shop or gas station with some sort of crazy 1950's theme-park-style architecture to lure people in. When was the last time you pulled off of a modern interstate on the spur of the moment to go check out a low-budget, family-run reptile park with a 20' tall concrete rattlesnake out front?

Then it was back on the road until the next mini adventure came along. We don't travel like that any more. We sail by at 70 m.p.h., 200 yards from the nearest structure and half a mile from the nearest exit with the car windows rolled up and kids watching cartoons in the back seat so that they don't have to look out and actually see something real. Granted, sometimes it wasn't all that wonderful at the time. Pulling into some dark little town at 4:00 AM with an empty tank and sitting in the car for three hours waiting for the gas station to open up wasn't much fun - or finding out that you just blew the engine on your Saab in the middle of rural nowhere, but in general, it really was the highway that was the best.

[sloop_john_b]

A few good Simon & Garfunkel ones:

"Bleecker St."
"The Boxer" ("I'm laying out my winter clothes and wishing I was gone, goin' home, where the New York City winters are a bleedin; me")
"The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)"
"America"
"The Only Living Boy in New York"

[scotty]

I have to say Glasgow is mentioned in Abbas Super trooper well you know i couldndt let it past
Nice Jam Vid Dan too In the street today was originally from The old grey whistle test performance and introduced as their new single but only made the second album This is the modern World.

[winston]

Hey Scotty here's one for you. A Scottish band too. "Nazareth" They certainly were a crazy bunch of fella's. Their music was great though.

"Look out the left the captain said
The lights down there that's where we'll land
Saw a falling star burning
High above the Las Vegas sand"

[scotty]

Brian thats so funny you mentioned Nazareth ive just finished decorating for Mr Murrison, Jimmy Murrisons Mother and father who only live 2 mins down the road
I run a small decorating business.How strange that you posted that comment Mr Murrison is always banging on about the band cause he knows im into guitars his son always has a guitar at the house so he can play when he comes home to visit.Thats my story but I got a shock when you mentioned Nazareth anyway cheers for the post.We only finished the other Day!

[winston]

That's Amazing Scott. Talk about a coincidence. I should be playing the theme from the twilight zone as I write this post.

[bitzerguy]

American Band - GFR - "Last night in Little Rock..." & "All the chiquitas in Omaha..."

[blueflamerick]

How could I forget this one? Power of Love by Huey Lewis & the News.