Songs Describing Places in Absurdly Idealized Terms

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

'One' of them? It could only have been Bowie, surely..?

Of course, but Goldsmith was giving the impression that it was up for grabs and the reason it didn't happen* was that either of the egos wouldn't have allowed the other to be the one chosen.

*apart from it being ridiculous

[Jah Womble]

Wouldn't Bowie have been reluctant given Major Tom's experiences?

But as WFD says, the story smells of bullshit.

Well, yes, of course it does.

But the idea of having both Jagger and Bowie available and then sending Jagger into space would look like a hilarious missed opportunity, IMO.

[pebblethefish]

That is a fantastic story, and even if it is not true - fuck it, it will be when I'm telling it down the pub.

[Sporting]

How about songs slagging off individual places? Many of those around?

[pebblethefish]

The Dwarves' Salt Lake City isn't very complimentary about the place. And I don't think Elvis Costello liked Chelsea.

[Jah Womble]

There's also Dead Loss Angeles by The Stranglers.

(I personally quite like LA, though.)

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=My3xbXUy36A

I don't know if this over or undersells Dromcollogher, as is often the case with percy french songs. It certainly predates the Co-op movement starting there, and er, the first cinema mass death, or the huge mass grave they're all buried in. The singer is the grandfather of Oxford and Bristol city legend Callum o'dowda

[Hot Pepsi]

Wrong bridge …

What is that bridge called?

[Hot Pepsi]

Given the university, it is the kind of place she would have played had she been in the area.

Galveston was one of the richest cities in the country before the 1900 Hurricane and looked like a cross between New Orleans and Cape May

Maybe it was different in the 60s, but my impression is that musicians playing college towns in flyover country never see anything accept the venue and maybe a hotel.

[ursus arctos]

That's Tower Bridge, HP

[ursus arctos]

Maybe it was different in the 60s, but my impression is that musicians playing college towns in flyover country never see anything accept the venue and maybe a hotel.

I would have expected someone like Mitchell in the 70s to have a bus if she was playing Morgantown.

That said, she may not have seen much more than you note (and may not have experienced the morning at all, depending on the distance to the next gig).

[elguapo4]

On slagging off places Billy Joel doesn't seem to have much time for Allentown, and there's the Boomtown Rats B side Dun Laoghaire , with the immortal lines,
"Tired and weary, dull and dreary, that's the way you spell Dun Laoghaire ". The spoiled posh boys should have tried growing up in Cabra in the 70s

[Hot Pepsi]

I would have expected someone like Mitchell in the 70s to have a bus if she was playing Morgantown.

That said, she may not have seen much more than you note (and may not have experienced the morning at all, depending on the distance to the next gig).

Yeah. Or at least a van.

I suspect she liked the name of the town.
It does sound better in the song than, for example, “Good morning, truck stop just outside of Pittsburgh.”

[Hot Pepsi]

An example of making a place sound better and worse - REM’s “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” is supposedly about a young woman thinking about moving back to her home town of Rockville, Maryland.


Going to a place that's far, so far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello, they don't talk to anybody they don't
Know
You'll wind up in some factory that's full time filth and nowhere left
To go
Walk home to an empty house, sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long.

Rockville is a major suburb of DC. It has a lot of sprawl - the Rockville Pike is a textbook example of how not to develop a suburb - but also has a proper downtown which is fairly nice. But she probably couldn’t afford to live there so she’d be in the sprawl part and not walking home to an empty house. Just taking the metro to an empty tan-carpet apartment.

It’s not especially friendly or unfriendly. It is historically the hub - or a hub - of Jewish life in the region, but maybe not so much any more. That’s really the only thing interesting about it.

It doesn’t really have any factories and insofar as any manufacturing goes on there, it’s biotech, which would be the opposite of filthy.

But filthy factories would actually be more interesting than 17 Starbucks and a few PF Changs.

[Hot Pepsi]

That's Tower Bridge, HP

Is there a bridge that is formally called “London Bridge?” I thought London Bridge was just what Americans called the Tower Bridge.

[Satchmo Distel]

Rockaway Beach by The Ramones doesn't describe the location but seems to promise sex (the singer is going there because "I want some"). The Specials, on the other hand, warned that "there are no rocks at Rockaway Beach" in Vote For Me, meaning no jewels.

[Hot Pepsi]

Billy Joel was really singing about Bethlehem, PA, but Allentown sounded better and it’s right next to Allentown.

[Gangster Octopus]

Is there a bridge that is formally called “London Bridge?” I thought London Bridge was just what Americans called the Tower Bridge.

Which is why that idiot back in the sixties bought the wrong bridge...

[3 Colours Red]

Is there a bridge that is formally called “London Bridge?” I thought London Bridge was just what Americans called the Tower Bridge.

The current London Bridge was opened in the 70s and is far less visually striking than Tower Bridge - it's just a standard concrete footbridge, really.

The previous one was sold, transported and rebuilt brick by brick in Arizona. The story that the businessman who made the purchase thought he was buying Tower Bridge was dismissed pretty sharpish.

[Southport Zeb]

The medieval London Bridge (when it was the only bridge, hence the name) was the most interesting version as it had loads of shops and houses along it.

[ursus arctos]

[Patrick Thistle]

On slagging off places Billy Joel doesn't seem to have much time for Allentown,

I always heard that song as a protest about the way a swathe of society were rendered unemployed as the economy shifted and whole towns became unemployment blackspots.

Billy Joel wrote songs about a few places. His version of New York probably fits this thread. Los Angelinos makes living in LA sound attractive, but Say Goodbye to Hollywood is less positive.

[Lymeswold Snork]

You can keep the Costa Brava,
I'm telling ya mate I'd rather have a day down Margate with all me family
Along the promenade we spend some money
Then we find a spot on the beach that's simply sunny
The kids will all enjoy themself digging up the sand
Collecting stones and winkle shells to take back home to nan

I've always thought the bit between the verse and chorus of the advert version was genius; just the way it fits in so neatly:

"On the way to the pub I fell in love
But I don't think much of your'n
(No, I don't reckon your one)
((Roll up yer trousis...))"

https://youtu.be/0YOOsWRHMeA

[ale]

There's also Dead Loss Angeles by The Stranglers.

(I personally quite like LA, though.)

They didnt much like Sweden either.

While the Clash never originally suggested they would subsequently embrace so wholeheartedly the USA.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Echo Beach is an amphitheatre attached to Ontario Place in Toronto. I can't imagine anyone having nostalgic memories about it.