Incorrect information gleaned from song lyrics

[Sam]

There's a classic tango song called 'Cien barrios porteños' ('One hundred neighbourhoods of Buenos Aires'). The exact number of barrios in Buenos Aires has varied over time, but at no point in its history has it ever come close to one hundred. It's currently 48, as it has been ever since Puerto Madero and Parque Chas were granted barrio status in their own right in 2005. Interestingly (not actually at all interesting information coming up) I used to live right on the boundary between San Telmo and Puerto Madero, and now live right on the boundary between Villa Ortúzar and Parque Chas, so I've inadvertently done a very slow tour.

[Etienne]

Yes! It just doesn't work in either context. The rest of the song I get but that line really stands out and, as Stumpy says, is really irksome.

Referenced of course in Randy Newman's I Love LA which starts "Hate New York City, it's cold and it's damp".

[Gas In Name Only]

In the video, they didn't know Galway Bay so they played The Mickey Mouse March instead

[ursus arctos]

But they do have a Pipe Band

[Gas In Name Only]

The NYPD doesn't have a choir

[Sunderporinostesta]

Also, Durham City has never had any real history of shipbuilding to my knowledge, although obviously bits of County Durham (as was) certainly did.

The A19 bridge is as far as shipbuilding ever got I believe and they won’t have been big. The QA bridge being as far as large ships were built.

[Janik]

Yes, it's a big state. But, rightly or wrongly, it's always been typically associated with warm weather.

If the thread title was "Failing to repeat common misconceptions..." etc., then this might be relevant. But as it's "Incorrect Information...", well the supposedly incorrect information is in fact not incorrect (albeit a bit ill-defined).

[ale]

Rhymes with “get me down”?
I suppose he could’ve put some actual effort in and wangled City and pity into it somehow. Then “drinking beer, on the banks of the river wear, watching all the ships being built here, then leaving leaving leaving leaving leeeeeeaaaaving”.
An up to date version could substitute Qashqais for ships. How long for though is anyone’s post brexit guess.

Pity Me

[ursus arctos]

I think it is very difficult, nigh impossible, for us to experience the song as those who heard it when it was written.

For one thing, my mother (who was 16 when it premiered) always maintained that "tramp" was "fighting words" at the time, at least in her circles.

[Jon]

Yes, I get that it's supposed to jar. And all the other lines in the song jar in a logical fashion but this line just doesn't do it for me. Maybe just me though.

[ursus arctos]

Yes, that's the point.

It is supposed to jar.

Lorenz Hart, who wrote the lyrics, was born and died (at 48) here in NYC

He was an alcoholic who.lived his mother and never recovered from her death. It is quite possible that he had never been to California when he wrote the lyrics, as he and Richard Rogers worked primarily on Broadway.

[Jon]

As ursus has already noted pictorially with a fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge, this is often factually true in San Francisco. The mean January temperature is 10C and the mean August one just 18C. Also atypically high numbers of rainy days in the winter months as well. And, of course, the fogs. Frisco’s climate is nothing like that of LA or San Diego. But then it is ~500 miles north of San Diego. Around the same distance south of London (which has a very similar summer mean temp, albeit a colder winter mean of more like 5C) and you are halfway between Bordeaux and the France/Spain border.

Yes, it's a big state. But, rightly or wrongly, it's always been typically associated with warm weather. So the line does still sound incongruous. "Hates San Francisco, it's cold and it's damp" would still scan and provide me with less bother.

(By the way, I'm assuming that, as the song satirises the New York upper-class society of the time, they must have been well known for going to California for their holidays. And I'm guessing that they typically stayed further south than San Francisco).

[sw2borshch]

Also, Durham City has never had any real history of shipbuilding to my knowledge, although obviously bits of County Durham (as was) certainly did.

[ursus arctos]

Though players do only love you when they're playin', as she learned to her regret

[Janik]

“Thunder only happens when it’s raining.“

Er, no, that isn’t true at all, Stevie.

Guess who didn’t read the thread [first reply]
Oh well, it’s egregious enough to mention twice.

[Janik]

The line in The Lady is a Tramp, "hates California, it's cold and it's damp," always irked me. I don't get it in a factual context nor in an ironic one.

As ursus has already noted pictorially with a fog-shrouded Golden Gate Bridge, this is often factually true in San Francisco. The mean January temperature is 10C and the mean August one just 18C. Also atypically high numbers of rainy days in the winter months as well. And, of course, the fogs. Frisco’s climate is nothing like that of LA or San Diego. But then it is ~500 miles north of San Diego. Around the same distance south of London (which has a very similar summer mean temp, albeit a colder winter mean of more like 5C) and you are halfway between Bordeaux and the France/Spain border.

[Greenlander]

I enjoy walking Camden Market in the afternoon
...
Took me back to Highgate, met all of his best mates
...
And now I love high tea, stories from uni, and the West End
...
I enjoy nights in Brixton, Shoreditch in the afternoon
...
So please show me Hackney
Doesn't have to be Louis V up on Bond Street
...
I enjoy walking SoHo, drinking in the afternoon (yeah)

If she's drinking in SoHo in the afternoon she'll need more than a taxi to get her to Brixton for the evening.

[Jon]

The line in The Lady is a Tramp, "hates California, it's cold and it's damp," always irked me. I don't get it in a factual context nor in an ironic one.

Yes! It just doesn't work in either context. The rest of the song I get but that line really stands out and, as Stumpy says, is really irksome.

[Sporting]

Durham? A town?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Town_(Wings_album)

[3 Colours Red]

Taylor Swift's London Boy lyrics are not exactly incorrect but geographically confused/overambitious (also cringeworthy as, even leaving out the "God I love the English!" bit):

Is this sung in a Dick van Dyke "Cock-er-nee" accent?

[Sunderporinostesta]

Durham? A town?

Rhymes with “get me down”?
I suppose he could’ve put some actual effort in and wangled City and pity into it somehow. Then “drinking beer, on the banks of the river wear, watching all the ships being built here, then leaving leaving leaving leaving leeeeeeaaaaving”.
An up to date version could substitute Qashqais for ships. How long for though is anyone’s post brexit guess.

[Fussbudget]

On Lava the B-52's sing "My heart's crackin' like a Krakatoa/Krakatoa, east of Java, molten bodies, fiery lava" - they'll have got the 'east of Java' bit from the famously wrong film title I guess

Taylor Swift's London Boy lyrics are not exactly incorrect but geographically confused/overambitious (also cringeworthy as, even leaving out the "God I love the English!" bit):

I enjoy walking Camden Market in the afternoon
...
Took me back to Highgate, met all of his best mates
...
And now I love high tea, stories from uni, and the West End
...
I enjoy nights in Brixton, Shoreditch in the afternoon
...
So please show me Hackney
Doesn't have to be Louis V up on Bond Street
...
I enjoy walking SoHo, drinking in the afternoon (yeah)

[ursus arctos]

[Stumpy Pepys]

According to Google Maps, you could cycle from Durham to Gateshead in 70-90 minutes (depending on which route you take).

Don't see the attraction myself. Unless you really like ships.

[Furtho]

Roger Whittaker fans could be forgiven for thinking Durham Town is on the River Tyne though he doesn’t specifically state it as fact.

Durham? A town?