Since it’s my idea, I’ll take A and go for
Albuquerque (Neil Young)
Alabama (Neil Young)
Doesn’t have to be the same artist (reason why I thought of the thread is that I’ve been listening to Archives II)
Anyone got more A ideas or shall we move to B?
Michelle Shocked’s Anchorage Alaska (does that count as both?)
John Coltrane – Alabama
His beautiful tribute to the young people killed in the Birmingham church bombing of September 1963.
She’s got form. Here she is with Arkansas Traveller.
Amarillo – directions please…
Jan & Dean.
The Anaheim, Azusa and Cucamonga Sewing Circle, Book Review and Timing Association.
Go granny, go granny, go granny, go!
Another A for your attention. (Plus a couple of extras)
Jim White – Alabama Chrome
.
Alabama Chrome is fake stuff.
It where someone uses that shiny silver foil tape on a car to look like chrome from a distance.
Big Bill Broonzy – Going Back To Arkansas
Baltimore – Randy Newman
Barrytown – Steely Dan
Boulder to Birmingham – Emmylou Harris (counts as two?)
Brooklyn Iwes the charmer under me – Steely Dan
Beaumont – Hayes Carll.
Dropkick Murphys – I’m Shipping Up To Boston
Slaughter & The Dogs – Boston Babies
Any more Bs?
(yes, probably loads …).
Here’s a starter selection for C:
James Taylor – Carolina On My Mind
The Rivieras / The Ramones – California Sun
Dead Kennedy – California Uber Alles
Robert Johnson / Blues Brothers – Sweet Home Chicago
Couple of Bs:
Dwight Yoakam/Buck Owens – Streets of Bakersfield
Frankie Sanders – Blues Time In Birmingham
Another B for Bakersfield
(Black Mountain – Space to Bakersfield)
Must be at least fifty songs with California in the title.
Ian Hunter – Cleveland Rocks
Andrews Sisters – Chattanooga Choo Choo
The Band – Up on Cripple Creek
Frank Sinatra – Chicago
Townes van Zandt — Colorado Girl
Aerosmith — I Live in Connecticut
An old Stephen Stills favourite fits in nicely here – Colorado
Can I go straight to D and offer this slice of AW-friendly rocking:
Perry Como – Delaware
(and a few other states getting a mention to)
Kiss – Detroit Rock City
Blondie – Detroit 442
Warren Zevon – Things To Do In Denver When You’re Dead
Bob Seger – Get Out Of Denver
Atlanta Rhythm Section – Doraville
Alice Cooper Detroit City 2021
Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?
Well Dallas is a jewel, oh yeah, Dallas is a beautiful sight
And Dallas is a jungle but Dallas gives a beautiful light
Did you ever see Dallas from a DC-9 at night?
Flatlanders
@rigiddigit Alice Cooper Detroit City 2021
or Detroit City 2020 (from the Breadcrumbs e.p.)
or Detroit City (from the Eyes of )
A sort of musical urban regeneration by the Coop?
E is for El Paso.
As we reached O I thought of Okie from Muskogee but then that reminded me of another take on El Paso.
Here’s Duke Ellington, from 1926, with his early cover version of Steely Dan’s “East St. Louis Toodle-Oo [erm – are you sure about this – Ed.]
Flagstaff Arizona gets a name check…
Then there’s Folsom, of course…
Surely Elvis’ greatest ever song and the one we all know him by:
G has got to be Georgia
or Glendale
‘Olloway to Holloway…..
Hawaii
Marvellous. Someone did that at the folk club on Friday night.
Buzzz! Deviation…There may well be a Holloway in the United States, but it is most unlikely to also contain a women’s prison and is certainly, definitely, unquestionably not the Holloway that the Kinks are referring to here.
Which means we’ve reached I, so it’s time to pounce with a whole album.
J as Retro has jumped the alphabet.
Indiana wants me has just appeared on a feed so I think it deserves a mention too.
Here’s an artist that doesn’t get too many mentions on this board: Dar Williams, with her song Iowa:
K
PS. America? Oh. My bad.
Better?
Or this?
You can never have too much Prine.
I’m on the highway to L:
And staying with Randy, here he is singing about the Great Flood of 1927 in … Louisiana:
And there’s this, a country song that Abba should have sued over.
La Grange – ZZ Top
Mountain – Nantucket Sleighride.
Faces – Memphis Tennessee
The brothers Gibb’s paean to denture manufacturers everywhere…..
Possibly where Robin got his, if sadly the wrong size.
Phil Ochs didn’t mince his words when singing about Mississippi:
“And here’s to the judges of Mississippi
Who wear the robe of honor as they crawl into the court
They’re guarding all the bastions of their phony legal fort
Oh, justice is a stranger when the prisoners report
When the black man stands accused, the trial is always short
Oh, here’s to the land you’ve torn out the heart of
Mississippi – find yourself another country to be part of.”
To add to the Ms – Red Dirt Girl.
Very much about the failure to leave Meridian.
N again, but in the old name, so good they named it once.
Probably should be under C but I believe it fits here too.
Northern California Girls.
Goodbye Nashville, Hello Camden Town · Chilli Willi & The Red Hot Peppers
Excellent choice!
Obvious choice for O
Crosby Stills Nash and Young – Ohio
The Kinks’ album Muswell Hillbillies was mentioned earlier, so hey! – let’s have it back, in the shape of “Oklahoma USA”
Michael Hurley’s “Portland Water” is all about the state of Oregon:
“Up in the canyon lookin’ down on the river
And the wind come blowin’ and it makes me shiver
Oh the call up to Portland on the public telephone
Said it sure is rainin’ here in the state of Oregon”
Omaha – Counting Crows
The great state of Pennsylvania Donald Trump probably said that.
Oh good…Pasadena.
(The four parishes of New Orleans, as every body knows before liking it up.)
A belated ‘L’
I’m wondering what is the largest US city not to have been given its own song? I was thinking Cincinnati, but there’s a Beach Boys song isn’t there?
How about Pittsburgh?
Pittsburgh PA is mentioned in Sweet Little Sixteen
It is the title of a song by the Amity Affliction as I’ve just looked it up.
Surprised no one mentioned this:
Pittsburgh you say?
Best I can suggest for Q
I suppose you could have Quincy Jones at a pinch.
Now you see, if only this had been a thread on Brittany.
Yes, then I could have made a really tiresome Brest joke.
You’ll do anything to get your Roscoff, won’t you?
I just can’t get Morlaixed.
I really have missed an opportunity there for my own thread. I would have been headed for a hamper crammed with crepes, crustaceans and cidre doux.
R is for Rennes and Renate
V for Vannes the Man
My Mac Rebbenack above was a Q, if obliquely….
R is for Rockville (Maryland)
And R is also for Reno, Nevada.
We don’t have enough Mimi and Richard Fariña on this board!
R is also for Roswell
And on to San Antonio:
Any excuse to post this: South Carolina.
Well, as we’ve had South Carolina, we should also have Deadwood, South Dakota.
Written by Eric Taylor and sung here by his ex-wife, Nanci Griffith:
We appear to have stalled. Are you all holding back ready to jump in with W is for Wichita?
To get things going again, I’m going to stray. Neither a state nor a city, nor is the song named after it, but we need to acknowledge Tallahatchie Bridge and its place in modern culture.
A warning from Ry stay away from those Texan Girls.
You know my mantra, don’t you, Afterworders?
“On every thread …. we need the Dead.”
And in this case, we need Tennessee Jed….
As we’re still on the Ts, here’s the Flamin’ Groovies
OK, let’s do the U’s. Utah!
Virginia
Vermont
Utah Saints?
(not from Utah)
You Aint Seen Nothing Yet, but how can Bachman Turner Overdrive get to Texas when their wheels won’t turn?
Mentions El Paso, Hollywood and LA too – also convinced they say “Pangbourne” (turns out it’s heaven)
…there’s a difference?
Wubble U
Wyoming beckons.
X marks the spot in Utah
May or may not be about here, quite probably not.
Y is for Youngstown, Ohio. One of my absolute favourite Bruce songs.
(Mentions Zuma Beach)