Placenames in songs? C/D?

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I love geographical specificity myself - particularly in first lines 'welcome back to chipping sodbury' and so on; thoughts?

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Friday, 30 June 2006 20:17 (nineteen years ago)

I met her accidentally in St. Paul, Minnesota...

-- Johnny Cash

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Friday, 30 June 2006 20:19 (nineteen years ago)

Yes, place names are poetic gold (ask Proust)

― douglas eklund (skolle), Friday, 30 June 2006 20:49 (nineteen years ago)

Tried finding the lyrics to "Topanga Canyon" by John Phillips, no luck. I think Papa John was a master of this, also Cale as mentioned above.

― timmy tannin (pompous), Saturday, 1 July 2006 02:34 (nineteen years ago)

always classic. i love maps and cities and human geography so this is a major touchstone for me.

― derrick (derrick), Saturday, 1 July 2006 08:36 (nineteen years ago)

i lost my bag in newport pagnell.

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Saturday, 1 July 2006 09:31 (nineteen years ago)

C/D subset: do you need to have been to, or at least know something about, the place being referred to for it to work? For instance, these British references mentioned above might as well be Mars, but St. Paul resonates more even if I've never been there, I've been to Minnesota.

― douglas eklund (skolle), Saturday, 1 July 2006 14:16 (nineteen years ago)

Think it works in two different ways, equally affecting; wichita for europeans sounds exotic, whereas for Americans presumably, it sounds prosaic; and vice versa with 'newport pagnall'. If you know the place, it hitches a ride on your personal 'real life' association with the place, for either depth or bathos, whereas if you don't know the place, it borrows authority from either mythology (California Girls) or from a claim to authenticity based on a kind of ' this really happened because it happened in a real place' claim

― sonofstan (sonofstan), Saturday, 1 July 2006 14:48 (nineteen years ago)

Definitely C. I also like when people's names are used in songs.

― kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Saturday, 1 July 2006 15:24 (nineteen years ago)

Can't forget the Motor City.

― J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Saturday, 1 July 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

Classic! when it's "I've been everywhere" by Hank Snow anyway

― Bidfurd (Bidfurd), Saturday, 1 July 2006 19:00 (nineteen years ago)

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