This is a sister topic to Songs that mention or are about Malibu
I contemplated making the next one about Santa Monica but figured I'd go bigger.
I'm looking for songs that are about the Valley, but more specifically individual cities and locations within it. I mean, it tried to separate itself from Los Angeles altogether a few years ago but many thought it had a weak case. Well what better way to validate either argument than to judge by how often it is the subject of popular music? Come, ILM, and let's compile yet another list...
The following places show up on wikipedia as being cities and suburbs within the Valley.
Communities within the City of Los Angeles
* Burbank
* Calabasas
* Hidden Hills
* San Fernando
* Glendale
* Arleta
* Balboa Park
* Cahuenga Pass
* Canoga Park
* Chatsworth
* Encino
* Granada Hills
* Knollwood
* Lake View Terrace
* Lake Balboa
* La Tuna Canyon+
* Mission Hills
* NoHo Arts District
* North Hills
* North Hollywood
* Northridge
* Pacoima
* Panorama City
* Porter Ranch
* Reseda
* Sepulveda
* Shadow Hills+
* Sherman Oaks
* Studio City
* Sun Valley
* Sunland+
* Sylmar
* Tarzana
* Toluca Lake
* Toluca Woods
* Tujunga+
* Valley Glen
* Valley Village
* Van Nuys
* Ventura Business District
* Warner Center
* West Hills
* West Toluca
* Winnetka
* Woodland Hills
The first good references I could think of were
Tom Petty: Free Fallin' (And it's a long day, livin’ in reseda, there’s a freeway, runnin’ thru the yard...And all the vampires walkin' through the valley move west down Ventura Boulevard.)
and
Los Abandoned: Van Nuys (Es Very Nice)
En Van Nuys there´s porno stars, and swap meets, wanna buy a car?, the galleria strip
Malls too, old Erwin Park and who are you to tell me that
It´s better in EE.UU.
When you´ve never seen sunsets in Machu Picchu!
The upper-lower middle class that you can only find here has
gente con muchos acentos viven en apartamentos,
The summer´s hot, it´s hell the bus is always late,
The great big cloud of smog that makes you choke and hate...
Y dejaste tu país por esto?
Van Nuys es very nice,
But it´s not paradise
En Van Nuys court celebrities can plead no contest or guilty,
A student steals his teacher´s car for prom but didn´t get too far,
A strip mall fire rages on Valerio, while Letty bumps la raza on the stereo,
"20 pegaditas, no corridos!"
Van Nuys es very nice,
But it´s not paradise
Dejaste los Andes por el cemento y los swimming pools
There's plenty more! Some I can't remember, some I don't know. Surely this should knock the block off the Malibu thread, right?
― Cunga, Monday, 16 July 2007 08:22 (eighteen years ago)
seven years pass...