50 songs about 50 state capitals

2. Providence by the Sonic Youth.

3. Lush - Olympia

4. Sufjan Stevens -Springfield, Or Bobby Got A Shadfly Caught In His Hair

5. Glen Campbell, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix"

6. Jimmy Eat World, "Lucky Denver Mint"

7. Sharkboy - "Sacramento Child"

8. My Chemical Romance, "Helena"

7. the beach boys - 'salt lake city'

whoops, thats #9

10. Mountain Goats - "Tallahassee"

11. Nancy & Lee or Johnny & June or lots of other duets - Jackson

12. Nat King Cole (and others), "Route 66" (mentions Oklahoma City)

13. "Little Rock" by Collin Raye
14. "Calling Baton Rouge" by Garth Brooks
15. "It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines" by Tom T. Hall
16. "Stuck in Indianapolis" by Brian Henneman
17. "Jackson" by Johnny and June Cash

18. "Albany Blues" by Edith Frost

^^^Albany is #18 (Jackson got listed twice)...

damn!...I mean #17...

11. Nancy & Lee or Johnny & June or lots of other duets - Jackson

I might be wrong but I was always under the impression that was about Jackson, TN

19 - Promised Land - (Raleigh]
20 - Big River (St. Paul)

Brasilia crossed with Trenton-Bob Mould

21. Hoyt Axton - "Nashville"

er 22.

22 (+ 23?) Atcheson, Topeka and the Santa Fe

23 and 24 then

0r else Santa Fe by Bob Dylan

Where in Jackson, Tenn. can you mess around?

heh, you got me there

Little Feat--"Oh Atlanta" and I'm not even gonna try to figure out which number this one is.

Atlanta is #25...halfway home, folks!

26.) "Austin" by Blake Shelton

27). Magik Markers - Bad Dream / Hartford's Beat Suite

if that song Atcheson or whatever earlier doesn't work, for Topeka you can use Randy Newman's "The Beehive State".

28. Angel From Montgomery--John Prine

29. Cheyenne--Guided By Voices

30. The Faces - "Richmond"

31. Richie Hawtin - Twin Cities

Oh sorry, someone mentioned Saint Paul already.

31 Down from Dover - Dolly Parton (not sure if its the right 'Dover' but then the Faces Richmond is about the one in Surrey, innit?)

Remaining
Juneau
Honolulu (Must be loads)
Boise
Frankfort
Augusta
Annapolis
Lansing
Lincoln
Carson City
Concord
Columbus
Salem
Harrisburg
Columbia
Pierre
Montpelier
Charleston
Madison

the Faces Richmond is about the one in Surrey, innit?

guess I never listened closely to the lyrics!

something tells me Harrisburg will be a bitch...then again, Bacharach & David wrote a song about Scranton, so who knows...

Elvis Presley - Rock-a-hula Baby (Honolulu)

Boo Yaa Tribe - "Carson City"

(had to look that one up)

James P. Johnson - Charleston (the original Charleston dance tune)

Haven't seen Jefferson City on the list yet either.

35 Bruce - Nebraska ('from the town of Lincoln, Nebraska....')

xpost
oops..... re; Jefferson

36. Madison Blues--George Thorogood

All those years listening to classic rock radio finally pays off.

37. midnight oil - "harrisburg"

What's that Beefheart song, "Owed T'Alex?" That one has Carson City in it. Dang. Just missed

Juneau - Number One Cup 'Divebomb'

39? 40? Big and Rich's "Comin' to your City" mentions "Jeff City, MO"

Ida's "Do You Remember", "Downtown", and "Truxton Park" all contain Annapolis details but fail to mention the city's name. Similarly, "California Dreaming" is about how much John Phillips hated life at the Naval Academy. Count those if you want to.

In about 100 years time, this thread could consist entirey of Sufjan Steven songs :)

with any luck the human race is extinct before then

if there was a song about augusta, maine i'd probably know it. and it would probably suck.

Juneau - Number One Cup 'Divebomb'

Nice. This one mentions Lincoln, Neb., too.

emily are you from maine? i was just going to chime with in the same thing

tad - salem

oasis - columbia (may not be about the city)

can we substitute Ray Bryant Trio's "It's Madison Time" for "Madison Blues"? http://learning2share.blogspot.com/2007/10/its-madison-time-ray-bryant-combo-1960.html

The only song I know that mentions Lansing is the Magnetic Fields' "Nothing Matters When We're Dancing." And I'm from East Lansing.

Great Plains, 'Columbus Dispatch' (about the newspaper)

Lots of early AMC/Mark Eitzel songs are set in Columbus (e.g. 'Night Watchman'); I know one of the later AMC songs has a line about 'you should have stayed in Columbus'.

yes, i am from maine, bell labs. shout outs for my fair state in popular song are few and far between, though we get a great one in "king of the road," which happens to be my city.

http://www.cordinternational.com/pcd808.jpg

Remaining:

Boise (Rosalie Sorrels has to mention it somewhere?)
Frankfort
Augusta
Concord
Pierre
Montpelier

SonofStan, I hope you saw the Rosalie Sorells thread get revived last week!! There are a BUNCH of songs about Boisie on this Braun Brothers LP I have.

lol boisie.

John Hodgeman book-on-tape audio extra is 51 State Songs (51 but not D.C. or Puerto Rico).

Honolulu City Lights = Classic.

Haha, Augusta must no be a particularly important city, because on its Wiki page among the notable Augusta residents are "Thomas Morrison, American Elvis impersonator" and "Calvin Forbes, amateur ping pong gold medalist".

I've lost count here, but Michelle Shocked, "Anchorage"

Anchorage is not the capital of Alaska.

It's Juneau, which has already been mentioned.

yeah, you pretty much only go to augusta if you're in the state government, or you want to go to IHOP or old navy or get gas or something.

Boise gets mentioned in Skynyrd's "What's Your Name?"...

Frankfort Special, Elvis Presley
Montpelier, Girlyman

Augusta
Concord
Pierre

I'm saying Pierre is the last one standing...

i really doubt there is one for augusta. concord nh is also pretty non-descript and shitty but at least there is at least a little bit of a downtown.

Agree with whoever said the Faces' Richmond was the one in Surrey. Though I really took that song to heart when I lived in Richmond, Va.

I googled and found something called Pinmonkey:

There's a town in Georgia, that I once called mine
Just across the muddy water from the Carolina side
They say home is a place you go where they have to take you in
I dont know if its really so but I'm goin back down again

Oh Augusta take me in
Oh Augusta take me in

Acccording to Pierre's Wikipedia page:

Pierre is the subject of a joke in the song "Capital," performed by the popular a cappella group Rockapella and composed by Sean Altman. The song lists every U.S. state capital except for Pierre; during the song's final fade-out, a voice can be heard exclaiming, "Pierre! Pierre! We forgot Pierre!"[5] A subsequent track on the album features the then-mayor of Pierre, Gary Drewes, chastising Rockapella for the omission (and their mispronunciation of the town's name).

I guess that counts.

That's Augusta Georgia, not Maine

xpost: if we had known that earlier, this thread could have been killed in a single post!

Pierre, S.D. rhymes with eerie.

James Brown mentions Augusta G-A in numerous songs, but that doesn't count.

hey, PP, i'd vote for reba's "little rock," but the title's misleading.

Pierre, S.D. rhymes with eerie.

Things you learn - i really hope someday I can use that info.

Guys, I have to confess that the My Chemical Romance song is not actually about the capital of Montana.

But I guess country singer Terry Allen has a song called "Helena, Montana," so that can replace it.

Charles Ives has a "Concord Sonata" - and I think one of his songs mentions it (probably Concord, Mass, though)

hey, PP, i'd vote for reba's "little rock," but the title's misleading.

And I don't think that Fancy was really that "Fancy".

That's Augusta Georgia, not Maine