Songs About New York, London, Paris or Munich?

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Yes yes it's a list question, but this is for a proper piece I'm writing for a fanzine, not just some frivolous way to keep myself mildly amused at work like the other questions are. Extra special bonus points for songs which mention Munich, obviously. Tracks which 'sum up' those places in some resonant way will also be considered. Cheers!

― Tom, Tuesday, 31 October 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

namechecks: 'evening in paris' by lois, even though i think it is about that sort of perfume. this however does not stop it from making me think about a trip to paris i took in 1998; it's a sad, rainy song, i think. 'nyc - 25' by the olivia tremor control, who were in my dream last night, which i think is appropriate. 'my my metrocard' by le tigre, whose record has been sorely undermentioned in all the all-too-early 'best of' crowing i've seen around the web. 'ditch' by jsbx namechecks bits of the lower east side, but then again, so does most of that band's body of work. 'new york city' by cub, everyone's favorite vancouver tweesters. (later covered by they might be giants.) 'all the umbrellas in london' by the magnetic fucking fields <tm>. 'the truth about lake ronkonkoma' by my favorite is about the suburbs of new york ... does that count?

― maura, Tuesday, 31 October 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Er, does the band Munich Machine count?

― Tim, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There's "April in Paris", which is a much-covered jazz standard. Or, it's a jazz standard now, but was a pop tune once. Never heard the one with words, though. So my versions are light on actual "Paris" stuff. :)

― Josh, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

There aren't any Cop Shoot Cop or Firewater songs that I own which use "New York" in their titles, but at LEAST one of them must mention the city. If not, they've got it written all over them.

― Josh, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

New York: Lou Reed - curmudgeonly old sourpuss London: Oh, you name. Why not go for yer favourite band Tom The Clash and London Calling Paris: Where do you go to my lovely : Peter Sarstead (bonus points for say Paree, and going Aha ha ha) Munich: Well there is the beer drinking song "In Munchen Stecht Ein Hofbrauhaus" (trad) Arranged ruddy faced men in Lederhosen. Er. Its the kind of place Chris Rea would mention in a song.

― Pete, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Just off the top of my head..."Made in Paris" by Trini Lopez and "I Love Paris" by Screamin' Jay Hawkins.

― Kathleen, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

what? you weren't taking notes when i was running down songs last night? ;)

new york: u2, richard ashcroft - "new york" frank sinatra - "(theme from) new york, new york" "new york, new york (it's a helluva town)" - from on_the_town "42nd street" - from 42nd_street pet shop boys - "new york city boy" prince - "all the critics love u in new york" ella fitzgerald - "autumn in new york" harper's bizarre - "59th street bridge song (feelin' groovy)" bruce springsteen - "tenth avenue freeze-out" wallflowers - "6th avenue heartache" drifters - "on broadway" goo goo dolls - "broadway" lou reed - "coney island baby" boogie down productions - "south bronx" mc shan - "the bridge" bob & earl - "harlem shuffle" duke ellington - "take the a-train" any v.u. song leonard cohen - "first we take manhattan" a-ha, "manhattan skyline" magnetic fields - "i'm the luckiest guy on the lower east side"

and many more, i'm sure.

― fred solinger, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"It's super! It's sexy! It's super sexy Munich!" - 'Super Sexy Munich', Stereo Total

― Stevie T, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Munich Madness" - Stereolab "Munich Eunich" (sic) - Thin White Rope

― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Let's not forget the painfully obvious "London" by The Smiths. Or Sting's "delightful" "Englishman In New York".

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I would have to suggest a fair amount of Billy Joel's oeuvre re: New York. Unfortunately this is why I hate Billy Joel and NYC as a concept -- pseudo-sophisticated wannabe-Broadway trash. DIE DIE DIE. Give me X's "Los Angeles" any day, which while about wanting to actually 'get out' of said city still makes the damn place sound cool. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Um, yeah, I was going to point out that every Billy Joel song ever written is about New York, but Ned beat me to it. Except for that one about dying in Vietnam. But that's probably some obscure metaphor for New York, too. Bruce Springsteen once claimed in an article that half his songs are about wanting to leave where he lived and go to the Big City, too, but I really don't think that counts at all, because while it makes sense and is understandible, he really doesn't explicitly say it in the songs. Really, most artists from the New York area write songs "about" New York that don't mention the city explicitly; it's just what they do. It's a very self-focused area.

And I'd submit the entire Blur catalog, excepting the last two albums, under the "London" subheading ;)

― Ally, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

fuckin' billy joel, man.

the empire diner namechecked in 'the great wall of china' has the grossest hashbrowns on earth, but the juekboxes are great. (it's in my hometown.)

― maura, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'll take Blur for London. Excepting that London is quite hard to sum up, really, but if you insist on doing it....Blur are often crap, indeed almost always crap, which fits. The end bit of "For Tomorrow" ends up being a summation of London, which is probably what they meant it to be, but I'm not sure if it's in a good or bad way.

I wonder if all cities require this kind of circumlocution. Or is it just because I'm drunk?

― Tom, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A Foggy Day (in london town) -- penned by Gershwin, sung by Frankie

― Sterling Clover, Wednesday, 1 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"London can you wait" Gene London nights by the London boys? hum think I should stop now

― Al, Thursday, 2 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Midnight in Chelsea" by Jon Bon Jovi? *ducks*

― Kathleen, Thursday, 2 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"Paris 1919"

― alex thomson, Friday, 3 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Blur's underlying grottiness and crapness, but occasionally shining to become incredibly beautiful and transcendent, is a pretty good encapsulation of my own love / hate relationship with London. No city can be defined in one song, and it's a mistake even to try (rural areas can be thus encapsulated more easily: XTC's "Chalkhills and Children" for the Cotswolds in midsummer, etc.) but Tom's right; that fade to "For Tomorrow" sums up London pretty well. It's also a life that I'd find appealing only in a grotesquely stressful kind of way, probably one of the reasons I don't live where I could experience it :).

Marshall Hain's "Dancing in the City" remains the greatest urban utopian pop single created in Britain during the 70s, with the London Boys' "London Nights" representing the late 80s pretty well (the stifling heat and pumped-full-of-it sticky hedonism of the late Thatcher era; I was there, and even aged 8 I could feel it).

Oh, and the other three cities? Stephin Merritt probably comes closest to informing my idealised view of New York (as Saint Etienne once did with London), though the tightness and concentration of the Wu-Tang Clan's first album (especially something like "Clan In Da Front") represents another high point. Paris? Nothing I can specifically think of at the moment, though Momus's only album recorded there was his blandest and his most loungecore. Draw your own conclusions :).

As for Munich, I can say in all honesty that I have never heard one song that could be said to evoke it :).

-- "And the English air would soon be reeking with petrol fumes."

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 3 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

sonic youth -- "nyc ghosts and flowers" lou reed -- "new york telephone conversation" "coney island baby" actually a lot of lou reed songs are set in ny the clash -- "london calling" anyone know any songs about london, ontario? the smiths -- "half a person" ("i went to london and i . . .")

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 4 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

shadowy men on a shadowy planet did a song called something like "memories of a gay paree."

― sundar subramanian, Saturday, 4 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ick, I hate the idea of Stephin Merritt presenting any sort of idealized New York, not for any asthetic reasons, but rather because all his songs seem to represent the kind of attitude that keeps me away from the Village: rich people - the only sort of people who can afford downtown, except Loisada perhaps - who insist on pretending they are younger than they are, poorer than they are, and more bohemian than they are, simply by where they live. It's ridiculous. The Village is just a vibe that pulls people who want desperately to be artistic but really don't quite have it. While I'm not saying Stephin isn't artistic; clearly he is because he writes. I am saying though that the very downtown aura he represents is so not what I like about New York.

If only the rich hadn't taken over the Village. All it has now is history, not anything that really exists down there.

― Ally, Tuesday, 7 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

My favourite Paris song is "One Day In Paris" by Martha and the Muffins. As for Munich, the only thing I can think of is Frank Farian's output (Boney M, Eruption, the Far Corporation and, er, Milli Vanilli) and Giorgio Moroder. At least, I think they were from Munich, or thereabouts.

― David Sim, Friday, 17 November 2000 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

I had the intense displeasure of seeing the film "Face" on TV over Christmas. One of the many "he's got a shooter" genre-wringers we've had to put up with since Guy Ritchie spawned his 'special' brand of brit flick. This film was set in London, of course. How appropriate to be serenaded by the imaginative strains of London Calling near the beginning and London Can You Wait (Gene!) at the end. I turned over and watched something else between these estimable bookends. What other treats must I have missed, apart from Damon Albarn's death scene.

― Kate, Wednesday, 3 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

two weeks pass...

'Paris' by Northern Picture Library

― Audrey, Sunday, 21 January 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

What Village?

― the pinefox, Wednesday, 28 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

'Paris Kiss', The Shapiros. Obviously. 'Fairytale of New York', anyone?

― Ally C, Wednesday, 28 February 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Only New York Going On by Francis Dunnery captures a certain strain of loneliness about the city that I like a lot. At the Chime of a City Clock by Nick Drake works too - "Ride the range of a London street." The rhythm of it reminds me of walking at night through Picadilly Circus. (Forgive me if I spelled that wrong - I plead American-ness!) There's New York City by They Might Be Giants, which is fun. Soul Coughing's True Dreams of Witchita (do I get points for mentioning Witchita?) has a bunch of New York references, too.

― Matt, Tuesday, 6 March 2001 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

If I remember correctly, Alternative TV had a song called "Viva la Rock and Roll" that mentioned Paris.

― nick, Sunday, 17 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Stay (far away) (so close) - London, Paris and Berlin

― Geoff, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Astonished that no one has mentioned Wendy James yet. My favourite song about Paris is "My Father", written by Judy Collins, which I know from Nina Simone's Baltimore album. Mark E. Smith used to like singing about Munich:

"And our kid got back from Munich
He didn't like it much" (Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul)

There's also the "for jobs in Holland, Munich, Rome" line in 'English Scheme'.

Robyn Hitchcock's 'Cynthia Mask' has this err.. biting piece of political satire: "Chamberlain came crawling from Munich with one piece of paper he waved at the camera / Peace in our time / Oh thank you Herr Hitler / Tell that to the Polish /Tell that to the Jews"

And would could forget the Falco masterpiece 'Munich Girls (Lookin' For Love)', with its baffling opening lines "My name is Johnnie Walker / And I won't wanna make any advertising / You know?". Was this co-written with MES?

― Nick, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dire Straits' "Les Boys" mentions "a disco bar in old Munchen".
New York - "Back in the New York Groove"(Ace Frehley),"Bronx Nigga"(Tim Dog),"Brooklyn Owes the Charmer Under Me"(Steely Dan),"New York You Got Me Dancin'" (Andrea True Connection),"New York New York"(Grandmaster Flash),"Empire State"(Fleetwood Mac)
"Free Man in Paris", Joni Mitchell
Song about London - "Burning Hell", John Lee Hooker (Sorry)
Has nobody mentioned "Baker Street"?

― tarden, Monday, 18 June 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

eleven months pass...

New York: Stevie wonder: living for the city. Nas: New york state of mind Wu Tang: Investigative reports talking heads: life during wartime BBoys: no sleeping till brooklyn Automator: King of New York Bob Dylan: Hard times in New York

― Jon, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

How about a FITE: Sex Pistols' "New York" vs. Johnny Thunders' response "London Boys"?

― Nate Patrin, Thursday, 30 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

i can't believe Bowies London Boys has not been mentioned. i love that song...

― gareth, Friday, 31 May 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

five months pass...

For the musical theatre fans-here are a few that are missing about Paris... "I Love Paris" Cole Porter, "The Last Time I Saw Paris" Hammerstein and Kern, "The Parisians" Lerner & Lowe, "Paris Through The Window" from "A Class Act" and of course we can't forget, "Paris Makes Me Horny" from Victor, Victoria!

― cassandra zangas vallery, Friday, 22 November 2002 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

five months pass...

'Give Paris one more chance' - Jonathan Richman, and the entire Maurice Chevalier back catalogue. 'London by night' - sung by Sinatra...

― jad, Wednesday, 21 May 2003 07:56 (twenty-two years ago)

nine months pass...

That TMBG song "New York City" is actually by the excellent Cub! I can't believe how many people mis-attribute that.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Sunday, 29 February 2004 00:37 (twenty-one years ago)

The Walkmen - "We've Been Had" - "see me age 19 with some bad haircut from 1960, moving to New York City"

― queenbee, Sunday, 29 February 2004 14:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Blimey, he must have written that article by now !

Can't help but mention the Style Council's constant attempts to evoke Paris in their early days. The obvious examples being the peerless "The Paris Match" and "Down in the Seine" - all accordion-tastic and full of Gallic chords and references, and Weller's comedy French.

― darren (darren), Sunday, 29 February 2004 14:55 (twenty-one years ago)

two years pass...

May I submit to you the owner of this thread, prominently mentioning all three cities :

Antonelli Electr. featuring Miss Kittin - The Vogue

― blunt (blunt), Monday, 20 March 2006 15:38 (nineteen years ago)

"New York, London, Paris, Munich, everybody talk about mmm, pop music!
Talk about, POP MUSIC!"

Pop Music by M

cant' see a mention of it yet,

― dr x o'skeleton, Monday, 20 March 2006 15:54 (nineteen years ago)

That'll be two French owners then.

― blunt (blunt), Monday, 20 March 2006 15:56 (nineteen years ago)

Paris : Wow, nobody mentioned "P.A.R.I.S" by taxi girl ?? it's the greatest song about our city (together with "Paris s'eveille" by jacques dutronc). interestingly, both describe a Paris so sad and gloomy that it's beautiful.... (it is very sad and gloomy today as it's raining, the sky is grey, it's cold... great first day of spring !).

― AleXTC (AleXTC), Monday, 20 March 2006 16:17 (nineteen years ago)

Pop Music by M: cant' see a mention of it yet,

Either this is a very funny joke or truly the world has gone through a full circle in the last five years.

― alext (alext), Monday, 20 March 2006 17:04 (nineteen years ago)

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