George M. Cohan’s “Give My Regards to Broadway” has the line “Remember me to Herald Square,” a specific location.
Loudon Wainwright III’s “Uptown” has a lot of specific mentions:
It’s a bit dated, but the “Allied Chemical News” is a reference to Times Square; the Allied Chemical Building was there in the 60s, and had a news ticker outside it.
From **On the Town **(many of these were gone when the show was written).
“Did you ever see a sheep in a porkpie hat?
Ever see a lemming dressed all in black?
[. . . ]
Just take a walk down St. Mark’s Place.”
I Went Walking by Rank & File (early eighties? Can’t remember for sure).
:smack::smack::smack::smack::smack: Damn, I knew that.
I’m sorry I didn’t follow the directions in the OP. My only excuse is that I’m stupid and do not read English very good.
And now I can’t think of a single song with cross streets in it.
“But before we hit East 7th Street we are going to another disco”
She also mentions specific places in the song “AM/PM, Pyramid, Roxy, Mudd Club, Danceteria”
Nina Hagen - “New York New York” (not for the faint of heart)
Oh, same here. Sorry Flying Saucer.
“Small Talk at 125th and Lenox” - Gil Scott-Heron
More Billy Joel: 52nd Street.
From Irving Berlin’s “Putin’ on the Ritz”:
“Have you seen the well-to-do up on Lenox Avenue?
On that famous thoroughfare with their noses in the air.”
I guess the Green Acres Theme Song doesn’t qualify.
“Dah-ling I love you but give me Park Avenue”
The Dakota by Christine Lavin
“We drove up along Third Avenue, crossed through Central Park.
When we came out at Seventy second Street,
I felt a cold chill in my heart.”
There’s “Washington Square,” the instrumental by The Village Stompers.
Counting Crows has a song of the same name that definitely references this New York City location.
Also by Christine Lavin…
There’s also New York City, originally by Cub
and the lyrics were slightly changed when covered by They Might Be Giants
That’s a popular street, musically. In “Shattered,” the Stones sing “I can’t give it away on 7th Avenue.”
“True Dreams of Witchita” by Soul Coughing talks about “the arms of the Williamsburg Bridge.”
I’m trying to think of songs that mention a specific building. If you expanded this to include entire housing projects, that opens up a lot of hip hop.
“This ain’t the Mudd Club/Or CBGBs” – Talking Heads, Life During Wartime
“You think it’s swell playing Max’s Kansas / You’re looking bored and you’re acting flash” – Sex Pistols, New York
“I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel / you were talking so brave and so sweet” Leonard Cohen, Chelsea Hotel #2
"Me moving over there and then me moving over here / The name of this routine is called “Live At Union Square” – Boogie Down Productions, “The Bridge Is Over”
“They tried again outside in Cedar Park / Power from a street light made the place dark” --BDP, “South Bronx”
“Shea Stadium the radium E M D squared / Kicked out of the Palladium you think that I cared?” --Beastie Boys, The Sound of Science
“In the corner of my eye / I saw you in Rudy’s / You were very high” – Steely Dan, Black Cow (Rudy’s Bar and Grill at 627 9th Ave)
"Next I took the Express to 86th and Lex
Flexed my Metrocard back in my wallet and
Walked to the Metropolitan, The Great Hall
Had hundreds of boys straight out of Eightball
…I hope they don’t catch us in the Lila Acheson
Wallace Wing when Paulus brings the mattress in–rudely
He backlashed my booty like I was Susan Faludi
over the Grace Rainey Rogers Room rostrum"
–MC Paul Barman, I’m Fricking Awesome
There’s a Dave Van Ronk songs called “Gaslight Rag” that’s all about the folk club. There’s also a jazz tune called “Lullaby of Birdland” about the jazz club – probably a lot more of those. I think there’s a Weather Report tune called “Birdland.”)
“Darrio, won’t you take me down to Studio … 54?” --Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Darrio
“Long hair at Madison Square” --Paul McCartney, Rockshow
Suzanne Vega, “Tom’s Diner” (2880 Broadway)
The Roches, “Face Down at Folk City” (11 West 4th Street)
Duke Ellington, Cotton Club Stomp
Count Basie, Stompin’ at the Savoy
Looks like there’s a couple of songs named after “Grand Central Station.” The Mary Chapin Carpenter one mentions “I made my way out onto forty-second street.”
Run-DMC regularly mentioned parts of Hollis, St. Alban’s and Jamaica, three larely black, middle-class neighborhoods in Queens.
“My Adidas” mentions 205th Street in Hollis, while “Christmas in Hollis” mentions Hollis Avenue.