A musical map of New York City

That reminds me of one I should have thought of earlier:

“42nd Street Psycho Blues” by Janis Ian…from her third album For All the Seasons of Your Mind.

7th Ave passes trough Times Square, the former sleaze and prostitution capital of the western world.

Tell me about it! I grew up in New York, and was a theater buff. I used to pass porn theaters and hookers on the way to Broadway plays all the time.

“Across 110th Street
Pimps trying to catch a woman that’s weak” etc.

-Bobby Womack

Is the OP actually making a map? In Google maps perhaps with annotations?

If you throw out the posts that just mention a street or avenue and make it with locations it could be pretty cool.

I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand. Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain

Years ago David Letterman joked, in a Top Ten list about how to have fun in NYC, “Rent a hotel room overlooking Times Square. Take the Gideon’s Bible, look out the window, and cross off the Ten Commandments as you see them being violated.”

As to songs, “New York Minute” by Don Henley begins:

“Harry got up
Dressed all in black
Went down to the station
And he never came back
They found his clothing
Scattered somewhere down the track
And he won’t be down on Wall Street
In the morning…”

And of course there’s George Benson’s “On Broadway.”

Er, that’s referring to the Soho neighborhood of London, which you might have guessed due to the song being “Werewolves Of London” :slight_smile: Similarly, “West End Girls” by the Pet Shop Boys is not about girls who live on West End Avenue in Manhattan.

Most of the ones that come to mind have been mentioned already - except maybe Bruce Springsteen’s “Tenth Avenue Freeze-out”, unless I missed it.

Uh no…there’s The Drifters’ “On Broadway.”

For songs that actually mention Washington Square, there’s Joan Baez’s “Diamonds and Rust”:
“*Now you’re smiling out the window of that crummy hotel over Washington Square.”
*

Ace Fehley’s 'New York Groove" (I forget who did it originally) mentions a specific corner in Manhattan:

“Stop at** 3rd and 43,** exit to the night.
It’s gonna be ecstacy, this place was meant for me.”

From Angel of Harlem by U2:

“Birdland on fifty-three
The street sounds like a symphony
We got John Coltrane and a love supreme
Miles, and she’s got to be an angel”

You know, I’m visualizing 43rd and Third, and I really can’t see what got Ace all that excited. It’s just a street corner in midtown. Nothing special there. Now, if the song mentioned 8th and 43rd, that might be a bit more understandable.

I know Ace didn’t write the song, but he’s from the Bronx – you’d think he’d know better.

Thought of another:

From 40 Shades of Blue, Black 47.

These days I’d say Benson’s cover is better-known, but whatevs.

“There’s music on Clinton St [Brooklyn] all through the evening” --Leonard Cohen, “Famous Blue Raincoat”

And there’s a Black 47 song that mentions some street names in the Bronx (thank you, Saintly Loser, fr quoting the song I originally named and saving mefrom being Wrong).

Wikipedia says it’s the Clinton Street in Manhattan.

Either way, in New York

Chelsea Hotel has already been mentioned, but it also occurs in Bob Dylan’s “Sara”

Dylan also names some specific places in “Joey”:

The Hotel Earle at the time. Now the Washington Square Hotel. My hotel of choice when I go to NYC. Not so crummy any more and not cheap. Great location though.

My contribution:

Don’t you wanna ride in my
Survival car
We can take the long way home
Through Central Park

Funny how the ground can find my wheels
I’m going where the road ain’t there
And only riding on the path we made
To Union Square

Survival Car - Fountains of Wayne