# Obscure places in songs that you have been to. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638 "2018-10-08T02:53:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Tinker\_Grey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tinker_grey/32/8136_2.png) [@Tinker\_Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tinker_Grey)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/81 "2018-10-09T01:16:52Z")
Mayor’s Income, TN. Well, not really. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/82 "2018-10-09T01:17:06Z")
> [@digs](#): > > But don’t you want to get stuck in the Lodi in Wisconsin? I mean, they have[… ummm … a duck.](https://lauriekutilportraits.com/2015/08/13/lodi-home-of-susie-the-duck/) Lawrence Block, the famous mystery writer, was born in Buffalo, NY. He and his wife spent several years in the 70s and 80s “hunting buffalo” — visiting all the Buffalos in all fifty states. They went by car, and he did his writing in hotel rooms on the way. ---
**Author:** ![GESancMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gesancman/32/2923_2.png) [@GESancMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GESancMan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/83 "2018-10-09T01:20:32Z")
I spent most of my life in San Jose. Dionne Warwick is too easy. Googling a bit, The best I can come up with is a song by some band called Cracker, called “Big Dipper,” about a roller coaster at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. I used to hang out there as a kid, I’ve ridden it many times. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/84 "2018-10-09T01:33:14Z")
Kouple o’ Kinks konnections: I’ve been to Waterloo Station and Waikiki. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/85 "2018-10-09T01:35:31Z")
> [@Clawdio](#): > > In Macklemore’s song “Good Old Days” he sings: > > _In a small club in Minnesota > And the snow outside of 1st Ave > I just wanted my name in a star > now look at where we at_ > > I live in Minneapolis so of course I’ve been to plenty of concerts at 1st Ave (and 7th Street Entry). The outside walls of the building are painted black with silver stars, and inside the stars are the names of bands that have played 1st Ave over the years (except for Prince who has a special gold star). My sister has been to Hoover Dam. She even posted a link to the song along with photos on her Facebook page. I've been to that big lake they called Gitchee Gumee. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/86 "2018-10-09T01:52:05Z")
In ‘Wichita Lineman’, Glen Campbell sang that he was a lineman for the county (and he drove the main road). However, he didn’t specify whether it was Wichita County, Kansas, or Wichita County, Texas. Not to worry, I’ve been to both. But Jimmy Webb, who wrote the song, said that he was inspired to write it while driving through Washita County, Oklahoma. As it happens, I-40 cuts through the northwestern corner of this county, so I’ve been there as well. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/87 "2018-10-09T01:59:01Z")
I’ve been to (I’ve Got a Gal In) [Kalamazoo](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(I%27ve_Got_a_Gal_In)_Kalamazoo) and [Saginaw, Michigan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saginaw,_Michigan_(song)). mmm ---
**Author:** ![Cub\_Mistress](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ea666f/32.png) [@Cub\_Mistress](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cub_Mistress)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/88 "2018-10-09T02:02:25Z")
as referenced by the Allman Brothers in Ramblin Man, I drive Highway 41 pretty much every day, but not in a Greyhound bus. Not exactly a song, it’s a band name but I have been to Rammstein. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/89 "2018-10-09T02:30:55Z")
Kind of the inverse, but I have been to the town on Gray’s Harbor where they have a sign that says “Welcome to Aberdeen – come as you are”. I do not think it is explicitly mentioned in any of their songs, but having been there, the feeling of it in their music is unmistakable. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/90 "2018-10-09T02:44:46Z")
Count me in as one of the Winslow, AZ people. I’ve also been on a business trip to Kalamazoo (the Andrews Sisters had a guy there). ---
**Author:** ![Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Ulf\_the\_Unwashed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulf_the_Unwashed)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/91 "2018-10-09T03:38:48Z")
I am extremely familiar with Poughkeepsie (“there’s a fellow waiting in Poughkeepsie”). The song mentions some other places where I’ve never been (Daytona, Pomona), but also references Biloxi, where I briefly was once. Biloxi is also referenced in “Guys and Dolls.” But I believe I have never been to the Roxy. The song “Iowa Stubborn” in The Music Man mentions several mostly obscure Iowa towns…I have been to Dubuque and Keokuk. And Gary, Indiana many times. Though mostly through it or around it rather than visiting it directly. Never been to the Conservatory though. My wife does not like me to drive on Lower Wacker at night in Chicago. When she’s not in the car I do it anyway and hum “wack wack Wacker Drive.” Kalamazoo has been mentioned in the thread. Again, more a matter for me of driving by on 94, but not always…Kalamazoo is mentioned in “Deck Us All with Boston Charlie” and “it’s a Beautiful Day for a Ball Game,” both staples of my childhood. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/92 "2018-10-09T04:27:57Z")
A friend got sent an unmarked cassette in the mail back in the early '90s. We played it to death, unable to find out who it was\*. One song name-checked so many places and singers that we’ve always wanted to find them: > [@](#): > > \*There is a road that runs from > southern Missouri > Down through north Arkansas > And straight to Tennessee. > > We were on that road with our > radio on… listening to > Bill Monroe, Charlie Rich and Ralph Stanley.\* > > After multiple domestic routes, the last verse hops the Atlantic > … > _There is a road that runs > through Shropshire, > on through Wales, and > down to the coast. > You were sleeping in the front seat > with your head against the glass, > and I was looking at you wishing > that this road could last._ \*Finally the sender of the tape returned stateside and told us it was Jeb Loy Nichols’s early reggae/dub/country band Fellow Travellers. Friend found the Missouri road, but neither of us have made it to Shropshire. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/93 "2018-10-09T04:31:30Z")
“The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe” train line writes its own song. I don’t know if I’ve been to Atchison, but I have been to Topeka and Santa Fe. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/94 "2018-10-09T04:36:11Z")
> [@Clawdio](#): > > I live in Minneapolis so of course I’ve been to plenty of concerts at 1st Ave (and 7th Street Entry). The outside walls of the building are painted black with silver stars, and inside the stars are the names of bands that have played 1st Ave over the years (except for Prince who has a special gold star). If that’s the place I think it is, it was once (up to the mid-70s, I think) Minneapolis’s Greyhound Bus terminal. I remember taking the bus from there to Milwaukee and Chicago when I was growing up. It was replaced by the early '80s with what I assume is still the current facility a little farther south. Other places I’ve been to that I’m sure (or pretty sure) have been mentioned in song are Loch Lomond, Glencoe, Culloden Moor, Inverness, Montrose (all in Scotland), and Whitby (Yorkshire, England), St Ives (Cornwall, England), and Winchester and Canterbury Cathedrals (England). ---
**Author:** ![Lamoral](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lamoral/32/16078_2.png) [@Lamoral](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamoral)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/95 "2018-10-09T04:43:35Z")
I was going to answer that I have been on the Mystic River, which…I _thought_…Van Morrison was singing about in the song _Into The Mystic._ But I just looked it up and he’s not actually singing about that river; he’s not actually singing about anywhere in particular at all. He’s just using the word “mystic” in an abstract sense. For my entire fucking life up until thirty seconds ago, I assumed that the song was about the Mystic River, and it’s not. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/96 "2018-10-09T04:53:23Z")
I’ve been to Te Awamutu, which Neil Finn namechecks in “Mean To Me” by Crowded House. It’s a shithole. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/97 "2018-10-09T05:07:15Z")
> [@Lamoral](#): > > For my entire fucking life up until thirty seconds ago, I assumed that the song was about the Mystic River, and it’s not. Well, you can count it [for the Sean Penn/Tim Robbins/Kevin Bacon movie…](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327056/) ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/98 "2018-10-09T05:19:19Z")
Thibodaux, Louisiana - Amos Moses Salinas, CA - Me and Bobby McGee Winslow, AZ And not that it fits the OP but I’ve been to the Dexter Lake Club! ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/99 "2018-10-09T05:22:21Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > “The Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe” train line writes its own song. I don’t know if I’ve been to Atchison, but I have been to Topeka and Santa Fe. We drove through Santa Fe on the way to Taos, spent the night about a week later in Topeka and then drove through Atchison on the way to St. Joseph the next day. We have been in Tonopah as well as Tehachipi, but not gone from one to the other, _per se_. (There is a Tonopah in Nevada as well as one in Arizona, but I am not sure which one the song refers to). ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/100 "2018-10-09T09:58:43Z")
I was very recently in Whitefish Bay (well, not _in_ it), of ‘the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald’ fame. Also to [Mariners’ Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariners%27_Church), the “musty old hall in Detroit/Maritime Sailors’ Cathedral”. And this bay reminded me of another: the Bay of Fundy off of Nova Scotia, from the Joni Mitchell song ‘Coyote’. mmm [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638.md?page=6)