# 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:** 7
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/121 "2018-10-09T20:45:09Z")
Of Route 66, Bobby Troupe wrote/sang: “It goes through St. Louie, Joplin Missouri.” How “obscure” Joplin is/was will be a matter of dispute (last I looked, it had a population of ~52,000). Regardless, I lived there for a few years. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/122 "2018-10-09T21:02:54Z")
> [@Gatopescado](#): > > I think you might be mistaken about this. > > \*Pulling out of **San Pedro** late one night > With the moon and the stars just shining bright > We was headed up **grapevine Hill** > Passing cars like they was standing still > \* > > Southern California. Nope. For once, I know what I’m talking about. > **[Hot Rod Lincoln](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Rod_Lincoln)** > > "Hot Rod Lincoln" is a song by American singer-songwriter Charlie Ryan, first released in 1955. It was written as an answer song to Arkie Shibley's 1950 hit "Hot Rod Race" (US #29). > It describes a drive north on US Route 99 (predecessor to Interstate 5) from San Pedro, Los Angeles, and over the Grapevine which soon becomes a hot rod race that ends with serious consequences. > The car race is described between two hot rod cars, the narrator's Ford Model A (with a Lincoln motor) and a Cadillac. ... ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/123 "2018-10-09T21:44:13Z")
Not only have I been from Lynchburg to Danville, I have been to Spencer. ---
**Author:** ![Wilson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/96bed5/32.png) [@Wilson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wilson)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/124 "2018-10-09T21:52:50Z")
I’ve been to Tehachapi but not Tuscon, Tucumcari or Tonopah (_Willin’_, Little Feat). Couple of obscure ones from Billy Joel (there are many more non-obscure ones): I’ve been in a house out in Hackensack (_Movin’ Out_); I’ve been in Highland Falls in the summer. Titus Andronicus gives us the song _Fear and Loathing in Mahwah, NJ_; which I can relate to (I work one town over). ---
**Author:** ![Mangosteen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Mangosteen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangosteen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2018, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/125 "2018-10-09T23:19:49Z")
Bob Seger sang, “I think I’m going to Kathmandu”. I was in Kathmandu, Nepal years ago, but I doubt Bob was ever there. Also been to (didn’t stay at) Hotel California, Todas Santos, Baja California, Mexico. (There is absolutely no connection to the Eagles. Don Henley never stayed there non named the song after the hotel. The Eagles sued the Hotel a few years ago because the Eagles claimed the Hotel was selling “Hotel California” merchandise and playing Eagles music implying that the Hotel and the Band had some kind of connection. The Hotel was opened in 1950. ) > **[Hotel California | Baja California Hotel - Todos Santos, Mexico](http://www.hotelcaliforniabaja.com/)** > > Welcome to the Hotel California. The Legendary Baja California Hotel in Mexico. Intimate Hotel Rooms and Suites Available Year Round. See Where the Legend Began! ---
**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/126 "2018-10-10T02:14:49Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Of Route 66, Bobby Troupe wrote/sang: > > “It goes through St. Louie, Joplin Missouri.” > > How “obscure” Joplin is/was will be a matter of dispute (last I looked, it had a population of ~52,000). Regardless, I lived there for a few years. During the tornadoes? ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/127 "2018-10-10T06:05:31Z")
We’ve gone way past obscurity in this thread. I’ve listened to Penny Lane while walking down Penny Lane. I’ve stood in front of Strawberry Field listening to Strawberry Fields Forever. I’ve crossed Abbey Road listening to the medley from the Abbey Road album. And, I’ve walked down Lime Street where the prostitute Maggie Mae used to walk. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/128 "2018-10-10T06:16:17Z")
I didn’t actually go inside but I walked past the “Hotel California” a number of times in Vancouver BC when I was there in the 90s. I’m not sure if that counts since I’m certain that the hotel took it’s name from the song rather than the other way around. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/129 "2018-10-10T07:23:19Z")
> [@davidm](#): > > I didn’t actually go inside but I walked past the “Hotel California” a number of times in Vancouver BC when I was there in the 90s. > > I’m not sure if that counts since I’m certain that the hotel took it’s name from the song rather than the other way around. Same thing for the “Hotel California” in Toronto, back in the 1970s/1980s. It had no relation to the Eagles, though it used the same logo on its sign; and it was the kind of hotel that rented rooms by the hour. But it also had an amazing nightclub in the basement, that hosted some of Toronto’s, and Canada’s, hottest bands. I was there a few times (in the nightclub, not the hotel), but there is no way this place would be confused with the place that the Eagles were singing about. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/130 "2018-10-10T10:49:18Z")
It didn’t occur to me to listen to Abbey Road while crossing Abbey Road, and if it did I probably would not have anyway because it’s a crowded road and I wasn’t used to cars driving the “wrong” way. However, on the same day that I did see Abbey Road, I walked up Primrose Hill while listening to Unemployed in Summertime by Emiliana Torrini which mentions the hill. > [@dalej42](#): > > I’ve crossed Abbey Road listening to the medley from the Abbey Road album. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/131 "2018-10-10T12:01:19Z")
**Wilco** , “Heavy Metal Drummer”: “Oh I sincerely miss those heavy metal bands We used to go see on the Landing in the summer” “The Landing” is Laclede’s Landing, an entertainment district in St. Louis just north of the Arch. I’ve seen a band in a nightclub on the Landing, although it wasn’t a heavy metal band. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/132 "2018-10-10T12:37:45Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > I come from Chautauqua County as did the 10,000 Maniacs and so growing up I went to a lot of places name-checked by them. The only one that was in the lyrics, however, is Bemus Point. > > I have been to the defunct Stockton Gala Days fest but it isn’t clear whether the 10KM song of the same name was even about the village let alone the event. > > Verdi Cries was definitely about Chautauqua Institution but it isn’t mentioned in the lyrics by name. > > The compilation of their first 2 EPS is called The Fredonia Recordings because it was recorded in my home town, but is not mentioned in a song on the album either. I’ve been to [Lily Dale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily_Dale,_New_York), which is the subject of one of their earlier songs (from “the Wishing Chair” Lp). ---
**Author:** ![Turble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8dc957/32.png) [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/133 "2018-10-10T14:38:47Z")
I’ve been to quite a few of the places already mentioned. One I don’t see here yet that I have been to many times because I live about 10 miles away: “I pulled into Nazareth” ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/134 "2018-10-10T15:04:29Z")
More Route 66 destinations. Flagstaff, Arizona Don’t forget Winona Went to college in Flagstaff. And visited nearby Winona. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/135 "2018-10-10T15:51:32Z")
Joni Mitchell’s [Carey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1kcTjtdVE8) is about her stay in Matala, Crete, a popular hippie hang out in the late sixties. I’ve been there much later, in 1992 and saw the famous caves above the beach where the hippies used to dwell. A very obscure song for this board, but not for me, is the unofficial hymn to my region of Germany, [Sauerland](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAi7qJQELvQ) by Zoff. Since I was born and lived there my whole life, I was at the following places mentioned in the song: Finnentrop (my home place), Hundesossen, Winterberg, Züschen, Schmallenberg, Stachelau, Krombach, Kalberschnacke. I bet NOBODY other on this board has been to any of these places ;). (the intro is spoken in the local dialect, if anybody should wonder) ---
**Author:** ![Lurking\_Quahog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lurking_quahog/32/21274_2.png) [@Lurking\_Quahog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lurking_Quahog)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/136 "2018-10-10T16:02:17Z")
> [@robby](#): > > One of my favorite Eagles songs is [“The Last Resort”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Resort_(Eagles_song)) from the _Hotel California_ album. > > Growing up, I had only a vague sense where Rhode Island actually was (i.e. one of the many, small, mish-mash of states in the Northeast), so was somewhat bemused when the Navy later sent me there for a duty assignment for a few years. One day the song came on, and I suddenly realized I was driving at that moment in Providence, the one in Rhode Island. I sit here at work as I read this, about a half mile from the Providence line. Maybe I’ll go there for lunch today. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/137 "2018-10-10T16:06:52Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > I’ve been to Gallup, New Mexico, probably the most obscure town mentioned in Bobby Troup’s “Route 66.” Even stayed at the El Rancho Hotel. > > [El Rancho Hotel & Motel - Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Rancho_Hotel_%26_Motel) > > Also, I’ve been stuck in Lodi again. > [@E-DUB](#): > > I too have stood on a corner in Winslow Arizona, but never got stuck in Lodi again. That begs the question: has any of you been stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues, again? ---
**Author:** ![bmoak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@bmoak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bmoak)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/138 "2018-10-10T16:06:52Z")
“California tumbles into the sea. That’ll be the day I go back to Annandale” Steely Dan’s “My Old School” was Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/139 "2018-10-10T16:13:03Z")
Clutch has a song called “[Worm Drink](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shYtEOUHB9E),” in which part of one verse goes: University Boulevard New Hampshire Avenue Tick Tock Liquor _Thunderbird!_ Tick Tock was a liquor store (now closed) near College Park, MD that was notorious for their rowdy parking lot and [del]lax[/del] non-existent carding policy (despite off-duty, in-uniform county police working as security). It was on University Blvd, but not actually at the intersection with New Hampshire Ave, it was about a quarter mile further south. I used to go in there all the time. When I worked overnights, I would stop in there on my way home to pick up some beers, because they were the only liquor store in the area that opened at 600AM. IIRC they were only closed from like 430AM - 600AM. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2018, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638/140 "2018-10-10T17:52:57Z")
> [@Dale\_Sams](#): > > During the tornadoes? Nope, was long gone by the time of the tornado. I did go back to help with cleanup - that would make for its own thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/obscure-places-in-songs-that-you-have-been-to/822638.md?page=8)