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.
Nope. For once, I know what I’m talking about.
Not only have I been from Lynchburg to Danville, I have been to Spencer.
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).
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. )
During the tornadoes?
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’ve been to Lily Dale, which is the subject of one of their earlier songs (from “the Wishing Chair” Lp).
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”
More Route 66 destinations.
Flagstaff, Arizona
Don’t forget Winona
Went to college in Flagstaff. And visited nearby Winona.
Joni Mitchell’s Carey 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 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)
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.
That begs the question: has any of you been stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues, again?
“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.
Clutch has a song called “Worm Drink,” 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.
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.