Well you weren’t very far from Black Hole Sun then! Which I have been to. The connections are not super clear to be fair.
But I have been to Aruba- which is not super obscure, but I went there as a 12 year old the year after the song came out.
I’ve been to Wichita. A seven-nation army couldn’t hold me back.
Along that same vein, I’ve been to the Black Sun and to A Sound Garden as well.
I’ve been to Rahway Prison where the saga of Tweeter and the Monkey Man ended.
Wow didn’t know that song existed. Been there too. Although when I was at UMD the age for beer in DC was still 18 so we just had to go over the border.
I’m surprised this hasn’t come up yet, but I have spent many hours of my life: on 128 when it’s dark outside, going faster miles an hour, with the RADIO ON. The degree of obscurity is from which Stop & Shop you’re driving past.
I’ve technically been on Joppa Road in Maryland (of the Ween song of the same name). I’ve actually just crossed it at crossroads several times.
I’m yet another dude who made a trip to Winslow, AZ specifically to stand on a corner.
While maybe not quite obscure enough, I’ve driven through Allentown, PA (per Billy Joel) many times thanks to having a grandmother who lived in adjacent Bethlehem.
I’ve been to Katy, TX, which was named after the slang term for the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad, as memorialized by Taj Mahal and the Blues Brothers. Unfortunately, you can’t catch the Katy there any more, and there’s not even a mule to ride.
I think I still owe the city of Cumberland, MD, which I must confess is probably not the one mentioned in the Grateful Dead’s “Cumberland Blues”, a dollar for a parking ticket from back in the late '70s.
Johnstown PA, mentioned sort of in Bruce Springsteen’s Highway Patrolman (the band played “Night of the Johnstown Flood.”
Rock Island IL, made famous in the Huddie Ledbetter song “Rock Island Line.”
Ipanema Beach made famous by Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “The Girl From Ipanema.” (Also Copacabana Beach.)
Knocked out by some Ukrainian girls on a visit to Kiev (“Back In the USSR” - pretty obscure these days)
Mendocino - Sir Douglas Quintet
Monterey - Eric Burdon
Roger Miller wrote and recorded his ~1965 hit “King of the Road” 2nd verse: “Third boxcar midnight train, destination Bangor Maine.” In 1973 I lived in Bangor a few months. I didn’t take a boxcar, I drove there in my 1968 Pontiac Le Mans.
Having grown up in the Cleveland area, I’ve been to just about all the places mentioned in Moon Over Parma. Most obscure is probably Linndale, a village notorious for being a speed trap along Interstate 71.
Speaking of the Cleveland area, Bob Dylan sings “I’ll look for you in old Honolul-a, San Francisco, Ashtabula; You’re gonna have to leave me now, I know” in You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go. When I was younger and had more time than sense, a friend and I took a road trip to Ashtabula for no other reason than the fact that it was mentioned in the song.
I’ve been to Tucson and Tehachapi, but never Tucumcari. And I’ve driven through Tonopah (Nevada) more times than I care to remember - even stayed there a few times. It’s about halfway between Reno and Las Vegas.
Romeo, Michigan, population 3596 in the 2010 census, is mentioned in Kid Rock’s Devil Without a cause.
We have been to Tucson several times, but the thing about Tucumcari, see, we have been to Clovis and Clayton, but not Tucumcari, because, on that road you end up going through Amarillo, which, as far as I can tell, the only thing it has going for it is Cadillac-henge.
The hotel Las Brisas in Acapulco, where I’ve been, is the inspiration for Ringo Starr’s song “Las Brisas”; he stayed there in 1971 with Nancy Andrews, who co-wrote the song with him.
I’ve been briefly to Toomebridge, Northern Ireland; where according to the Irish rebel song Roddy McCorley, the eponymous hero was hanged in 1800 for his part in the rebellion, shortly before, against British rule. (The historical record casts some doubt on that whole narrative.)
Rolling Stones Memory Motel in Montauk, THE END of Long Island NY
Billy Joel’s Scenes From An Italian Restaurant
Do you remember those days hanging out at the Village Green…
Yes, I do. Mine was the East Village Green, his was the West which I visited a few times, as well as the North & South VGs.
Nobody looked any finer
Or was more of a hit at the Parkway Diner…
Was there too…
They got an apartment with deep pile carpet
And a couple of paintings from Sears…
Just closed a few months ago. Made my first credit purchase there, a nice stereo receiver, turntable & speakers.
These were all in Hicksville LI, where he grew up, except the North, South, & East Village Greens were in Levittown.
Just heard another one on the radio… I’ve walked past (but not gone into) the Seventh Veil, one of the strip clubs name-checked in Motley Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls.
More obscure… I spent many teenaged days and nights in Sunken City, which is referenced by fIREHOSE in O’er the Town of Pedro. It’s a former bluff-top neighborhood that was abandoned after the area started sliding into the ocean.
I’ve been to Palisades Park NJ, but the amusement park in the song written by Chuck Barris and sung by Freddie Canon is long gone.