I got a very recent one: “Lubbock Or Leave It” by the Dixie Chicks.
I don’t blame them one bit for hating Lubbock. This town made a major stink over Natalie’s “we’re ashamed the president is from Texas” remark, and country radio stations in town have a still-standing ban on playing any Dixie Chicks songs. It’s ridiculous, and it’s embarassing. “Lubbock Or Leave It” off their most recent album is their response.
Full lyrics are out there on the web. They’re pretty harsh, what with the “hell’s half acre” and “more churches than trees” and “fool’s paradise” and whatnot.
When you’re down on your luck
And you ain’t got a buck
In London, you’re a goner
Even London Bridge
Has fallen down
And moved to Arizona
Now I know why
And I’ll substantiate the rumor
That the English sense of humor
Is drier than the Texas sands.
You can put up your dukes
Or you can bet your boots
I’ll be leavin here as soon as I can.
“Hate New York City,
It’s cold and it’s damp,
And all the people dress like monkeys”
:mad:
[/QUOTE]
I dunno when you were last in NY, but that whole bellboy tunic and pillbox hat look is sooo over.
In rebuttal to Mr. Newman:
LA is a great big freeway
Put a hundred down and buy a car
In a week, maybe two, they’ll make you a star
…And all the stars that never were
Are parkin’ cars and pumpin’ gas
“Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” (Bacharach/David, 1967)
And I’m proud to be an asshole from El Paso.
A place where sweet young virgins aren’t deflowered.
You walk down a street knee deep in tacos,
And the wetbacks still get twenty cents an hour.
[/QUOTE]
As a refugee who just escaped after a 20 year sentence in Hell Paso, I can’t say these lines are accurate, but I appreciate the sentiment.
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle]
I don’t know of any songs bad-mouthing Chicago…
[/quote]
I’ll give you one – it’s kind of obscure, but it’s a favorite of mine. *Windy City Anne* by the great Tom T. Hall:
Chicago gets along so well without me, I thought I’d go to Indiana for a while
The wind comes off the lakes so cold it freezes, Chicago didn’t try to make me smile
Not from Ohio, but the Pretenders My City Was Gone seems appropriate.
A snippet:
[QUOTE=Chrissie Hynde]
I went back to Ohio
But my pretty countryside
Had been paved down the middle
By a government that had no pride
The farms of Ohio
Had been replaced by shopping malls
And muzak filled the air
From Seneca to Cuyahoga Falls
[/QUOTE]
Death Cab for Cutie has a rather blunt & unpoetic song called “Why You’d Want To Live Here” about Los Angeles. Thematically, insert “I Can’t See” before the song title.
The Decemberists sing this beautiful song about my hometown:
There is a city by the sea
A gentle company
I don’t suppose you want to
And as it tells its sorry tale
In harrowing detail
Its hollowness will haunt you
Its streets and boulevards
Orphans and oligarchs it hears
A plaintive melody
Truncated symphony
An ocean’s garbled vomit on the shore,
Los Angeles, I’m yours
That’s just the beggining, it gets worse.
I’d never go “disco.” Man, I ain’t from Frisco! -DJ Quik
It’s an easy stereotype so I’m sure many other rappers/songwriters have similar gems, though I don’t recall any songs entirely about it. I’m not offended, I enjoy our collective homo-naiety.
[QUOTE=NAF1138]
That’s just the beggining, it gets worse.
No one likes LA
[/QUOTE]
No. No, no one does, I’m afraid. I give you Aenema:
[QUOTE=Maynard Keenan]
Here in this hopeless fucking hole we call LA
The only way to fix it is to flush it all away
Any fucking time, Any fucking day
Learn to swim, See you down in Arizona bay
Some say a comet will fall from the sky
Followed by meteor showers and tidal waves
Followed by faultlines that cannot sit still
Followed by millions of dumbfounded dipshits
…
One great big festering neon distraction
I’ve a suggestion to keep you all occupied:
Learn to swim
[/QUOTE]
It’s kind of rare that a city is so loathed rock bands revel in the thought of an astronomical cataclysm erasing any trace of its existence.
[QUOTE=Steve MB]
No, but I know some folks who do.
[/QUOTE]
Cool, I usually help to run the Monmouth County one. {now in Asbury Park}
I learned the song hanging out with some of the folk musicians.
If you like Bruce, early rumors are he might show up this year if he is in NJ the third week of August. This is tied to him doing a Pete Seeger* tribute album.
[QUOTE=Annie-Xmas]
I was living in Boston when Dirty Water came out. Created quite an uproar.
[/QUOTE]
The Standells were from L.A., too…
There seems to be a general lyrical tilt in most early Springsteen stuff to want to get the hell out of New Jersey. I always found it ironic therefore that Jersey has embraced him so. And of course his “Born in the USA” was widely misinterpreted by many at the time as a blindly patriotic anthem.
[QUOTE=Crandolph]
The Standells were from L.A., too…
There seems to be a general lyrical tilt in most early Springsteen stuff to want to get the hell out of New Jersey. I always found it ironic therefore that Jersey has embraced him so. And of course his “Born in the USA” was widely misinterpreted by many at the time as a blindly patriotic anthem.
[/QUOTE]
What, all the good folks of New Jersey, take living in New Jersey with a grain of salt. You will notice he keeps coming back. The state has many huge advantages and many huge disadvantages. We have almost everything in one small overcrowded state.
