ZZTop’s “LaGrange” was about the Chicken Ranch, a world-famous brothel in the town of LaGrange, Texas.
“Rumors speading around that Texas town,
About that shack outside LaGrange.
(And y’all know what I’m talking about!)
Just let me know if you wanna go
To that home out on the range.
(They got a lot of nice girls.)”
For New Jersey, there’s always Bruce Springsteen.
“Now, everything dies, baby. That’s a fact.
But maybe everything that dies someday comes back
Put your makeup on, fix your hair up pretty,
And meet me tonight in Atlantic City.”
Eastbound and Down - Jerry Reed
The boys are thirsty in Atlanta
and there’s beer in Texarkana
and we’ll bring it back no matter what it takes!
(Hey, I didn’t say it was a good rhyme.)
Does the city name itself have to be part of the rhyme, or is it okay if the rhyme actiually comes from the state?
I ask because of Skynyrd’s “What’s Your Name?”
It starts off:
Well, it’s 8 o’clock in Boise, Idaho.
I find my limo driver. "Mister, take us to the show."
Big River - Johnny Cash
I met her accidentally in St. Paul (Minnesota).
And it tore me up every time I heard her drawl, Southern drawl.
Then I heard my dream was back Downstream cavortin’ in Davenport,
And I followed you, Big River, when you called.
This may be skirting the rules a bit, as it refers to a non-American city, but since there is also an American city in IA with the same name, I’m slipping it in.
But gosh darn you people for putting this darn earworm in my head this afternoon! It popped in there while reading this category and it won’t go away!
Waterloo - I was defeated, you won the war
Waterloo - Promise to love you for ever more
Waterloo - Couldn’t escape if I wanted to
Waterloo - Knowing my fate is to be with you
Waterloo - Finally facing my Waterloo
Waterloo - ABBA
“Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” - Lucinda Williams
Sittin’ in the kitchen a house in Macon
Loretta’s singing on the radio
Smell of coffee eggs and bacon
*
“Jackson” - Lucinda Williams
Once I get to Lafayette
I’m not gonna mind one little bit
Once I get to Baton Rouge
I won’t cry a tear for you*
“Greenville to Baton Rouge” - Drive-By Truckers
*Greenville to Baton Rouge
I’ll call you up when I get through
The life I live is the life I choose
Greenville to Baton Rouge
*
As we passed by Big Al’s drive-in, his eyes began to flash
He was leaving Rapid City mighty fast
He said "I hope to God she finds the goodbye letter that I wrote her
But the mail don’t move so fast in Rapid City, South Dakota
Kinky Friedman
Operator won’t you put me on through
gotta send my love down to Baton Rouge
Garth Brooks, Callin’ Baton Rouge
Comin’ in to Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of keys
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mr Customs Man
It helps when you pronounce Los Angeles and Los Angeleez.
Third Boxcar, midnight train
Destination, Bangor, Maine
Also Neil Young
Oh Aaaaaal- Buh–Querque
No Rhyme, but bravura anyway
Bristol, PA
Bristol Stomp - The Dovells
The kids in Bristol
are sharp as a pistol
When they do
the Bristol Stomp
(…“sharp as a pistol?”)
You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Bob Dylan:
I’ll look for you in old Honolulu
San Francisco, Ashtabula
States (plus DC) so far:
Massachusetts
Indiana
Colorado
Maine
Nevada
California
Alabama
Missouri
Oklahoma
Alaska
New York
Florida
Louisiana
Connecticut
Pennsylvania
Georgia
Arkansas
Illinois
New Jersey
Kentucky
Michigan
Tennessee
Kansas
Texas
Mississippi
D.C.
Minnesota
South Dakota
Iowa
Ohio
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Oregon
Washington
Arizona
New Jersey
Hawaii
And I didn’t count that damned “I’ve Been Everywhere” song, because it’s cheating.
So I drifted on down to Tulsa, Oklahoma
To do me a late night talk show
Now I worked my way down home again, via Boise, Idaho
WOLD
Harry Chapin
Does not rhyme the city name, though.
Has no songwriter thought to rhyme “Boise” with “noisy?”
And the record man said every one is a yellow sun
Record from Nashville
And up north there ain’t nobody buys them
And I said, “But I Will”
Lovin Spoonful. Funny part is it’s wrong. How did John Sebastian think Sun records was in Nashville
Now as I turn life a page
To the land of the great Osage
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born,
While the black oil it rolls and flows
And the snow-white cotton grows
In those Oklahoma hills where I was born.
Woody and Jack Guthrie
I’ve gambled down in the town of Newport News
The more I gamble, boys, the more I lose
Baltimore to Washington
Oh Baltimore to Washington
Oh Baltimore to Washington
Oh Baltimore to Washington
Woody Guthrie
Wanted man in Albuquerque,
Wanted man in Syracuse
Wanted man in Tallahassee,
Wanted man in Baton Rouge
There’s somebody set to grab me
Anywhere that I might be
And wherever you might look tonight
You might get a glimpse of me
Wanted man in California,
Wanted man in Buffalo
Wanted man in Kansas City,
Wanted man in Ohio
Wanted man in Mississippi,
Wanted man in ol’ Cheyenne
Wherever you might look tonight you might see this wanted man
Bob Dylan
Think that’s Wyoming and New Mexico to add