I grew up in Annandale, and my brother went to William and Mary.
Welp, here’s a FOURTH entry on the list (so far) for shitting on Ohio. Chrissie Hynde doesn’t mention Akron by name in the song (she just sings about Ohio) but it’s about Akron.
“My City Was Gone”
JKellyMap ninja’ed you 3 hours ago.
Frank Sinatra’s “This Town” is pretty uncomplimentary–it was played over the ending scene of Ocean’s Thirteen note, and like “Born in the USA” the music contrasts strongly against the lyrics (triumphant vs. bitter), but not sure if it was supposed to beVegas, or New York, or someplace like Atlantic City.
I forgot about this song. But my understanding is it not a specific town at all. The writer was Lee Hazlewood, so less likely to be NYC, Las Vegas or Hoboken (Frank’s birthplace)
I would guess that Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee is not longer considered complimentary in most circles.
He’s not very fond of Tulare county in California, either.
Bremerton, WA represent!
I won’t mention it if you won’t.
I doubt that tourism promoters in Brighton (England) were too pleased about Brian Setzer’s “Rumble in Brighton”
Perhaps not now but at the time it was written, “Okie from Muskogee” was the unofficial anthem of eastern Oklahoma.
Manfred Mann’s Earth Band wrote and performed “Stranded in Iowa” which implies that Iowa is not somewhere one wants to be
I’ll submit John Prine’s Paradise, but it doesn’t insult the town of Paradise directly, because Mr Peabody’s coal train done hauled it away.
Growing up in Saskatoon, it was fun to hear The Guess Who playing “Running Back to Saskatoon”. But it’s a bit of a backhanded shout-out at best: Saskatoon is a small town where nothing much ever happens and you can hang around gas stations and grain elevators.
Albert Hammond made southern California sound pretty bad:
Hotel California by the Eagles, dissing the entire state.
“London Calling” by the Clash was a general indictment of western society with the city standing in as a symbol.
“Asshole from El Paso” by Kinky Friedman and Chinga Chavin was a parody of Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee” but I think it also counts.
Village of the Sun by Frank Zappa. It’s a song about Sun Village, which is near Palmdale, CA. The lyrics describe it as a windy place where farmers raise turkeys.
When I ask Google what Tom Lehrer songs aren’t on that CD, it mentions “Trees”, “The Love Song of the Physical Anthropologist”, “We’re Talkin’ Algebra”, “The Menu Song”, and “The Mumble Song”. It says that there are one-off television pieces. There are other things that are in his written and audio archives
Finally I get to use my copy of the Onion’s “Inventory: Over 100 Obsessively Specific Pop Culture Lists” as a reference text!
Its “18 Kiss-Off songs to cities” includes, in addition to those already mentioned:
“Fuck This Town”, Robbie Fulks (Nashville)
“Nutbush City Limits”, Ike and Tina Turner (about Tina’s home town)
“Lubbock or Leave It”, The Dixie Chicks
“Smalltown”, Lou Reed & John Cale (Pittsburgh)
“New York’s Not My Home”, Jim Croce
“London’s Burning”, The Clash
“Burn Tempe to the Ground”, Horace Pinker
“Beverly Hills”, The Circle Jerks
Apparently The Guess Who are specifically dissed in The Weakerthan’s anti-Winnipeg anthem, “One Great City!”