When we saw that Gothamist had a post up yesterday on a Wikipedia page listing all the songs about New York, we were initially filled with uncontrollable jealousy.
Then we calmed down a bit and had a hunt round Wikipedia ourselves...and what do you know! Here's the exact same page but for songs about London.
To paraphrase Homer Simpson: Mmmm, massive lists.
It's a pretty extensive list but here's a few random ones that caught our eye:
- "I Don't Want to Go to Chelsea" by Elvis Costello.
And our personal favourite so far:
- "Werewolves of London" by Warren Zevon.
(which even has its own Wikipedia page).
And, by the way is "Midnight in Chelsea" by Jon Bon Jovi about our Chelsea or the other one? We think we'd prefer it if it were the latter.
Anyway, we know you'll have some of your own which aren't on the list so our comments section is available for you to show off your knowledge (Gothamist has, at the time of writing, got 40 comments on their post - let's see if we can beat that shall we?).
N.B. As an added incentive, we will of course endeavour to try and play as many your London-related suggestions at our birthday party next month.
There was a dance song called 'It's a London Thing' years ago. Can't remember who was responsible for it though.
Kings Cross: Pet Shop Boys
Kings Cross: Pet Shop Boys.
I actually wrote a short story about 8 songs naming london places by name, will dig it out..
would be good to update the list on wikipedia too... have already started with the ones mentioned above.
Dead Girls of London by Frank Zappa (Van Morrison)
Well we can't mention the Pet Shop Boys without mentioning West End Girls can we?
"The Great London Traffic Warden Massacre" - Morcheeba
"London Tu Nachdi" - Apache Indian
And who could forget the theme tune from "Up The Elephant and Round the Castle" starring Jim Davidson?
Well, I wish I could...
Come on people, the Guns of Brixton by the Clash
Not forgetting London Calling, obviously
Waterloo sunset
They're on the list though...
How about:
"London Flat, London Sharp" - Dave Brubeck
"Tower of London" - ABC
"Mayfair" - Nick Drake (?)
"Blue Room In Archway" - The Boo Radleys
"Westminster Chimes" - Sonic Youth
I've really got far too much work to be thinking about this... 8o(
Does PCP by the Manics count:
"Ten foot sign on Oxford Street
Be pure - be vigilant - behave."
Hate to disappoint you, but afraid Jon Bon Jovi's Midnight in Chelsea is unquestionably about our one. Hence an entire mawkish verse about Lady Di being 'a saint not a queen', not to mention a standard Yank-friendly shout-out to the big red bus.
He apparently wrote it when he was over here making a navel-gazing movie about an American actor doing the West End, too...
It only had 1 Madness and no Ian Dury before I started... and no Christopher Robin!
It's fairly easy to add your own to the list. Just click on 'expand it' (near the bottom) and copy the format of an existing entry