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Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Wednesday, 8th July 2009
We all know the Americans are brilliant about singing about their back yard. Pick any American place name, sing about going there, being there, or leaving there, and you've got a song. Full of wist for those in the know, and mystery for the rest of us.
But, for those of me that haven't been to the U of SA, are there any songs that borrow from a UK road map? Apart from lots of Londony stuff, "Going Down To Liverpool", and "Scarborough Fair", there's nowt. Or is there?
It's Immaterial mention Manchester, Newcastle and Glasgow in "Driving Away from 鶹Լ".
But Billy Bragg's "A13 - Trunk Road to the Sea" surely out-trumps any other Essex-based Route 66-inspired tune.
"It starts down in Wapping
There ain't no stopping"
*sigh*
and how many other pop tunes mention Barking, Dagenham, Grays, Thurrock, Basildon, Pitsea, Thundersley, Hadleigh, Leigh-On-Sea, Chalkwell, Prittlewell, Southend and Shoeburyness?
You may be able to count them on the fingers of one foot...
Robyn Hitchcock sings about Guildford, Basingstoke and Reading and most parts of London.
Going down to Liverpool was written by a brit, less we forget.
I feel compelled, despite the absolute embarrassment, to make those who may not have heard of it or them aware of Smokie's classic "Back to Braford".
Amongst one or two other gems is the superb couplet of;
"I'm going back to Bradford, it's what I prefer
Though your face is pretty, you're nothing like her"
For anyone who's ever been to Bradford, they will realise just how true that statement is.
"I'm going back to Bradford, it's what I prefer
Though your face is pretty, you're nothing like her"
Is it a song about a fling with a Kiki Dee impersonator?
I can think of 2 different songs called 'Blackpool' (one by the Delgados and the other a delicate heartfelt tribute by the Macc Lads)
Captain Sensible's epic:
"I'll be thinking of you, CROYDON..."
, in reply to message 2.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
Barking, Dagenham, Grays, Thurrock, Basildon, Pitsea, Thundersley, Hadleigh, Leigh-On-Sea, Chalkwell, Prittlewell, Southend and Shoeburyness
...where this song terminates
Yes, I had thought of It's Immaterial, "....and that's my birthplace!"
OK, we've got Essex and Lancashire covered. "Boat Train" by The Pogues mentions Crewe, but he only remembers it because the booze had run out. It's more the use of place-names to create an ambience, that I'm after; the sort which eludes the listener who's not been to that place. So, sorry Shane, 0 points there. And I have been to Crewe, I bought "Seldom Seen Kid" in Tesco's there - it's a long story.
Low's "Just Like Christmas" mentions Stockholm and Oslo IIRC.
Why is it that to mention UK placenames sounds more like a folksong, e.g. "We'll cross the Tamar land to land(?), the Severn is no stay(?)"
and THOSE are rivers!
The JAMs released "It's Grim Up North" but that's really just a list of cities, towns and villages in the Glorious North rather than some whistful longing for a return to the Motherland and halcyon days of yore.
By the way Cyril, I do hope you're not suggesting for one second that Bradford is in Lancashire? You may well re-ignite the War of the Roses if you are. I can assure you that Bradford is firmly in the White Rose side of the Pennines.
, in reply to message 9.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
It won't be the first time my geographical inaccuracy has been the trigger for a major national incident, I accept.
I am aware of the work of JAM/KLF, and indeed possess It's Grim Up North on polypropylene. Any other material from my own collection that other readers would like to point me towards?
Brian and Michael mention Salford.
The Mekons namecheck Bradford in Ghosts of American Astronauts.
I really must play Croydon some time soon. The song not the town, though I am available for bookings.
I think we may investigate this further on Thursday nights show and possibly plan a musical route.
Let's hope our quest doesn't give way to silly puns...
Funnily enough, (although the subject matter is far from it of course), the song "It Dread Inna Inglan" by Poet and the Roots also mentions Bradford.
I reckom that if we keep on digging, at this rate we may actually accrue enough tunes which mention Bradford to fill a whole hour!
Then there's St Etienne's "Mario's Café".
Surely the premier record about Tuesday morning in a greasy spoon café in Kentish Town to have been used to lend suaveness to a posh cosmetics advert...
, in reply to message 13.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
Ooooh! Salford! Elbow's "Friend Of Ours"... grrrr, I knew them all really, and just needed my memory stirring!
Surely there are some place names in the work of Robert Wyatt. Not to mention Caravan. Will investigate.
Also, is this another area where Half Man Half Biscuit are ruled out of bounds on the grounds of an embarrasement of riches.
She's in Broadstairs for example.
, in reply to message 15.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
We need to eliminate THAT song about the airborne travel terminal in Luton at an early stage.
The first town mentioned in 'It's Grim Up North' is Bolton. Bolton is also central to the Dead Parrot sketch. This is all part of my theory that Bolton is at the centre of all major cultural events of the last 50 years. Where did Howard Devoto and Pete Shelley meet? That's right. There are countless, countless other examples but I'm derailing the thread.
, in reply to message 18.
Posted by browngravydavey (U13912729) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
Are folk songs excluded? Because 'Spencer The Rover' mentions Rotherham, Fairport had a 'Hexhamshire Lass' and Rachael Unthank utilise Newcastle a lot....
yes, and the Fairport in Fairport Convention is a house in North London! can't get more specific than that!
Didn't Sting do an atmospheric one about Romans stationed along the Tyne?
, in reply to message 20.
Posted by File-Under-Water (U13817253) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
I was thinking just the other day that St Albans, by the Broken Family Band was perhaps the best song about St Albans that I've ever heard.
I suspect the tourism office won't be using it somehow.
Proclaimers - Letter From America - Bathgate, Linwood and so on.
Or are we just doing England?
Shoeburyness crops up in Billericay Dickie as well. Black country chainstore massacre - Poppies (bit vague, area rather than town).
Istanbul/Constantinople (sorry, came over all exotic there...)
Proclaimers - Letter From America - Bathgate, Linwood and so on.
Was the Hillman Hunter made at Linwood? It's funny seeing the Iranian version on telly.
True, there are the four factories and the four rural places in that song. Now I can't read that there is now a rail revival project to Bathgate without thinking "no muir".
I think the rules at the beginning (which were just read out again) said UK, but not London. (though there are loads about London). Which explains why we've not had the Wombles yet but I'm surprised The Proclaimers haven't turned up before: "Sunshine on Leith" being another...
, in reply to message 23.
Posted by browngravydavey (U13912729) on Thursday, 9th July 2009
Can I just add, and closest location yet to the original posting, 'Loughborough Suicide' by the Young Knives.
Hue and Cry were “looking out for Linda” but they might have done better to look out for what station they were heading for and not drinking so much - as well as Paisley, they mention Leeds Central station, which closed in 1967.
I mean, what were they ON? Not the 9.30 to King's Cross for a start.
Peter Gabriel’s “Solsbury Hill” is in Somerset.
In London (and we started on London yesterday), there are a great many references. Now remind me, was the most successful pop singer/songwriter of the 1970s Mike Batt of the Wimbledon Wombles or Bill Oddie of the Goodies, No Fixed Abode, Cricklewood?
It's a Celebrity Song Wars between “Wimbledon is Best” and “Cricklewood, nothing ever happens there”.
One listener mentioned Carter's “Only Living Boy in New Cross”. There's “24 Minutes from Tulse Hill” also.
And I, Ludicrous, went so far as to ring Steve Lamacq about Carter:
“I heard about a band in South East 23 [citation needed -a]
I thought they meant me, I thought they meant me
Riding around on a 68 bus
I thought they meant us, I thought they meant us!”
Then there's Marvin Gaye, champion of West 5,[b]with “Sexual Ealing” (though Gid did say that puns like the *Penge-wyn* Café Orchestra are off-limits)
[a]Forest Hill
[b]"Queen of the Suburbs" as per song title. You can surely dance the Hanger Lane Gyratory Dance to it!
<quote>Can I just add, and closest location yet to the original posting, 'Loughborough Suicide' by the Young Knives.<quote>
That has led me to this:
"Plenty of people in Loughborough have a good time, and it’s not that bad a place. As is pretty much any other market town in the UK. We live in Oxford – it's not that dissimilar, apart from the architecture."
I scent an epitaph there!
THere is a French song "Charleville-Mézières, pas grand-chose à faire" (not much to do there <- added "there" for the rhyme )but that's outside Great Britain, even in its 1557 borders! It was doubtless Spanish then but that's another story!
dang! got the quote thing wrong again - must have forgotten to close the quote!
As for Loughborough Suicide - just found what appears to be a video of the Shadows wearing David Byrne suits while singing an early Ultravox! cover to an audience of robot preying mantis.
Quite good. Not on the radio because of the content? (I made out only the words "Loughborough Suicide" and only then because the singer had stopped shouting).
Quite ironic, really, the tallest building in Loughborough is a student tower whose windows are secured against people jumpimg out. However, many an unfortunate engineering student has passed one final test...what a shame...
"Durham Town" by Roger Whittaker! How did I miss that one.
Dang.
"Durham Town" by Roger Whittaker! How did I miss that one. the same way he missed seeing that the river was actually the Wear and not the Tyne?
, in reply to message 29.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Friday, 10th July 2009
Honoured to have picked the show topic. Humbled to have been shown so ignorant of British place names in lyrical form.
Carter USM! their entire oeuvre is based on Sarf London, e.g. The Taking Of Peckham 1-2-3, and a rare daytrip north in Sealed With A Glasgow Kiss.
, in reply to message 30.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Friday, 10th July 2009
I imagine there will be a few about Glastonbury, including the Waterboys' effort.
Wang Chung once called the station for information to ascertain the times of trains to York - now how often does National Rail Enquiries feature in today's pop music?
james yorkston's when the haar rolls in... name checks birnam of dunkeld & birnam fame (very low platform), as well as killiecrankie and the birks o'aberfeldy.
gideon mentioned largs - which song. can hear a vague rendition in my head, but can't mind what it's called, who it's by.
i, ludicrous and their highland league offers a tour of many places. a bit too football specific perhaps.
gideon mentioned largs - which song. can hear a vague rendition in my head, but can't mind what it's called, who it's by.
It appears there is a record called "Largs Hum" by a group called Swimmer One...
...idea for thread...
thank you tolhurst, that's the one.
how about bromheads jacket's poppy bird and their mention of walthamstow.
I don't think it was; just Imps at Linwood I think. The Iranian version's called a Peykan.
Back to the songs, how could I forget the Toy Dolls' "The Devil Went Down To Scunthorpe"....
I sent Gid a text last night about a Salad song (Kiss My Love) which mentions Market Harborough but don't know if it made it through as I went out to see ropey bands.
I don't think it was; just Imps at Linwood I think. The Iranian version's called a Peykan.
Only the Imp? I had to look it up, renfrewshire.gov.uk say Hunter, Avenger and Chrysler Sunbeam too. Such a big factory, such a troubled story ...
Of course, "Peykan" means "Arrow" in Farsi, the language of Iran and Afghanistan - the internal name of the final Minx/Hunter model...
Back to the songs, how could I forget the Toy Dolls' "The Devil Went Down To Scunthorpe"....
I sent Gid a text last night about a Salad song (Kiss My Love) which mentions Market Harborough but don't know if it made it through as I went out to see ropey bands.
"Listening again" ATM. It was a great show - "Je suis animal" are lush! so to speak - and Japan live. I'll let you know if I hear it...
I sent Gid a text last night about a Salad song (Kiss My Love) which mentions Market Harborough but don't know if it made it through
mentioned at 22:50...1:50 in...
It's so tricky when we operate with boardnames AND with geographical ones - in my case, Lammo can't say "Chris in Thames Ditton". But to send something in from just "tolhurst" sounds wrong.
Wonder where Night Owl from Croydon is? he used to have to use real letters!
Tolhurst - Are you proposing a names amnesty, or rather name synchronisation?
I believe our Trouser News correspondent, (Mike, Wivernhoe), is "ahead of the curve" as you might say, on this one.
, in reply to message 38.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Friday, 10th July 2009
Alexei Sayle did, indeed, lose his bottle in Barnsley! Well spotted, Paul in Barnsley. It was 'Ullo John Gotta New Motor. 'Ere's my calling card! *WALLOP*
The link was followed by James' "Hymn From A Village"; shame they don't mention it by name.
Alexei Sayle did, indeed, lose his bottle in Barnsley! Well spotted, Paul in Barnsley. It was 'Ullo John Gotta New Motor. 'Ere's my calling card! *WALLOP*
I googled that and found:
Is there life on Mars? (x2)
Is there life in Peckham? (x2)...
Tolhurst - Are you proposing a names amnesty, or rather name synchronisation?
Well, I've tried being Tolhurst of Thames Ditton, and TBH it only serves to make me painfully aware of the gulf of cool that exists between my homeland and Crawley New Town.
Besides, in real life, people don't say "lol" (duffers don't, anyway) so there's no point being tolhurst...
It appears there is a record called "Largs Hum" by a group called Swimmer One...
I now find that Gid knew this and said so late last night.
We are not worthy...
, in reply to message 40.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Sunday, 12th July 2009
Is there life on Mars? (x2)
Is there life in Peckham? (x2)
Thereby coming full circle with the Carter song.
well they do nice pies in Melton Mowbray..
Did you know that there is in fact only one pie shop left in Melton itself, (or at least there was last time I visited).
I didn't see the Government leap in to rescue the Pork Pie industry, as pie shop after pie shop bit the dust. Typical, eh?
Aren't "Melton Mowbray Pork Pies" now appélation contrôlée? Maybe if there's only one shop left, that's easy to do.
What has become a leading brand of crisps (Walker's - others available) has some kind of link to delicious pork pies from Leicester. "The crisps aren't as tasty as they used to be" though.
As for songs, I believe the opening post rules out "Going down to Liverpool" by Katrina & The Waves.
But what about "Elstree" by The Buggles?
, in reply to message 46.
Posted by Cyril Benson in Penrith (U2611279) on Monday, 13th July 2009
See? Another cracking number I already possess but have overlooked entirely in my opening post. I knew this would happen.
Pete Doherty sings about: Gin in teacups and leaves on the lawn etc and then cleverly namechecks loads of places like Mansfield & Croydon I suspect he does it at random live [depending on where he is, and what he can remember.] I Can't remember the title but I think it is one of his best post Libertine songs.
The Fall's Edinburgh Man is a beautiful song.
Off the topic of words in songs, didn't Frankie Goes To Hollywood have an LP called "liverpool"?
The Skids definitely had a compliation one called "Dunfermline"...
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