Another thematic episode of Ramblin’ Tunes with popular songs of music history. This time you are presented tracks about places around the world where artists grew up, lived, loved, hated or shared any other memories through the song lyrics.
| TITLE | ARTIST | COMMENTS |
|---|---|---|
| Down Under | Men At Work | “Men At Work” celebrate Australia’s origins in their song “Down Under”, where beer flows, and men chunder – “Chunder” is Aussie slang meaning to vomit. Vegemite sandwich – Vegemite is a fermented yeast spread that is pretty much a national institution in Australia – Some people love it and can’t start the day without a piece of toast spread with Vegemite, and some go so far as to carry a small jar of it with them when they travel overseas. |
| Born to Run | Bruce Springsteen | Bruce Springsteen in “Born to Run” dreams to get out of this town while he is young. A few more years in this town, he believes that he will be stuck here forever along with his dreams. “Born to Run” had a universal appeal among like-minded teens who were struggling to get out of their situations. Everybody wants to ‘move’ as opposed to staying stagnant and rotting in one place. Bruce encouraged all of us to ‘run.’ |
| Town Called Malice | The Jam | Paul Weller, The Jam’s frontman, has said that “Town Called Malice” was written about his hometown Woking as a result of his teenage experiences there. “Town Called Malice” has been featured in many movies and recently in the British crime thriller television series with the same title. |
| Echo Beach | Martha & The Muffins | The inspiration for “Martha & The Muffins” “Echo Beach” was Sunnyside Beach on the shoreline of Lake Ontario in Toronto. Echo beach was a symbol of a place everyone wants to escape to when they’re not where they want to be. |
| Rock This Town | Stray Cats | “Rock This Town” is written by rockabilly “Stray Cats” band leader Brian Setzer. |
| Itchycoo Park | Small Faces | Written by band members Steve Marriott and Ronnie Lane, “Itchycoo Park” is said to be about a place where some of the band members grew up, when the Small Faces still had small faces, maybe? Anyway, a place with stinging nettles growing there. |
| MacArthur Park | Richard Harris | “MacArthur Park” is a song written by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Webb that was recorded first by Irish actor and singer Richard Harris in 1968. The inspiration for the song was his relationship and breakup with Susie Horton. MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, was where the couple would occasionally meet for lunch and spent their most enjoyable times together. You may hear some resemblance with “music” the song by John Miles. |
| Somewhere Only We Know | Keane | “Somewhere Only We Know” is written by ‘Keane’ band members Tim Rice-Oxley, Tom Chaplin and Richard Hughes. The song’s lyrics refer to Manser’s Shaw, a place in Battle that Keane members used to visit in their childhood days and the site of the Battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October 1066. |
| Tom’s Diner | Suzanne Vega | Their exist no doubt where “Tom’s Diner” is in New York (Tom’s Restaurant is a diner located at 2880 Broadway (on the corner of West 112th Street). Suzanne Vega wrote the song in 1982, while she was a regular at the restaurant. The song was released in 1987 and is known for its use in testing various digital compression schemes during the development of the MP3, earning Vega the title of “Mother of the MP3” |
| A Place with No Name | Michael Jackson | The track is based on “A Horse with No Name”, the hit 1972 song by rock band America. The song featured on Xscape Michael Jackson’s second album of all new music released after his death in 2009. |
| Innercity Blues | Marvin Gaye | Written by Marvin Gaye and James Nyx Jr., the song depicts the ghettos and bleak economic situations of lower-income residential districts (inner-city) in America, and the emotional effects these have on inhabitants. This song deals with the poverty and hopelessness people living in the ghettos of urban America often felt. How the government would send guys to the moon, but not help folks in the ghetto. Gaye grew up in Washington, DC before moving to Detroit in 1960. |
| Wind Of Change | Scorpions | Written by Scorpions band leader Klaus Meine and released in 1991. The lyrics celebrate glasnost in the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and speak of hope at a time when tense conditions had arisen due to the fall of Communist-run governments among Eastern Bloc nations beginning in 1989. The opening lines are changed to “Now listen to my heart / It says Ukraine, waiting for the wind to change.” Meine stated, “It’s not the time with this terrible war in Ukraine raging on, it’s not the time to romanticize Russia.” |
| Miss Sarajevo (feat. Luciano Pavarotti) | Passengers | Written by Brian Eno, Bono, Adam Clayton, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. “Miss Sarajevo” is a song by Irish rock band U2 and British musician Brian Eno, credited to the pseudonym “Passengers”. It was released on 20 November 1995 as the only single from their album Original Soundtracks 1. Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes a vocal appearance, singing the opera solo. The song was written about a group of women who held a beauty pageant during the Siege of Sarajevo as an act of defiance. Italian tenor Luciano Pavarotti makes a vocal appearance, singing the opera solo. |
| We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee | Redbone | In 1973 Redbone released the politically oriented “We Were All Wounded At Wounded Knee”, recalling the massacre of a band of Sioux Indians by the Seventh Cavalry in 1890. Pat Vegas quotes: “CBS/Epic wouldn’t record it, so I paid for it myself. They did me a favour and pressed up 500 copies, and I put it under my arm and carried it to Europe. I distributed it to the radio stations in Holland and before you know it it was number one across Europe. |
| 537 C.U.B.A. | Orishas | The song “537 C.U.B.A.” by Orishas released in 1999 is a reference to the telephone country code for Cuba and the city code for Havana and uses a sampling of the famous Compay Segundo & El Cuarteto Patria’s song “Chan Chan”. The song pays a tribute to Compay Segundo & El Cuarteto Patria, a great Cuban “tres” player, by taking the melody of the traditional Cuban son “Chan Chan” or also classified as “sampling”. “Chan Chan” was made famous internationally by Compay Segundo with the release of the album “Buena Vista Social Club” in 1997. The title “537 C.U.B.A.” is a reference to the telephone country code for Cuba and the city code for Havana. This song embodies a nostalgic sound “that besets those in the Cuban diaspora as well as those weary of the dehumanizing aspects of capitalism in developed countries”. Overall, Orishas’ song is their anthem of the emigrant’s lament, expressing the sorrow and loneliness that result from being separated from the homeland. The song also is a representation of Orishas being away from Cuba for more than a year and it is their cry to Cuba expressed in a nostalgic and sorrowful sound. (The name “Orishas” refers to the set of deities worshipped in African-based religions in the Americas, like Santería in Cuba and Candomblé in Brazil, resulting from the relocation of Yoruba slaves. These orishas each represent a natural element (such as the ocean or leaves) and exhibit a human characteristic (such as motherhood or love)) Los Orishas began as Cuban rap group “Amenaza” in the early 1990s. The song “537 C.U.B.A.” is on the album “A Lo Cubano” by Orishas released in 1999. |
| Goin’ Up the Country | Canned Heat | Written by Alan Wilson & Henry Thomas, this song is essentially the essence of traveling around the country carelessly and with a group of friends. Nothing more than just a catchy tune about a road trip. |
| Le Sud | Nino Ferrer | “Le Sud” is a song written, composed and performed by Nino Ferrer. Nino Ferrer was inspired by the American folk and country music he heard while living in Italy. The song was released in February 1975 as a single. This song is about a place like Louisiana in Italy, and how nice it is there. The song was originally written in English, but was translated into French for the release of the single. |
| I Know a Place | Petula Clark | Written by Tony Hatch for Petula Clark in 1965, “I know a Place” refers to “a cellar full of noise”, a deliberate reference to the title of Brian Epstein’s 1964 autobiography (A Cellarful of Noise), describing the below-ground Cavern Club in Liverpool where he first discovered the Beatles. The song is featuring in many movies and TV series and translated in many languages. |
| An Englishman In New York | Godley & Creme | Former 10cc members Kevin Godley and Lol Creme wrote the impressions of their first visit to America in their song “An Englishman In New York”. Kevin Godley and Lol Creme are from England, but they have always been fascinated by America. This song was inspired by their first trip to New York City, when they were members of the band 10cc. |
| So Far Away From L.A. | Nicolas Peyrac | Nicolas Peyrac (born 6 October 1949 as Jean-Jacques Tazartez) is a French musician, writer and photographer. In 1975 he wrote and performed ‘So Far Away From L.A.’ La chanson évoque des lieux (le Golden Gate, le pénitencier d’Alcatraz, le Queen Mary transformé en hôtel flottant, Beverly Hills, les collines d’Hollywood) et des personnages (Caryl Chessman, Greta Garbo, Humphrey Bogart dit « Bogie », Sharon Tate) emblématiques de San Francisco et de Los Angeles. |
| Big Yellow Taxi | Joni Mitchell | Joni Mitchell penned her environmental concerns down in “Big Yellow Taxi” in 1970. Joni Mitchell lived in Laurel Canyon, which is a section of Los Angeles, when she wrote this song (that’s the reference in the album title). At the time, big news in California was the battle to save the redwood forests, which were threatened by developers eager to cut down the trees to build shopping centers and other amenities. As Mitchell implies in this song, this could lead to trees someday becoming something you could only see in a museum. Mitchell (from a 1996 interview with the Los Angeles Times): “I wrote ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ on my first trip to Hawaii. I took a taxi to the hotel and when I woke up the next morning, I threw back the curtains and saw these beautiful green mountains in the distance. Then, I looked down and there was a parking lot as far as the eye could see, and it broke my heart… this blight on paradise. That’s when I sat down and wrote the song.” The line, “They paved paradise and put up the parking lot” refers to the destruction of The Garden of Allah, a Hollywood hotel renowned for its rowdy celebration parties. |
| Hotel California | Eagles | The legendary hit “Hotel California” is written by ‘Eagles’ band members Don Felder, Don Henley and Glenn Frey while staying at the The Beverly Hills Hotel in 1976. Released in February 1977 it is about “a journey from innocence to experience … that’s all”. |
| Our House | Madness | “Our House” by Madness, written by guitarist Chrissy Boy (Chris Foreman) and secondary vocalist, trumpeter and dancer Chas Smash (Cathal Smyth). “Our House” was Madness’ biggest hit in the US. There is also a musical called Our House, featuring Madness songs. |
| Tobacco Road | Jefferson Airplane | “Tobacco Road” was a semi-autobiographical tale of growing up in Durham, North Carolina, written and first recorded by John D. Loudermilk in December 1959 and released in 1960. This song became a hit for The Nashville Teens in 1964. Jefferson Airplane recorded a version of Tobacco Road on their first album, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off, in 1966 with their original lead singer Signe Anderson. Just as Jefferson Airplane was ascending, Anderson gave birth to her first child. Realizing that life on the road with a newborn was unfeasible, Anderson opted to part ways with Jefferson Airplane in 1966. |
| Old Town | Phil Lynott | “Old Town” is a song released by Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott from his 1982 self-titled solo album, The Philip Lynott Album; its autobiographical lyrics detail the end of a romance. The setting of the old town is Dublin, Ireland, were Lynott grew up. Phil Lynott co-wrote this song with Thin Lizzy bass player Jimmy Bain. |
Sources
The information sources of the song facts include, but are not limited to, Wikipedia, songfacts.com, discogs.com, secondhandsongs.com, YouTube and artists’ related websites.
