I’ve always had a thing for songs about cities. These songs are often contemplative, they rise above the individual muddles – they express a mood, a perception. They can be songs of urban loneliness, of concrete bypasses and broken windows. Love songs, not for a person, but for a place and an atmosphere.

I decided to list the songs about cities I know – turns out there are many.
There’s the bombastic New York, New York of Sinatra, full of optimism and american dream. Memphis, Tennessee by rocker and old perv Chuck Berry. The only song i know about Brussels, and its golden age, the clunky Bruxelles of Jacques Brel.
That old hippie hymn, If you’re going to San Francisco. The Streets of London of Ralph McTell (thank you google), full of sentiment.

London calling, by the Clash, nice, but which is more about anger. At least two songs from the Chili Peppers (Under the Bridge and New Orleans). Il est cinq heures, Paris s’eveille, about early morning in Paris.

And there are even more I forget, or don’t know.

A few personal favourites, then, not to clutter this post:
Under the Bridge, about Los Angeles, when i was 16.

A recent one: I don’t like Snow Patrol’s usual stuff, but this one caught my attention. It’s about London (the City, figures), and it’s a good break-up song.

Covered to death, Dirty Old Town by the Dubliners – best cover by the Pogues (with ever-drunk Shane McGowan), I think. About Salford, right next (some would say in) Manchester.

Then again, another side of cities might be better described with more ambient tunes, containing samples of machine sounds and traffic. Blade Runnerish music, Future Sounds of London (From Dead Cities), Autechre, suggesting alienation and white noise.

What are your favourites ?
Just in passing: it’s pretty mind-boggling how many songs have their own wikipedia page.

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