Thursday, May 13, 2010

In the City

I've been a little sad because we've probably seen the last of TNC's wonderful Confederate History Month series...but The Atlantic comes through, with an introduction yesterday to a very promising new series: Conor Friedersdorf on cities.  All of which puts me in the mood for a list...


1. In the City (The Jam)
2. Big City (Operation Ivy)
3. Heart of the City (Nick Lowe)
4. Living for the City (Stevie Wonder)
5. This Town (The Go-Gos)
6. Buzzcity Talking (XTC)
7. Take This City (Tim Armstrong)
8. Inner City Blues (Marvin Gaye)
9. Cities (Talking Heads)
10. Uptown (Prince)

And while I'm at it, I should also recommend my buddy Ron Schmidt's excellent This is the City: Making Model Citizens in Los Angeles.  It's a political theorist's understanding of the LAPD, Dragnet, the concept of emulation, Blade Runner, the zoot suit riots, and lots of other terrific stuff within Los Angeles political culture.

8 comments:

  1. If anyone doesn't know about the awesome (free) website grooveshark.com, you can see a demonstration by listening to the entire mix tape Johnathan suggests.

    Good songs.

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  2. To turn the circle:

    11. Los Angeles (X)

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  3. Where the Hell are the Eagles? After that, maybe "Nobody Walks in LA" (Missing Persons).

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  4. Time for me to stop lurking....

    Chocolate City (Parliament)
    Erotic City (Prince)
    My City in Ruins (Springsteen)

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  5. Los Angeles by X should be number 1. Plus let's not forget Fear's "I love living in the city"

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  6. Excellent list, but no "Summer in the City"? If not the Lovin' Spoonful's version, than certainly Joe Jackson's.

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  7. Glenn Frey's "You Belong To The City."

    The Boss, "It's Hard TO Be A Saint In The City" and "My City Of Ruins" and "My Home Town" and "New York City Serenade" and "Streets of Philadelphia" and more...

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  8. OK, that's it: next person to suggest an Eagle can consider themselves on report.

    The Prince and Parliament suggestions are good...I know Joe Jackson's version of Summer in the City; it's OK, I think, nothing special. There's also Elvis's "This Town," which I didn't include because I like the Go-Go's song of the same name a lot.

    I avoided the one-town specific song (X, Missing Persons). Obviously #1 on that list to me is I Left My Heart in San Francisco...also London Calling, Chicago, Walking to New Orleans, Kansas City, Manhattan. Which reminds me of the best line in the whole series, when Liza says: "Everyone thinks they're Sinatra."

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