Songs That Mention A Specific Place

After I finished my other blog about songs, you know, this one, I thought about some other tunes that I thought might be interesting to write a blog about. 

In certain songs there are lyrics that mention a place somewhere in the world, but in an oddly specific way, once again, hard to describe but once you've read the first example, you'll understand what I mean.

Again, these songs may be quite old and unknown to some of my younger readers, so as previously, I will add a link to a playlist on my Spotify account. Feel free to listen to any of my playlists, there is one for each of my music quizzes plus some personal ones too.

Two for one in this song by the curly haired Brit. It tells the story of a young, and in love, couple running away to Scotland to get married. Back in the day, there was a younger age limit on marriages north of the border and subsequently, Gretna became a popular place for runaway brides and grooms.

The first place in this song is in these lyrics...

"His blue Morris van is parked in an alley

So, we're looking for an alleyway off Montague Street, but which town ? Well, further on in the song, Leo sings "We're only ten miles to Gretna, They're three hundred behind" , so with the aid of Google Maps measuring the distance from Gretna is easy...

Ignoring the modern timings, you can see from this map that Gretna is 317 miles from London, Montague Street in fact. Not far out from the lyrics, I think you'll agree. So, we are looking for a Montague St. in London. Now, there just happens to be a Montague Street right in the centre of Londinium. Pretty close to the British Museum, actually. Here it is...

There you go, much better. As you can see, a lovely tree lined avenue, but in 1975 when the song was written  it was probably not as luxurious, London has changed a LOT in the last few decades. Now if we take a walk down Montague St., a distance of only about 200yards before we come to Russell Square, there is just one gap between the houses...

"Meanwhile the Carlisle turnoff of the M6 motorway

Now, if you know the Carlisle area, you will know that the M6 actually has three turn-offs for Carlisle, Junctions 42, 43, and 44. So which one? Well, obviously the couple were in a cafe, so this rules out junction 43, no cafe that I'm aware of. Junction 44 does have a long established truckstop, but this is only about five miles from Gretna. But, junction 42 has an even longer established, but sadly recently closed down, cafe. and, guess what, yep you got it, pretty much ten miles from Gretna.

In conclusion, it seems the songwriter certainly did his research on this song

A brilliant country rock song from one of my favourite bands, this song's message is to "take it easy" in other words relax, when you seem to have endless troubles.

The verse we are interested in for this blog though is...

"Well, I'm a-standing on a corner

We get the town, state but not which corner. However, the good folk of Winslow AZ, have decided, and who are we to argue, that this corner would obviously be on part of the old Route 66 because, well it's the old Route 66, and why wouldn't it be there.

There is even a statue (or two) on the corner to celebrate the song. Just to the right is, I believe, a flatbed Ford also sung about in the lyrics...

"Such a fine sight to see

In a flat-bed Ford"

Here's a better shot of that...

So if you're ever in Winslow, check out the corner mentioned in the Eagles song, it's at the junction of North Kinsley Avenue and 2nd Street.

This song is based on a true story about a gay man called Georgie that Rod Stewart knew. It is a sad song, indicative of the old days of New York City with gangs roaming freely around and causing trouble for the sake of it. Thankfully NYC is a much better place nowadays.

The song starts with the guy leaving home on a Greyhound bus to the bright lights of the Big Apple. It goes on to tell of a night at a Broadway premiere and then the fateful walk home...

"A leather kid, a switchblade knife

He just pushed his luck a little too far that night

The sight of blood dispersed the gang

Obviously in this blog we are only concerned with the last line of the verse. Just a few blocks away from the Rockefeller Centre in the direction of the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge we come to the intersection of 53rd and 3rd.

But which corner did Georgie die on ? Nobody really knows, or if indeed it was on that road, there is always some poetic licence either to protect individuals or to make the song scan better. Anyway, you decide which corner...

There has been lots of redevelopment in the area, obviously since that fateful day in 2001, and any remnants of a "darkened side street" as mentioned earlier in the song have long gone.

Warwick Avenue is a song about the emotional effects of a break up and is sung by the Welsh singer from Bangor in North Wales, Duffy.

Just a short one this, the place is in the first two lines of the song...

"When I get to Warwick Avenue

Meet me by the entrance of the tube"

So, Warwick Avenue ? Pretty vague, it could be in any number of towns or cities, and I'm sure there are many streets with the same name. However, the second line gives away the city. As you probably know, many cities have metro systems, but only one is regularly called "The Tube"...

The start of Warwick Avenue, pictured above is in a pretty part of London called Little Venice, by the name you can probably guess that there are canals here. In fact, it is a major junction between the Grand Union Canal and the Regent's Canal that merge in a large triangular basin. But enough of that, lets move on down the avenue...

Part way down Warwick Avenue (above) and we can see the spire of Saint Saviours Church in the distance that marks the other end of the street.

On the right is the entrance to the station, but on the left two interesting structures. The tall brick tower is a ventilation duct for the underground railway. And the small green building is a "Cabmans shelter" in actually fact a small cafe for London's taxi drivers. There were originally 61 of these around the city, but only 13 remain. The perfect place to meet, I think you'll agree.

By the way, the full story behind the "Cabmans Shelters" can be read HERE. Including an interesting story about a Jack the Ripper connection !

Now, bear with me with this one, there are a few places in the song. I'll try to be brief, but I am liable to go off on a tangent occasionally. This is a song about someone buying a cheap car and travelling about in it. It starts out with the following lyrics...

"I've been driving in my car

From a bloke from Brazil"

Our first location of "Primrose Hill" is an area of London. I can safely say London because the band Madness are well known from the area and also further lines in the song confirm it.

This is Primrose Hill Road in the Primrose Hill area of London...

I'm hoping that MG17 can help me out with the "Bloke from Brazil". I trust I don't need to put a map of Brazil in here, I'm sure you all know what that looks like.

The next lines...

"It was made in fifty-nine

In a factory by the Tyne

It says Morris on the door

Slightly disappointing because Morris cars (or vans) , subsequently part of British Leyland, now long gone, were never built "by the Tyne" or in anywhere in the north east. They were in fact built in Oxford which is by the River Thames, I think a little poetic licence is used. Obviously Thames doesn't rhyme with fifty-nine.

Anyway, the vehicle in question was probably one of these...

Anyway, the song continues...

"I've been driving in my car

I've even been to Selsey Bill"

Muswell Hill. Another part of London that is actually a hill in North London...

and Selsey Bill. This is a headland on the south coast of the UK near to the town of Selsey, which in turn is just south of Chichester in West Sussex.

The songwriter apparently based the song on a van that he owned as a young adult, and some of the trials and turbulations involved in the ownership of an old car.

As always, I conclude this blog with a short paragraph. I am enjoying making this blog based on songs. It made my brain work a little with trying to research where a place is from the smallest of clues. I also found out about the "Cabman's Shelters" in London. I had heard about them, but didn't know anything about their history. Everyday is a school day as the saying goes.

I've also put several of the places mentioned above onto my "bucket list".

If any of you know of other songs that mention specific places, then please let me know in the comments. I have a couple more already, but would like, if possible, to write a Part 2 to this blog. See, I enjoyed it that much I want to do it again.

Anyway, that's it for now ........wait, I've forgotten something......err.....Oh yes. The Spotify playlist so you can listen to the lyrics as you read.

SPOTIFY PLAYLIST

(Most of the pictures are screenshots from Google Street View apart from the Underground sign (pixabay) the van and final map(wikipedia))