Your Top 5 was born out of my love of music and reading and the book and film High Fidelity. Each week, I ask a new guest to give me their top 5 tracks or artists relative to a topic.
This week is a fun topic: songs about cities! Joining me in Sintija Brence who authors the musicology and art Substack, Grunge Included. Of all the skylines in the world, I am probably most in love with Pittsburgh’s. I lived there for nearly 8 years, and it never got old seeing it from every angle. Hence the picture above. This was another tough one for me to put together my top 5, but before we get to that, here is Sintija’s picks:
Sintija’s Top 5
1. Portland- The Replacements
One of the worst shows that the Mats’ have played (this is the worst one!) was on December 7, 1987. ‘’Portland’’ (1989) is a musical apology to the Pine Street Theatre in Portland, Oregon. Some say that the band came to the show super drunk with green spray-painted shoes with dollar signs on them, played songs they didn’t know how to play and things got even worse when the concert organizers refused to pay the band. In typical mats’ style, this led to the band trashing the place up, even throwing a couch out of the window. In the last seconds of the song, you can hear Westerberg shamefully apologize ‘’Portland, we’re sorry’’. Still one of the coolest punks and as ‘’Portland’’ shows- polite.Ha!
2. Berlin – Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
I love this song so much, not only because it sounds gritty, raw, energetic and free, but the whole album is amazing. One of the funniest things about this album is due to this famous and absurd review. In 2007 The Guardian wrote a super funny review of it. The Guardian wrote about ‘’Berlin’’ that it is ‘’that old rock chestnut- the bleak, walled city of Lou Reed and David Bowie's '70s dreams… oddly enough - against some mumbling about being fooled by a lover and fooled by the city’’. Whilst, explaining about the whole album that ‘’BRMC have given up on lyrics’’, ‘’Peter Hayes ruins it’’, ‘’very disappointing’’ and ‘’sounds like an angry elephant’s wandered in’’. And also, one of my favourites, ‘’Muse’s slutty older brothers’’. Sounds pretty good, huh?
3. New York, New York - Ryan Adams
"New York, New York" (2001) is the debut solo single from Ryan Adams. Now, if you listen to the song on the album Gold (2001), it is upbeat, acoustic guitar driven and uplifting. Also, at the end of the song you’ll hear this unexpected jazz outro, which is unique. However, this piano version, expresses a completely different mood- it’s melancholic and just amazing. You just have to listen to it and see how the intonation and different musical approach transforms the meaning of the lyrics. And one thing really cool about Ryan Adams is that he can transform a song completely and his cover album of Taylor Swift’s 1989 (2014) is a great example of it.
4. Broken City – Audioslave
‘’Broken City’’ was written by grunge icon Chris Cornell whilst on tour when he saw the streets of Detroit, Michigan. The whole album Revelations (2006) is full of underrated protest songs, like ‘’Wide Awake’’ and ‘’Sound of A Gun’’, both which are critical about the presidency of George W. Bush. One thing that all music fans will appreciate is the fact that wherever Cornell is involved, there is so much to unravel under the surface of the song. The other album which was released a year prior Revelations - Out of Exile (2005) includes the song ‘’Doesn’t Remind Me’’ which at first seems like an introspective personal song. However, the music video tells the story of a fatherless child and is critical also of George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Thus, changing the meaning completely. But back to ‘’Broken City’’, it is an amazing track which tells the story about a city where ‘’the sun won't shine on this part of the map anymore’’.
‘’My city sleeps by the side of the freeway
The city scraps
In the winter time, she wore a yellow coat
Now there's nothin' on her back
If a building falls, you wouldn't care to notice
Unless you were in it
And no one cares about climbin' stairs
Nothin' at the top no more’’
5. A Star Called Sun (Звезда по имени Солнце) - КИНО
Whilst this song does not reference a city in its title, it does describe something very important. This song is from is from Soviet rock band КИНО’s seventh (and last) album which shares the same name as the title as the song. Lead singer and poet Viktor Tsoi is a true poetic rebel and the most important Soviet/Russian musician. Not only is this a strong and lyrically heavy anti-war song with pessimistic undertones, but it is still relevant in the contemporary world. The song starts by describing city, which is two thousand years old, and for two thousand years under war- a war without reason. Tsoi remarks that ‘’War is a business for youths, medicine against wrinkles’’. Of course, the youth are not naïve and know that this has always happened, the one more favoured by fate, is the one who lives by different laws and the one who must die young.
‘’White snow, grey ice,
On the cracked earth,
Covered by a patchwork quilt,
There is a city in the bend of the road,
And clouds are floating above the city,
Quenching the heavenly light
There is a yellow smoke is hanging over the city
The city is two thousand years old,
Lived under the light of the star named the Sun’’
‘’Red, red blood,
After an hour it's just earth,
After two there are flowers and grass on it,
After three it's alive again’’
My Top 5
Detroit Rock City—KISS
YOU WANTED THE BEST?! Again, KISS makes an appearance here on my Substack because, well, they wrote and performed this absolute banger of a song about the city of Detroit. Only, it’s not exactly about that city—as the story goes, the lone lyrical reference to Detroit is actually about someone getting hit by a car in Charlotte on a previous tour. Seriously, no disrespect to the city of Charlotte, but “You gotta lose your mind in Charlotte Rock City” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it.
Philadelphia Freedom—Elton John
This one is another example of the Elton John/Bernie Taupin duo catching lightning in a bottle and making a hit at just the right time in history. Originally supposed to be a song about tennis, it was released right before America’s bicentennial so it became a patriotic anthem that bore the name of the city where our independence was born and a city where the early form of our nation’s government was born. So, rather then tennis, we got an anthem—I’ll take it.
London Calling—The Clash
A lot to pack and unpack with this song. Ironically, there is even a connection to Pennsylvania in this song with the reference to nuclear error as the Three Mile Island Incident had just occurred in 1979, “a nuclear error/but I have no fear,” as well as flooding in London— “cause London is drowning/and I live by the river…” Of course, The Clash being a very politically attuned band, referencing police brutality in London as well, “We ain't got no swing / Except for the ring of that truncheon thing". So, unlike the last two songs, one about Charlotte and the other supposed to be about tennis, this one actually sticks (mostly) to the city it is named after.
Theme from New York, New York—Frank Sinatra
Apologies to Liza Minelli, but Frank did this one so much better. Much like “All Along the Watchtower” is typically associated more with Jimi Hendrix, “Theme From New York, New York, is more associated with Frank Sinatra than Liza Minelli or even the Scorsese film it was written for!
Indianapolis—The Bottle Rockets
I always agonize over this list, which is why I have so much fun doing it. I could have chosen “Streets of Philadelphia”, “Flint City Shake It”, “Memphis in the Meantime”, “Memphis Rain”, “Memphis, Tennessee”, “Memphis in the Rain,”1 or as my wife suggested, “Miami”. However, I went with one of my favorite tracks by the Bottle Rockets about being “stuck in Indianapolis with a fuel pump that’s deceased.” I don’t know what their beef is with that fine city, I mean, Kurt Vonnegut is from there! In any event, I think we can all agree that we will “puke if that jukebox plays John Cougar one more time.”
Thanks again for coming along on this ride—I'll be back next week with another special guest and another top 5! Let us know yours in the comments!
Shoulda did a top 5 songs about Memphis I guess.
Thank you !!!!🙏
I love that кино song so much and have Sintija to thank for sharing it with me.
A few years back I was homesick and ended up doing a whole playlist dedicated to Houston, TX aka Bayou City, aka Space City. Here are a five (I obviously love my hometown).
Allah-Las—Houston
Sanford Clark—Houston (Lee Hazlewood wrote it)
Juke Boy Bonner—Houston, The Action Town
Iggy Pop—Houston is Hot Tonight
Mike Jones—Still Tippin' (it's basically a Houston song, and definitely a city wide theme song)
There's a lot of damn songs about Houston.