[Closed] Songs that namecheck your home town

What's that Proclaimers rule?

And..

To be fair, not much rhymes with Nairobi 🤔

The northern lights of old Aberdeen
Mean home sweet home to me
The northern lights of old Aberdeen
Are what I long to see.

Whats wrong with the proclaimers - I live in Leith so excluding them is biased and unfair on me!

Ok - they are pish !

I am not too sure anyone has written a song that includes Shoreham-by-Sea ... nor my birth town.
( I am wrong Dear Sarah She by John Vanderslice)

So Brighton ... Brighton Rock - Queen
Pinball Wizard
Fat Boy Slim - You're not from Brighton

Written by a classmate at school.

I know of no others.

To be fair, not much rhymes with Nairobi

gets a name check in Runaway by Janet Jackson 🙂

Stockport gets a glowing reference in 'Northenden' by Doves:

**** Longsight
And Levenshulme
Same goes for Stockport and Hulme
We doing alright
Just post-house blues
Cos this is northenden in the afternoon

Strangely enough, for such a sh*thoe district of Manchester, longsight also gets a reference in 'Longsight m13' by Ian Brown and 'Daybreak' by stone roses. Probably more, I always had it as a gang infested armpit of South Manchester but apparently it's a songwriters muse

Joyful Kilmarnock Blues by the Procla...

Oh.

Never mind

I'm sure there are a few songs that namecheck Newcastle, but this kind of blew my mind when I was 18:

I copied and pasted the doves lyrics from this website : https://genius.com/

Which lets you search for any lyrical references in their database which I guess is like bringing a smart phone to a pub quiz for the purposes of this thread

There's 3 Slowthai tracks with Northampton mentioned. No real surprise as he's from Shoe Town.

B.L.M By The Specials is probably cooler.

Or there's this -

I am currently residing in the gloriously named Nempnett Thrubwell in Somerset.  The Wurzels are locals, but I didn't realise that Acker Bilk (also local) recorded a cover.  That's proper celebrity!

If you find life a race, you just can't stand the pace,
Come with me to the West Country - the perfect hiding place:

Pack your bags, and make your way to Somerset, and I will lay
Ten to one you'll wanna stay down in Nempnett Thrubwell.
There's not a pub, there ain't a shop, you never see a traffic cop
Drink up, and no-one says "stop", down in Nempnett Thrubwell...

I'm not posting it, but Abba's first single* Eurovision entry (if you add 'ville' to it 😀 )
Does that count?

*how am I supposed to know that Ring Ring was their first bloody single?!

Blindness by the Fall.

There's a version that name checks Hebden Bridge. (there's also a version that doesn't) but this being a Fall song, that's to be expected I guess.

Not my home town but the Streets name checked a bar I used to manage in one of their songs.

Youtube search reveals only one:

Holy crap! Educator wins sexiest video anyway. 😀

Don't think my current location is covered, but where I spent my first 6 months gets namechecked by Alexi Sayle in "Ullo John, got a new Motor".

Thought my place of birth gets mentioned in Julian Cope's Promised Land, but it's only in his sleeve notes to the song

Educator wins sexiest video anyway.

Maybe Brexit has a positive after all if we can get away from that!

 

Ever since the chattering classes invaded hebden bridge.....
Definitely the better option over the wee Kirkcudbright centipede...
Edit. where'd the link go?

Scores no points but Lee Scratch Perry's latest album is named after the village I grew up in

EDIT I stand corrected - its not his latest album - he released it last year.... and he's released five (FIVE FFS) albums since. Thats more than most musicians can hope to release in a whole career.

He's release 25 albums since he turned 70.

All I can find is a Squeeze B-side, name only appears in the song title, not the lyrics though.

County is mentioned in Buck Rogers by Feeder. No mention of Chagford anywhere, that I can find...

A whole sixties paradise/love-in ditty about Abergavenny

Abergavenny - Marty Wilde

Anyone from Cwmbran? Love this:

Fresh Prince of Cwmbran - Goldie Lookin Chain

Have to do it for him, but Singletrackmind's town has the best song named after it. Not sure if mentioned in the lyrics though

Simple Minds...... Belfast Child.

Nuff said really. I'm from Belfast and have a very simple mind. It's like Jim Kerr knew my mum or something! Spooky!

Not specifically the town but mentions the suburbs

But my family are originally from

Good Evening.

I'm from Essex...

A bit of 80's Manchester indie music for you. Monkeyland or Monkey Town is my home town. (The Chameleons being from the next town over, Middleton "home of British Vitafoam")

"It's not known exactly when Heywood first got the nickname "Monkey Town" but the term was being used as far back as 1857. Bob Dobson in 'Lancashire Nicknames & Sayings' states that the nickname originated from Irish immigrants pronouncing 'Heap Bridge' as 'Ape Bridge,' and believes that the name 'Monkey Town' derived from this. With the nickname came the stools with holes in them - supposedly for the monkey's tails. In fact the holes were for carrying the stools."

A fine tune @dezb

Sweet in winter sweet in rain
Shake well before use she said
You never touch me anymore this way
Connector in
Receiver out
You let me in through the back door
Ride the sainted rhythms on the midnight train to romford
Ride the sainted rhythms

Dirty Epic Underworld.

Choon.

Whitley Bay and the Spanish City

Dire Straits - Tunnel of Love

Tunnel of Love

Black Country Woman - Led Zep.

A town called malice by The Jam.

"You're not from New York city, you're from Rotherham"

I'll let you guess which is my home town.

Same song also referenced where I was actually living at the time too...

"He talks of San Francisco, he's from Hunter's Bar"

My home town gets a namecheck in a Supertramp song, Rudy, from Crime Of The Century.
It’s the only album of theirs I’ve got, because it’s the only one I like, and even better, they played Chippenham Technical College just before the album came out, and I’ve got a tour poster for the gig upstairs on my bedroom wall.
There’s a London Paddington station announcer at 3:30, lists the stations from London, Reading, Didcot, Swindon, Chippenham, Bath Spa and Bristol Temple Meads, passengers for Ramsey, change at Didcot!
😎

Panic by the Smiths, basically a list of towns, feels like cheating. I don't think the Who's live album mentions where it was recorded other than in the title? I'm guessing that football songs aren't allowed. So that leaves:

Nobody ever gets away
Even the best of us come back some day
To the unmarked rooms, where the dry dust breeds
Andrew Eldritch is moving back to Leeds

... thanks Google. Forgotten the name of the band already but I quite like that.

This, bit to be fair it references a load of places.

If you head 12 miles up the A14 you get referenced by the likes of Ed Sheeran and Jarvis Cocker

Doesn't mention it specifically - but is about Woking.

Knaphill, the village where I spent my formative years, is mentioned in the War of the Worlds if that counts 🙂

The Ballad of John and Yoko by the Beatles

16 by Craig David

Pass Out by Tinie Tempah

Any guesses?

S****horpe

@mrmoofo

I am not too sure anyone has written a song that includes Shoreham-by-Sea … nor my birth town.

I can get you closer than Brighton - The Magnetic Fields' Nothing Matters When We're Dancing

And nothing matters when we're dancing
In tat or tatters you're entrancing
Be we in Paris or in Lancing
Nothing matters when we're dancing

Namecheck? There's a whole song about it:

Another lemon jelly

https://open.spotify.com/track/2RutVE1bxmy90AeXrnq4Ov?si=cqqZYu-jSN--gFLZG8qCLg

Leningrad Cowboys - Machine Gun Blues

"We've been to Moscow and New York too, We've been in Glasgow, in the afternoon"

Streatham by Dave mentions Leicester, where I was born.

I live Leeds now though and that's mentioned in Panic and the queen is dead by the smiths, and obvs I predict a riot by the kiaser chiefs is about Leeds but doesnt quite mention Leeds just says Leodensian meaning someone from Leeds....

Goldie lookin chain for me...Guns don't kill people, rappers do.
...From Bristol Zoo to B&Q, always make me smile.

New Boots and Panties is definitely one of the coolest album covers ever.

Coming from a small village int’ Dales

This is the only recorded I know that mentions it

(As well as every other place north of Sheffield)

Bob Dylan - Oxford Town

Oxford Town, Oxford Town
Everybody's got their heads bowed down
The sun don't shine above the ground
Ain't a-goin' down to Oxford Town

He went down to Oxford Town
Guns and clubs followed him down
All because his face was brown
Better get away from Oxford Town

Oxford Town around the bend
Come to the door, he couldn't get in
All because of the color of his skin
What do you think about that, my friend?

Me and my gal, my gal's son
We got met with a tear gas bomb
I don't even know why we come
Goin' back where we come from

Oxford Town in the afternoon
Everybody singin' a sorrowful tune
Two men died 'neath the Mississippi moon
Somebody better investigate soon

Loads for me to choose from.

I bet none of you guessed I was born on the Mississippi.

Born there, went to school there, still do all my shopping there as it is my nearest town.

I predict a riot by the kiaser chiefs is about Leeds but doesnt quite mention Leeds

'This is Crush Collision' by Age of Chance mentions Leeds quite a few times (but also mentions Deroit, Berlin and New York an equal number of times)

This is the only recorded I know that mentions it

Go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200

New Model Army - Ambition:

[i]Heading out of Bradford
With a ticket on the train
With a faith as hard as steel
And as sharp as any pain[/i]

Has anyone gone with ABBA who I believe “called you last night from GLASGOW” in Supertrooper?

Actually Glasgow is as common as Manchester (or worse) in song lyrics.

And the CAPS on GLASGOW is for anyone who’s heard it live in the aforementioned conurbation.

A good few of you must be covered by The Smiths’ ‘Hang the DJ’:

London; Birmingham; Leeds; Grasmere; Carlisle; Dublin; Dundee; Humberside

As for my hometown, Winnipeg, I got Neil Young twice:

‘Don’t be Denied’ (which he wrote and performed alone) and ‘Prairie Town’, which he performed with Randy Bachman from Bachman Turner Overdrive.

Sweet in winter sweet in rain
Shake well before use she said
You never touch me anymore this way
Connector in
Receiver out
You let me in through the back door
Ride the sainted rhythms on the midnight train to romford
Ride the sainted rhythms

Another one from Romford here (actually I'm from Horchurch)

Shouting, "Lager, lager, lager, lager
Mega, mega white thing, mega, mega white thing"
So many things to see and do in the tube hole, true blonde
Going back to Romford, mega, mega, mega
Going back to Romford, hi mum, are you having fun?
And now are you on your way to a new tension and headache?

@nobbingsford beat me to it with Whitley Bay and Dire Straits, so without resorting to a Google search the best I could come up with is the 80s or 90s McEwans Best Scotch advert with the line: "Florida's horrider than Whitley Bay..."

Reply To: Songs that namecheck your home town

Though I don't live in Hartlepool I do go to work there. Electric Six Unnatural Beauty must be referring to Hartlepool with 'Monkey Hangers' and a 'little town in Teeside'

I live here!

I'm not from Chatteris, but they mention St.Ives and Ely, which is close.

Half Man Half Biscuit is a rich source of obscure place names.

References quite a few Peak District towns and villages including where I live with the immortal lyrics
"No frills, handy for the hills, that's the way you spell New Mills!"

Accurate description.

I live here!

Bonus points for a rare example of a song with 'Hexacholorophene' in the lyrics

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Eijc2tGe-zM

Possibly our most famous moment, after the chartist riots. The song also has the rare accolade of being a parody, that ended up being parodied itself.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dx8CZyFM4b4

This one's quite handy for East London and sarf Essex.

maccruiskeen
Subscriber

This is the only recorded I know that mentions it

Go straight to jail, do not pass go, do not collect £200

That was The Jams... 😂😂

@pook
Plenty of steel city pickings here on this old pulp b side:

There are loads.

Wishae'n I was lucky by Wet Wet Wet
Wishae'n Well by Free

I wish 'ae all could be California Girls

Dagenham Dave - Morrissey

Previously Romford and Hornchurch so was would have been Underworld previously

The Sex Pistols may very well have wanted anarchy across the whole sovereignty, so imagine my delight when the Dead Kennedys pin-pointed my home town for their overseas revolution. (I think we only appear properly in the KLF one...)

I am currently residing in the gloriously named Nempnett Thrubwell in Somerset. The Wurzels are locals, but I didn’t realise that Acker Bilk (also local) recorded a cover. That’s proper celebrity!
>

< If you find life a race, you just can’t stand the pace, Come with me to the West Country – the perfect hiding place: Pack your bags, and make your way to Somerset, and I will lay Ten to one you’ll wanna stay down in Nempnett Thrubwell. There’s not a pub, there ain’t a shop, you never see a traffic cop Drink up, and no-one says “stop”, down in Nempnett Thrubwell… My old part of the world. My Dad grew up in Nempnett - Mary Paddock Farm if you know it? Moved and now farms in Clutton. I also used to deliver papers to Acker Bilk when I was a lad living in Pensford!