Wednesday, May 17, 2006

The Song of Los Angeles

I've been thinking about it for a while, but today I saw that one of the more post-inspiring blogs I frequent, the Atwater Village Nerd, posted about an LA Mix tape, as proposed by "Hang on to your Ego" from early January.

So, it reminded me that we need to assemble the definitive list of songs about LA (or a portion thereof). And, for all intents and purposes, this could be about L.A. City or L.A. the region (but I will denote non-L.A. City with the venerable asterisk).

In addition to the ones listed on the links above, I also know of the following songs about LA:

"To Live & Die in LA" by Tupac
"Under the Bridge" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers
"The Little Old Lady of Pasadena" by the Beach Boys*
"San Fernando Valley" by Bing Crosby
"Hollywood Nights" By Bob Seger
"Walking in L.A." by Missing Persons
"Dancing in Heaven" by Q-Feel
"Do You Know the Way to San Jose?" by Burt Bacharach
"California Dreamin'" By the Mamas & the Papas
"I Love L.A." by Randy Newman*
"Hooray for Hollywood" by various artists
"LA Woman" by the Doors
"Ventura Highway" by America*
"Beverly Hills" by Weezer*
"Free Fallin'" by Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
"Valley Girl" by Frank Zappa (& Moon Unit, too!)
"Surfin' USA" by the Beach Boys*

What's missing?

UPDATE: Don't click the highlighted text below yet!!
So, before I hit "post" on this, er, post I decided to search for "Songs about Los Angeles" on Google. My heart sank when I found that Wikipedia has a list already. All that typing for nothing, I thought. But, then, I did some checking, and of the ones above in bold are not on Wikipedia's list! So, before you look at Wikipedia, come up with your list of Songs about Los Angeles and see if you can add more!

Photo of the late Soprano Victoria de Los Angeles

8 comments:

Casey said...

geesh where in tarnation is "Los Angeles" by X?

Anonymous said...

wikipedia has billy joel's "los angelenos" but not "say goodbye to hollywood".

Anonymous said...

yo

there is a song by Ice Cube with Kane and Chuck D called "Burn Hollywood Burn"

would that qualify?

there is also a VERY VERY early Eazy E -b4 NWA- song called "LA is the Place"

how about "East LA" by WAR

moments like this remind me I'm a nerd too :)

i also relate "Toxicity" by System of a Down as an LA song

Anonymous said...

oops! i meant Chop Suey not Toxicity

notarysojack said...

"Dead Man's Curve" Jan and Dean
"Hot Rod Lincoln" Charlie Ryan

Anonymous said...

"Come a Long Way" by Michelle Shocked?

Anonymous said...

"Lullaby" by Shawn Mullins
"Left My Wallet in El Segundo" -Eazy E??? (Not LA proper, but a border town...)
"Tiny Dancer" - Elton John


Hmmm...I am sure there are loads more. I have THREE CDs full.

Word.

Anonymous said...

The Decemberists - "Los Angeles, I'm Yours"

ps: It's "The Little Old Lady FROM Pasadena" not "of."