Songs about city life

Subject: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Simon Finger
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 01:22 PM

I teach at a small college in Oregon, and this fall I will be teaching a course on the city in American history. I thought that folk song might be a good way to get at popular attitudes about cities, especially before 1900. So as I build this compilation, I'm looking for suggestions as to what I should include. I'm especially looking for songs that highlight any of the following themes, but would certainly appreciate any advice or suggestions the group may have.

*City contrasted with Country
*City as a place to find work
*the city as a place of fun and frolic
*the city as decadent, dangerous, and morally corrupting
*the "bumpkin" falling prey to the dangerous city
*the "bumpkin" outsmarting the city

Thanks for your help!

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: pdq
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 01:27 PM

"I Ain't Broke, But I'm Badly Bent" was recorded at least three times by Rick Skaggs and tells of the problems of a country boy going to the city.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Young Buchan
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 01:53 PM

Dalesman's Litany (From Hull and Halifax and Hell, Good Lord - deliver me.)

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Young Buchan
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 02:14 PM

Ooops. Sorry. Didn't read the bit about wanting AMERICAN cities. You could try telling them it's Hull, Massachusetts and Halifax, Nova Scotia - but Wibsey Slack may be more of a problem!

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Simon Finger
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 03:26 PM

I have no problem with using English folksongs if they work well enough for the big themes. Thanks for the suggestion!

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Simon Finger
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 03:27 PM

Or, for that matter, other folk traditions, so long as it keeps the theme.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 04:59 PM

Apart from Dalesman's Litany you'll find a host of songs that meet your requirements at www.yorkshirefolksong.net Try for instance the 16th century 'York, York, for my money'. York is so good they named it twice!!!

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,gillymor
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 05:12 PM

"Big Big City" - Moon Mullican (Moon doing Rockabilly, killer)
"Bright Lights, Big City" - Jimmy Reed
"Big City (Turn Me Loose)"- Merle Haggard (not sure if that's the correct title)
"Southbound" - Doc and Merle Watson

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: greg stephens
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 06:48 PM

The Rigs of London Town

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Rog Peek
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 06:49 PM

City Boy - Phil Ochs

Rog

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Leadfingers
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 06:54 PM

Streets of Baltimore ?? or is that too Country ?

Subject: Lyr Add: MOLLY MALONE
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 07:06 PM

I have the impression he's looking for older songs. One that occurs to me is "Molly Malone" that takes place in Dublin's "streets wide and narrow."

/@displaysong.cfm?SongID=4015

MOLLY MALONE

In Dublin's fair city where girls are so pretty
Twas there that I first met sweet Molly Malone
As she wheeled her wheelbarrow
Through street broad and narrow
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh"

Alive, alive oh, alive, alive oh,
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh"

Now she was a fishmonger and sure twas no wonder
For so were her mother and father before
And they each wheeled their barrows
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh"

She died of a faver and no one could save her
And that was the end of sweet Molly Malone
Now her ghost wheels her barrow
Through streets broad and narrow
Crying, "Cockles and mussels, alive, alive oh"

SRS

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Anne Neilson
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 07:13 PM

For the city as a decadent, corrupting place -- what about Tom Paxton's song about a drug-addicted lassie who takes to prostitution?

"Cindy's Crying" -- gonna be a hooker on Bleecker Street.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Jack Campin
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 07:52 PM

music and song of Edinburgh

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Willie-O
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 08:29 PM

Look up "St John's Waltz" by Ron Hynes. It doesn't meet any of your listed criteria, but it's a brilliant portrait of the character of what may be the oldest continually inhabited city in North America, long as you consider Newfoundland part of North America. (St John's is perpetually feuding with Quebec City for this title; far as I know no American settlement has a decent claim.)

For a song about no particular city but which does meet your theme interests, look up "Paint Me a Picture" by David Essig. http://www.davidessig.com/rchg.html

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Max Reiner
Date: 14 Jun 12 - 10:07 PM

"I Happen To Like New York" by Cole Porter. The more Brooklynese used in this vocal with piano, the better it sounds. Sing out of tune a bit, too, for schitck.

"I happen to like New York. I happen to to like this town,.
I like the city air, I like to drink of it.
The more I know New York the more I think of it.
...
Last Sunday afternoon I took a trip to Hackensack,
But after I have Hackensack the once over, I took the next train back..."

Subject: Lyr Add: THEY WON'T KNOW I COME FROM THE COUNTRY
From: Snuffy
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 09:17 AM

THEY WON'T KNOW I COME FROM THE COUNTRY

I've lived in the country all my life,
And I ain't got a chick nor a wife.
But I be a-goin' to London town next week
For the first time in my life.
I've heard talk about those rogues and thieves
They've got up London town:
When a fellow goes up from the country
Oh, they always takes him down

But they won't know I come from the country, no
Their little game I'll spoil.
I've bought these togs and the tailors say
They're the latest London style.
I've learned to talk like a Cockney
I can say "What ho!, not 'arf!"
But they won't know I comes from the country, no.
[laughter]
That's what makes I laugh

I'll go the Tower of London
That's where the Queen lives, so they say.
And of course I'll go to the Haymarket:
I'm a rare good judge of hay.
I'll see Piccadilly Circus,
For a circus show's all right
And I'll see those lovely performances
They have there every night.

But they won't know I come from the country, no
When for a stroll I go,
I'll wear my hat on the side like this
And I'll swing my stick like so
If a policeman says "Move on, there"
I shall say "What ho!, not 'arf!"
But they won't know I comes from the country, no.
[laughter]
That's what makes I laugh

Sung by Tom Smith on the Veteran cassette Many a Good Horseman

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: David C. Carter
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 09:33 AM

"Lou Marsh"

Phil Ochs

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 10:39 AM

"Just Blew In from the Windy City"

from film Calamity Jane?

~Michael~

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 12:13 PM

Up to the Rigs of London Town is a good one about the naive outsider putting one over on the city types

Mountains of Mourne - not really a folksong but a good one about the country boy looking at the city.

The Rocky Road to Dublin tells about a country lad being stolen from in Dublin and set about by yobs in Liverpool.

Ralph McTell's Streets of London - great song about down and outs in London.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 12:14 PM

Harvey Andrews I am a city dweller me -about being young and loving the exhilaration of living in a city

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Jack Campin
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 12:19 PM

One of the classic "bumpkin coming to grief in the big city" songs is "The Overgate", about Dundee - look it up (there are many versions of it). Is there an American version of it?

Lots more in my Embro, Embro pages as well.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 12:56 PM

The Dundee Weaver, otoh, is about the provincial woman coming to grief in Glasgow. Cf Jock Hawk's Adventures In Glasgow.

'Ralph McTell's Streets of London - great song about down and outs in London.' Agreed ~~ but never understood why he had to sing it in an approximation of a Bronx accent. I asked him once, but he genuinely didn't seem to know what I meant!

~M~

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Songbob
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 01:06 PM

Okay;

The Hayseed
Fatal Glass of Beer
Just Tell Them That You Saw Me (1892 -- Paul Dresser)
Country Girl, City Girl (Carter Family)
Sioux City Sue
Seeing the Elephant
Wish I Had Stayed In the Wagon Yard
I Was Right, I Was Wrong All Along
Arrival of the Greenhorn
Zebra Dun

Just to list a few. I got most of these from the DT, by searching for "city," though some were not in the database, but are in threads.

If I hadn't done it on paper, back before computers, I could send my term paper on the same subject from my MA studies. I'm not sure I could even find it now. 30 years of detritus have accumulated, I fear.

Bob

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 01:40 PM

One of the more popular themes in balladry of earlier centuries is the country bumpkin in town. There are hundreds of examples. Check out the Bodleian Library broadside website.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Chris_S
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 02:03 PM

Al Stewart's "Soho [Needless To Say]" is a wonderful piece of story telling from Al's time in a particularly sleazy part of London. Richard Thompson's Down Where the Drunkards Roll is an insight into life amongst the down and outs.

Chris

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Max Reiner
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 04:43 PM

"They said get back Honky Cat.
Livin in the city ain't where it's at.

And--

"I'll take the city!
Farewell to old Jackson Heights now.
I'll spend my nights where
the lights are brighter than day."

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 05:02 PM

Dirty Old Town - song about being in young and in love and seeing lyricism and beauty in the urban landscape that is the backdrop to your own private love story.

Another Ewan MacColl song Sweet Thames Flow Softly - all the areas of London along the Thames River become part a romantic incantation, a love song from a man to woman. It also charts the progress of the love story by a metaphor about the tides of the river.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 05:08 PM

And of course Ewan's title, Sweet Thames Flow Softly, taken from Edmund Spenser's Prothalamion [1596], another poem relating a journey up the Thames from the [then] countryside into the heart of London, sets his fine song in an ancient city of ancient tradition.

~M~

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Bob Cotman
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 05:10 PM

In the Heart of the City That Has No Heart (early pop hit)
The Knickerbocker Line
Poor Little Joe
Wal, I Swan (Joshua Ebenezer Frye)

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 15 Jun 12 - 06:10 PM

Don't think Ralph McT had been to the Bronx at that point in his career. Like a lot of us of that period - I suppose his guitar masters were American. Its an odd thing if you sing irish songs all night - you end up talking with a brogue, and I think the same thing goes for American songs.

Probably if you sang Noel Coward songs all night - you'd end up talking posh.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Ged Fox
Date: 16 Jun 12 - 03:41 PM

"Pop Goes the Weasel"

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Ged Fox
Date: 16 Jun 12 - 03:49 PM

Oops! there are, of course many versions of "Pop goes the weasel"

I was thinking of the verse,

"Up and down the City Road
In and out the Eagle
That's the way the money goes
Pop! goes the weasel."

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Genie
Date: 16 Jun 12 - 06:20 PM

Detroit City ("...
The home folks think I'm big in Detroit City.
From the letters that I write, they think I'm fine.
But by day I make the cars and by night I make the bars,
If only they could read between the lines.

I wanta go home ... ")


----

Up On The Roof (Carole King & Gerry Goffin)

(...
When I come home feelin' tired and beat
I go up where the air is fresh and sweet.
I get away from the bustling crowds
And all that rat race noise down in the street.

...

Right smack down in the middle of town
I found a paradise that's trouble-proof,
So if this world starts getting you down
there's room enough for two up on the roof.
... "

--------------

Thank God I'm a Country Boy! (John Denver)

---------
Summer In the City (Lovin' Spoonful)

-------
The Old Home Place

Country Boy (Johnny Cash)

I'm Just a Country Boy

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Genie
Date: 16 Jun 12 - 07:03 PM

DK which, if any, of these songs fit well with your themes, Simon, but here are a few that deal with the attractions and challenges of city life or the contrast between the city and country.

New York Girls

Aragon Mill (Si Kahn)

My Sweet Wyoming Home (Bill Staines)

("There's shows in all the cities, but cities turn your heart to clay.
It takes all a man can muster just to try and get away.
The songs I'm used to hearing ain't the kind the jukebox plays
And I'm headed home to my sweet Wyoming home.")

I'm Goin' Back (To Where I Come From)

and in a similar vein:

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Allentown (Billy Joel)

Then there's "Little Boxes" by Malvina Reynolds - which was inspired by Daly City, California.

And, of course, Lieber & Stoller's "Kansas City"

("I'm goin' to Kansas City, Kansas City, here I come!
They got a funky way of lovin' there and I'm gonna get me some!
...)

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: GUEST,Simon Finger
Date: 16 Jun 12 - 09:23 PM

Thanks everyone, for many many fantastic suggestions. Even if I don't end up assigning all of them, I'll at least enjoy the research! I'll post my final list when I finish it up.

One other thing; I also posted elsewhere about this, but can anyone point me to recorded versions of Axon ballads? I'm looking for the version of "Owd Ned's a Rare Strong Chap" from Axon 45, which differs markedly from the versions I've seen elsewhere.

In any case, thanks again!

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 17 Jun 12 - 08:02 AM

The version on the Bodl site printed by Harkness -Harding B11(3218) is pratically the same as the Bebbington version in Axon. There's a Yorkshire version 'Wensleydale Lad' on our Yorkshire Garland site. There are other quite different versions printed by Bebbington/Pearson under the title 'Johnny Green's Description of the Manchester Old Church'

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Bert
Date: 17 Jun 12 - 12:41 PM

Buttons and Bows.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Crowhugger
Date: 17 Jun 12 - 12:47 PM

Fitting the larger theme but neither American nor folk, how about the Canadian parlour song, "Oh, What a Difference Since the Hydro Came"?

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Genie
Date: 21 Jun 12 - 08:36 PM

Bert, "Buttons & Bows" is an excellent suggestion.

And I just learned that Woody Guthrie's poem "My New York City" has been set to music and recorded recently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLqLT8H4t-c&feature=share

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: MGM·Lion
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 12:37 AM

Point of interest re Buttons & Bows ~~ do you remember that in its original performance, in film The Paleface [1948], Bob Hope sang it to his own concertina accompt? ~ one of those American concertinas with about 151-fold bellows!

~M~

Subject: Lyr Add: JUST DREAMIN' (Fred Eaglesmith)
From: PHJim
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 01:29 AM

I'm Just Dreamin' by Fred Eaglesmith is about a country boy who falls for a city girl, who goes back to the city.


JUST DREAMIN'
As recorded by Fred Eaglesmith on “There Ain't No Easy Road” (1991)

1. Maybe I should call her up.
Even if she laughs at me,
At least I would get to hear her voice.
Maybe I could calm her down.
She'd ask me to come around
To pick her up and take her out someplace—
But I'm just dreamin'.

CHORUS: She says she's had enough
Of cowboy boots an' pickup trucks,
Enough of checkered shirts and dark-blue eyes,
Goin' back to bein' a rich man's wife.
I'm just dreamin'.

2. Should 'a' never took up with her.
Should 'a' never had a girl
Who didn't know hay from straw.
But when I fell into her eyes,
It was like I felt paradise,
And I fin'ly figured out what heaven was.
But I'm just dreamin'.

CHORUS

3. Ev'ry time there's dust out on the road,
I look up and I hope
That she's comin' back to me.
Even though I already know
She's gone for good—she told me so—
I always think it just might be.
Well, I'm just dreamin'.

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Bert
Date: 22 Jun 12 - 03:16 PM

MtheGM, yes I remember seeing Paleface when it first came out. When I saw it again recently, it was amazing how many of the gags had been copied in movies since.

I saw a movie on Netflix a few weeks ago which was a complete rip off of the story, where the girl shot all the bad guys and the hero thought that he had done it. Can't remember the name of it though.

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: Sir Roger de Beverley
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 04:31 AM

I don't know how "deep" you want to get but several of Leon Rosselson's songs deal with cities and and the dehumanising effect they can have. In his songbook "bringing the news from nowhere" he has a section entitled "deserts of stone" with seven songs in of that ilk.

R

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: pavane
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 04:56 AM

Nottamun Town?
UK folk song also collected in USA
Not sure it falls into your categories though.

The Ploughboy and the Cockney Tim Hart & Maddy Prior (Later of Steeleye Span)- Summer Solstice 1968
Country bumpkin vs city dweller

I was going to suggest Sweet Thames flow softly, but someone else got there first.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE KNOWING MACCARONI OUTWITTED
From: pavane
Date: 23 Jun 12 - 05:26 AM

As well as being a song about the city as a decadent and morally corrupting place, this song is interesting in that it explains the words of "Yankee Doodle"

"Stuck a feather in his cap: And called it macaroni".

A Maccaroni was a term used around 1800 for a man who followed the latest fashions.

The "Knowing Maccaroni" was seemingly overcharged by the prostitute he chose : Mrs(!) Susan.

I don't suppose this song has been sung for nearly 200 years - and quite rightly.


THE KNOWING MACCARONI OUTWITTED
[c. 1780-1812]

You beaux of London city, likewise St. Jame's park
Give ear unto my ditty, tis of a frolicksome spark
It is one of our dear brothers that lately was betrayed
It was by Mrs. Susan the lady's waiting maid.

His hair being oil'd and powder'd, hung dangling to his waist
No fop could be e'er go fine, his cloaths embroidered with lace
With snuff-box in his pocket as I [d]o you suppose
As large as any turnip, for to perfume his nose.

He stept to Mrs. Susan, to whom his fancy led
A guinea he would give to gain her maidenhead.
Get you to Covent Garden, to Fleet Street or the Strand,
And there for half the money you may have one at your command.

Tune: Beaux of London City, Adderbury version

Subject: Lyr Add: I LIKE IT IN DULUTH (John Berquist)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 19 May 16 - 04:00 PM

This song has a pleasant, catchy jug-band-like sound.

You can hear the recording from which I transcribed this in this podcast. Skip to 1:17 if you don't want to hear the interview.


I LIKE IT IN DULUTH
Written by John Berquist
As recorded by The Moose Wallow Ramblers on "The Moose Wallow Ramblers" (1976) – with John Berquist, lead singer.

I been all around the world; I even been to the tropical isle
Where the native girls in long dark curls wear nothin' but a smile,
And I been across the ocean in a dugout canoe.
I flew to Ontonagon in a B-52,
And to tell you the truth, I like it in Duluth.

We get summer ev'ry year for two weeks in July.
The rest of the time, it's cold and freezin'; the snow falls from the sky,
But where else in this entire nation
Can you find cheaper refrigeration?
To tell you the truth, I like it in Duluth.

You can have Bemidji and the rusty dusty Range,
Babbitt and Aurora, all the way to Coleraine;
And you can have those cities,
Minneapolis and Saint Paul,
'Cause, to tell you the truth, I like it in Duluth.

I got a girl in Morgan Park and one up on the Heights,
And a sweet little chickie in Fond du Lac I see on Wednesday nights,
And a big ol' mama out in Eloise(?).
Lord, she knows just what to squeeze!
And to tell you the truth, I like it in Duluth.

I been all around the world; I even been to the tropical isle
Where the native girls in long dark curls wear nothin' but a smile,
And I been across the ocean in a birch-bark canoe.
I flew to Ontonagon in my B-52,
But to tell you the truth, I like it in Duluth.
Yes, indeed I do!
And to tell you the truth, I like it in Duluth.

- - -
"Ontonagon" is somewhat ambiguous; he might be trying to say "Okanagan" but that's much farther away than Ontonagon—and the initial "O" is pronounced differently. (Actually, it sounds like "Onctonagon" or "Octonagon," but I am unable to locate a place that matches that pronunciation.)

I have also failed to locate any place called "Eloise" that's near Duluth.

There is another recording by Father Hennepin.

Subject: Lyr Add: ERIN GO BRAGH
From: GUEST,Tattie Bogle
Date: 20 May 16 - 05:06 AM

No-one yet, I think has mentioned Erin Go Bragh: all about a Highlander who rocks up in Edinburgh but gets mistaken, because of his accent, for an Irishman!

See:
Ma name's Duncan Campbell fae the shire o Argyll
A've traivellt this country for mony's the mile
A've traivellt thro Irelan, Scotlan an aa
An the name A go under's bauld Erin-go-Bragh

Ae nicht in Auld Reekie A walked doun the street
Whan a saucy big polis A chanced for tae meet
He glowert in ma face an he gied me some jaw
Sayin whan cam ye owre, bauld Erin-go-Bragh?

Well, A am not a Pat tho in Irelan A've been
Nor am A a Paddy tho Irelan A've seen
But were A a Paddy, that's nothin at aa
For thair's mony's a bauld hero in Erin-go-Bragh

Well A know ye're a Pat by the cut o yer hair
Bit ye aa turn tae Scotsmen as sune as ye're here
Ye left yer ain countrie for brakin the law
An we're seizin aa stragglers fae Erin-go-Bragh

An were A a Pat an ye knew it wis true
Or wis A the devil, then whit's that tae you?
Were it no for the stick that ye haud in yer paw
A'd show ye a game played in Erin-go-Bragh

An a lump o blackthorn that A held in ma fist
Aroun his big bodie A made it tae twist
An the blude fae his napper A quickly did draw
An paid him stock-an-interest for Erin-go-Bragh

Bit the people cam roun like a flock o wild geese
Sayin catch that daft rascal he's killt the police
An for every freen A had A'm shair he had twa
It wis terrible hard times for Erin-go-Bragh

Bit A cam tae a wee boat that sails in the Forth
An A packed up ma gear an A steered for the North
Fareweill tae Auld Reekie, yer polis an aa
An the devil gang wi ye says Erin-go-Bragh

Sae come aa ye young people, whairever ye're from
A don't give a damn tae whit place ye belang
A come fae Argyll in the Heilans sae braw
Bit A ne'er took it ill bein caad Erin-go-Bragh

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: David C. Carter
Date: 20 May 16 - 06:28 AM

Summer in the city.

John Sebastian,I believe

Subject: RE: Best 'city songs?'
From: mkebenn
Date: 20 May 16 - 08:08 AM

The House of the Rising Sun

Billy edd's Jackson Mike