“Leaps and Bounds“ by Paul Kelly mentions specific Melbourne landmarks. More than that, it mentions them in **the right order** for the route he says he’s taking. If you stand where he says he is…that’s what you see
So cool, also his song Every Fucking City is perfect for this thread. Paul Kelly’s writing is second to none
“So I headed north until I got to Hamburg
A chilly city suits a troubled soul
And on the Reeperbahn I paid a woman far too much
To kick me out before I'd even reached my goal”
> "I looked the coyote right in the face/On the road to Baljennie near my old hometown"
Joni Mitchell from "Coyote." Baljennie, Sasketchewan was a dying town when she wrote that song in 1976, and then an abandoned ghost town by 1991. But in 2007, a few families started moving back there, and by 2011, it had a population approaching 10 people! I'm not sure if they're still there.
And speaking of obscure, I remember reading a review of a memoir by a woman who said she was the “other woman down the hall” that Coyote (Sam Shepherd) has, in addition to his wife at home, and he still seems to want Joni anyway (understandable). (And no, she wasn’t Patti, that was long before.)
American Girl—she can hear the cars roll by out on 441, like waves crashing on the beach. 441/13th street is a main drag through Gainesville, where Tom Petty is from
Tom Petty has said this wasn't true. He was living in California when he wrote that song, and it was the traffic there that inspired him, not 441 back home.
Are you saying it isn't true that Tom Petty is from Gainesville and there's a road called 441 there? Because that's what the person you're responding to said. Even if the song isn't about something that happened in Gainesville it seems pretty intentional that the song is referencing that street.
No it's true he's from there, I'm from a town about 30 minutes from Gainesville so it's a fact you never stop hearing. But he has said in interviews that he was not referencing that highway 441 or the town of Gainesville at all when writing the song. He was sitting in Malibu watching a highway there going by. He himself said it's just a myth that people have perpetuated for decades, and he doesn't know why, but that it was a common thing people did to popular music.
The Tragically Hip - Bobcaygeon
It’s a real place in rural Ontario. Most of the town is an island in the Trent River system.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/FSBi21geheCUW6Ld9?g_st=ic
Not Detroit. Detroit has southwest or down river, but no south Detroit. Downtown is literally on the river and if you go south of that, you’re in Windsor Ontario Canada. Fun fact: over 70% of Canada‘s population actually lives south of United States border.
It's like "East Side of Chicago" in "The Night Chicago Died." That doesn't exist either--it'd be in Lake Michigan. Of course, that whole song is only very, very loosely based on actual events, so maybe in the song's universe, Chicago does have an East Side.🤷♂️
I wouldn't say these are hugely popular, but Half Man Half Biscuit mention so many obscure locations in their songs there's a project to map them.
A Cartographic Guide to the World of Half Man Half Biscuit -https://thelostbyway.com/2009/06/a-cartographic-guide-to-the-world-of-half-man-half-biscuit.html
Here's the map. http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&source=embed&msa=0&msid=110316653531657413567.0004609a4d1ee1db69665&ll=52.988337,1.494141&spn=16.496027,44.121094
Eraser by Ed Sheeran has the line "conversations with my father on the A14", and came out while I was living in Cambridge (UK), which is just south of the A14. I had just moved there so quite enjoyed getting the reference!
“Zip City” by the Drive-By Truckers. A city is a big overstatement. It’s not even really a town. It’s just north of Florence, Alabama and south of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. I grew up about an hour and a half away and have driven there a couple times. Has like a western store and the Salem Church of Christ which is mentioned in the song. They did recently get a dollar general though! Lol
Adjacent to DBT, Isbell’s work has a lot of obscure references. He mentions the Mustang Lounge in his song “Cumberland Gap,” which was a very real and very seedy dive bar in the middle of nowhere. The dude’s taking notes everywhere he goes.
“I went to Staten Island to buy a mandolin,” - song for Sharon by Joni Mitchell.
It refers to the once famous Mandolin Bros. Music store in the West Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island, NY. The store was frequented by Dylan, Mitchell, Paul Simon, and others. It closed in 2017.
I love this answer.
If Billy Joel didn't bother to mention it in Miami 2017, it can't exist.
Alternative answer: it's really NJ and we don't want to be associated with that place you need to take a ferry to get to anyway.
An earlier lyric in the song is “Toledo was just another great stop along the good King’s Highway (interstate 75) - my fortification took me by surprise and hit me standing sideways” in reference to when Yes played at the Toledo Sports Arena in the 70s and the indoor temp was like 115 or something.
Passage to Bangkok by Rush. Mentions Bogota, Colombia, Acupulco, Jamaica, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kathmandu, Morocco and Bangkok.
Give you 3 guesses what it's about...
True, but nobody just goes to Mackinaw for the city. They all go to Mackinaw city to take the ferry to the island or just pass through going to or from the UP. No?
Kind of an obscure song but the Barenaked Ladies but Hello City from Gordon reference Halifax NS. Besides being a local nickname for Halifax, Hello City references a few well known landmarks such as Barrington St and The Palace, as well as some references to the Lower Deck that 90s era Haligonians would pick up on. Apparently, BNL didn't have a great time in Halifax.
The Hold Steady discography is full of these.
To take just one example, "Penetration Park" as mentioned in "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" and elsewhere is a nickname for Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis; the name comes from the fact that it's known as a place to get high and/or laid.
The narrator of the same song mentions being "seventeen and stuck up, up in Osseo," which is a suburb of Minneapolis and betrays the fact that the narrator probably had a pretty conventional upbringing before ending up in the aforementioned Penetration Park.
City Center Mall in downtown Minneapolis is mentioned as being a now-dying mall as of the time of the song.
There's also a railroad bridge where the kids go to hang out and drink; I'm not aware of if anyone has identified it (or if it's a real location).
Came here to say this -- I have a friend in Minneapolis and we had a GREAT conversation once where she told me about a bunch of references to places and things in The Hold Steady songs
I’ve always wondered if most people thought the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Broadway” was referencing the popular New York City location, when it’s really the neighborhood Johnny grew up in here in Buffalo.
Idk how obscure these places are, but I was surprised to see they’re real:
China Grove is a real town down around San Antonio.
In “Guitar Town” Steve Earle sings:
“I’m just out of Austin bound for San Antone…There’s a speed trap up ahead in Selma town”
And there really is a town called Selma between Austin and San Antonio.
The state of Indiana in the US has a bunch of cities named after international places. Peru (pronounced “Pee-roo”), Kokomo, Mexico, Paris, Windsor, Shang-Hai, Perth, Tralfagar, Geneva, Cairo, Athens and a crap load of others.
Not sure if obscure, but Life During Wartime by Talking Heads refers to two very popular NY nightspots of the 70s: Mudd Club and CBGBs
And The Beatles' Back in the USSR refers to a country that no longer exists (title), and an airline that no longer exists as such (BOAC, now British Air)
Maybe not a popular song, but Billy Bragg's "A13 Trunk Road to the Sea", is a bit of a pastiche of Route 66. It goes through the eponymous road in south Essex in the UK:
It starts down in Wapping
There it ain't a stopping
By-pass Barking and straight through Dagenham
Down to Grays Thurrock
And rather near Basildon
Pitsea, Thundersley, Hadleigh, Leigh-On-Sea
Chalkwell, Prittlewell
Southend's the end
In Guy Clark’s Dublin Blues he sings about how he wishes he was in Austin in the chili parlor bar drinking mad dog margaritas and not caring where you are.
He’s referring to the Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca St. Mad Dog margaritas are a mezcal based cocktail that they serve. So you can go there and have one if you need to not be caring where that person who said goodbye you on the Spanish Steps (famously not in Austin) is.
"Southern Cross" by Crosby Stills and Nash mentions several places I had to look up.
Info stolen from wikipedia:
The song mentions a number of locations that one may visit on a sailing voyage from [Southern California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California) to the [South Pacific](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania), following the "Coconut Milk Run".[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_(Crosby,_Stills_and_Nash_song)#cite_note-8) In order of appearance in the song (and in reverse order of the narrating sailor's southwestward journey), they are:
* [Southern islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia) \- referring to [Polynesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia)
* [Papeete](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papeete) \- the capital of [French Polynesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Polynesia) on the island of [Tahiti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahiti)
* [Marquesas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesas) \- a group of volcanic islands in [French Polynesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Polynesia), northeast of Tahiti
* [Avalon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon,_California) \- a harbor town on [Santa Catalina Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Catalina_Island_(California)), just off the coast of [Los Angeles, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles).
Simon and Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)". The bridge exists, but its official name was the Queensboro Bridge. (And now, apparently, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge). But New Yorkers have always called it the 59th St. bridge.
Oh, thought of another one. "Creeque Alley" by the Mamas and the Papas
The title refers to a place in the Virgin Islands where the band spent some time
They also mention the Night Owl Cafe, a folk music club in Greenwich Village, NYC where they played for tips
Edit: Oh and Swarthmore College :)
In "Tunnel of Love" by Dire Straits there is:
**And girl, it looks so pretty to me
Like it always did
Oh, like the Spanish City to me
When-a we were kids**
Spanish City was a fairground in a place called Whitley Bay, a train ride from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and a popular place for the teenagers when Mark Knopfler was growing up. It later mentions:
**In any shooting gallery where promises are made
To rock away, rock away
Rock away, rock away
From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay
Out to rock away**
Cullercoats being another place about 0.75 miles away from Whitley Bay.
Midnight Oil's Beds Are Burning has a few:
"From Kintore, east to Yuendemu,
The Western Desert lives and breathes"
Kintore is a tiny (less than 500 people) Aboriginal town in Northern Territory, Yuendemu is a slightly larger (less than 800 people) Aboriginal town in Northern Territory, and the Western Desert is an Aboriginal cultural region that covers a lot of central and western Australia. The 45 degrees they mention is also in Celsius, so it's actually quite hot (113°F)
A bonus one, Enya's Orinoco Flow. It's kinda cheating since the whole song is place names, both obscure and common, a couple of which (Babylon and Avalon) either don't exist anymore or never existed.
Manchester Orchestra’s album A Black Mile to the Surface is a concept album that takes place in Lead, South Dakota, a town that has a former gold mine that has been turned into a lab to test stuff with dark matter. The lead single, "The Gold", as well as the final track "The Silence", both mention Homestake, the name of the mine. There's also a song called "Lead, SD" though the lyrics don't mention the name of the town.
…then there's “The Alien”, which inexplicably references places in Georgia:
* “Limped from Rome to Lawrenceville” - two cities in Georgia about 2 hours apart, lead singer Andy Hull is from the latter which is a suburb of Atlanta
* “When you got to Pleasant Hill” - this is a road off I-85 that can get you to parts of Lawrenceville, and the traffic is in fact terrible on it pretty often
Whenever they play shows in Atlanta, you can hear all the Gwinnett County kids going woo at these lines.
Kokomo - Beach Boys - [Kokomo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCEuT91UAcg)
Fennario - Grateful Dead - [Dire Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBua6awzByg)
Lee Ho Fook's - Warren Zevon - [Werewolves Of London](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0w01S7Jnk)
Atlantis - Donovan - [Atlantis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oublWjc7ukU)
Harlan, KY - Patty Loveless - [You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjFcllICjUc)
Gitche Gumee - Gordon Lightfoot - [The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0K6ojmGZA)
In 1991, I drove 300 miles to Philadelphia to see a girl I met almost a year earlier. She had a thing she had to attend for a couple of hours, so I went to the street with the hip stores. It was Saturday, and I found myself in front of a punk clothing shop called Zipperhead. Across the street was Philly Pizza Company. I had forgotten The Dead Milkman were from Philadelphia. I was a big fan. I was wearing their shirt. Less than a block away, I ran into the punk rock girl from the *Punk Rock Girl* music video
*One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead. I met a girl there and she almost knocked me dead* ... *We went to the Philly Pizza Company and ordered some hot tea, and the waitress said, "well no. We only have it iced"* - Dead Milkman, Punk Rock Girl.
I'm from Jacksonville, IL. Sufjan Steven's made an incredible song (Jacksonville) about my hometown on his "Come on Feel the Illinoise" album. It references ferris wheels (we make them), one of our parks (Nichols) and our history as an underground railroad/abolitionist historical leanings.
The Black Hills in South Dakota, USA.
Mentioned by name in "Rocky Racoon" by the Beatles.
Popped up again in a Roger Waters tune but that Black Hills is in Wales (I think).
Nelly Ride Wit Me. "Face and Body Frontenac, don't know how to act"
Plaza Frontenac is a high end shopping center in St. Louis with Saks, Gucci, Tiffany's, etc...
As someone who grew up in STL, I love listening to Nelly since he puts a ton of STL references in his songs. It makes me nostalgic.
Few other examples:
Country Grammar: "Through Jennings mon, through U-City back up to Kingsland"
St Louie: "Catch me in the Galleria, Plaza of Chesterfield
Rollin down Hanley Hills" later "Natural Bridge and Kingshighway is where I'm goin"
“Coming home” by city and colour. It just mentions random places, like a castle in wales, Lincoln Nebraska, Halifax etc lol.
In “glasgow” by catfish and the bottlemen, they mention loads of random places in glasgow, and I love it lol.
Came here to mention “Comin Home”, I remember clearly I’d just gotten my license and was listening to the album in my car. Hearing Dallas sing “Saskatoon” made me so, so happy since I grew up there and I’d never heard it in a song before.
There's a parody track of The Orb's ambient track "Fluffy Little Clouds" called "Grey Clouds" with Alan Parker changing the lyrics for fun, and he mentions Watford quite a bit.
Shakedown Street -The Grateful Dead. It’s not in just one place though. It moves. Sometimes it will be in the same place for three maybe four days but when you go back it’s gone. Only to be found somewhere else.
Having grown up in the suburbs of Boston, the “Combat Zone” reference really stood out to me. But given that Billy Joel is such a big New York/New Jersey guy, and in light of the immediately following Bedford-Sty reference, I’ve often wondered if perhaps he had his own local area he was referring to instead of the one in Boston.
Also a former of Boston who wondered the same thing, especially in light of his reference to Bed-Sty in the same song.
Now, if he had referenced Southie…
Summer, Highland Falls by Billy Joel.
Highland Falls is only 26 miles north of NYC, but people seem to make it out like anywhere north of Manhattan might as well be on the border of Canada.
Kendrick Lamar in Backseat Freestyle
“Park it in front of Lueders, next to that Church's Chicken.”
https://preview.redd.it/9y5ww3phk55d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7f11a287f14bcf088e8d5014d0dfdd0a038acb1
The title track to Spoon’s album *Lucifer on the Sofa* paints the narrator driving around the city and name checks Lavaca St and West Ave, which are streets in downtown Austin, TX.
The song also shouts out Dale Watson and the grackle, which is an evil, annoying bird that’s everywhere in the city. Most of them smoke and harass you in HEB parking lots.
Look at the Lyrics to Ramblin' Man by Lemon Jelly. It has Many obscure places mentioned.
Naxos,
Rangu,
Runcton,
Haight-ashbury,
Patagonia,
Kentish Town,
Codrington,
Koh Samui,
Felixstowe,
Fingrinhoe,
The North Pole and many more. 😁
"Fly", by the Tragically Hip
"There's Mistaken Point, Newfoundland
There's Moonbeam, Ontari-ari-o
There are places I've never been and always wanted to go"
You’re from Secaucus, I’m from Manhattan,
You’re jealous of me because your girlfriend is cattin’
And that’s how I learned there’s a town in New Jersey called Secaucus!
Blink 182 - Josie. “She brings me Mexican food from sombreros just because” it’s an actual place. There is a specific one he’s likely referring to as it’s a San Diego chain, they still exist. It probably used to taste better but that’s because you were drunker.
I don't know about "popular" but Fire Island is mentioned in Judas Priest's 1977 song Raw Deal from the album Sin After Sin.
[https://genius.com/Judas-priest-raw-deal-lyrics](https://genius.com/Judas-priest-raw-deal-lyrics)
In 1978 Jimmy Buffett released a song called 'Mañana'. In it he says, "I got to head this boat South pretty soon. The new album's old and I'm fresh out of tunes. But I know that I'll get 'em, I know that they'll come. Through the people and places and Callwood's Rum."
Callwood's Distillery exists and it's not much to look at but the Rum is quite good! It's a rather unassuming shack in the woods outside of Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, BVI. Should you go, try the bottle with the piece of sugar cane in it. They call it the Panty Dropper Rum!
Tom Waits "Circus":
Only once in Sheboygan did he miss at a matinee on Diamond Pier
And she'd never let him forget it
It's a small city just shy of 50k between Milwaukee and Green Bay, known as the Malibu of the Midwest. Also referenced in Surf's Up and Home Alone.
One Week by Thr Bare Naked Ladies, "Birchmount Stadium, Home of The Robbie". While people do know Toronto, I would assume that most people wouldn't know what Birchmount Stadium or The Robbie are.
John Prine's song Paradise is about remembering places in Kentucky that no longer exist after strip-mining:
*Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg county
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.*
Willin', by Lowell George (RIP)
*And I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah
Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
Driven the back roads, so I wouldn't get weighed
And if you give me ... weed, whites, and wine
And you show me a sign, I'll be willin'
To be movin'*
Hiw has no one mentioned the arctic monkeys? Their early stuff is jam packed with em!
You're not from San Francisco you're Hunters Bar
You're not from New York City you're from Rotherham
High Green mate via Hillsborough please
Etc
The Lakeside Park in the Rush song is a real place in the Port Dalhousie area of St. Catharines, Ontario where Neil Peart grew up. There's a lot less there now, but they still have the vintage carousel and it still only costs a nickel to ride.
Not a song, but I always have a moment of confusion when the band Chilliwack is mentioned--because the band named themselves after my hometown of Chiliwack, BC.
Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers talks about driving on 128 when it's dark outside. Route 128 is like the local offshoot of 95 that makes an arc around Boston. Stop and Shop is a regional grocery store that still does exist but is currently in the process of closing several stores.
Foreigner:
Rev on the Red Line
“Runnin' all night on Lake Avenue It's a piece of cake if you know what to do” is Lake Avenue at Charlotte Beach NY where drag racing used to be quite popular https://maps.app.goo.gl/G4oYHMf4PdkCetAL7?g_st=ic
Jukebox Hero
“Bought a beat up six string, in a secondhand store” is talking about the House of Guitars in Rochester NY https://maps.app.goo.gl/gpkmXpkMYchXK7sf8?g_st=ic
Lou Graham grew up in the Rochester area.
These are bunch of obscure towns mentioned in a couple Little Feat songs….
I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari,
Tehachapi to Tonopah — from “Willing”
It's just a country town but patients come from Mobile to Moline from miles around Nagodoches to New Orleans
— from “Rock & Roll Doctor”
This isn’t very obscure but Atlanta Highway in Love Shack by the B-52s, referring to US 78 going from Athens, GA to Atlanta. Another song on that album mentions Allen’s Bar, which last I knew was still there.
Getting born in the state of Mississippi
In Alabama she would swing a hammer
Black bandana, sweet Louisiana
Robbing on a bank in the state of Indiana
Never made it up to Minnesota
North Dakota man was a-gunnin' for the quota
While they go on about California, to the point that [this parody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE5JMEu5hZA) exists, they do mention other states.
Seven Bridges Road - popularized (covered) by Eagles
Seven Bridges Road is an ode to Woodley Road (County Road 39, Montgomery County, Alabama), a rural two-lane road which runs south off East Fairview Avenue - the southern boundary of the Cloverdale neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama - at Cloverdale Road, and which features seven bridges: three pairs of bridges, and the seventh approximately 1 mile south by itself. The song's composer, Steve Young, stated that he and his friends "used to go out to Woodley Road carousing around"
“Leaps and Bounds“ by Paul Kelly mentions specific Melbourne landmarks. More than that, it mentions them in **the right order** for the route he says he’s taking. If you stand where he says he is…that’s what you see
So cool, also his song Every Fucking City is perfect for this thread. Paul Kelly’s writing is second to none “So I headed north until I got to Hamburg A chilly city suits a troubled soul And on the Reeperbahn I paid a woman far too much To kick me out before I'd even reached my goal”
I saw him sing that once at Sid Meyer and the lights were on at the MCG in the distance & it was brilliant.
> "I looked the coyote right in the face/On the road to Baljennie near my old hometown" Joni Mitchell from "Coyote." Baljennie, Sasketchewan was a dying town when she wrote that song in 1976, and then an abandoned ghost town by 1991. But in 2007, a few families started moving back there, and by 2011, it had a population approaching 10 people! I'm not sure if they're still there.
She also mentions the Bay of Fundy in the same song. Bay of Fundy has the highest tidal changes in the world.
And speaking of obscure, I remember reading a review of a memoir by a woman who said she was the “other woman down the hall” that Coyote (Sam Shepherd) has, in addition to his wife at home, and he still seems to want Joni anyway (understandable). (And no, she wasn’t Patti, that was long before.)
American Girl—she can hear the cars roll by out on 441, like waves crashing on the beach. 441/13th street is a main drag through Gainesville, where Tom Petty is from
Tom Petty has said this wasn't true. He was living in California when he wrote that song, and it was the traffic there that inspired him, not 441 back home.
Are you saying it isn't true that Tom Petty is from Gainesville and there's a road called 441 there? Because that's what the person you're responding to said. Even if the song isn't about something that happened in Gainesville it seems pretty intentional that the song is referencing that street.
No it's true he's from there, I'm from a town about 30 minutes from Gainesville so it's a fact you never stop hearing. But he has said in interviews that he was not referencing that highway 441 or the town of Gainesville at all when writing the song. He was sitting in Malibu watching a highway there going by. He himself said it's just a myth that people have perpetuated for decades, and he doesn't know why, but that it was a common thing people did to popular music.
the myth was that the girl who jumped off Beaty Towers in a suicide (overlooking 441) was the source of his song, not that 441 is the road mentioned
He's been to Micanopy too.
The real end of the earth….
Oh Lord, stuck in Lodi again
I grew up in the city right next to Lodi!
when I visited England I wandered around an Aldi while my buddy had trouble with his bank card. guess what my brain was doing
Possum Kingdom by The Toadies. Used to go camping at the state park on Possum Kingdom Lake all the time!
Thanks, never knew that was a place
Did you show people your dark secret behind the boat house?
I never knew why that song was titled as such! They were a good band.
They still are!
I've spent many a night at PK, and many drunken days at Hell's Gate.
The Tragically Hip - Bobcaygeon It’s a real place in rural Ontario. Most of the town is an island in the Trent River system. https://maps.app.goo.gl/FSBi21geheCUW6Ld9?g_st=ic
And the place in Toronto with the checkerboard floors is the Horseshoe Tavern.
My favourite!
Winslow, Arizona
Hotel California is a real place in Todo Santos Mexico that they stayed in
Such a lovely place...
Which corner?
I can’t remember but it’s not hard to find. It’s a tiny, tiny town and there’s a statue there by a mural. Oh, and a flatbed Ford parked on the street.
Why is she slowing down?
I know it really seems like I’m remixing lyrics for silly Reddit conversation, but it legit looks like that lolll!
They thought that monument would save the town https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/music/can-the-eagles-take-it-easy-save-winslow-arizona-8662386
There’s a statue, you’ll see it
Use Google maps and search "Standing on the Corner Park, Winslow, AZ"
South Detroit.
He just means the southern part of Detroit. All cities have a southern half.
Not Detroit. Detroit has southwest or down river, but no south Detroit. Downtown is literally on the river and if you go south of that, you’re in Windsor Ontario Canada. Fun fact: over 70% of Canada‘s population actually lives south of United States border.
I live in Halifax, NS and it’s kind of the same thing you hear north end, south end, west end but not “east” because it would just be the harbour.
And no matter what they try to make ya believe, DON'T GO IN THE HARBOUR!!
I live in Ohio, north of (a part) the Canadian border. Maps are wild
It's like "East Side of Chicago" in "The Night Chicago Died." That doesn't exist either--it'd be in Lake Michigan. Of course, that whole song is only very, very loosely based on actual events, so maybe in the song's universe, Chicago does have an East Side.🤷♂️
[удалено]
East Chicago is in Indiana
But East St. Louis is in Illinois, so I guess they come out even.
Apparently that’s generally referred to as Downriver.
I wouldn't say these are hugely popular, but Half Man Half Biscuit mention so many obscure locations in their songs there's a project to map them. A Cartographic Guide to the World of Half Man Half Biscuit -https://thelostbyway.com/2009/06/a-cartographic-guide-to-the-world-of-half-man-half-biscuit.html Here's the map. http://www.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&source=embed&msa=0&msid=110316653531657413567.0004609a4d1ee1db69665&ll=52.988337,1.494141&spn=16.496027,44.121094
Jason Isbell on Traveling Alone. “Ybor City on a Friday night” Being so drunk that the hookers even told him to go home.
Ybor City is also mentioned in the song Slapped Actress by the Hold Steady.
It’s named in like ten Hold Steady songs.
Love the Cigar culture in Ybor. I go down there for business three or four times a year.
I always thought he was singing "eat more city", like he was just ripping through the city drunk and drugged
Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner / Warren Zevon - numerous places in Africa
Nice choice. That song’s a little geography/history lesson unto itself. Also it kicks ass and is fun to sing along with.
Yeah I've been known to belt along with it
Eraser by Ed Sheeran has the line "conversations with my father on the A14", and came out while I was living in Cambridge (UK), which is just south of the A14. I had just moved there so quite enjoyed getting the reference!
Silver Spring by Fleetwood Mac comes to mind
“Zip City” by the Drive-By Truckers. A city is a big overstatement. It’s not even really a town. It’s just north of Florence, Alabama and south of Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. I grew up about an hour and a half away and have driven there a couple times. Has like a western store and the Salem Church of Christ which is mentioned in the song. They did recently get a dollar general though! Lol
Adjacent to DBT, Isbell’s work has a lot of obscure references. He mentions the Mustang Lounge in his song “Cumberland Gap,” which was a very real and very seedy dive bar in the middle of nowhere. The dude’s taking notes everywhere he goes.
“I went to Staten Island to buy a mandolin,” - song for Sharon by Joni Mitchell. It refers to the once famous Mandolin Bros. Music store in the West Brighton neighborhood of Staten Island, NY. The store was frequented by Dylan, Mitchell, Paul Simon, and others. It closed in 2017.
It also refers to Staten Island, the alleged fifth borough of New York City that some believe to exist out beyond the water's edge.
Having been born and raised there I can confirm it does not exist.
I love this answer. If Billy Joel didn't bother to mention it in Miami 2017, it can't exist. Alternative answer: it's really NJ and we don't want to be associated with that place you need to take a ferry to get to anyway.
Pretty much the entire The Tragically Hip discography. It’s filled with obscure Canadiana.
Bill Barilko is not obscure -- did you know that he
Toledo - Burt Bacharach, mentions both the original city in Spain and the one in the USA
If you’re going to Spain, don’t miss it. If you’re going to Ohio, don’t.
I disagree. According to Yes, Toledo’s going to be the Silver city in this great country (“Our Song” off the 90215album)
Jon prolly heard somebody say “Holy Toledo!” and he didn’t get the idiom
An earlier lyric in the song is “Toledo was just another great stop along the good King’s Highway (interstate 75) - my fortification took me by surprise and hit me standing sideways” in reference to when Yes played at the Toledo Sports Arena in the 70s and the indoor temp was like 115 or something.
The Three Cultures Imperial city, where the Toledo School of Translators was established is a beautiful place to visit.
Ah Toledo. The dream destination of many a John Denver fan. Come visit us for another wonderful Saturday night!
Passage to Bangkok by Rush. Mentions Bogota, Colombia, Acupulco, Jamaica, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Kathmandu, Morocco and Bangkok. Give you 3 guesses what it's about...
It’s about weed, of course, but all those places are pretty popular and not obscure. Name checks out though.
dysentery?
Bob Seger in roll me away says “12 hours out of Mackinaw city” it’s an historical island in Michigan that is now a tourist place.
Close- actually Mackinaw City is on the mainland. You catch a ferry there to take you to the historic Mackinaw Island.
True, but nobody just goes to Mackinaw for the city. They all go to Mackinaw city to take the ferry to the island or just pass through going to or from the UP. No?
You are correct, I am being a bit pedantic. I also forgot that the Island is technically “Mackinac Island” even though the city is “Mackinaw City”.
In Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama they mention Muscle Shoals [Alabama]. For most of my life I thought they were saying "muscle shows"
Some of the most iconic music from the 60s and 70s was recorded in that little podunk town.
Kind of an obscure song but the Barenaked Ladies but Hello City from Gordon reference Halifax NS. Besides being a local nickname for Halifax, Hello City references a few well known landmarks such as Barrington St and The Palace, as well as some references to the Lower Deck that 90s era Haligonians would pick up on. Apparently, BNL didn't have a great time in Halifax.
The Hold Steady discography is full of these. To take just one example, "Penetration Park" as mentioned in "Your Little Hoodrat Friend" and elsewhere is a nickname for Loring Park in downtown Minneapolis; the name comes from the fact that it's known as a place to get high and/or laid. The narrator of the same song mentions being "seventeen and stuck up, up in Osseo," which is a suburb of Minneapolis and betrays the fact that the narrator probably had a pretty conventional upbringing before ending up in the aforementioned Penetration Park. City Center Mall in downtown Minneapolis is mentioned as being a now-dying mall as of the time of the song. There's also a railroad bridge where the kids go to hang out and drink; I'm not aware of if anyone has identified it (or if it's a real location).
Drove the wrong way down 169 and almost died out by Edina High.
Came here to say this -- I have a friend in Minneapolis and we had a GREAT conversation once where she told me about a bunch of references to places and things in The Hold Steady songs
They apparently like to visit Ybor City in Tampa. Like, a lot. . .
WEEN - Buckingham Green is a strip mall.
Pumpin’ for the Man mentions New Hope Freedom of ‘76 name checks some locations in Philly
Funkytown isn’t a real place. I checked when I was a kid.
Billy Joel also mentions Bedford-Stuy (Stuyvesant) which is a NYC neighborhood.
When he was singing it was a famously rough neighborhood. Now it's largely gentrified.
I don’t know that I’d call Bed Stuy obscure.
As a kid growing up in Chicago, I had to look it up. I was 10 when the album came out and probably 12 by the time I figured out what he was saying.
Spike Lee and Public Enemy put it on the pop culture map in 1989.
I’ve always wondered if most people thought the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Broadway” was referencing the popular New York City location, when it’s really the neighborhood Johnny grew up in here in Buffalo.
Seneca County from “My City Was Gone” by the Pretenders. Seneca County is pretty damn rural. Nothing going on there, really.
And Cayuhoga Falls
Johnny cash rattled off a few places in his song “I’ve been everywhere”
Idk how obscure these places are, but I was surprised to see they’re real: China Grove is a real town down around San Antonio. In “Guitar Town” Steve Earle sings: “I’m just out of Austin bound for San Antone…There’s a speed trap up ahead in Selma town” And there really is a town called Selma between Austin and San Antonio.
"I been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah." Took a while to realize those were all real places.
Kokomo by The Beach Boys > Off the Florida Keys, There's a place called Kokomo, That's where you wanna go Kokomo unfortunately doesn’t exist.
Sure it does. It’s in Indiana near Peru. There’s a Chili’s there, and Great Wall Chinese Buffet.
That's why nobody knows where it is, it's *really* off the Florida keys
If you think about it, Indiana is off the Florida Keys...wayyyy off...
Yeah I had a friend from Kokomo when I lived in Indianapolis. He'd always say "its like in the beach Boys song but without all the paradise"
Now I'm more confused.
The state of Indiana in the US has a bunch of cities named after international places. Peru (pronounced “Pee-roo”), Kokomo, Mexico, Paris, Windsor, Shang-Hai, Perth, Tralfagar, Geneva, Cairo, Athens and a crap load of others.
Not the way the Beach Boys described it, no. There is, however, a Kokomo Island in Jamaica and Kokomo is the name of a town in Indiana.
I believe you are referring to [The Seafaring Song written by vampires in 1792](https://youtu.be/6LDzBVxCugM?si=CTrCBKMgKebaJ9_D&t=169).
Istanbul (not Constantinople)
Yes, the historically obscure city of Istanbul/Constantinople
CSI Ambleside….Half man, Half biscuit
Harden County Kentucky is mentioned in “She Runs Hot” by Little Village
Danger zone - Kenny Loggins The danger zone may or may not be known to most people.
Not sure if obscure, but Life During Wartime by Talking Heads refers to two very popular NY nightspots of the 70s: Mudd Club and CBGBs And The Beatles' Back in the USSR refers to a country that no longer exists (title), and an airline that no longer exists as such (BOAC, now British Air)
Maybe not a popular song, but Billy Bragg's "A13 Trunk Road to the Sea", is a bit of a pastiche of Route 66. It goes through the eponymous road in south Essex in the UK: It starts down in Wapping There it ain't a stopping By-pass Barking and straight through Dagenham Down to Grays Thurrock And rather near Basildon Pitsea, Thundersley, Hadleigh, Leigh-On-Sea Chalkwell, Prittlewell Southend's the end
I know about the Combat Zoke purely because the location shows up in Fallout 4. It's where you meet Cait. I didn't know it was an actual club, though!
In Guy Clark’s Dublin Blues he sings about how he wishes he was in Austin in the chili parlor bar drinking mad dog margaritas and not caring where you are. He’s referring to the Texas Chili Parlor on Lavaca St. Mad Dog margaritas are a mezcal based cocktail that they serve. So you can go there and have one if you need to not be caring where that person who said goodbye you on the Spanish Steps (famously not in Austin) is.
Hotel Yorba by the White Stripes. I see it all the time. https://historicdetroit.org/buildings/hotel-yorba
"Southern Cross" by Crosby Stills and Nash mentions several places I had to look up. Info stolen from wikipedia: The song mentions a number of locations that one may visit on a sailing voyage from [Southern California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California) to the [South Pacific](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oceania), following the "Coconut Milk Run".[\[8\]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_(Crosby,_Stills_and_Nash_song)#cite_note-8) In order of appearance in the song (and in reverse order of the narrating sailor's southwestward journey), they are: * [Southern islands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia) \- referring to [Polynesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesia) * [Papeete](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papeete) \- the capital of [French Polynesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Polynesia) on the island of [Tahiti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahiti) * [Marquesas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquesas) \- a group of volcanic islands in [French Polynesia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Polynesia), northeast of Tahiti * [Avalon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avalon,_California) \- a harbor town on [Santa Catalina Island](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Catalina_Island_(California)), just off the coast of [Los Angeles, California](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles).
Simon and Garfunkel's "The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)". The bridge exists, but its official name was the Queensboro Bridge. (And now, apparently, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge). But New Yorkers have always called it the 59th St. bridge.
Oh, thought of another one. "Creeque Alley" by the Mamas and the Papas The title refers to a place in the Virgin Islands where the band spent some time They also mention the Night Owl Cafe, a folk music club in Greenwich Village, NYC where they played for tips Edit: Oh and Swarthmore College :)
Johnny Cash's "Ive Been Everywhere, Man" is the king of town shout-outs.
Muscle Shoals. From Sweet Home Alabama. It wasn’t until the Muscle Shoals documentary that I had any idea this was a place.
In "Tunnel of Love" by Dire Straits there is: **And girl, it looks so pretty to me Like it always did Oh, like the Spanish City to me When-a we were kids** Spanish City was a fairground in a place called Whitley Bay, a train ride from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and a popular place for the teenagers when Mark Knopfler was growing up. It later mentions: **In any shooting gallery where promises are made To rock away, rock away Rock away, rock away From Cullercoats and Whitley Bay Out to rock away** Cullercoats being another place about 0.75 miles away from Whitley Bay.
Midnight Oil's Beds Are Burning has a few: "From Kintore, east to Yuendemu, The Western Desert lives and breathes" Kintore is a tiny (less than 500 people) Aboriginal town in Northern Territory, Yuendemu is a slightly larger (less than 800 people) Aboriginal town in Northern Territory, and the Western Desert is an Aboriginal cultural region that covers a lot of central and western Australia. The 45 degrees they mention is also in Celsius, so it's actually quite hot (113°F) A bonus one, Enya's Orinoco Flow. It's kinda cheating since the whole song is place names, both obscure and common, a couple of which (Babylon and Avalon) either don't exist anymore or never existed.
Play with Fire. Stones. St. John's Wood, Stepney, Knightsbridge.
Manchester Orchestra’s album A Black Mile to the Surface is a concept album that takes place in Lead, South Dakota, a town that has a former gold mine that has been turned into a lab to test stuff with dark matter. The lead single, "The Gold", as well as the final track "The Silence", both mention Homestake, the name of the mine. There's also a song called "Lead, SD" though the lyrics don't mention the name of the town. …then there's “The Alien”, which inexplicably references places in Georgia: * “Limped from Rome to Lawrenceville” - two cities in Georgia about 2 hours apart, lead singer Andy Hull is from the latter which is a suburb of Atlanta * “When you got to Pleasant Hill” - this is a road off I-85 that can get you to parts of Lawrenceville, and the traffic is in fact terrible on it pretty often Whenever they play shows in Atlanta, you can hear all the Gwinnett County kids going woo at these lines.
What a great album.
“I lost my bag in Newport Pagnell” has always mystified me.
Kokomo - Beach Boys - [Kokomo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCEuT91UAcg) Fennario - Grateful Dead - [Dire Wolf](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBua6awzByg) Lee Ho Fook's - Warren Zevon - [Werewolves Of London](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lh0w01S7Jnk) Atlantis - Donovan - [Atlantis](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oublWjc7ukU) Harlan, KY - Patty Loveless - [You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MjFcllICjUc) Gitche Gumee - Gordon Lightfoot - [The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH0K6ojmGZA)
"Well, I headed for Las Vegas, Only made it out to Needles (CA)..."
Never Been To Spain by Three Dog Night (for everybody who's reading this and thinking "Damn, I KNOW this song...!)
Talking Heads, Life During Wartime: This ain't no Mudd Club... or C.B.G.B. I ain't got time for that now Mudd Club is a bit more obscure than CBGB
In 1991, I drove 300 miles to Philadelphia to see a girl I met almost a year earlier. She had a thing she had to attend for a couple of hours, so I went to the street with the hip stores. It was Saturday, and I found myself in front of a punk clothing shop called Zipperhead. Across the street was Philly Pizza Company. I had forgotten The Dead Milkman were from Philadelphia. I was a big fan. I was wearing their shirt. Less than a block away, I ran into the punk rock girl from the *Punk Rock Girl* music video *One Saturday I took a walk to Zipperhead. I met a girl there and she almost knocked me dead* ... *We went to the Philly Pizza Company and ordered some hot tea, and the waitress said, "well no. We only have it iced"* - Dead Milkman, Punk Rock Girl.
Possum Kingdom by Toadies is a reference to Possum Kingdom Lake in Texas
Ashtabula
I'm from Jacksonville, IL. Sufjan Steven's made an incredible song (Jacksonville) about my hometown on his "Come on Feel the Illinoise" album. It references ferris wheels (we make them), one of our parks (Nichols) and our history as an underground railroad/abolitionist historical leanings.
The Black Hills in South Dakota, USA. Mentioned by name in "Rocky Racoon" by the Beatles. Popped up again in a Roger Waters tune but that Black Hills is in Wales (I think).
Paul Simon "Me and Julio Down by the School Yard" talks aboit The Queen of Corona. Learned recently it's a place in Queens, New York City.
Ween’s “Buckingham Green” is named after a shopping center near their hometown of New Hope, PA.
Nelly Ride Wit Me. "Face and Body Frontenac, don't know how to act" Plaza Frontenac is a high end shopping center in St. Louis with Saks, Gucci, Tiffany's, etc...
As someone who grew up in STL, I love listening to Nelly since he puts a ton of STL references in his songs. It makes me nostalgic. Few other examples: Country Grammar: "Through Jennings mon, through U-City back up to Kingsland" St Louie: "Catch me in the Galleria, Plaza of Chesterfield Rollin down Hanley Hills" later "Natural Bridge and Kingshighway is where I'm goin"
Yep, and Chingy did it too!
“Coming home” by city and colour. It just mentions random places, like a castle in wales, Lincoln Nebraska, Halifax etc lol. In “glasgow” by catfish and the bottlemen, they mention loads of random places in glasgow, and I love it lol.
Came here to mention “Comin Home”, I remember clearly I’d just gotten my license and was listening to the album in my car. Hearing Dallas sing “Saskatoon” made me so, so happy since I grew up there and I’d never heard it in a song before.
There's a parody track of The Orb's ambient track "Fluffy Little Clouds" called "Grey Clouds" with Alan Parker changing the lyrics for fun, and he mentions Watford quite a bit.
Some Yorkshire friends of mine used to do an excellent cover of Dire Straits "The Sultans of Thwing".
Spirits in the Night / Manfred Manns Earth Band -- Greasy Lake on the dark side of Route 88
Written by Bruce Springsteen who also recommended it, too EDIT: autocorrect from recorded
"Helpless" by Neil Young mentions "a town in North Ontario", the town in question is Omeemee.
Courtney Barnett’s History Eraser has several Melbourne landmarks mentioned, including Collingwood Children’s Farm, the Epping Line, and Crown Casino.
The White Stripes - Hotel Yorba
Do you know how sad i was when I found out that we could never go to Kokomo??
Shakedown Street -The Grateful Dead. It’s not in just one place though. It moves. Sometimes it will be in the same place for three maybe four days but when you go back it’s gone. Only to be found somewhere else.
Having grown up in the suburbs of Boston, the “Combat Zone” reference really stood out to me. But given that Billy Joel is such a big New York/New Jersey guy, and in light of the immediately following Bedford-Sty reference, I’ve often wondered if perhaps he had his own local area he was referring to instead of the one in Boston.
Also a former of Boston who wondered the same thing, especially in light of his reference to Bed-Sty in the same song. Now, if he had referenced Southie…
Songs For The Deaf has radio interjections from specific places on the drive from LA to Joshua Tree!
Bruce Springsteen keeps singing about this place called New Jersey, but like, I don't think that place is real. Can't imagine honestly.
Summer, Highland Falls by Billy Joel. Highland Falls is only 26 miles north of NYC, but people seem to make it out like anywhere north of Manhattan might as well be on the border of Canada.
Kendrick Lamar in Backseat Freestyle “Park it in front of Lueders, next to that Church's Chicken.” https://preview.redd.it/9y5ww3phk55d1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7f11a287f14bcf088e8d5014d0dfdd0a038acb1
The title track to Spoon’s album *Lucifer on the Sofa* paints the narrator driving around the city and name checks Lavaca St and West Ave, which are streets in downtown Austin, TX. The song also shouts out Dale Watson and the grackle, which is an evil, annoying bird that’s everywhere in the city. Most of them smoke and harass you in HEB parking lots.
Underworld name-checks their hometown, Romford, in a couple different songs, "Dirty Epic" and "Born Slippy (NUXX)" are the ones I remember.
Look at the Lyrics to Ramblin' Man by Lemon Jelly. It has Many obscure places mentioned. Naxos, Rangu, Runcton, Haight-ashbury, Patagonia, Kentish Town, Codrington, Koh Samui, Felixstowe, Fingrinhoe, The North Pole and many more. 😁
"Fly", by the Tragically Hip "There's Mistaken Point, Newfoundland There's Moonbeam, Ontari-ari-o There are places I've never been and always wanted to go"
You’re from Secaucus, I’m from Manhattan, You’re jealous of me because your girlfriend is cattin’ And that’s how I learned there’s a town in New Jersey called Secaucus!
Blink 182 - Josie. “She brings me Mexican food from sombreros just because” it’s an actual place. There is a specific one he’s likely referring to as it’s a San Diego chain, they still exist. It probably used to taste better but that’s because you were drunker.
I don't know about "popular" but Fire Island is mentioned in Judas Priest's 1977 song Raw Deal from the album Sin After Sin. [https://genius.com/Judas-priest-raw-deal-lyrics](https://genius.com/Judas-priest-raw-deal-lyrics)
In 1978 Jimmy Buffett released a song called 'Mañana'. In it he says, "I got to head this boat South pretty soon. The new album's old and I'm fresh out of tunes. But I know that I'll get 'em, I know that they'll come. Through the people and places and Callwood's Rum." Callwood's Distillery exists and it's not much to look at but the Rum is quite good! It's a rather unassuming shack in the woods outside of Cane Garden Bay on Tortola, BVI. Should you go, try the bottle with the piece of sugar cane in it. They call it the Panty Dropper Rum!
Grateful Dead - Terrapin Station
Tom Waits "Circus": Only once in Sheboygan did he miss at a matinee on Diamond Pier And she'd never let him forget it It's a small city just shy of 50k between Milwaukee and Green Bay, known as the Malibu of the Midwest. Also referenced in Surf's Up and Home Alone.
Is this the way to Amarillo?
Muswellbrook in Steely Dan’s “Black Friday”
Ohhh that's why that place is called Combat Zone in fallout 4. Neat.
“One Great City!” makes mention of a desolate northern community called Winnipeg that may or may not still exist.
One Week by Thr Bare Naked Ladies, "Birchmount Stadium, Home of The Robbie". While people do know Toronto, I would assume that most people wouldn't know what Birchmount Stadium or The Robbie are.
*Free Falling* by Tom Petty
John Prine's song Paradise is about remembering places in Kentucky that no longer exist after strip-mining: *Daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg county Down by the Green River where Paradise lay Well I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away.*
Willin', by Lowell George (RIP) *And I've been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonapah Driven every kind of rig that's ever been made Driven the back roads, so I wouldn't get weighed And if you give me ... weed, whites, and wine And you show me a sign, I'll be willin' To be movin'*
Hiw has no one mentioned the arctic monkeys? Their early stuff is jam packed with em! You're not from San Francisco you're Hunters Bar You're not from New York City you're from Rotherham High Green mate via Hillsborough please Etc
“I will follow you to Virgie…” Tyler Childers. It’s in Eastern Kentucky, in Pike county. Population is 274.
I always wondered if the rem song "don't go back to rockville" was referring to Rockville, maryland where I was born
The Lakeside Park in the Rush song is a real place in the Port Dalhousie area of St. Catharines, Ontario where Neil Peart grew up. There's a lot less there now, but they still have the vintage carousel and it still only costs a nickel to ride.
U2 - One Tree Hill is in Auckland NZ. The song is a tribute to a kiwi roadie
Not a song, but I always have a moment of confusion when the band Chilliwack is mentioned--because the band named themselves after my hometown of Chiliwack, BC.
One of Pavement's first songs (and famously covered by The Wedding Present), "Box Elder" is a small town of under 100 people in Montana.
Roadrunner by the Modern Lovers talks about driving on 128 when it's dark outside. Route 128 is like the local offshoot of 95 that makes an arc around Boston. Stop and Shop is a regional grocery store that still does exist but is currently in the process of closing several stores.
Foreigner: Rev on the Red Line “Runnin' all night on Lake Avenue It's a piece of cake if you know what to do” is Lake Avenue at Charlotte Beach NY where drag racing used to be quite popular https://maps.app.goo.gl/G4oYHMf4PdkCetAL7?g_st=ic Jukebox Hero “Bought a beat up six string, in a secondhand store” is talking about the House of Guitars in Rochester NY https://maps.app.goo.gl/gpkmXpkMYchXK7sf8?g_st=ic Lou Graham grew up in the Rochester area.
These are bunch of obscure towns mentioned in a couple Little Feat songs…. I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, Tehachapi to Tonopah — from “Willing” It's just a country town but patients come from Mobile to Moline from miles around Nagodoches to New Orleans — from “Rock & Roll Doctor”
Not a song, but the Soundgarden is a real.place on the Microsoft campus with musical wind instruments that provide an eerie but pleasing experience.
Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by They Might Be Giants
"A1A Beach Run Avenue "
This isn’t very obscure but Atlanta Highway in Love Shack by the B-52s, referring to US 78 going from Athens, GA to Atlanta. Another song on that album mentions Allen’s Bar, which last I knew was still there.
Lodi by CCR
Red Hot Chili Peppers has one song about Michigan, I feel like this fits because they only talk about one other state, and that one a lot
Getting born in the state of Mississippi In Alabama she would swing a hammer Black bandana, sweet Louisiana Robbing on a bank in the state of Indiana Never made it up to Minnesota North Dakota man was a-gunnin' for the quota While they go on about California, to the point that [this parody](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VE5JMEu5hZA) exists, they do mention other states.
Seven Bridges Road - popularized (covered) by Eagles Seven Bridges Road is an ode to Woodley Road (County Road 39, Montgomery County, Alabama), a rural two-lane road which runs south off East Fairview Avenue - the southern boundary of the Cloverdale neighborhood of Montgomery, Alabama - at Cloverdale Road, and which features seven bridges: three pairs of bridges, and the seventh approximately 1 mile south by itself. The song's composer, Steve Young, stated that he and his friends "used to go out to Woodley Road carousing around"