Talk:List of songs about London

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Untitled[edit]

  • Which part of the lyrics or title of "I'm the Face" by the High Numbers, refer to London in ANY way? Lion King 01:35, 1 March 2006 (UTC) Same goes for "In The City", The Jam. "Billericay Dickie", "Poor Joey, "Razzle In My Pocket"[reply]

"I'm The Face" mentions the Scene Club in London plus London was the centre of the whole Mod Culture which it celebrates so I think you can allow that

  • None of the above songs meet the criteria to on be the list. I have therefore deleted them. Lion King 00:29, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Town Called Malice"? Lion King 17:36, 10 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • "All Through The City? Anyone? Lion King 22:06, 11 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Upminster Kid"? Lion King
  • Going, Going, Lion King 21:13, 13 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • GONE Lion King 08:22, 14 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Panic" by the Smiths is a name-check song. Deleted.
  • You Can't Always Get What You Want? Are you sure? Seeing as prescriptions in the UK are dispensed in pharmacies or chemists, but not 'drug stores', surely this refers to Chelsea in New York. Emeraude 10:20, 4 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Upminster is in Greater London so i think Upminster Kid has some right to be here

The Rolling Stones are a British band, and although You Can't Always Get What You Want references a "drug store" it also says that the narrator there met "Jimmy" (Jimi?) who "looked really ill". I think this is a reference to Jimi Hendrix, who died in Chelsea, London, at about the time the song was released. -- 92.40.246.178 (talk) 05:59, 11 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
'The Chelsea Drug Store' was a nightclub on the Kings Road in the sixties/seventies. Demolished now I think. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.141.82.192 (talk) 12:20, 25 September 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Q is missing[edit]

I want to add a song title beginning with Q but there's no provision for it. Can anyone set it up? 80.189.143.139 (talk) 17:16, 17 March 2008 (UTC) John[reply]

Z is also missing, I have been trying to add the title "Zombie Bloodbath On The Isle of Dogs" by The Recedents an act featuring the notifiable musicians Lol Coxhill and [[Mike Cooper (musician)}} but it rejects it as vexatious from the article and I don't know how to add a "Z" title to a new section n the "Talk" section - can someone please rectify this?

                          • ALSO SOMEONE'S DELETED ALL THE ENTRIES FOR L (OBVIOUSLY INCLUDING LONDON ITSELF!)*************** — Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.155.97.22 (talk) 09:51, 5 November 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I have now found where the L's went to and added them back to this main entry but don't know if I have set the up correctly - could anyone check this? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 31.52.152.181 (talk) 19:22, 22 December 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Beware of ambiguous location names?[edit]

Absolutely, but

"Paul Simon is American (although he lived in London for a while) so Blessèd most likely references SoHo,"

Where is your evidence for this? Blessed was recorded in December 1965 after Simon's return from an extended stay in Britain. The name SoHo in New York appears to date from the 1970s [1]. Several Simon songs of this time were reputedly written in England, notably Scarborough Fair and Homeward Bound. London's Soho certainly has its fair share of "meth drinkers, pot sellers .. illusion dwellers.. stained glass, window pane glass .. cheap hookers, groovy lookers". Pterre (talk) 13:34, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

PS I don't have access to the original lyrics, but the first 10 Google hits for the lyrics give "I've walked around Soho" (or soho), not SoHo. Pterre (talk) 13:41, 10 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Problems with list[edit]

  • All the red links! I don't know what the standard is but should they be in there? Could someone inform.
  • Lack of citations. Some of the songs have a line attached to them but that looks clumsy. Would it not be better if we had a nicely formatted table with a column for explanations why songs are included? In the current system, anyone could include a song and it would probably go unnoticed... Is anyone good with tables? Prylon (talk) 02:35, 24 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]


a proposal[edit]

I propose that songs in these categories be listed as follows:

1. songs with their own articles that are very much about the subject

2a. songs, from albums with their own articles, that are very much about the subject
2b. songs with their own articles that moderately refer to the subject, directly or indirectly

3a. songs, from artists with their own articles, that are very much about the subject
3b. songs, from albums with their own articles, that moderately refer to the subject, directly or indirectly
3c. songs with their own articles that occasionally or once refer to the subject

4a. songs that are very much about the subject
4b. songs, from artists with their own articles, that moderately refer to the subject, directly or indirectly
4c. songs, from albums with their own articles, that occasionally or once refer to the subject

5a. songs that that moderately refer to the subject, directly or indirectly
5b. songs, from artists with their own articles, that occasionally or once refer to the subject

6. others (exclusive—not elsewhere on the list
a. albums about the subject
b. songs about different subjects, but from the same name, such as "Los Angeles" by Frank Black (which may be about Los Ángeles, Chile; or Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet’s “Memories of Gay Paree" may be about Paris, Ontario.
c. songs that aren’t about the city namely, lyrically, or by content; but the video is. The lyrics of Luscious Jackson’s Citysong, Daughters Of The Kaos, and 69 Année Érotique might have nothing to do about New York City, but in the videos, it’s quite prominent.

7. others (inclusive—elsewhere on the list)
a. songs with videos that are notable and/or made by the artist/producer/record company specifically to promote the song
b. specific type of songs, say Heavy Metal songs about LA, or Punk songs about New York City
c. songs within a more specified area, such as Harlem, Manhattan, Hollywood, or Parkdale (Toronto


d. songs immediately outside the specific area, such as the County of Los Angeles or Huntington Beach

e. songs that appear on other lists. Is Neil Diamond’s “I am I said” about New York City, Los Angeles, or rootlessness? It appears on his discography, and it might appear on a future list of songs covered by Killdozer.

8. unsorted i.e. editor posts an entry here, or it’s moved here by editors who doubt where it is previously on the list.

If any sections get too lengthy, one might create new lists: combined in the case of 1 to 5, and separate in the case of 6 and 7.

Note: I’ve posted this on,

Talk:List of songs about cities
Talk:List of songs about Berlin
Talk:List of songs about Boston
Talk:List of songs about London
Talk:List of songs about Los Angeles
Talk:List of songs about Toronto
Talk:List of songs about cities

Civic Cat (talk) 23:08, 2 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]


I like the idea of catagorising the songs by specific places in London. Rather than "notability", which might be hard to discern/maintain as people add more and more, I think catagorising things by genre, place, etc would be the most useful route. There are endless catagories we could split the article into, e.g.

List of songs about roads in London
List of songs about Soho, London
Music hall songs about London
List of songs of unknown authorship about London
List of Hip hop songs set in London
List of Britpop songs about in London

Or.... I've proposed a table in the past. It would take ages to reformat the whole list, I know, but it's a suggestion. It would go something like:

Title Artist Etc.....
"22 Grand Job" The Rakes References the City of London.
"59 Lyndhurst Grove" Pulp About a road on the Peckham-Camberwell border.
"A13 Trunk Road to the Sea" Billy Bragg About the A13 road, which begins in central London.

Prylon (talk) 02:38, 12 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

my edits[edit]

I've removed "To Sir With Love" by Lulu--which has its own article here as it makes no reference to London. Perhaps it should be put on the List of songs about teachers (Hot for Teacher, Teacher's Pet, Don't Stand So Close to Me, and my favourite, 38 Special's Teacher Teacher).

I've also removed "The Lass Near Primrose Hill" by Anonymous as there is no such song or (musical) group in Wikipedia (too busy pestering Scientology, I suppose), though Google seems to indicate it's a book.

I didn't remove Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits and A Day in the Life by The Beatles ("now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall"); but I wonder if they are appropriate.

In the former, there is one reference to London. In the second, I have a feeling that the news that John Lennon heard about Albert Hall could have been heard by many in much of the UK. I'm not British, nor have I been to Britain, but unless double decker buses are exclusive to London, it's possible that the bus that Paul made in seconds flat, to go upstairs, and have his smoke (a marihuana reefer?), may have been in some other city. Keep in mind that both were from Liverpool. Does Liverpool have double deckers?

But the Albert Hall is in London! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.180.251.63 (talk) 10:51, 21 November 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Finally, "Midnight in Chelsea" by Jon Bon Jovi. The case that it's about the Chelsea neighbourhood in London is strongest; but it was filmed in the Chelsea neighbourhood in Manhattan. Far more distant is Chelsea, Massachusetts.

Civic Cat (talk) 20:38, 3 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A Day In The Life is not about a man called Albert Hall. The news story Lennon heard was about potholes in Blackburn, Lancashire which said that there were enough of them to fill "the Albert Hall", referring to the Royal Albert Hall, a famous arts venue in London. I'm quite amused that you thought it was about a bloke called Albert Hall. Brilliant. 62.64.170.154 (talk) 04:59, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

"Sultans of Swing" is one of the most "London" songs on here as well as the obvious reference to "London" "South of the River" it was specifically wriiten about a trip Mark Knopfler made to a pub where a band were playing in London. Its part of a suite of songs on the first album all about London "Lions" "Wild West End" etc and the final part of a loose concept which begins in the first track on the album with Mark Knopfler singing about his hometown Newcastle before moving to Leeds (a track who's name I've forgotten)and then London as he did in reality. As a person from the edge of London I know few songs as much as "Sultans" which sum up the 70s in London as I remember it as a kid back then. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.90.206 (talk) 18:46, 16 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Highbury[edit]

Dear Sir/Madam, hello. My name is Ivor Game, a singer/songwriter from Ashford in Middlesex, just South West of London. I have released 9 albums, 6 singles and tour my acoustic shows across the uk and beyond. I have generated lots of BBC and other airplay over the years and understand I do have a profile. Today though, I would like to ask if you could add 1 of my songs to Wikipedia sites. In your sight showing "songs about London" I would ask you to include my song called Highbury. This has proved very popular since it's release in 1998 from the "Happy Face" album. It has had a lot of airplay and people ask of this song often. 

I hope to keep building a profile for my music and

hope Wikipedia can include this song in the relevant lists. You can hear Highbury on www.ivorgame.com , itunes and on Soundcloud. I think Highbury is there > too, and both are on iTunes. Kind regards and hope to hear from you. Yours Ivor. Ivor Game. www.ivorgame.com

From Ivor Game re Songs About London[edit]

Hello Wikipedia,

Thank you for putting my song Highbury on the Songs About London section.

You have listed it Highbury from The Happy Face album. However, could you please change this to Highbury by Ivor Game

The song is indeed from the Happy Face album by me, Ivor Game, but at the moment the wikipedia entry does not mention my name which is important.

Thank you very much,

All the best,


Ivor


Ivor Game — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.196.231.29 (talk) 19:43, 1 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I updated the page. Have a nice day :) —Noiratsi (talk) 08:53, 3 March 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Title[edit]

Given the content of this article, should we retitle it to Lists of songs that include a mention of somewhere in Greater London, however trivial? --Michig (talk) 13:11, 8 September 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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Z is Missing'Bold text'  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.155.199.53 (talk) 05:09, 9 April 2022 (UTC)[reply]
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