Couple of weeks ago I went to see Jenny Lewis at the Cathedral Sanctuary at Immanuel Presbyterian in Korea Town to watch her preform the record “Rabbit Fur Coat” with the Watson Twins. During her first set, I was reminded of the powerful images of Los Angeles that have echoed through her and much of popular music. As I sat listening I began making a mental list of my favorite LA songs. Here they are in no particular order. What are yours?
The song that prompted this list
Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins “Rabbit Fur Coat” from 2006 album of the same name
The Decemberists “Los Angeles I’m Your’s”
X “Los Angeles” A quintessential LA song and probably a bit cliche
The Negro Problem “MacArthur Park” from their 1997 album “Post Minstrel Syndrome”
Rage Against the Machine “Rolling Down Rodeo”
Ariel Pink, “Life in LA”
Dave Alvin (from X and the Blasters) “Fourth of July”
Rilo Kiley (I know Jenny Lewis twice) “Let Me Back In”
Ryan Adams “Good Night, Hollywood Blvd.”
One of my favorite hip hop bands Jurassic 5 “LAUSD”
Motorhead RIP Lemme “Angel City”
One from my misspent youth The Circle Jerks “Beverly Hills”
Because I mentioned them in class The Surf Punks, “I’m a Valley” a song ridiculing those from the SF Valley.
Fountains of Wayne, “California Sex Lawyer”
10,000 Maniacs “City of Angels”
Back to this century, Kendrick Lamar with Dre “Compton”
Breaking it down old school Tone Loc, “Funky Westside”
Speaking of the 80s, Missing Persons, “Walking in LA”
I’ll end with one of my favorite Death Cab for Cutie songs “Tiny Vessels”
Really that’s just the tip of the iceberg and those that popped into my head. If I think about it long enough there are literally hundreds more I could post.
Prof. Smith
Nobody, should post the Doors. They, like the Eagles, are not allowed on any favorites lists.
Out of yours, my favorite ones are probably Compton by Kendrick Lamar featuring Dr. Dre, as well as Tiny Vessels by Death Cab for Cutie. It’s kind of funny because they’re too different genres representing different parts of LA. I haven’t really heard the other ones, so I am a little biased, but they were still good to hear. My personal favorites include Red Hot Chilli Peppers “Under the Bridge,” Death Cab for Cutie, “Why You’d Want to Live Here,” Guns N’ Roses, “Welcome to the Jungle,” and “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A. I most definitely used Google for help, but I definitely remember and like listening to these songs, especially now that I’ve listened to it with my recent focus on Los Angeles. Out of curiosity, what’s wrong with the Doors and the Eagles?
I’m not super familiar with all the songs above but I do know and like Death Cab for Cutie’s “Tiny Vessels.” I also found the song “I’m a Valley” by The Surf Punks to be entertaining as well. I gathered links to some of my favorite songs dealing with Los Angeles and posted them below.
2Pac – To Live and Die in LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz2wVLyTar4
Guns n Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg
Michael Bublé – Hollywood
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBrlYtV60GA
Lana Del Rey – Bel Air
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_0xctWc1tM
I enjoyed most of the songs you posted, especially Jurassic 5’s LAUSD and Tone-Loc’s Funky Westside. Some songs with a similar correlation of Los Angeles culture are from an artist named Bones, who is an LA artist who moved here from Michigan and expresses the change of scenery in some of his songs such as “WestCoastPlayer” and “GoldenChevrolet”. There is much difference between LA and other places in America and we can see the differences when it is discussed and expressed in individuals songs.
So I’m going to be honest here, the likelihood of the majority of these songs making their way onto my ipod are not great. I do like “Tiny Vessels” though. And I give props to “Walking in LA” purely for sentimental reasons.
A few LA songs I like in no particular order (feel free to disagree, it’s a free country supposedly):
“For What It’s Worth” (Buffalo Springfield)
“City of Angels” (Thirty Seconds to Mars)
“California Dreamin'” (The Mamas and the Papas)
“LA Devotee” (Panic! At the Disco)
I would definitely have to agree with the fact that these are not songs that I would typically listen too. Expanding on your songs, I do listen to Panic! At the Disco quite a lot. In their album The Death of a Batchelor, along with “LA Devotee”, I would say that “Golden Days” is another song that could be tied to Los Angeles.
The “Panic! at the Disco” video is a fantastic example of Los Angeles as an imagined space. For those who haven’t seen it…
I thought the songs listed here were all really interesting, and many of them were songs that I have listened to and enjoyed without ever thinking about how they relate to our city. I will definitely pay more attention to how Los Angeles culture affects music in the future.
I’ll add a couple songs here as well, the first one is fairly obvious:
This Is LA – The Briggs
The River – Good Charlotte
California- Phantom Planet