Songs About Places.
 

This should be an interesting topic.

Probably most people don't know about Marc Eric. He only released one LP in 1969 called A Midsummer's Day Dream which apparently went nowhere. Eric eventually left the music biz after this and went into acting but he sure did one great album and song on his native CA.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

from the Lightfoot site, a fun listing http://www.lightfoot.ca/glgeog.htm

I don't know if there are many geography buffs out there, but I've always been one myself. I read that back in the 70's Lightfoot kept a huge map on his wall and kept pins in it to mark everywhere he's played. I wonder if he still keeps that map up to date? So I'm guessing that Lightfoot is into geography himself. Here is a list of place names that have appeared to date in his songs:

Echoes Of The Heroes - Marne, Somme, Normandy, Ypres, Verdun
Adios, Adios - Michocan, Mexico
Daisy Doo - Texas
Crossroads - Quebec
Canadian Railroad Trilogy - St. Lawrence (River), Gaspe, Rockies
Go Go Round - Michigan
Black Day In July - Motor City
Mountains And Maryann - Saskatchewan
Long Thin Dawn - Omaha, Edmonton, Vancouver, St. Paul, Windsor, 'Frisco, Montreal, Denver, Winnipeg
Cold Hands From New York - New York, Albany
Ballad Of The Yarmouth Castle - Miami, Nassau, Biscayne Bay, Bahama
The Doomsday Song - Lake Erie, 'Frisco, Cuba
Ten Degrees And Getting Colder - Boulder Dam, Milwaukee, Arizona
Miguel - St. Augustine, Mexico
Nous Vivons Ensemble - Plains Of Abraham
Cabaret - California, Oregon, Ontario, Reno, Mendecino
Christian Island - Christian Island
Alberta Bound - Alberta, Toronto, Rocky Mountains
Ode To Big Blue - Pacific, Arctic Circle, Greenland
Hiway Songs - New York
Nitro Joe - Mexico
Somewhere USA - USA
Carefree Highway - Carefree (Arizona)
In My Time - Hollywood
Cherokee Bend - Kentucky
The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald - Wisconsin, Cleveland, Whitefish Bay, Detroit, Lakes Huron, Superior, Michigan, Erie and Ontario
I'd Do It Again - Niagara Falls
Protocol - France, Germany, Saigon, Wounded Knee
Spanish Moss - Savannah, Georgia
Sweet Guinevere - Pittsburgh
Ghosts Of Cape Horn - Cape Horn, Devon, Southampton, Penzance, Kinsale
On The High Seas - Michigan, Lake Of The Woods, Montreal, Toronto, Reno,, Rome, Hornepayne, South Bend
Two Crazy Kids - Vancouver, Kalamazoo
Canary Yellow Canoe - East Main, Coppermine, Back, Rupert, George, Ross,Yellowknife, Assinaboine, Dumoine, Peace Rivers,Chibougamau, Churchill, Resolute
Triangle - Dover, Bahama, Bermuda
Morning Glory - Biscayne Bay
Let It Ride - Detroit, Windsor, London, Montreal, St. Louis, Missuori, Shanghai, Rangoon
Ecstacy Made Easy - Perth* (Australia)
Lifeline - Baltimore
Waiting For You - North America
Couchiching - Lake Couchiching, Lake Simcoe, Orillia

Re: Songs About Places.
 

JJ,

I'm re-visiting the abovenamed Kinsale when I spend Mar3-8 in County Cork (southern Ireland) and Yorkshire (northern England). Kinsale, just south of Cork City, is where we spent our wedding night in 1992. This will be my first overseas trip since attending the Lightfoot concert in Wisconsin in 2008.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

From how he speaks about the country/land in the old footage CBC has you can hear his love it. (sitting up near Orillia on the new highway being blasted thru the rock) His canoe trips also imply his love for the outdoors and discovering the land via the rivers and lakes. HIs songs reflect it...I was gobsmacked last April @ Indigo when he rattled off all the rivers and places he had canoe trips on..plus the mileage!

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Hi Dave, my Mom was from County Cork, she was born in a small town called Macroom. I visited twice and still have a lot of family there. She passed away in 2010, and since then I feel the need to return. I'm in the process of getting my passport renewed, so we'll see.

Have a great trip!

Re: Songs About Places.
 

have a good time, dave....my maternal roots are in Yorkshire (Poole, Otley, Leeds, Bramhope... "all creatures great & small" country)

I'm leaving the country in a few days myself, but just to warm up
(...all the was to Biscayne Bay ...and all the way back again:cool:)

Re: Songs About Places.
 

FormerlyLavender,
I've stopped in the pleasant town of Macroom a few times while driving between Cork and Killarney. I hope you get there again soon.

JJ,
Like you, I've traced my ancestors to Yorkshire (and met some of their descendants there). My surname came from the Yorkshire ancestors. On the coming trip, I'm again staying in their village, Silsden. I loved the "All Creatures Great and Small" books and TV series. James Herriot (real name Alf Wight) was still signing books at his veterinary practice in Thirsk when I first visited Yorkshire. The TV series was filmed in and around Askrigg and I called into the building still called Skeldale House. I hope you get to Yorkshire one day. Good luck with your coming trip closer to home.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

oh, yes I've been and enjoyed it about 20 years ago, but not since

those were some very interesting tidbits... good casting, scenery and wit...i most liked the first 3 years of the series before had an actress change (James' wife)

i revisit small town UK in my mind whenever the kid and I put on the original Dr Doolittle film or Babe (that pig movie) or War Horse (not for a child's viewing)

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Just checked out Cabaret.

Quite an interesting song.


Here's another by Chicago with a song about their city with Robert Lamm on leads with Chaka Khan singing background. Also a native Chicagoan.

I should also note this was sadly the last LP that featured Terry Kath

Re: Songs About Places.
 

JJ,

The actor playing James Herriot (Christopher Timothy) also liked the original Helen Herriot (Carol Drinkwater), because he left his wife and kids to shack up with her. It wasn't long, however, until the two of them couldn't stand each other. Hence the replacement of the series' leading lady with Lynda Bellingham. After seeing her in the role, my brother concluded "They obviously chose a plain and dowdy actress so he wouldn't be tempted to do it again."

Re: Songs About Places.
 

A song about a Motorway (Interstate) here in England, a service area, Watford Gap, Roy Harper wrote this ditty with a nod to Wabash Cannonball, the outfit running the service area took exception and threatened the record label with litigation, and the song was taken off the album. This p****d off Roy Harper.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Hank's Snow version of I've been everywhere


Hank Snow - I've Been Everywhere - YouTube

I guess there are regional versions of this also

Re: Songs About Places.
 

I remember my uncle Jimmy singing this song at many of the notorious Saturday night jam sessions at our house in the '60s. Brings back a lot of old memories.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

THat was certainly some fast singing.


Anyway here's a couple of songs in reference to Texas. This one you should all know.






Next one was an obscure Texas band from the 60's about a popular state park.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

The Name Triumphs raised a flag... the old I heard the name of that group somewhere?

Then I remembered a reference to Billy Joe Thomas and the Triumphs who latter become
BJ Thomas
here is the same song done at a reunion concert in 2012
Garner State Park - BJ Thomas and The Triumphs Live in La Grange, TX - YouTube

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Dave. I like your brother's insights into the Drinkwater replacement. Lol

She was actually a "Montreal girl"

Was this also why they replaced John Boy on The Walton's ...a Mary Ellen fling and falling out? Or was that Marcia and Greg Brady?

Anyhow the new Helen (still with foxy curling iron hair) was almost as devastating as coming home from school and hearing Barney Rubble with a new voice...

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Had no idea till now that BJ was in this band.

The earliest BJ song I know of was his I'm So Lonely I Could Cry, which was 1966 and this Trimumphs song must have been made a year or 2 earlier.


Anyway here's another.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

According to some discography the song with BJ Thomas and the Triumphs was from 1964.
Speaking of BJ Thomas... don't know how many are familiar with BJ's great cover of
Suspicious Minds which was written by Mark James who also wrote the hits
Eyes of a New York Women and Hooked on a Feeling for BJ and The song You were on my Mind that was a hit for Willie Nelson

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Oh I remember that too...hated it!

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Here's a couple about the southwest.


I read somewhere this song was banned on many southern stations because it was obviously about a caucasion falling for a Mexican woman.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

El Paso is a great story song. I 've always thougt that this may have had an influence when Gord wrote what is a great companion piece in Miguel

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Florida related songs.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Even Bill Cosby had a few song released durring his long career.

Re: Songs About Places.
 

Here's 3 from the Clancy's



Also about Dublin

Re: Songs About Places.
 

From the same group that brought us Insense & Pepperments.


Wish I knew the meaning of this one.