Lots of songs make reference to particular streets and other geographic locations. At one time, Bob Dylan lived on West 4th Street in Manhattan. He also wrote the song Positively 4th Street (Youtube link). But some believe that in that song, he was referring to Fourth Street, Dinkytown, Minneapolis, Minnesota .

A few other streets mentioned in songs:

Bleecker Street - Simon and Garfunkel (Youtube link)

Clinton Street, in Famous Blue Raincoat - Leonard Cohen (Youtube link)

South Street (Philadelphia) - The Orlons (Youtube link) - This one was a huge hit just before Motown became widely popular.

Wikipedia: Positively 4th Street

[Third-party placemark for Dinkytown]

Music tells us a lot about how we think and feel about places. The Mamas and Papas moved from New York City to California in the 1960s, then wrote and performed Twelve Thirty. As the Youtube video shows, this song was a 45 RPM hit. The words and the chords alternate between a melancholy and happy mood as they compare the two places, and make obvious the author's surprise at the difference. I wonder whether that clock ever got fixed.

A Motown song that visits a number of cities is Dancing in the Street by Martha and the Vandellas. A rhythm and blues one about a street is Johnny C's Boogaloo Down Broadway.

Joni Mitchell sang Urge for Going about how people longed to leave the vast open spaces of Canada as the long winters approached. The music and lyrics are beautiful and sad at the same time, as they recall visions of geese heading south in "chevron flight".

The Canadian folk singers Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker sang about strong winds, loneliness, and having to leave a loved one, in their Four Strong Winds.

In some cases, music invokes places in the abstract. Shorelines are atmospheric and popular in this regard. Enya sings about a non-specific shoreline in On Your Shore. There is also the Grateful Dead's song about a metaphorical Black Muddy River.

Train travel is a popular theme, in part because it is a means of getting from one place to another, sometimes through great distances and changes in scenery and culture. Ralph McTell's The Setting is set at a busy train station.

Some songs are less about the place they refer to than about an idea, for example, Warren Zevon's frivolous and morbid Werewolves of London.

Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa by Vampire Weekend, a band from New York, is a song with African influence.

There's also a great deal of classical music about particular places, for example Dvoř�k's New World Symphony, with much of that work inspired by African American spirituals.

Some other threads that relate music to places:

- Led Zeppelin Landmarks

- Garden State Stomp

- Return to Sender

Of course, music can be great without referring to any place at all. See Members' Open Area >> Open Forum >> Members favorite music.