I've been around a lot. I've done a fair amount of international travel and that can be fascinating, and in the process, I've come to love some places that I never would have imagined - Japan - and been happy to see other places in the rear-view mirror - China. But of all the places I've seen, I always have and always will love America the most.
In the course of my travels, I developed what some might consider an odd habit; when I was in or passing through a locale that had a song written about it, I'd play the song. So here are five of those songs, along with a thumbnail of how/why I came to be in each place.
The Doobie Brothers - China Grove. This would have been about 1987, if memory serves. I was in San Antonio at Ft. Sam Houston, attending the Medical Service Corps Officer's Basic Course, when in the course of my exploration of the area I learned there really was an exurb of San Antonio called China Grove. I fired up the '84 Thunderbird I was driving at the time, rolled out there, and as I hit the city limits, I pressed "Play" on that famous Doobie Brothers hit. That was my first such musical tribute.
ZZ Top - Viva Las Vegas. Yes, I know Elvis did it first, but this is the version I had in the car in January of 1992 when my then-fiancee and now wife of 32 years were driving to Sin City, where her parents and grandmother were out from their Baltimore home to attend a conference. I was a little nervous; I was meeting them for the first time, and had to explain to them that not only were we getting married but that their daughter was, to put it bluntly, knocked up. But everything was cool, we hit it off and I still get along great with my in-laws today. That first day, we took a tour down the Strip, playing this song on the car's tape player.
George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Back to Wentzville. Fast forward to 2006. I had just taken on a new client in eastern Ohio and drove out from our old Colorado home to meet him for the first time. We got along great and worked together on various projects for many years until he retired, but that was the first of many trips by car and airplane back and forth. On my return trip, that first visit, I saw on a road sign that I was approaching Wentzville, Missouri - Chuck Berry's hometown. I remembered George Thorogood's tribute to Mr. Berry's home, I had the song on a CD, so into the truck's stereo it went, and as I shot through Wentzville on Interstate 70, George serenaded Chuck's home.
America - Ventura Highway. America was a great band in the 70s, but it was 2008 when I signed on for a months-long facility setup and validation project in Valencia, California. Before I had the chance to take my vehicle out to California the company provided me with a rental car; their contract with Hertz was for a mid-size plain-Jane sedan, but they were out of those on this trip, so imagine my chagrin when they asked me if I would accept a 2008 Mustang convertible instead. I consoled myself that weekend by driving out to the coast (I had exactly the same experience during one of my longer stays on Oahu. Oh, it was painful, lemme tell ya!- De), where I cruised up the highway to Ventura with my favorite American song on the Mustang's CD player.
Marc Cohn - Walking in Memphis. Now we move ahead to 2011. I had a short-term job in Memphis; I was there for only a couple of weeks to do some auditing. I was there over a weekend, however, so Sunday morning found me walking down Beale Street, listening to Marc Cohn's great song with the headphones plugged into my cell phone, and wondering why the hell I hadn't come down there on Saturday night to see what was happening.
Lots of places have had songs written about them. We tend to commemorate places we've been and loved in one way or another, and boy do some songwriters and performers do that beautifully. These are only a few examples; there are, of course, many, many more.
Have you any similar place songs? The comments are yours!
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