Songs, places and people

There are a profusion of places that could be found in a huge number of tunes over the years. Places that have left a mark on the lives of many songwriters, singers and bands for different reasons, expected ones : breaking hearts, unreturned loves, childhood memories, misfortunes; requested others: environment, social conflicts, discrimination, intolerance, injustice; and others that are freaky or weird.
The propelling idea of this essay is to try to explore some of these memories and events related to diverse places and, of course, to the people evoked in the songs’ lyrics .
We are going to move from ballads to hard rock, from new wave to post-punk and from lysergic to electronic-pop music styles.
The selection is this one but it could have been another totally different:
Graceland (Paul Simon), Asbury Park ( Springsteen), Berlin (L. Reed), Talihina Sky (King of Leon) Joshua Tree (U2) and so on.


Chelsea Hotel

This is a historic New York City hotel and landmark built between 1883 and 1885, known primarily for the notability of its residents over the years. Located between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the Manhattan neighbourhood of Chelsea.
Every room at the hotel tells its own story. In # 205, the poet Dylan Thomas – who inspired young Zimmerman to change his name to Bob Dylan- fell into a fatal coma after having 18 whiskies in a row.
# 100 was once occupied by Sid Vicious (bass player with the Sex Pistols) and his girlfriend Nancy, who one morning of October 1978 was found in the bathroom, stabbed to death.
Jimi Hendrix lived, loved and experimented with drugs here. Arthur C. Clark wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while he was staying at the hotel. Charles Bukowski also resided there.
Janis Joplin had a short love affair with Cohen here and she was the muse that inspired the song. Cohen said about it: “ It is a song I wrote for a great American singer. Forgotten by some, remembered by some like the rest of US singers, all destined to be remembered or forgotten. It doesn’t really matter which name is remembered and which name is forgotten. There will always be singers. This one was a great one , her name was Janis Joplin”.
Cohen recorded the song in 1974 at the sessions for his album “New skin for the old ceremony”.
The song is not only a memory of past love, but also a declaration of love to the hotel:
“I remember you well in the Chelsea Hotel,
You were taking so brave and so free
Giving me head on the unmade bed
While the limousines wait in the street….”



Smoke on the Water

This song may have the most repeated riff in rock history. Its lyrics tell the story of a true event: on December 1971 Deep Purple had set up a camp in Montreaux (Switzerland) to record an album using a mobile recording studio at the entertainment complex that was part of the Montreaux Casino.
On the eve of the recording session, Frank Zappa performed a concert in the casino’s theatre. In the middle of the concert the place suddenly caught fire when somebody in the audience fired a flare into the covered ceiling , as is mentioned in the lines:
“.../…
But Frank Zappa and the Mothers
Were at the best place around
But some stupid with a flare gun,
Burned the place to the ground
Smoke on the water and fire in the sky
Smoke on the water...
The resulting fire destroyed the casino complex along with all of Zappa´s equipment. The “smoke on the water” that became the title of the song referred to the smoke from the fire spreading over Lake Geneva from the burning casino as the members of Deep Purple watched from their hotel.




La Estatua del Jardín Botánico (Botanical Garden Statue)

Some people think that this song is an ode devoted to getting high, a very usual topic in lyrics by Spanish bands during “La Movida” , the well-known Spanish alternative movement of the 80’s.
Some people say that Santiago Auserón -Radio Futura leader- wrote the song during a drug trip. Whatever it was, the story has tons of poetry and lyricism :
A statue suddenly comes alive in a botanic garden and begins to explore an unreal world –as unreal as the statue herself/itself- She/it is captivated by this world, but she doesn’t understand it well. She/it needs to know and become aware of this world in order to know and understand herself/itself.
It could be said that the Botanical Garden Statue was actually the band’s masterpiece. The song could be defined as the pure spirit of “La Movida”: risky, surrealistic, epic, androgynous, allegorical and provocateur.
Its lyrical twists make it one of the best songs in Spanish music history.

“Esperando un eclipse me quedaré // Waiting for an eclipse I’m staying there
persiguiendo un enigma al compás de las olas// Chasing an enigma to the beat of the waves
dibujando una elipse, me quedaré// Drawing an ellipse I’m staying there
entre el sol y mi corazón … // Between the sun and my heart.




The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll

This song was released on Dylan’s 1964 album “The Times They are a-Changing’” and tells us a factual story of the killing of a 51-year-old black maid, Hattie Carroll, by William Zantzinger, a wealthy drunker young white, and his subsequent sentence to six months in a jail in Charles County (Maryland).
Zantzinger allegedly hit Carroll’s head with his cane because she had taken too long time in bringing him a drink. Nobody helped Hattie and she died the day after.
The lyrics are a commentary on 1960’s racism. When she was killed in 1963, Charles County was still segregated by race in public facilities such as restaurants, churches, theatres, buses, schools.
… “In the courtroom of honour, the judge pounded his gavel,
To show that all’s equal and that the courts are on the level,
And that the strings in the books isn’t pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled”….
The protagonist stated years later, that Dylan had made his live bitter.
It’s better than nothing¡¡¡¡



London Calling

This is at the same time the title of the third studio album by English punk-rock band The Clash and one of the album’s tracks. It was released in the U.K. in December 1979.
Throughout the lyrics of the song, J. Strummer and M. Jones discuss the problems of rising unemployment, racial conflicts and drug use in Britain. The song was partially influenced by a March 1979 accident at a nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania.
This apocalyptic and politically charged tune features the band’s famous combination of reggae basslines and punk electric guitar and vocals. The title alludes to the BBC World Service’s station identification : “ This is London calling…” which was used often during World War II, in broadcasts to occupied countries.
…/….
London calling to the zombies of death
Quit holding out, and draw another breath
London calling, and I don’t wanna shout
But while we were talking, I saw you nodding out…”




Tears in Heaven

A heart-breaking event has given one of the most beautiful ballads ever composed. The song was written about the pain and loss Eric Clapton felt following the death of his four-year-old son, who fell from a 53rd floor window of a New York apartment in 1991.
Would you know my name
If I saw you in heaven?
Would it be the same
If I saw you in heaven?
I must be strong
And carry on…..
Clapton stopped playing it in 2004 stating: “ I didn’t feel the loss anymore, which is so much a part of performing this song. I really have to connect with feelings that were there when I wrote it”.





Plastic Beach ( Welcome to the World of the)

This is the third album by the British virtual band Gorillaz, released on March 2010.
Gorillaz is an English musical and virtual project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn (frontman of the Britpop band Blur) and comic book artist Jamie Hewlett. The project consists of Gorillaz music itself and an extensive fictional universe built around a virtual band of cartoon characters.

Plastic Beach ( also known as Point Nemo) is the fictional current studio of the Gorillaz after the abandonment of Kongo Studios. It was created with various abandoned items floating in the ocean and fixed one to another to make a conglomerate mass in the Pacific, held together by a sticky glue of oil and tar from millions of untold disasters.
“The revolution will be televised
And the pollution from the ocean
Now with devotion
Push peace and keep it in motion”

D. Albarn got the idea for Plastic Beach while a strolling on a beach next to his house: “ I was just looking for all the plastic within the sand”.






I Don’t Like Mondays

This is a song by the Irish rock band Boomtown Rats, that was an UK number one ingle for four weeks during the summer of 1979. Written by Bob Geldof – widely recognised for his activism, especially his anti-poverty efforts concerning Africa-.
The song tells us the story of Brenda, an American teenager, who received a rifle as a Christmas gift instead of the radio-cassette she had requested.
The girl fired at children in a school playground in San Diego (California) on January 1979, killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. She didn’t show any remorse for the crime, explaining for her actions by saying:” I don’t like Mondays. This livens up the day”.
Geldof wrote the song after reading the report.
“And all the playing’s stopped in the playground now,
She wants to play with her toys a while
And school’s out early and soon we’ll be learning
And the lesson today is how to die…”
Because there are no reasons
What reason do you need to die? Die?
Tell me why
I don’t like Mondays…”



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