Rancid: Journey to the End of the East Bay

"The Bay" Lyrics Born. Hollr!

DJ Shadow: Midnight in a Perfect World - Endtroducing (recorded in SF per the notes section: http://www.cduniverse.com/search/xx/music/pid/1152555/a/Endtroducing......htm)

"Lights" by Journey

Moon Over Marin by The Dead Kennedys

Well, there's:
San Francisco's Doomed -- Crime
And there have got to be a few great Dwarves songs.

California Love - Tupac
He lived in the area for years.

San Francisco Days/San Francisco Nights - Chris Isaak
See above.

Is Speedway Boogie by the Dead reflective of Speedway Meadows? Always wondered that...

Lodi by CCR
While they're from El Cerrito and singing about Lodi, I think we can all relate to the horror of being stuck in Lodi...again! It's a universal SF feeling, and therefore it's a part of SF.

San Francisco Nights - Eric Burdon
I'm not sure if he spent any quantity of years here, but it's a good one.

The Rice-A-Roni Jingle.

Smoke Off by Shel Silverstein

The Smoke-Off - Shel Silverstein

E-40 "Yay Area"

i second the vote for "dont give me no bammer weed"
also: jt the bigga figga, "game recognize game" ("... in the bay, man")
zion-i, "the bay" remix w/ san quinn, turf talk, clyde carson
san quinn, "the bay is in the area"
ultramagnetic mcs, "two brothers with checks" ("san francisco,
harvey...")
the team, "on one" ("got a scraper sittin on the wheels/550 Barneveld")
dj shadow w/ turf talk and keak da sneak, "3 Freaks" (not just recorded
locally, but easily his most bay-centric tune)
rappin' 4-tay, "playaz club"
lyrics born, "callin' out" (an all-bay anthem, fa sho)
honeycut, "shadows"
digital underground, "freaks of the industry" (still gets KMEL play to
this day)
Mac Dre, "Thizzle Dance" (influenced by SF rave culture)
E-40 w/ keak da sneak, "tell me when to go" (as exuberent a celebration
of yay area culture as one can find)
Deltron 3030, "virus"
Dr. Octagon, "Earth People"

on the cheesy side: huey lewis, "workin' for a livin'", journey,
"lights", eddie money, "two tickets to paradise"

cLOUDDEAD "Dead Dogs Two"

Kizmiaz by THE CRAMPS -

ok they don't say it's san francisco (or the haight/summer of love) but the line about alcatraz is a dead give away ..

Take a magic carpet to the olden days. To a mythical land where everybody lays. Around in the clouds in a happy daze in Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. Flamingos stand easy on bended knees. Palm trees wave over tropical seas of azure waves and lazy breeze in Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. Over raspberry skies spires of the Shaz. Point to the heavens that this place has. You would swim all the way from Alcatraz to Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. It lies on the horizon in a golden haze. No one believes their eyes the legend says. Held hypnotized in a frozen gaze on Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz. The vibrations kiss the ships would pass. Kizmiaz...Kizmiaz.

I second the suggestion of "San Francisco's Doomed" by Crime. They're a mandatory inclusion, IMO, as pioneers in the SF punk scene. I wish I could think of SF-centric songs by the Avengers, Nuns, etc., but right now I'm drawing a blank.

I also suggest "I Fought the Law (and I Won)" by Dead Kennedys, which is all about the infamous "Twinkie defense" used by Harvey Milk's assassin. Could be the ONLY song written specifically about SF's iconic gay politician. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Finally, I propose Rancid's "Tenderloin" -- someone already mentioned "Journey to the End of the East Bay," which is a good choice, but "Tenderloin" is more specifically about San Francisco (rather than Berkeley), with lines about a hooker "down on Larkin in T.L."

Of course, there's always that classic blues song "Mean Ol' Frisco," but that's actually about a train line named after San Francisco, much in the same way as the "City of New Orleans" is a train mentioned in the song by Arlo Guthrie, Willie Nelson, etc.

JG

Back on the Streets Again, Tower of Power

I don't know, Phil. Kizmiaz by THE CRAMPS - seems more like they'll be going to KIZMIAZ from alcartraz. and the pink flamingos don't sound like sf to me.

JG, Mean old Frisco counts, same way the theme to "Full House" counts.

I Got the Blues Cause My Baby Left Me by the San Francisco Bay

great song. is that the title?

Journey's Lights. sad but true.

San Francisco (You've Got Me)" by Village People, from their self-titled debut album,

"Come Back From San Francisco" by the Magnetic Fields

tons of choices from green day's "kerplunk" and operation ivy's "energy."

sadly, metallica, despite being castro valley-based, recorded their
early stuff in rochester or denmark...but if you wanna include them,
even if not in prime form, you can include something from the S&M album
that was done with the San Francisco Symphony...

San Francisco Maybel Joy - Waylon Jennings

Streets of Bakersfield (Good verse on SF) - Dwight Yokam

Sausalito Summer Nights - Diesel (must have Danish Glam rock band)

Hmmm...Kurt's got a point with the Village People. That song was surely a touchstone for the surging SF/Castro gay movement in the late '70s. My only point of contention is that the Village People seemed to spotlight EVERY gay geographical and cultural cliche in their lyrics, e.g., "YMCA," "Fire Island," "In the Navy," etc. It doesn't necessarily mean they were paying their respects. They could have been doing it out of sheer, cynical salesmanship to their gay disco demographic. But of course I have no way of knowing what they were thinking...and Kurt's more in contact with the gay scene, so I'll take his word for it.

Whoa...this just popped into my head. I can't believe I forgot it before, but ya gotta include the amazing old blues song by Jesse Fuller called "San Francisco Bay Blues"! It's been covered by a buncha whiteys (including, in order of whiteness, Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton and Peter, Paul & Mary) but you simply MUST scope this Jesse Fuller original video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmVVxhYlp2Y

Fucking awesome. Just remember: When you give songwriting credit, that's spelled "J-E-S-S-E F-U-L-L-E-R"...not "E-R-I-C C-L-A-P-T-O-N"! No real hatred against Slowhand, of course. I just get tired of seeing online sources who credit the cover artist with the actual songwriting.

JG

OK, last stupid post for the night:

Darius Koski (of the SF punk band Swingin' Utters) has a fine and poetic way with words, so I would personally love to see one of his songs make the list. Perhaps the most geographically recognizable lyrics he's written are from the song "Dead Flowers, Bottles, Bluegrass & Bones":

"You gave me a kiss
as strong as the winds
that swirl thru the lots
of China Basin

I stood and I stared
At the brass of St. Mary
Where the beggars
are more likely wishing then praying

Heard the gamblers
Rushing the gates of Bay Meadows
or was it the beating
Of hearts in the ghettos

...so I strolled through the day
until boredom was dawn
with the gulls
in the garbage singing along

where the boats in the harbor
have nothing to say
about the fish and the shit
that float in the Bay...."

OK, granted, it's not the most pro-SF song. But hell. Is this a rah-rah Jaycees convention or an inclusive scope of the city's most evocative songs?

JG

The first song that popped into my head was "In Frisco," by Joe Pop-o-Pies. It was released as a single in the early 90s, and he put it out last year on a CD comp. It's a very catchy rock song, and the line that sticks with me is "Dirk is a jerk -- in
Frisco." I actually took the cover photo for the single -- of Joe eating dog food -- and the photo originally ran with a blurb I wrote for SF Weekly previewing a Pop-o-Pies show. He uses the photo to this day, most recently on his myspace page:

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=55061655

I'm extremely proud of that photo.

I seem to remember the band Osgood Slaughter
(featuring Buckethead) doing a song about the
14-Mission bus, but who knows if that even exists in recorded form.

There was this comp in 1979, called Subterranean Modern, where local monsters Chrome, MX-80 Sound, Residents, and Tuxedomoon all did versions of "I Left
my Heart in San Francisco." I own a vinyl copy, and I'll dig it out of my collection if necessary. I seem to remember the Residents version being the best. It was very doinky and Residents-like. This might help
visually:

http://www.staticwhitesound.com/chrome/discography/Subterranean.htm

I can't believe that bands like Flipper and Dead Kennedys didn't do SF songs, but they seemed to be more concerned with bigger things. Songs about local
stuff were a big thing in the punk scene circa 70s-80s, but I don't own a lot of that. I'm thinking someone like V.Vale from Re/Search -- who has one of the most amazing local record collections -- could
totally stoke you on local music about SF. He's easily available thru the Re/Search website.

That's all for now. Thanks for throwing me down this ridiculous music-related rabbit hole. It gives me an excuse to go thru my record collection (and maybe
organize it). More later.

best wishes,
mike

Two extremes...

Hieroglyphics - Oakland Blackouts
Bobbi Humphrey - San Francisco Lights

Doug Sahm is a Texas legend, but he spent 5 highly formative years in the bay area, '66-71, w the Sir Douglas Quintet. "Mendocino" and "Sunday Sunnny Mill Valley Groove Day" are classics of this period - the opening cuts on his definitive Best Of on Polygram.

The Trouble with Monkeys
1. The Beacon
2. Lovefingers

Check em out at:

http://www.cyclesandsushi.com/music/pages/2.html

How about Fever tree's "San Francisco Girls (Return of the native)?

Um,
'The Fillmore', by They Might Be Giants.

(Evidently they recorded songs for all their venues in years past. editor David Downs)

TWO GALLANTS - STEADY ROLLIN'

Holy crap-filled burritos! Has NO ONE mentioned the incomparable, unbelievable and above all LOCAL TWO GALLANTS?

1) They're local (from the Presidio I believe)
2) They're real
3) They got tazered in Texas
4) STEADY ROLLIN', like so many of their songs, contains the following excellent city-specific lyric:
"I SHOT MY WIFE TODAY, DROPPED HER BODY IN THE FRISCO BAY. I HAD NO CHOICE IT WAS THE ONLY WAY. DEATH’S COMIN’. I’M STILL RUNNIN’. OUT WALTZING WITH THE HOLY GHOST, FROM THE BOWERY TO THE BARBARY COAST. THE PLACE I’M FROM YOU KNOW I LOVE THE MOST. STEADY ROLLIN’ I KEEP GOIN’."

Vab Dyke Parks' "San Francisco" from Orange Crate Art...giddy yup!

"NIGHT, S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT." GIVE A SHOUT OUT TO THE BAY CITY ROLLERS. STILL A GOOD JAM.

that song of ours that references the cold winds of san francisco "Cold wind"

"in the middle of the summer
im not sleeping
cold wind blowing
in the middle of the night
they try to find me but im still driving
if your going to San Francisco
lay some flowers on the grave stone
theres music on the station

And im just listening to cold wind whistling
And if they ever find me tell the papers cold wind cold wind
Cold cold wind blowing
Cold wind blowing

Hey hey hey
something aint right
something aint right
and if they ever find me tell the papers cold wind cold wind
cold cold wind blowing cold wind blowing cold wind blowing
cold wind blowing cold wind blowing"

that is the god's honest truth.

Hey Tim - tell Win and Will that B-Z says hello

san fransisco bay by eric clapton

Grace cathedral hill by the decemberists

Livin N the Bay by Young Cellski!

To wit:
Comin up in the bay it's like a mothafuckin zoo
The Bay Area ain't no joke
Every n*gga do whatever the fuck he gotta do
The Bay Area ain't no joke

Inarguably, "San Francisco" done by J. Garland at C. Hall.