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'By The Time I Get To Phoenix', 'San Bernadino', 'Love Field', 'Nantucket Sleighride', 'Texarkana' and
'Massachusetts'.
Even if the place is not in the title, it can be in the lyric. Chuck Berry listed place names in 'Sweet Little Sixteen' and
The Beach Boys did likewise in 'Surfin' USA' and 'California Girls'.
British songwriters aren't as free to use geography because the U.K. is smaller. There are plenty of place names in
the traditional folk songs of the British Isles (think of 'Scarborough Fair'), but they date from an age when lack of
transport made the country seem much bigger. A British songwriter invites ridicule if he or she tries to suggest in the
manner of Springsteen that spiritual salvation or a new life lies at the end of a motorway. A British songwriter who
starts a song (apologies to Jimmy Webb) with a line like "By the time I get to Plymouth, she'll be waiting.. .' is
liable to get a laugh. Billy Bragg's wonderful takeoff of 'Route 66', 'The A13 Trunk Rd to the Sea', has UK audiences
creased with laughter as it name-checks the singularly unromantic Basildon, Wapping, Dagenham and Southend.
This didn't stop Kula Shaker from celebrating the 'A303', which is, in fact, a delightful road – but UK audiences are
prejudiced against this idea. (Talking of Wiltshire does anyone remember 'Warminster Woman' by Bronco?) The
English can't see their country as heroic and epic in the way that the Scots and the Welsh do. Maybe it's the lack of
mountains.
Popular songs do, however, often mention London and its environs: 'Streets Of London', 'Waterloo Sunset', 'London
Calling', 'London, Can You Wait?', 'London Traffic', 'A-Bomb In Wardour Street', 'London', 'Londinium', 'Finchley
Central', 'Baker Street', 'West End Girls', 'Portobello Road', 'Wild West End', 'I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea', 'Last
Night In Soho', 'White Man In The Hammersmith Palais'. Mind you, the nearest we get to Berry's roll-call of place
names in 'Sweet Little Sixteen' is The Smiths' 'Panic', which mentions London, Birmingham, Dublin, Dundee,
Humberside, Grassmere, Leeds and Carlisle. There's also 'Winchester Cathedral', 'Fog On The Tyne', 'Solsbury Hill',
'Penny Lane', 'England Swings', 'England Rocks', 'Oh England My Lionheart' and 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. The
Isle Of Wight gets a mention in 'Happy Jack' and 'When I'm Sixty Four', and Salisbury in 'Sat In Your Lap'.
Telephones and Letters
Places often evoke distances, and distances evoke separated people, who need either letters and telephones, or
transport. Lyrics based on phone calls include 'Memphis, Tennessee', R.E.M.'s 'South Central Rain', 'Rikki Don't
Lose That Number', 'Beechwood 4-5789', 'Telephone Line', 'Telefone (Long Distance Love Affair)', 'Girl On The
Phone', 'Baby Don't Forget My Number', 'Just Seven Numbers (Can Straighten Out My Life)', 'I Just Called To Say I
Love You' and Blondie's Hanging On The Telephone'. 'Sylvia's Mother' had a protagonist who kept getting asked for
another 40 cents by the operator. The post features in 'The Letter', 'Please Mr Postman', 'Return To Sender', 'Dear
John' (John R. Sullivan, 1985), 'Paperback Writer' and 'P.S. I Love You'.
Mobile phones and email will probably feature soon in pop hits of the 21st Century.
Cars
Ever since Chuck Berry and the birth of rock'n'roll at a time when teenagers were obsessed with getting their hands
on the wheel, pop lyrics have often revolved around cars: 'Pink Cadillac', 'Little Red Corvette', 'Mustang Sally',
'Drive My Car', 'Day Tripper', 'Cars', 'A Car That Sped', 'Big Yellow Taxi', 'Little Deuce Coupe', 'Mercedes Benz',
'Car Wash', 'Get Out Of My Dream, Get Into