THE STATE WE'RE IN - New York

10 Songs about........

New York

We’re cheating a bit this month, what with the city having the same name as the state, but we’re hope you’ll forgive that as pretty much every one of these is a coconut.

The Only Living Boy In New York – Simon And Garfunkel

Inspiration for one of the great unlikely reworkings – Carter USM’s The Only Living Boy In New Cross – Paul wrote this as a little pop at Arty when the latter swanned off to Mexico to act in the movie of Catch 22, which was thought to be unfilmable and… pretty much was.

New York State Of Mind – Billy Joel

The boy from the Bronx’s ode to his home town was on 1976’s Turnstiles, as Billy returned to New York from the West Coast, disenchanted with LA. An aching celebration of the city.

New York, New York – Frank Sinatra

The Chairman of the Board with probably his most iconic hit, apart from maybe My Way, but it was originally written for Liza Minnelli and performed by her in the Martin Scorsese film of the same name. But it’s the Sinatra one that they play at Yankee Stadium.

Englishman In New York – Sting

Love the video for this (directed by Se7en helmer David Fincher, funnily enough). The song, of course, was about good old Quentin Crisp, a true English eccentric and lover of NY. Remember The Naked Civil Servant on the telly? That was ace. We like our toast done on one side, too.

Fairytale Of New York – The Pogues

About the only Christmas song that isn’t total rubbish. Unlock your inner Irishman and blub / shout along. Poor Kirsty MacColl: what a bloody shame.

Big Noise, New York – Jennifer Warnes

Steely Dan genius Donald Fagen penned this jazzy noodler for Jennifer’s 1992 album The Hunter – the follow-up to the acclaimed set of Leonard Cohen covers Famous Blue Raincoat that put her on the map, and reintroduced Leonard to the limelight ahead of his brilliant I’m Your Man.

New York Mining Disaster 1941 – The Bee Gees

The first single released by the group in the USA; they got the idea sitting in the echoing stairwell of Polydor Records. Says Maurice Gibb: “The whole atmosphere was of being in a mine hole and we were also inspired by the Aberfan mining disaster in Wales which had taken place about half a year earlier in October 1966.” Saturday Night Fever, it ain’t. We still like ‘Fanny, Be Tender,’ and not just because it sounds rude. But mostly.

Piazza, New York Catcher – Belle And Sebastian

Here’s an unlikely subject for a song from the gorgeously drippy Glaswegian indie collective: the New York Mets baseball catcher, Mike Piazza. “San Francisco’s calling us the Giants and Mets will play / Piazza, New York catcher are you straight or are you gay?” Piazza used a 2002 a press conference to declare: not gay.

Safe In New York City – AC/DC

From their 2000 album Stiff Upper Lip, this song gained gravity, not to say controversy, after the 9/11 attacks. It was included on a list of “lyrically questionable songs” by the Clear Channel Communications Group, a huge US radio conglomerate that controlled over 1,200 stations. Others on the list: Crash And Burn by Savage Garden, Big Bang Baby by Stone Temple Pilots… and Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles.

New York Telephone Conversation – Lou Reed

A strange and amusing cut from his brilliant Transformer album, this is 90 seconds of weird paranoia, world-weary humour and unexpected sweetness. “I was sleeping, gently napping, when I heard the phone. Who is on the other end talking, am I even home?” And who hasn’t felt that at one time or another?

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