JUKEBOX: Big Black Smoke
Tonight I’ll be leavin’ on a jet plane across the pond to my spiritual home, London. As a self-proclaimed anglophile, the city fills my heart with wonder. I plan on enjoying some top-notch scones, more tea than anyone should ever consume, and some quality time staring dreamily at the Thames. The city can do no wrong in my eyes. In preparation for my week-long vacation in the town dubbed by natives as “The Big Black Smoke,” REBEAT is offering you this compilation of songs celebrating London for all it’s greatness and faults. This JUKEBOX also answers the question, “How many Kinks songs can you put on a playlist?” The answer is a lot, but never enough.
1) “Itchycoo Park,” Small Faces (1967)
There isn’t really a park called Itchycoo (although don’t you think there should be by now?), but the song is about an actual London suburb green called Little Ilford Park. The word “itchycoo” refers to stinging nettles which could be found there. The Ronnie Lane-penned track off is one of those perfectly encapsulating songs of the mid-t0-late ’60s in British music: a touch of pop, a bit of psychedelia, and a sprinkling of whimsy. This is sure to get stuck in your head while you’re taking a nice stroll in a park.
2) “London, Bye, Ta Ta”,” David Bowie (1968)
Early Bowie never gets enough press. For the man who has gone through many transformations in his career, we travel back to his Mod days where other than voice, you’d never think this was the same man who brought us “Ziggy Stardust.” This bouncy tune, in both sound and lyric, is reminiscent of other popular groups at the time including the Kinks, Small Faces, and Beatles. While the song doesn’t necessarily celebrate London, it reveals a common trait of any city-dweller, the desire to get away. But surely everyone always returns to London…
3) “White City Fighting,” Pete Townshend (1985)
White City is a district of London, part of Pete Townshend’s old Shepherd’s Bush stomping grounds as a young man. Nowadays you can find some BBC offices and a large shopping complex in White City. But this song refers to racial tensions in ’60s London, as cultures clashed in an already confused post-War world and the conflict between one’s love for their hometown roots and the social history of where they live. Townshend attempts to reconcile the legacy of the past with a a vague sense of hope on the album, White City: A Novel. For another perspective, check out the 1986 Julien Temple film Absolute Beginners, which also features some White City fighting.
4) “Waterloo Sunset,” The Kinks (1967)
It’s hard to choose just one Kinks song about London. Admittedly it seems like half their discography alludes to the city in one way or another. Perhaps the most endearing slice-of-life love song to London, “Waterloo Sunset” is like a fine watercolor, capturing a soft image of an imperfect city, including its “dirty old river” in its most beautiful light. It is an ode to London lovers and lovers in general; interestingly,Ray Davies claims that the Terry and Julie of the song are not Terrance Stamp and Julie Christie as many have assumed over the years, but rather just composit characters representing an idealic modern love story.
5) “Down in the Tube Station at Midnights,” The Jam (1978)
The Jam took the lead of the mod-revival movement of the late ’70s in tandem with the rising popularity of new wave and punk. This track takes on a grittier view of London, the violence, dirt, poverty as emphasized by Paul Weller’s heavily accented vocals and Bruce Foxton’s pounding bass. It is the tale of a man on his way home “home to [his] wife” who is mugged by miscreants while waiting for a train in the tube station. It’s certainly not a positive homage to London, but nonetheless apt and somehow loving in it’s brutal honesty. A city is built from the good and bad, and London offers a bit of everything.
Check out the rest of our JUKEBOX London collection below, which features 29 songs.
Is your favorite London song missing from our list? Tell us in the comments!
-
Emma Olivia Sedam