Playlist
From NextGenWiki
Songs that evoke the spirit of New Urbanism.
Contents |
[edit] The New Urbanist Playlist
- Big Yellow Taxi - Joni Mitchell (lyrics) - aka "Paved Paradise"
- Come Dancing - The Kinks (lyrics) - "The day they knocked down the palais my sister stood and cried"
- Imaginary Wars - Mark Erelli (lyrics) - "All for a buck they cut down all those trees; They subdivided all of my fondest memories."
- Little Boxes - Malvina Reynolds (The classic suburban critique song a la "the organization man")
- Mmm... Skyscraper I Love You - Underworld
- My City was Gone - The Pretenders (lyrics) - Ohio
- Nothing but Flowers - The Talking Heads
- Baba O'Riley (often known as "Teenage Wasteland") - The Who
- Traffic Jam - James Taylor (lyrics)
- The Suburbs (album) - including "Sprawl II" - Arcade Fire
- Subdivision - Ani DiFranco (lyrics)
- Subdivisions - Rush
- Walking in L.A - The Missing Persons (lyrics)
[edit] Rural + Urbanist playlist
- Everything Green - Christine Kane (lyrics) -
[edit] The Smart Growth plug-in
- Bicycle Race - Queen
[edit] The Cities plug-in
- Down on the Corner - Creedence Clearwater Revival
- Lights - Journey (lyrics) - San Francisco
- Peach Tree Street - Rosemary Clooney and Frank - Atlanta, GA
- Sounds of the City - Bouncing Souls - City? (Band is from NY/NJ)
- Urban Spaceman - Bonzo Dog Do Da Band - Video
- The Village Green Preservation Society - The Kinks (lyrics) "Preserving the old ways from being abused, Protecting the new ways for me and for you"
[edit] Boston
- Boston - Augustana
- Dirty Water - The Standells (lyrics)
[edit] New York City
- Autumn in New York - Billie Holiday(lyrics) / Vernon Duke
- Nolita Fairytale - Vanessa Carlton (especially the video) - New York City
- Summer in the City - The Lovin' Spoonful (video)
[edit] To Be Filed
Unedited/unsorted list via Pro-Urb
- Cities - Talking Heads from their "Fear of Music" album. - "Down el Paso way things get pretty
spread out | People got no idea where in the world they are | They go up north and come back south | Still got no idea where in the world they are."
- Small Town - John Cougar Mellencamp
- Manhattan (Lyrics by: Lorenz Hart; Music by: Richard Rodgers; From the Show: The Garrick Gaieties (1925))
- Mission in the Rain - Jerry Garcia/ Robert Hunter
- Telegraph Road - Dire Straits (the evolution of towns, and some unfortunate consequences of sprawl growth)
- Downtown - Greg Brown
- Crescent City - Lucinda Williams
- Baton Rouge - Lucinda Williams
- Graceland - Paul Simon
- I love L.A.! - Randy Newman
- Empire State Of Mind - Alicia Keys / Jay Z
- May Darling Hometown - John Prine
- Summertime - Will Smith
- Miami - Will Smith
- I Love Paris - Cole Porter
- Stars Fell On Alabama
- Our Town - Iris Dement
- Gee, Officer Krupke - West Side Story
- Take The A Train - Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus
- Subdivisions - Rush (and video by Jacob Moon)
- Our Little Town - Gre Brown
- Morning Morgantown - Joni Mitchell
- Native New Yorker - Odyssey
- The Last Resort - The Eagles
- Melanie Hammet
- American Pie - Don McLean
- Baltimore - Randy Newman (alternate version by Nils Lofgren)
[edit] One-Liners
For song excerpts that are applicable but rest of the song doesn't quite fit.
"Woke up, it was a Chelsea morning, and the first thing that I heard
Was a song outside my window, and the traffic wrote the words
It came a-reeling up like Christmas bells, and rapping up like pipes and drums"
- "Chelsea Morning," Joni Mitchell
"I hope this old train breaks down, then I could take a walk around
See what there is to see, time is just a melody
With all the people in the street walking fast as their feet
Can take them, I just roll through town"
-"Breakdown," Jack Johnson
"City center used to the center of our scene
but now city center's over, no one really goes there."
-"Your Little Hoodrat Friend," Separation Sunday, The Hold Steady
"I'm waking up at the start of the end of the world,
but its feeling just like every other morning before,
Now I wonder what my life is going to mean if it's gone,
The cars are moving like a half a mile an hour and I
and started staring at the passengers who're waving goodbye"[1]
-"How Far We've Come," Matchbox Twenty
[edit] Band Quotes
"I think for me it's much healthier to be able to acknowledge what's come before and then try to do something different with it."
- Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand, "What the World is Waiting For: British Indie Rock," Seven Ages of Rock. 2007. VH1 Classic/BBC.
