Take 4th Street to Electric Avenue to Funkytown

August 27, 2010 4:21 PM

Street Names In Songs, where can I find a list? I'm looking for street names or places in Western pop music, ideally from the 50s-70s. I'm looking more for fictional or slang names rather than real place names, and street-square-neighborhood names over city names.
posted by The Whelk to Media & Arts (22 answers total)

Baker Street
Mile End

(things like this?)
posted by Lucinda at 4:29 PM on August 27, 2010

A little later than the time you're looking for, but Prince went down to Alphabet Street.
posted by punchdrunkhistory at 4:35 PM on August 27, 2010

They don't name the streets but . . . Take it Easy has the classic line: Standin on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.
posted by kbar1 at 4:36 PM on August 27, 2010

Penny Lane

Sesame Street

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posted by jejune at 4:50 PM on August 27, 2010

If this isn't a TVTrope, it should be...
posted by schmod at 6:23 PM on August 27, 2010

Since you specified a preference for the fictional, there's "Lonely Street" in Elvis' "Heartbreak Hotel" ("It's down at the end of Lonely Street...").
posted by amyms at 7:11 PM on August 27, 2010

53rd and 3rd.
posted by Max Power at 7:20 PM on August 27, 2010

Some more fictional ones:

Margaritaville (Jimmy Buffett)
Paradise City (Guns N Roses)
Suffragette City (David Bowie)
Butt Town (Iggy Pop)
Surf City (Jan & Dean -- although it's not entirely fictional because it was referring to the city of Huntington Beach at the time, and has since been adopted as an official nickname)
posted by amyms at 7:26 PM on August 27, 2010

Across 110th Street - Bobby Womack
posted by buckaroo_benzai at 8:23 PM on August 27, 2010

Boston's Real Kids and Modern Lovers specialized in "geographical songs" that namechecked both specific streets (e.g. Boylston St. in the Modern Lovers' "The Modern World") and local neighborhoods, towns, and squares (for example, the Fenway and Beverly in the ML's "Girlfriend" and "Fly into the Mystery" and - obliquely - the now-vanished Scollay Square in the Real Kids' "Common at Noon".)
posted by ryanshepard at 10:09 PM on August 27, 2010

Hope Road by Anne Clark
posted by vespabelle at 10:12 PM on August 27, 2010

Warwick Avenue, by Duffy. According to Wikipedia it's actually a London tube station, though clearly there is also a street by that name.
posted by Sara C. at 11:26 PM on August 27, 2010

Ludlow Street (Suzanne Vega)
A nightingale sang in Barkely Square (Harry Connick Jr.)
posted by alchemist at 12:06 AM on August 28, 2010

Telegraph Road by Dire Straits which is about US 24 in and around Detroit.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 12:29 AM on August 28, 2010

It seems like people are missing this part of the OP's question: I'm looking more for fictional or slang names rather than real place names [emphasis mine]

Anyway, how could I omit my favorite song?! Thunder Road (Bruce Springsteen)
posted by amyms at 1:25 AM on August 28, 2010

Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah - LSD (Lake Shore Drive)
OP said slang was OK.
posted by InsertNiftyNameHere at 1:36 AM on August 28, 2010

Lonely Street (where Heartbreak Hotel is)
Easy Street (this is in several songs, also the song of that same name from "Annie")
Flamingo Lane (Jungleland)



Does "Where the streets have no name" count?
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:04 PM on August 28, 2010

FYI, there actually IS an "Electric Avenue" where I live.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 12:05 PM on August 28, 2010

Funkytown
Fascination St, Love St. , Dirty Blvd, Electric Avenue, Heartache Avenue
posted by Ideefixe at 12:07 PM on August 28, 2010

Update: Flamingo Lane is referenced in Backstreets, not Jungleland.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 1:27 PM on August 28, 2010

Love Street by the Doors.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 4:52 PM on August 28, 2010

Late Night, Maudlin Street
posted by candyland at 4:53 PM on August 28, 2010