Songs About San Francisco
Guess what’s back for November? Yes, that’s right, it is the Top 5 City Songs. This new installment is the city by the bay that holds a special place in my heart. It is a city I have not been to in a little over a decade which seems like a travesty. In my twenties I would drive up for a long weekend at least once a month, sometimes more. I got married there once. I stayed the weekend in a mortuary once. I played in parks, danced in clubs, drank in bars, saw some amazing bands, had an all-night Yahtzee game in previously mentioned mortuary, and decided to move to the city once. We didn’t move though. If we had I think it would have changed things for the better, at least for awhile, but that wasn’t the path we chose.
That regret, maybe it is what has kept me away, but I hope to go back there next year and break the self-imposed distance I have had with a city I truly love for far too long.
“It’s an odd thing, but anyone who disappears
is said to be seen in San Francisco.
It must be a delightful city and possess
all the attractions of the next world” ~ Oscar Wilde
“It seemed like a matter of minutes when we began rolling in the foothills before Oakland and suddenly reached a height and saw stretched out ahead of us the fabulous white city of San Francisco on her eleven mystic hills with the blue Pacific and its advancing wall of potato-patch fog beyond, and smoke and goldenness in the late afternoon of time.” ~ Jack Kerouac
“The city of San Francisco engulfed their view through the front windshield. The dazzling light of the late morning sun transformed every glass and metal surface into a silvery mirage.” ~ Victoria Kahler
“The number of foggy days over the city is never reported, reportedly. But take it from me— there’s enough to satisfy everyone, and dissatisfy somebody.” ~ Herb Caen
“San Francisco can start right now to become number one. We can set examples so that others will follow. We can start overnight. We don’t have to wait for budgets to be passed, surveys to be made, political wheelings and dealings…….for it takes no money……it takes no compromising to give the people their rights……it takes no money to respect the individual. It takes no political deal to give people freedom. It takes no survey to remove repression.” ~ Harvey Milk
Following are my Top 5 songs about the New York. Do you have any?
1. San Francisco Days (live) :: Chris Isaak
“I still want you.
I still need you.
I still love you.”
2. Lights :: Journey
“I want to get back to my city by the bay.”
3. Fake Tales of San Francisco :: Arctic Monkeys
“There’s a super cool band yeah,
with their trilbies and their glasses of white wine,
and all the weekend rock stars in the toilets,
practicing their lines.”
4. San Francisco :: Scott MacKenzie
“If you’re going to San Francisco,
be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.”
5. Golden Gate Jumpers :: The Cold War Kids
“Ma’am how was your day?
Keep your eyes on my face,
I want to help you if you’ll let me.”
