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Favorite Songs About Minnesota
Mine would have to be Augie Garcia's lost classic "Be My Guest" about the River Road Club in Mendota, although I have also always been partial to The Replacement's "Skyway." What are your favorites?
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"Minneapolis" by Lucinda Williams
"A Friend to the Minnesota Strangler" by Pinetop Seven
"Meet me in the Morning" by Bob Dylan
"Ninth and Hennepin" and "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" by the legendary Tom Waits.
Does the Gear Daddy's "I want to drive the Zamboni" count?
I think anything by the Gear Daddies counts.
kurtis...why is Tom Waits "legendary" but Bob Dylan just Bob Dylan?
While it's not necessarily about MN, Johnny Cash name-drops St. Paul in "Big River"
"Land O Lakes" by The Bats
"Minnesoter" by The Dandy Warhols
"Duluth" by Mason Jennings
"Franklin Avenue" by Jeremy Messersmith
"Cold White Christmas" by Casiotone for the Painfully Alone
Pretty much every second Hold Steady song
"Highway 61" by the legendary Bob Dylan
"Funkytown" by the legendary Lipps, Inc.
"10,000 Lakes" by Kid Dakota
Here's a history of the Minnesota State Song, composed by the legendary Truman Rickurd.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hail!_Minnesota
Anyone know of a classical piece composed about Minnesota?
I mean, the legendary Gear Daddies are fine, but how about something with a little elegance?
"Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone" by John Prine
Thinking about that Bob Dylan song Meet Me In the Morning.
I don't think there is a 56th and Wabasha but I found an interesting blog entry on the number 56.
"Fifty-six is responsible for some primo sepia-toned moments of the past century—Joe DiMaggio hit in 56 consecutive games, Shirley Temple had exactly 56 curls on her head, to name two—but these admittedly alluring phenomena did not inspire songwriters to render specific numerical homage. Thus, 56 is perhaps best known to rock enthusiasts not through a song title but for a brief but memorable walk-on part in a Bob Dylan song that goes:
Meet me in the morning, 56th and Wabasha
Meet me in the morning, 56th and Wabasha
Honey, we could be in Kansas
By time the snow begins to thaw
If you read on, the blogger calls the U of M, the "University of St. Paul."
As if.
http://www.merryswankster.com/archives/2008/09/numerology_gett_1.html
Since "Skyways" was already mentioned, I am going to through the 'Mats "I Bought a Headache" into the ring.
"St. Paul Civic center giving me an eight dollar and fifty cent. . . I bought a headache."
"Secretly Minnesotan" by Tullycraft
"2000 Light Years Away" by Green Day
"Minneapolis" by that Dog
"Shhh" by Atmosphere
"Minnesota" by Converge
Oh and
"Here Comes A Regular" Mats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCN4OmUddCo
Reaching back a bit here. The Legendary B.J. Thomas.
Way back when WCCO-AM had a 50% share of the radio audience -- back when we walked uphill, both ways, to school, and everything was written on a chalkboard and gas cost a quarter -- there was a little ditty recorded extolling the virtues of Minneapolis.
I've been trying for track down more information about it but can find little on the Web. It was recorded around the time the Gateway was being demolished for urban renewal and the Nicollet Mall was still just an idea in somebody's mind.
I've got the melody in my head but the only lyric I can remember is "Minneapolis, you're so many things to me ..." I think it was sung by the Ray Coniff singers ... or at least it sounded that way.
Anyone know what I'm talking about?
I did find one reference to it on a playlist from a New Jersey radio station - WFMU -- and an apparent air-date in 2000 when one of their disk jockeys was programming a whole show of "civic booster" songs, e.g. "Best Location In The Nation (C-L-E-V-E-L-A-N-D)."
Oh we're from Minnesota
We like this place to stay
And if you do not care for it
You can go to...
HEY!
We've got the Minnesota Vikings
The Twins and North Stars too
The IDS, all them lakes,
Don't forget two zoos
Oh we're from Minnesota
We like this place to stay
And if you do not care for it
You can go to...
HEY!
- The Minnesota Polka by the Gear Daddies
If we are talking Dylan, we should revisit Highway 61 (audio only YouTube here)
I bet when people first heard Highway 61 they must have been just dumbfounded. The melody, lyric, imagery. Was any singer doing anything remotely like that?
"Love is all around" by RuPaul!
Seein' Double at the Triple Rock by NOFX
It took me nearly 50 years to come around to liking Bob Dylan's music. I bought a newer Dylan CD for my wife as a Christmas gift a couple years ago, and I got hooked.
Now I listen to his old stuff with new appreciation.
The Canoe Song, by Peter Mayer
I don't know how anyone who's been here could think that "Funkytown" is about the Twin Cities.
Maybe it's sung from the point of view of someone who is currently in St. Paul and trying to get somewhere that's grooving with a bit more energy.
hater.
St. Paul is a nice place to be from.
Standing in the Rain by Husker Du: "Standing in the City Center, in the middle of the winter..."
Remember when people used to actually go to the City Center for something other than their jobs at Target Corp?
If I had to pick one Hold Steady Song it would be Southtown Girls.
I love the TC (well, maybe just one of them) and have lived here all my life but would have a hard time being convinced that they are funky. I would blame it on the funereal street life if the bars and clubs weren't so bland and dour. But give me reserved and depressing over in-your-face and depressing any day.
Southtown Girls is great, but I'd pick Little Hoodrat friend, followed by Hornets! Hornets! The most awesome MSP songs ever.
!! "Eden Valley Fox Hunt" !! by the The Hill-Dillies -- seriously, google the lyrics, way too funny..
Love Son Volt's Afterglow 61, too...a great tribute to Highway 61 Revisited.
And let us not forgot the amazingness that is Toolmaster of Brainerd.
Justpbob, I know what you mean. It's been 34 years and I still don't really have an appreciation for Dylan's music.
The irony of Funkytown is that it was considered too funky for the local radio stations to play (until forced to by its national popularity). You're never a prophet in your home town.
"I haven't had a song affect me this way since "Funkytown.'"
Homer Simpson
"Road Less Traveled" by The Unknown Prophets
"MPLS Song" by Pinhead Gunpowder
...are a couple others I enjoy
"Road Less Traveled" by The Unknown Prophets
"MPLS Song" by Pinhead Gunpowder
...are a couple others I enjoy
Kandiyohi by the Honeydogs.
Tom Cochrane's song Big League is supposed to be about George Pelawa.
Maybe it's sung from the point of view of someone who is currently in St. Paul and trying to get somewhere that's grooving with a bit more energy.
That's always been my interpretation of the song, though I wasn't sure if the singer was supposed to be from MPLS or St. Paul.
Another Lucinda Williams song, "Real Live Bleeding Fingers and Broken Guitar Strings," is about Paul Westerberg.
The Okkervil River song "John Allyn Smith Sails" is about the suicide of John Berryman, who jumped off the Washignton Avenue bridge in January 1972. As such, it has references to the bridge, the U of M, and The Brass Rail.
I have always thought that Peter Himmelman's "Dixie, the Tiny Dog" danced on the kitchen floor in the moonlight somewhere here in Minnesota.
The Hold Steady, "Stevie Nix"
...and when we hit the twin cities i didn't know that much about it. i knew mary tyler moore and i knew profane existence. i was keyed up. keys jangled in the stalls. they counted money in the motels. they mostly sold it in the malls. and the carpet at the thunderbird has a burn for every cowboy that got fenced in....
We eat funk for breakfast in St. Paul, redisciple.
But then we're in bed by 10 pm, so we can do that.
Not sure if a body of water counts but for my money...the wreck of the edmund fitzgerald fits the bill.
My Hold Steady nomination would be "Stuck Between Stations."
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention "Girl from the North Country" by the legendary Dylan.
"Kandiyohi" was mentioned already...one of my favorite songs of all.
A number of good tunes mentioned already....another I've always liked is "Sculpture Garden" from Semisonic.
"10,000 Lakes" by Kid Dakota gets my vote, too.
"Say shhh" by atmosphere gets mine. Also, "we're gonna win twins, we're gonna score..."
The quintessential Minnesota song is Northern Light's "Minnesota" -- or maybe you just had to grow up in a place as drolly homogeneous as West Saint Paul in the 70s to feel this way.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZOJ9sOTKjI&feature=channel_page
Not to split hairs, but most of the songs mentioned aren't actually "about" Minnesota. Just because a song refers to something related to Minnesota, it isn't really "about" Minnesota. My Little Hoodrat Friend is a good example.
It's so like Minnesotans to try to find a "Minnesota connection" to every single thing. Embarrassing.
Or you could stop being a busybody and trying to ruin everybody's fun. I'm sort of amazed that you don't find pissing on other people's parades to be embarrassing.
Does a song have to list fun facts to be "about" Minnesota?
Oh, Minnesota,
your state bird is the loon!
You border Wisconsin,
and your gov was a goon!
... and so forth
Hey, my parade is all wet.
Minnesota cold as ice
meth and alcohol is our vice
Artists, rockers, and gays
Lots of sports and plays
northeast, arsty
southwest, fartsy
Powderhorn is fun
Northside, get yer gun
We have a train that goes 11 miles
We dress in all sorts of styles
Some of us go on lots of dates
We sometimes use faulty gusset plates
Somalians, hmong, young and old
did I mention it's fucking cold?
I clearly don't have the talent that it takes
But at least this song is 'about' the land of 10000 lakes.
Interesting, Max! The term "busy body" was originally used in reference to Laura Ingall's frenemy, Nellie Oleson, from Little House On the Prairie, which was set right here in Minnesota.
I kid! But seriously, the Minnesota connection thing is true. And I'm sorry to rain out your parade. I won't do it again.
"Grey haired ladies on the 17
A cheap apartment that you can call your own
Lemon lime Mr. Misty freeze, it's all...
Minneapolis"
No contest. "Minneapolis" by That Dog.
Buck Hill-Replacements
There is also the Minnesota March by John Phillip Sousa which is played by the U's marching band and which was composed specifically for them.
Props to Jenny B for mentioning Shhh.
Though I don't agree with Anonymous in this case (I think most of the songs mentioned are enough about MN for these purposes), it is a habit of Minnesotans to cling to any tenuous connection. Look at the stupid Snoopys/Charlie Browns/etc etc. Charles Schulz didn't feel any affinity for MN yet when he died we flipped out.
Well, the cartoons are rooted in his Minnesota childhood. What's more, I admired him for his work, not his Minnesota connections.
I do see a trend to try and find a local angle to things, esp. in local news (e.g., "Minnesotan among thousands dead in Tsunami"), but see no reason to explore that in this thread.
Yeah, I used to feel the same way about Schulz, but his bio reveals that Peanuts was deeply influenced by his experiences in St. Paul as a child and Minneapolis as a young man.
Re: Charles Schulz. He may have moved to Californ-aye-a back in the '60s but Schulz would often welcome visiting Minnesotans into his home if they happened by. It's not like he shut the door to his past or erase Minnesota from his mind.
One can be born somewhere, move away, and yet still have ties that qualify a person for famous-son status beyond it being simply their birthplace. Schulz began his cartooning education -- and his comic strip career -- in Minnesota. That, to me, gives him a continuing to Minnesota regardless of where he later moved.
Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota: Weird Al Yankovic
You Can't Always Get What You Want: The Rolling Stones
How can a song that namechecks City Center not be about Minneapolis and hence, MN?
Whatevs, anonynmous.
Red light! Red light, run it!
Red light! Red light, run it!
Lyndale, Garfield,
Run it!
The Replacements
There was once a song that had the chorus
Meet me on the Lake St. Bridge
After darkness falls
You, in Minneapolis,
Me here in St, Paul
or something like that.
i like that one.
Agree with anonymous that just because a song mentions Minnesota, it's not about Minnesota.
Here are songs that say something about what it's like to live here:
"Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for L.A." - Waylon Jennings
"Suhi-Yucky" - Pat Donahoe
"Just the Other Side of Nowhere" - Kris Kristofferson
"Outshined" - Soundgarden
"With God On Our Side" - Bob Dylan
"I Can't Have Nothing Nice" - Jeff Bates
I like "Hennepin Avenue Bridge" by Brian Setzer... because I feel like a lot of songs I've come across that mention MN/MPLS are the folksy Dylan types. Nothing wrong with that, but variety is good.
There's also a brief mention of Minnesota in "We Takin' Over" by DJ Khaled, which is infectiously obnoxious.
Ha ha! cmc: A song that "namechecks City Center" means nothing to someone unfamiliar with Minneapolis. If you asked a person from Provo, Utah, what that song is about I'm sure "Minneapolis" wouldn't be their first thought. Your Little Hoodrat Friend is about a lot of things, but Minneapolis is pretty far down on the list. I think it's about the fact that this guy says he'd have nothing to do with a particular person, he finds her sickening and sad, but we learn that it was indeed SHE who said no. So yeah, nothing happened. I also wonder if it has any other meaning in the realm of hoodrats mentioned in other songs. Is CF perhaps hung up on a certain little hoodrat? Anyway, not so much about Minneapolis. "I was sitting on my couch folding laundry, looking out the window at the snow covered houses on Dupont Avenue, when the ambulance sped past. I wondered if it was heading toward someone I knew, or if my husband, who was on patrol at the moment on Lake and Pleasant was somehow involved. Little did I know that my life would change as I sat and folded clothes that day." Not about Minneapolis. Get it?
Ha ha! cmc: A song that "namechecks City Center" means nothing to someone unfamiliar with Minneapolis. If you asked a person from Provo, Utah, what that song is about I'm sure "Minneapolis" wouldn't be their first thought. Your Little Hoodrat Friend is about a lot of things, but Minneapolis is pretty far down on the list. I think it's about the fact that this guy says he'd have nothing to do with a particular person, he finds her sickening and sad, but we learn that it was indeed SHE who said no. So yeah, nothing happened. I also wonder if it has any other meaning in the realm of hoodrats mentioned in other songs. Is CF perhaps hung up on a certain little hoodrat? Anyway, not so much about Minneapolis. "I was sitting on my couch folding laundry, looking out the window at the snow covered houses on Dupont Avenue, when the ambulance sped past. I wondered if it was heading toward someone I knew, or if my husband, who was on patrol at the moment on Lake and Pleasant was somehow involved. Little did I know that my life would change as I sat and folded clothes that day." Not about Minneapolis. Get it?
Minneapolis
Words by Bob Hilliard
Music by Sidney Lippman
Min Min Min Min Min Minneapolis!
Min Min Min Min Min Minneapolis!
Back where the chapel is in Minneapolis
You name the happy day and I'll be there
And you know where!
Back where the chapel is in Minneapolis
All that you have to say is that you care
And I'll be there
I want to walk down the aisle side by side
I want to get in the car for the honeymoon ride
I want a trail of rice to paradise
For everything will be so nice
If the wedding is back where the chapel is in Minneapolis
We'll have a lot of roses everywhere at this affair
So if you love me the way that I want you to love me
We're going to settle down
Back where the chapel is in Minneapolis town
Back where the chapel is in Minneapolis
All that you have to say is that you care
And I'll be there
I want to walk down the aisle side by side
I want to get in the car for the honeymoon ride
I want a trail of rice to paradise
For everything will be so nice
If the wedding is back where the chapel is in Minneapolis
We'll have a lot of roses everywhere at this affair
So if you love me the way that I want you to love me
We're going to settle down
Back where the chapel is in Minneapolis town
Min Min Min Min Min Minneapolis town!
Minneapolis town!!
Bob Hilliard also wrote "Any Day Now," "Dear Hearts and Gentle People," "The Coffee Song," "In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning," "Our Day Will Come," "Dearie," "How Do You Speak to an Angel," and "Ev'ry Street's a Boulevard."
Sidney Lippman also wrote "Too Young," "A - You're Adorable," and "That's the Chance You Take."
The song was recorded by Jill Corey for Columbia in 1954.
Uptown by Prince
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