SONGS WHERE/SONGS THAT/SONGS WITH/SONGS IN WHICH

good one - sounds like a precursor to the jaws theme!

Songs that begin with an instrumental imitation of a steam train starting up and gathering speed:

Funky Like a Train by The Equals
Europe by Train by The Divine Comedy

― Non meat-eaters rejoice – our culture has completely lost its way (ledge), Wednesday, March 10, 2021 3:21 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Johnny Cash - Orange Blossom Special
Justin Townes Earle - Halfway to Jackson
Miranda Lambert - Locomotive

This may be too common especially in rap but I'm interested in Songs Not Explicitly About A Place But That Feature Lyrics That Hint The Characters/Story Exists In A Specific Place To An Extent You Think The Song Represents That Place Better Than Songs Explicitly About The Place

any examples?

The Hold Steady's "Little Hoodrat Friend" for Minneapolis. I started thinking about this when listening to Neko Case's "Margaret vs. Pauline," which has the line "Two girls ride the blue line," which I assume is a Chicago reference?

Is it? I never knew where that song was set, which I guess is your point (Minneapolis has a blue line!)

To be clear, I'm not sure about the Case reference - my guess comes from the fact that she lived in / has roots in Chicago and there are other Chicago references on Fox Confessor, like the intro to "Star Witness" - but this got me thinking about the prompt.

Maybe "Echo Beach" by Martha and the Muffins, about Toronto? (They did put a map of the city on their album cover, and there actually is an Echo Beach now, named after the song.)

This may be too common especially in rap

yes, this is every rap song haha. "regulate" and "gin & juice" both specifically mention the "lbc"

I'm having trouble thinking of songs that strongly evoke a particular city or town without at least naming streets or landmarks (which even that Hold Steady song seems to do). There are songs like "Every Day Is Like Sunday" that have a strong sense of place but without getting specific.

Then there's "Take Me Home, Country Roads," which DOES explicitly mention place... but it's the wrong place.

Bill Danoff was from Massachusetts, and had first considered "Almost heaven, Massachusetts..."

He was (the story goes) inspired by driving to visit Taffy Nivert's family in Maryland. In December 1970 the two of them sat down with John Denver in Washington DC to work on the song.

The line "Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River" always bugged me because those are mostly in Virginia (though a little bit of each does cross in to WV, so we'll allow it).

Hence: the song was inspired by drives through Maryland, mixed with memories of Massachusetts. It was written in Washington DC and prominently name-drops geographical features that are predominantly in Virginia. Yet it is West Virginia's state song.

Back in Your Life by Jonathan Richman and "Snow" from the movie White Christmas are both about Vermont without naming it.

Songs that were "jump the shark" moments for bands:

Megadeth - Crush Em

Songs which are deliberately set up to sound like the band are playing out of time until you realise it's all a brilliant trick

The Fall - I Am Damo Suzuki
Crime - Murder By Guitar

PiL - Pop Tones

There's this thing called "A Day in the Life" offa some Bea'uls record, maybe you've heard of it

but that doesn't do that

every Chief Keef song but except it's not intentional

(batsignal sent, *sit back and wait*)

Song titles that are the full name of a (non-fictional) person:

"Tim McGraw" (T. Swift)
"Pete Davidson" (A. Grande)
"Cath Carroll" (Unrest)
"Rosa Parks" (Outkast)
"Clint Eastwood" (Gorillaz)

"Jessica Simpson" (the Moldy Peaches guy)

"Brian Wilson" - Barenaked Ladies

"faron young" (prefab sprout)
"lee remick" (the go-betweens)

"Virginia Woolf" (Indigo Girls)

"Debbie Harry" (Family Fodder)
"Winona Ryder" (Unrest)

(just now learned that the latter song is derived from the former, which I had never heard of)

"The Ballad of Davy Crockett"

^disqualified!!

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Magic Johnson

Sheck Wes - Mo Bamba

oh man, I should have thought of "Magic Johnson"!

Rick Ross - Gunplay f. Gunplay

“David Bowie” - phish

'Andy Warhol' - David Bowie

Duck Sauce • Barbra Streisand

lots of ‘em here:

Songs with footballers in their titles

“Alex Chilton” - the Replacements

Oh, good catch

“P.F. Sloan” - Jimmy Webb
“Buddy Holly” - Weezer
“Frank Sinatra” - Cake

"Penelope Tree" - Felt

"Ry Cooder" and "Jim Cain" by Bill Callahan

"Marilyn Monroe" – Dan Bern

"Jacques Derrida" - Scritti Politti
"Perry Como" - Sean O'Hagan
"Van Dyke Parks" - Van Dyke Parks

Uma Thurman - Fall Out Boy

Tiger Woods - Dan Bern

Bands named after songs from the Talking Heads:

Big Country
Radio head

"Robert Montgomery" by Love.
"James Dean" by Eagles.

Bands named after songs by Can:

Spoon
Moonshake
Hunters & Collectors

Bands named after songs from the Talking Heads:

Heaven

xxp
"River Phoenix" (Japanther)
"Stanley Kubrick" (Mogwai)

"Woody Allen" (Unrest)