Los Angeles. City of Angels. La La Land. Etc. A place where dreams go to die and cool songs sprout from their ashes. In no particular order, here are our favourite tunes about LA County. The picture above is by Ron Reiring.
Frank Black – Los Angeles
The frontman of The Pixies has made lots of albums away from the band, and they contain many a fine ditty indeed. This 1992 tune where Frank repeatedly yells “I wanna live in Los Angeles” comes from his debut solo album. Most importantly, the video features him riding a hovercraft.
Donna Summer – Sunset People
Disco icon Donna Summer had a slew of brilliant and influential tunes between 1975 and 1982, not least this 1979 pumping little number about the most famous street in LA, Sunset Boulevard.
Bran Van 3000 – Drinking in LA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQsQZvsR_QI
A big hit in the late 1990s after it featured in a beer advert, this one-hit wonder from Bran Van 3000 fuses lazy murmuring over lo-fi guitars and a funky break to remind us all about the perils of drinking in LA, a city notorious for having one of the highest incidence of DUIs in the USA.
Frank Zappa – Valley Girl
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb21lsCQ3EM
The excellently-named Moon Unit helped her father Frank Zappa with this satirical 1982 cult tune about the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles. The song captures the idiosyncratic vernacular that would pepper the dialogue of teen films for the entire decade.
Randy Newman – I Love LA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0b5LzCOc98E
Randy Newman, a man whose warbly piano tunes have now pestered movie soundtracks for decades, had one of his finest and most iconic tunes with “I Love LA”, a song that celebrates the city’s highs and lows. It is EXTREMELY catchy and probably the song of choice if you ever ride around the city’s beaches in a convertible.
The Fall – LA
One of the late John Peel’s favourite bands gave us this uncharacteristically lucid hip dirge from 1985. For a band that comes from the heart of the UK’s Manchester music scene, Mark E Smith’s prolific shambles had a large influence on the Californian indie bands such as Pavement that would later spring up in the 1990s – but unlike most of their pretenders, The Fall is still going.
A Tribe Called Quest – I Left My Wallet in El Segundo
This charming anecdote about a road trip, along with its entertaining video was one of the most celebrated of A Tribe Called Quest’s singles, a band seen as key to the early 90s “native tongues” hip hop scene along with De La Soul.
Lemon D – This is LA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqXm7stfuLo
A mid-90s underground classic for old-school beat heads. Although Lemon D is a Londoner, he captured the sense of urgency and danger that surrounded the Californian city during the early 90s.
Kool & The Gang – Hollywood Swinging
In 1973, the album that everybody could dig was Wild & Peaceful by Kool & The Gang. It had two instantly recognisable hits: Jungle Boogie and this groovy number about the most famous area in LA.
The Doors – LA Woman
This classic 1971 Doors song combines throwback blues with a kinetic thrust that makes for a perfect tune when driving at night down the freeways of LA County.
Can – Bel Air
You can’t really tell what Damo Suzuki is saying, as with all of his records during his tenure as Can’s singer, but we’re sure that the Japanese frontman of the influential German band was talking about how sunny and nice LA’s Bel Air is while the song melds between an increasingly chugging beat and ambient ethereality. Like most of Can’s Suzuki output, it sounds way ahead of the early 1970s period when it appeared.
And finally…
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air – Will Smith & Jazzy Jeff
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nCqRmx3Dnw
One of the most recognisable tunes of the 1990s (you’re already singing it in your head, aren’t you) came about because a young Will Smith, despite earlier rap success, was useless with money and completely broke, owing the IRS nearly $3 million in tax penalties.
Out of desperation he decided he would agree to the next offer of work that came along. It turned out that offer was on an NBC children’s sitcom, and thus a TV legend was born.
