Songs about cities, continued! Sweet Home San Diego

So since I just did two songs about Portland, OR - I figured I should probably show a little love for my own hometown of San Diego, CA. "America's Finest City" (according to the seal on our police cars). I actually couldn't think of that many, possibly because San Diego is a big city, but it's not like a big city -

 we're not NYC




we're not Los Angeles




we're not even San Francisco





And I feel songs about places in general can be tricky, is it an homage, or just where the song was written, or is it just the feeling evoked in/of that place. Some places are probably namechecked a lot more frequently than others, and San Diego is not one of those places. Which is kind of sad, because it is lovely. Sand and water and desert and Mexico next-door, that should be plenty of inspiration, right?


California as a whole gets a lot of love - for example, this classic ode, where 2Pac does in fact say "it's all good from Diego to the Bay."






*** But just about San Diego?***






One of the most famous San Diego related songs, though it is mentioned solely in the title,  is "San Diego Serenade" - Tom Waits - which is an amazing song. (Tom Waits grew up in San Diego, see, we are like, connected!). That voice! I love him. Hard. Which reminds me that Tom Waits is one of the few people on my list of people I would like to see live in concert before I die. I need to get on that!






Then because I was a teenager then, you get two 90s songs about San Diego. Neither of the videos really prominently features SD places though, which is really sad. According to YouTube comments, the Sprung Monkey song is actually filmed in San Pedro?? Very sad. I have to say I am mildly irked that these are the limited offerings out there! These songs got a lot of airplay on SD local radio, so hearing them again really makes me nostalgic, LOL, even though the videos are not great / do not do the place justice. The music is very classically of that time/place though. Ska/punky... oohh the joys of my adolescence.

"My Town" - Buck O Nine



"Get Em Outta Here" - Sprung Monkey









Going in a completely different direction from that type of music, the always-amazing Stephin Merritt's side-project The 6ths have a wonderful song entitled "San Diego Zoo" (no real video of course, but listen to the song, it's great - link goes to a YouTube with animal pictures set to the audio). Again no footage of beautiful SD, or our fabulous zoo (the zoo by which all zoos are measured!).


Then I just googled San Diego songs, which led me to a Yelp discussion thread which basically just mentions these same few songs, and then this video: "San Diego Song" - The Coronas - I have never heard of them, apparently they are Irish or something? Parts of the video appear to be beachy. I find this rather bland.








San Diego, we could be doing better. Not just in terms of songs, but videos too - I want some great shots of downtown at night, I want the Coronado Bay bridge...




I am tempted to include the theme song to the now-defunct but spectacular-while-it-lasted Terriers, which was set in Ocean Beach (which is part of SD, but portrayed in the show as being more distinct/own police etc), and filmed there. Which helped draw me into the series, and also made me horribly homesick every week as they traipsed around town, like when they'd go to Balboa Park. Why aren't more shows filmed thereabouts? Loved it.

The theme is great and very surf-rock vibey and catchy. It definitely makes me think of home. And they reference Ysidro (San Ysidro is part of SD and has the world's busiest land border crossing to Mexico according to Wikipedia), so that counts as a San Diego song in my book.

"Gunfight Ephiphany (theme from Terriers)" - Robert Duncan







WOW. I know this post is much much larger than I intended now. Sorry. I got carried away. (I also thought I should look at some YouTube videos of flyovers of San Diego scenery, but that made me a little sad so I had to stop that, haha.)

So I will end this with the most recent, and my favorite of this list (or at least tied with Tom Waits cause that's a classic). And it is perfect because it mentions both where I came from ("the birthplace of the summer") and where I live now ("where the forest and the water become one"), which seems to me almost like fate, because what are the odds of that happening, statistically? I certainly never thought about it when I first heard this song a long long time ago.

"June on the West Coast" - Bright Eyes







Any ones that I have missed, other native San Diegans?
Or thoughts about your own hometowns, readers?