What is it about NYC’s Chelsea Neighborhood in Song Lyrics?
Nov 27th, 2007 by larryk@webinteractiveconsulting.com
Every singer knows that its an easy win with the crowd to pay tribute to the city you’re playing in to get them on your side. The typical concert-going crowd will go nuts if a singer says the name of their city almost regardless of what they say about it. There’s nothing wrong with leveraging the simple fact that the majority of people take pride in where they live but it has become so common and transparent that its almost shameful.
To take this a step further, some songs pay tribute to a city or neighborhood through their storytelling and some songs were written for the sole purpose of celebrating a city. Frank Sinatra comes to mind immediately of course, and who doesn’t love his tributes to New York and Chicago. The New York Yankees play “New York, New York” after every home game, though the Sinatra version only plays after a win and the Liza Minnelli version is played on the less than victorious days. The Counting Crows seem to pay tribute to tribute to almost every U.S. city in one song or another: from Omaha to Los Angeles to New York.
With all of the homage being paid to just about every city on the map, there is something about New York City in song lyrics. New York City is given further flattery as just about every neighborhood in the city has been recognized in one or many songs. The Chelsea neighborhood in New York City is a relatively small area of the city, yet it shows up in multiple songs by very popular bands. Third Eye Blind gives Lower Chelsea a mention in their “Motorcycle Drive By” lyrics and the Counting Crows dedicated an entire song about New York to the neighborhood in their song “Chelsea.” The Counting Crows song says “I never go to New York City these days, Something about the buildings in Chelsea just kills me.” Chelsea is largely residential, so it leaves us to wonder if the line refers to an ex-girlfriend’s apartment in Chelsea. This is part of the magic of music, that it is left to our imagination. Chelsea, for being such a small neighborhood, certainly gets a lot of accolades.