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The 100 best London songs
London calling! This is the sound of the metropolis, distilled into a hundred songs
In that location are thousands of songs nigh London. Of course in that location are: musicians and poets take been inspired by London for centuries – but while many take just ticked off the landmarks, a few have managed to capture London life or their own time here in a way that has earned them a place in the city's cultural history. From wide-eyed visitors and new arrivals, and from some of the greatest London bands and artists, here are the hundred best London songs according to us. You can utilize the comments box below to tell us all the classics that we missed.
RECOMMENDED: The best songs ever
100. 'Sheila' – Jamie T (2006)
The song'south narrative arc – a lagered-up ladette experiencing a fizzy pop-induced emotional crisis at the height of her lungs – volition be familiar to anyone who's ever been out in Chingford on a Sat night (or Tuesday brunchtime). Nevertheless, the vocal makes this list largely thanks to its canny sampling of John Betjeman's similarly dissolute masterpiece, 'The Cockney Amorist'.
99. 'Crushed Bones' – Why? (2005)
Many Americans view London equally a happy identify, where smile bobbies help royals across the route to the jellied eel shop. Hip hoppers Why?, on the other mitt, see it as a kind of urban Thunderdome, where 'the rain comes downward in tardily July', 'the sirens yelp similar a helpless dog' and 'riders on the tube necktie razors to their elbows'. Guilty as charged on all counts, guv.
98. 'Meet Me In Battersea Park' – Petula Clark (1954)
'If you're a Londoner just like me, run into me in Battersea Park!' sings an unreasonably chirpy Clark, who was obviously either living rough in that location or just really, really ahead of the curve when it came to the flashmob phenomenon. She promises 'music and dancing and a place for romancing', all of which have sadly been outlawed by park ordinances in the intervening years.
97. '8 Miles High' – The Byrds (1966)
Inspired by the band's seemingly less than thrilling starting time trip to London, the song refers to 'a rainy gray boondocks known for its sound' where 'Minor Faces abound'. London, for what it's worth, wasn't so impressed with The Byrds' divaish ways back than, with the press openly mocking imperious guitarist David Crosby'southward omnipresent green greatcoat.
96. 'Soho Foursquare' – Kirsty MacColl (1993)
The lyrics, which refer to waiting for a lover on a bench in the titular micropark, are now engraved on the i nearest the south entrance, the result of a touching campaign by fans of the vocalist to commemorate her tragic death in 2000. MacColl devotees assemble in that location to heighten a toast to MacColl each October 10, on what would have been her birthday.
95. 'London' – Barry Manilow (1980)
Manilow'southward characteristically overblown ode to the world'south all-time greatest city bar none shoehorns in every possible platitude nigh the capital – from Big Ben to cups of tea to 'dodging the rain' into its four-minute running time – and yet all the same sound similar… well, an Ocado society of clichés. But an affectionate and unaffected one.
94. 'I Beloved London' – Crystal Fighters (2009)
On the surface it'due south a but ditty about London's ample opportunities to hear amazing music and meet interesting people at fun parties. Under the surface? Same thing. Merely 'I Dearest London' scores extra points for actively suggesting the protagonists want to go to 'Willesden, Harlesden, Watford Junction'. At present that's commitment.
93. 'Peter the Painter' – Ian Dury (1984)
Dury wrote this song to mark an exhibition by Sir Peter Blake – his former tutor at the RCA – at the Tate Gallery in 1983. Blake spoke to Time Out about the tardily punk singer:
'He was a great poet, wasn't he? In the same vein equally Betjeman or Roger McGough. He used words beautifully, because he was interested in words. He always had dictionaries effectually him. He loved words. I really admired his portrayal of characters in his songs, he could give you a sense of a person in very few lyrical brushstrokes.'
92. 'Ill Manors' – Plan B (2012)
You could call Forest Gate'south Ben Drew a Renaissance man: he's a versatile guy (as an MC, singer-songwriter, actor and film director), and at that place's something of the Shakespearean tragedy about his pitch-blackness country-of-London flick 'Sick Manors'. This title song acts every bit the moving-picture show's chorus: in just under 4 minutes of doomy strings, breakbeats and cruel rhyming, Drew drags you round his ends for a whistlestop bout of David Cameron'southward 'Broken Britain'.
91. 'My Name Is London Boondocks' – Reg Meuross (2013)
Heavily inspired past Ralph McTell'due south busker classic 'Streets of London' (see our Top Ten), and recorded at Abbey Route Studios, Meuross's sweeping, bittersweet glance at the urban center takes in London'south wealth and poverty, its triumph and tragedy. No, it doesn't exactly capture the zeitgeist – this is the town of Dick Whittington and cheeky cockneys rather than Boris Johnson and tech-city hipsters – but if 'My Proper name Is London Town' doesn't bring at least a tiny lump to your throat, you may wish to reconsider calling yourself a Londoner.
90. 'The Grunwick Affair' – Dennis Bovell (1977)
Although trivial talked virtually these days, the industrial dispute which began at Willesden's Grunwick Flick Processing Laboratories paved the way for the 1979 Bourgeois election victory, the miners' strike and all the hilarity which followed. London reggae producer Bovell's dub instrumental (released under the name 4th Street Orchestra) doesn't accept to spell out its fury with words. Unless we're misinterpreting it and he was all in favour of breaking the unions – in which case, maybe this isn't as good a song as we idea.
89. 'Hampstead Way' – Linda Lewis (1971)
Hampstead Way was the location of a commune where Linda Lewis lived, and which was where she first learned to play the guitar and began writing songs. Fortuitously, among the other residents were Robert Wyatt (singer and drummer for The Soft Motorcar), promoter/America manager Jeff Deter and Warner A&R Ian 'Sammy' Samwell, who would ultimately be instrumental in the (nonetheless hugely underrated) soul sensation signing to the label.
88. '14 Hour Technicolour Dream' – The Syn (1967)
This song commemorates a legendary psychedelic all-nighter at Alexandra Palace. Time Out'south sometime art editor Sarah Kent remembers the night:
'The bands were up on a platform in the center of the room, then at that place wasn't a separate phase area and audience surface area, it was all mixed up. Also everybody was pretty stoned, so that fabricated it even more confusing. In the chief surface area people were hanging about only not dancing – I don't remember whatever dancing at all, which was strange. Information technology was a much more freaky, slightly alienated sort of temper. In the side areas I call up a lot of people sitting effectually on the floor; information technology became a kind of happening, and it just seemed to go along and on and on. I remember thinking: This is really weird, only I'm obviously in the right place.'
87. 'Piccadilly' – Clasp (1981)
In the late 1970s Squeeze were masters of the London song, responsible for the ageless rhyme 'I never thought it would happen with me and a daughter from Clapham' (more on that i later). 'Piccadilly' is a bout of London'southward humming nightlife through the eyes of a couple on a engagement to the theatre, followed by a curry. Much of the vocal nonetheless rings true, although the internet might have put paid to the 'neon guild lights of adult films'.
86. 'American Male child' – Estelle feat. Kanye Westward (2008)
The 'Special Relationship' distilled into R&B course. Estelle is fascinated with the suave glamour, boxfresh way and exotic travel potential of her v'7" suitor. Meanwhile, for all his costless chatter almost the stylish suits and peacoats that the 'London blokes' are rocking, Kanye is all about the Ribena.
85. 'The Greater London Radio' – Hefner (2000)
The titans of twee pulled off a bang-up lyrical coup by using GLR'southward traffic study as a metaphor for the singer's desperate attempts to reach his girl, as night falls heavy and dark in The Big Fume. 'The traffic's acquired a roadblock in my heart,' he laments, later adding rather sweetly, 'and on the radio I hear the evening news, only all I recollect of is you lot.' The song is likewise a declaration of his faith in and love of London – 'this is my home, this is where I desire to be,' he affirms. Aw gee, shucks.
84. 'Brompton Oratory' – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds (1997)
More grandly known as The Church Of The Immaculate Middle Of Mary, Brompton Oratory is one of London's most spectacular churches and would likely be more than famous if it weren't situated right next the still more imposing V&A. Cavern captures both its majesty and loneliness in this typically baroque eulogy with lines similar, 'Hail this joyful day'southward return/Into its great shadowed vault I go.'
83. 'Tower of London' – ABC (1985)
The iconic palace/prison isn't the just landmark in this punchy synth-pop number, which is as much an ode to the (perceived) wealth and glamour of the capital in the mid-1980s. 'Permit me have y'all to Trafalgar Square,' offers Martin Fry in the opening line, where 'every street's a catwalk, everyone's debonair.' Promising to whirl whoever down St James's Square and Mayfair, the man in the gilt suit and so proclaims his dearest for 'the Belfry.' Repeatedly.
82. 'Chelsea Girl' – Elementary Minds (1979)
Everyone knows someone who moved to London to find themselves, simply to discover someone completely different and not as nice. Here Jim Kerr muses about the wayward antic of his party-centric, increasingly soulless former friend. Before you lot get any ideas: it was recorded in 1979, thirteen years before his marriage to Patsy Kensit.
81. 'The Metropolis' – Ed Sheeran (2011)
In 2011 Ed didn't look old enough to have left the Scouts, let alone the bosom of his family unit. Merely in this vocal he'due south a streetwise character with a cynic'southward eye for the pleasures and pitfalls of the large city, which he credits with informing, inspiring and ultimately improving his music. Overnice work, London.
80. 'Blessed' – Simon & Garfunkel (1965)
'I've been walking effectually Soho for the concluding dark or then,' sighs broken folkie Paul Simon. And what has he learned from his excursion? 'Blessed are the meth drinkers, pot sellers, illusion dwellers… the penny rookers, the cheap hookers.' Don't mean to show you lot upwards here, Paul, merely information technology sounds to united states more like you've been wandering round Thamesmead.
79. 'Upper Clapton Dance' – Professor Green (2009)
It's not all apartment whites and fixies out east. Lower Clapton may have gentrified itself out of the Murder Mile sobriquet, but Upper Clapton is withal what estate agents would be refer to equally a 'vibrant' and 'developing' area where 'a few weeks ago a bullet missed and struck a minor'. (Spot which one of these quotes is from Pro Light-green rather than Felicity J Lord).
78. 'A Rainy Night In Soho' – The Pogues (1985)
Information technology's micturating information technology downwardly in central London, and – surprise surprise – Shane MacGowan has had a skinful. Only for in one case, this hasn't put him in a maudlin mood. 'I took shelter from a shower, and I stepped into your arms' croons the pseudo-Irish gaelic Islingtonian of meeting his lifelong love in one of his most tender recorded moments.
77. 'London Girls' – Tori Amos (1996)
Yep, this actually is a Chas & Dave comprehend version – longtime Muswell Hill resident Amos has conspicuously gone native. Rather than compose her ain tribute to the capital's ladyfolk, she chose to comprehend the rockney duo, but her slow, breathy commitment makes Chas & Dave's celebration of the city'southward gooseberries (ie women) sound more like an exercise in romantic eugenics.
76. 'Northern Line' – LV feat. Joshua Idehen (2011)
London-based ascent dubstep trio LV keep information technology bassy while poet/MC Idehen freestyles his thoughts on the tube line'due south most famous stops. 'What do you know virtually Moorgate? Does anyone know about Moorgate?' asks Idhen with a snigger. Safe to say that's a no so. But it's adept to know what he gets up to in King's Cantankerous.
75. 'A Foggy Day (In London Town)' – Ella Fitzgerald (1956)
London: the best identify on World to be miserable. Although Fitzgerald'due south forlorn rendition is hands the most affecting version of this much-covered standard, the original – recorded for 1937 musical 'A Dryad in Distress' – brought together the talents of George and Ira Gershwin with writer PG Wodehouse and leading man Fred Astaire, a confluence of greats which made it the 'StreetDance 3D' of its solar day.
74. 'The Battle Of Epping Forest' – Genesis (1973)
One of those Genesis numbers that just would never have happened in the Phil Collins era, this sprawling, over-ambitious and occasionally disruptive epic is based on a news story about a real-life boxing between various London gangs fighting over East Terminate protection rights. Simply the names were inverse to protect the guilty. And Peter Gabriel.
73. 'Warwick Avenue' – Duffy (2008)
And you thought the retro-soul phenomenon was a huge coincidence rather than a major label strategy? This tear-stained ode to escaping a human relationship past tube to Piddling Venice was written with the 'serious pop' dream team of Eg White (songwriter for Adele) and Jimmy Hogarth (ditto, for Amy Winehouse). All of which may explicate the clinically catchy appeal of its chorus.
72. 'Down in the Tube Station at Midnight' – The Jam (1978)
Getting the tube was a dangerous business in the '70s, or at least that'due south if you lot believe Paul Weller. On his mode home with a curry in a bag, the hapless protagonist hither gets knocked out by some National Front end thugs, and his suburban life flashes earlier his eyes every bit he blacks out staring at an advertisement for cheap holidays. Simple plenty – just nosotros oasis't been able to find any convincing theories to explain the baffling line 'I put in the money and pull out a plum', allow solitary why anyone would bring a curry on the tube. The skinheads probably simply took offence at him stinking upwardly the wagon.
71. 'London Dungeon' – The Misfits (1981)
Jerry Only of The Misfits explains how the band concluded up getting slammed in an actual London prison house:
'During our early years nosotros tried to practise an English language tour with The Damned. When we completed our first 3 shows nosotros walked off the tour after not existence paid. Nosotros went to London, and later on that I went to Canterbury with Sid Vicious'south mom Anne. Our singer Glenn Danzig and guitarist Bobby Steele went to encounter The Jam at The Rainbow. A agglomeration of skinheads started a fight with Glenn, who turned to watch Bobby run down the block! To protect himself, Glenn pulled a piece of glass from the Rainbow's broken window and got arrested. In Brixton jail, he put the lyrics together for "London Dungeon".'
70. 'Memories Of 3rd Base' – Skream (2009)
Dubstep pioneer Skream gets dewy-eyed about the DMZ club nighttime, held at Brixton Mass, which was a crucible for the development of London's currently thriving bass scene. Non that yous tin tell he's existence affectionate – as with practically all dubstep, it still sounds similar the theme melody for a snail existence chased by a hungry tortoise.
69. 'Hong Kong Garden' – Siouxsie And The Banshees (1978)
Despite what the false-oriental arrangement might take you believe, the Hong Kong Garden which inspired this number was in fact a Chinese takeaway in Chislehurst, frequented by the band and (sadly) groups of racist skinheads who would terrorise the owners. Siouxsie Sioux's sympathetic lyrics haven't anile peculiarly well in the PC era, but her sense of frustration remains apparent.
68. 'Gertcha!' – Chas & Dave (1979)
Chas Hodges explains how London slang gave them a hit:
'We sang "Wertcha" initially. Information technology was a phrase nosotros remembered from childhood, something yer dad would say before he slapped you lot one. Information technology was part of what we called "rockney": singing rock 'n' curl about things we understood in our own accents. By the fourth dimension nosotros recorded it every bit "Gertcha!", we changed one lyric: "When me rock 'n' whorl records wake him upwardly" became "When me punk stone records wake him upward." And so it got used on a beer ad and made united states some money. But there was always that London accent that gave it punk energy.'
67. 'I Was At that place (At The Coronation)' – Young Tiger (1953)
After crossing the Atlantic on a tanker ship during World War Ii, Trinidadian musician George Browne arrived in London and started to forge a career every bit a calypso singer. His eyewitness song about the Queen'south coronation was broadcast on the BBC on the evening of the event. It was a hit, but it was also a white lie: tipped off about details including the Queen'south outfit and the parade route, Browne had written the lyrics weeks in advance and then that the record could be released in time for Liz's large day.
66. 'Werewolves of London' – Warren Zevon (1978)
Among normal gild, this song is best known for the repeated 'Wahooo' of its chorus. Ask whatsoever pub bore near it, though, and they'll delight in telling you that the werewolf of the championship is searching for Gerrard Street Chinese eatery Lee Ho Fooks. However, if he had any sense, he'd have headed to 72 Shaftesbury Avenue to the rather more plumbing fixtures, four-star-rated-by-Fourth dimension-Out upkeep Mongolian hotpot institution, Little Lamb.
65. '22 Grand Job' – The Rakes (2005)
Everyone knows that your first few jobs in London will find you lot largely living in your overdraft, barely scraping enough change for a pint. The Rakes' two-minute pop juggernaut simultaneously celebrates reaching a wage where you can (just near) afford to exist in the capital and pokes fun at the mundanity of an office-bound beingness. Make sure to cheque out the video, which eagerly encourages choreography in the workplace. As do we.
64. 'Has It Come to This?' – The Streets (2001)
He might be from Birmingham, but Mike Skinner's breakthrough tune smacks of London's gritty streets long earlier he name checks his TFL journey (taking in Mile End, Ealing, Brixton and Bounds Green). His lyrical snapshots of the capital letter's urban jungle are sharply observed and delivered over the at present classic mix of sparse beats and that distinctive, looped piano line.
63. 'Bow E3' – Wiley (2007)
'I am so Bow E3… I've been doing this stuff for so long,' asserts Wiley on this gruff, grimey, bass-wobbled track. A buss off to any who dare question his East Cease authenticity, Wiley name drops his local Chinese (Moon Lee), various E3 estates and streets, eager to prove that he's the king when it comes to repping his old 'hood. It remains unclear whether he's receiving a kickback from the Bow tourist board.
62. 'Sunny Goodge Street' – Donovan (1965)
Bob Dylan fan Donovan broke the mould by making British pop's first explicit drug reference – 'fierce hash smoker shook the chocolate car' – in this 1966 unmarried. Unsurprisingly, this was swiftly followed by a drugs bust which resulted in a £250 fine. However, the arrest was more likely the outcome of the singer's documented drug use in the Television documentary 'A Boy Called Donovan' than by the Drugs Team poring over his lyrics.
61. 'The Underground Train' – Lord Kitchener (1950)
At that place are dozens of songs about the tube, but well-nigh pale in comparison to Lord Kitchener's 1950s calypso classic. The optimistic sunday-ever-shines-in-subterranea music disguises lyrics about getting lost in the crowds below ground. Spookily authentic, considering Lord Kitchener wrote the tune before he had ever even seen London and played it to a photographic camera crew at Tilbury Docks upon his arrival from Trinidad.
threescore. 'The Liberty of Norton Folgate' – Madness (2009)
As local historians, students of former resident Christopher Marlowe and fans of Madness will know, the expanse bordering Shoreditch was in one case an autonomously governed 'liberty' controlled past St Paul'due south Cathedral. The parish, its theatre, shops and pubs were sadly merged with Shoreditch in 1900, leaving Inner Temple and Middle Temple the only surviving extra-parochial enclaves in London.
59. 'Buk-In-Hamm Palace' – Peter Tosh (1979)
'Light up your spliff/Light up your chalice/Mek we a burn in Buk-in-hamm Palace'… said Alice. Really, it was insubordinate reggae star Peter Tosh, torching his chances of a knighthood. When this ultra-funky reggae-meets-disco unmarried was showtime released, the merely the thought of 'toking' on a 'doobie' in the royal residence was plenty to get you executed for treason, although it'southward at present known that MBEs including The Beatles accept done just that (although not, as you might expect, Prince Harry).
58. 'One Dark In Hackney' – Dave The Drummer (2011)
Originally created as a comic answer vocal to the noirish 'I Night In New York City' past The Horrorist, this unfussily pounding brick of techno tells the story of young visitor to London stumbling into a world of warehouse parties, oddly dressed natives and and serious, heads-down raving. And a lot of drugs and Stella. A less generously spirited, hipster-skewering 'Shoreditch Remix' besides exists.
57. 'Greetings from Shitsville' – The Wildhearts (1993)
Not everybody loves life in Hampstead. Few would have picked archetype, old-school rockers The Wildhearts every bit denizens of London'southward chi-chi NW3, simply it seems they once were. In this rather less than affectionate portrait of the leafy Heath 'hood, singer Ginger scathingly reveals that 'the euthanasia dream brigade are melting in the Hampstead shade', and describes how 'all my neighbours disappear the moment [I] get likewise near; I stick out like elephant ears on misery street.' I imagines a local petition was started to move him on.
56. 'seven.ten From Bourgeoisie' – Jackie Trent (1968)
Written by time to come 'Crossroads' theme composer Tony Hatch, this chirpy number opens with the paradigm of a rain-lashed platform full of commuters jostling for infinite on a crowded train. The whooping, joyous chorus is at odds with the crushing routine and appalling manners depicted in the lyrics – but so it would be, ear-gouging death metallic not having been invented in the 1960s.
55. 'Dripping Downwards' – East India Youth (2014)
In that location are artists chosen Whitechapel, Angel and Rixton (close plenty), but we had to find a place on this list for the but singer we can think of who'due south actually named later a London station. Will Doyle was staying about East Republic of india DLR when he started his one-man synthpop projection, and – naturally – namechecked the Docklands in this bubbling hymn to skilful one-time urban isolation. Nosotros can testify from personal experience that it also makes a great soundtrack for sitting at the front of a DLR railroad train pretending to drive. Fun!
54. 'Brixton Briefcase' – Chase And Status feat. Cee Lo Green (2011)
Chase And Condition are better known for their tartrazine dubstep workouts than their pithy lyrics, but this recent outing is worth a listen just for the delightful novelty of hearing Georgian supersoul vocalist Cee Lo using phrases such as 'cute birds', 'blokes… get a Chelsea smiling' and 'tell the former beak fuck off'.
53. 'Portobello Road' – Bedknobs and Broomsticks OST (1971)
David Tomlinson's big number from this children'due south musical presents the West London bric-a-brac market equally both a wondrous cove of occult mysteries and the epicentre of the faux-vintage rip-off trade. Voicing that sentiment at that place these days is likely to earn you some beaky stares from the well-to-practice artisans who now throng its pavements, only we kind of preferred it the one-time way.
52. 'London Pride' – Noël Coward (1941)
Who'd take thought a vocal nigh a blossom could so succinctly represent the indomitable spirit of the city? Similar London itself, Saxifraga 10 urbium aka 'London Pride' is a hardy perennial, which became a symbol of London's fortitude thanks to the ease which it colonised bomb craters during the Blitz.
51. 'Mornington Crescent' – Belle & Sebastian (2006)
Typically, this cutting from the Scottish twee-poppers starts out all nostalgic for an era which never existed, eulogising 'men in their bowlers, kids with their spats… dogs wearing hats'. And then information technology gets down to some serious polyamory, which is far more befitting NW1.
50. 'London Bye Ta-Ta' – David Bowie (1968)
Recorded every bit a follow-upwards single to 'Space Oddity', this underexposed gem was originally written past Bowie in the 1960s, the title taken directly from a Due west Indian family waving goodbye to relatives catching a railroad train from Victoria Station. The pro-diversity sentiment was unusual for the era: Bowie's offset have on the vocal was recorded just weeks earlier Enoch Powell made his less edifying 'Rivers of blood' contribution to the immigration debate.
49. 'Hey Young London' – Bananarama (1983)
While this album track was overshadowed by the pop trio'south singles, the abrupt lyrics to this sugary vocal skewered the cocky-satisfied youth of the early 1980s. London's nightlife is described as a seedy jungle with 'Girls in the corner, boys looking for a fight', while the underlying conservatism of the hip is addressed with the pay-off 'When y'all get engaged you lot know you've reached your goal.' Ouch.
48. 'I'thou Trying to Make London My Dwelling' – Sonny Boy Williamson (1964)
Information technology's little wonder the U.s. bluesman tried to settle in London: during the 1960s dejection boom, Williamson was treated like a god by London's awestruck young rock musicians. After recording with The Yardbirds, he accidentally set his hotel room on fire by trying to cook a rabbit in a coffee percolator. So he stabbed a human being during a street fight and had to leave in a hurry, hence the visa bug that stopped him from permanently swapping the Mississipi for the Thames.
47. 'Electric Avenue' – Eddy Grant (1982)
Today'due south young whippersnappers don't have the monopoly on rioting. Back in 1982, Eddy Grant was singing almost 'violence in the street' because the protagonist 'tin't afford a matter on TV' or 'get food for them kid'. If only nosotros'd paid attention to the verses at the time instead of just singing along to its insanely catchy chorus.
46. 'London Boondocks' – Lite Of The Globe (1980)
Radio One DJ Tony Blackburn on this summery Brit-funk anthem, which he helped to popularise in 1980:
'Calorie-free Of The World were one of a clutch of British funk bands who emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were putting a definite London accent to the soul music we all loved: a touch of reggae, a bit of rock. "London Boondocks" was a beautiful and funky tune, something I was withal playing well into the 1980s. DJs like Chris Hill and Robbie Vincent were the voices on the underground, simply me and Steve Walsh were taking it to a bigger audition. We wanted housewives to hear this stuff, not just guys at the Soul Weekenders.'
45. 'New Crass Massakah' – Linton Kwesi Johnson (1981)
On January eighteen 1981, 14 young black people were killed in a house fire which swept through a altogether party at 439 New Cantankerous Road. Although the cause remains unknown, a racially-motivated arson attack was suspected, and the law were accused of covering up the truth. In light of the Macpherson Study into the murder of Stephen Lawrence, LKJ'southward brutally simple verses describing the party and ensuing horror seem more cutting today than when the track was recorded.
44. 'Time For Heroes' – The Libertines (2003)
The judiciary may wish to disagree with the song'southward May Day riots-inspired thesis that corking stuff upwardly is especially heroic, but this commemoration of civil unrest pays homage to a grand London tradition: remaining polite until well by boiling signal, and then exploding with omnidirectional fury.
43. 'Cockney Translation' – Smiley Culture (1984)
The late Culture'due south handy guide to translating betwixt cockney and patois is at present something of a museum piece, partly because computers tin can do all that sort of affair much more hands than reggae songs, simply also considering London has seen the 2 dialects merge more than and more over the intervening decades. Withal, it's worth knowing this stuff: as Smiley says, 'ya never when them might buck upward a cockney'.
42. 'Sultans of Swing' – Dire Straits (1978)
These days Mark Knopfler and co are mega-rich avatars of the overblown MTV era. There's a certain irony in the fact that they named themselves after their financial circumstances while they were a struggling London pub rock band, and that they scoring their first major hit with a song sympathising with (and yet gently taking the piss out of) a struggling pub jazz band working 'due south of the river'.
41. 'Upfield' – Billy Bragg (1996)
The Bard Of Barking has made no cloak-and-dagger of his dear for William Blake, going so far every bit to proper name the album from which this is taken 'William Bloke'. This unmarried imagines Blake having a socialist epiphany on Primrose Hill, an activity we'd heartily recommend if you have a free Lord's day afternoon.
forty. 'Primrose Hill' – Loudon Wainwright Iii (1997)
Another paean to the afoot musician. This one'due south a busker sitting drinking cans of Tennant's Extra in north London'south nearly chi-chi suntrap with his mangy canis familiaris, while watching the contrasted bohemians, bourgeoisie and yummy mummies go past and dreaming of a bag of chicken and chips. Nosotros've all been at that place, surely.
39. 'Old Father Thames' – Raymond Wallace (1933)
The sheer size and sinister, murky sheen of the Thames mean it doesn't immediately bring the concept of stoicism to mind. But this trad jazz classic, borrowed heavily from 'Old Man River', portrays London's watery artery in a way that seems recognisable in its citizenry: placid and difficult to read on the surface, but with some serious hidden depths.
38. 'Parasite' – Nick Drake (1971)
'Sailing downstairs to the Northern line, watching the shine of the shoes…' Living in a Belsize Park bedsit in the early on '70s, and suffering heavily from the low that would somewhen atomic number 82 to his death only three years later, on this vocal from his 'Pink Moon' album Nick Drake vividly tells usa how lonely the city tin can be.
37. Lily Allen – 'LDN' (2006)
Lily Allen has a unique talent for making the all-time of times out of the worst of times. Pimps and crack whores enjoy the sun. An quondam lady is mugged by a bad samaritan. And permit'southward non forget Allen is just cycling around London to start with because she lost her driver'south license. Simply Allen finds the whole horror prove to be glorious Bedlam-mode entertainment, a sentiment the urban center'southward legions of cynical people watchers can get behind.
36. 'London Town' – Bellowhead (2006)
The sprawling mutant folk commonage tells the story of a young gent carousing through London's streets, where he meets, pulls and ultimately does the wild thing with a fair maid. Then, he steals her money, watch band and (just in a folk song) silver snuff box. This sort of thing is why Bellowhead are the moral winners of a billion Mercury Awards.
35. 'London' – The Smiths (1986)
New arrivals are the cultural Gulf Stream of London. While native Londoners and longtime residents bear upon a world-weary air that suggests they've already washed everything in town twice, life for newbies tin vacillate between uncontrollable thrills and unignorable doubts. Hither Morrissey, daredevil of the euphoric-melancholic tightrope, strikes just the correct residue to nail the awareness.
34. 'Bad Identify for a Proficient Time' – Kate Tempest (2015)
Living in London isn't (always) similar a Richard Curtis film. Simply don't accept our give-and-take for it: you tin can trust a Mercury-nominated poet and spoken discussion artist from Peckham to get correct down into the grit and sporadic soullessness of London life. 'All over this city, people are hungry for things that they don't know the name of,' raps Kate Tempest in her stunning portrait of a lonely city of screens, police lights and physical. Bleak? For sure – simply as anyone who'southward lived here knows, sometimes it really does seem like at that place's nothing more to London than 'waiting for trains domicile and waiting for trains in and waiting for life to begin'.
33. 'Dettwork Southeast' – Blak Twang (1996)
New Cross, Piccadilly Circus, Old Kent Route, Ladbroke Grove, Clapham, Brixton, Hackney, Seven Sisters… local rapper Blak Twang certainly wrings maximum value from his conceptual Oyster menu on this rail, which proper name-checks strands of London's public bus and rail system and the diverse neighbourhoods they travel through. 'Good piece of work, London SE8,' he says approvingly of his local 'dettwork', before repping other points of the compass with the (literally) old-school rhyme 'never eat Shredded Wheat'.
32. 'Mile End' – Pulp (1996)
In 1989, a immature film student at St Martins found himself kicked out of his apartment in Camberwell and temporarily homeless. Then he heard virtually an empty flat in Lewey House off Burdett Route, E3 – and so began what Jarvis Cocker has since described as 'the worst nine months of my entire life'. This deceptively jaunty musical memoir (which concluded upwardly on the bestselling 'Trainspotting' soundtrack) starts as a description of a horrible squat, and then widens its telescopic to a whole tower block before taking in the whole bilious East End. 'Nobody wants to exist your friend 'cause you're not from round here,' Cocker laments, 'As if that was something to exist proud about.' Clearly he never visited the get-kart track round the corner.
31. 'London Town' – Laura Marling (2008)
'I know she came to save yous, just she knocked my drink over also.' London isn't merely about big themes, loftier drama and comically oversized felt Union Flag top hats. One of its most consuming qualities is the knowledge that it's home to almost 8 meg pocket-size and very human being stories. Marling'south beautifully observed dissection of romance gone amiss is one of the ameliorate ones, thanks to couplets such as 'Information technology's all the bad things, I wish I hadn't done/I know you're all almost the dancing merely I just don't find it fun.'
30. 'Strange Town' – The Jam (1979)
Inspired by Paul Weller'due south motion from Woking to the big bad urban center, and the general laissez faire brusqueness of London'southward inhabitants, 'Foreign Town' really features some of import communication to new transplants to the city. Especially the words 'You lot've got to walk in a straight line' – why tin't more people manage this?
29. 'Across the River Thames' – Elton John (2006)
This late-career classic rocker casts Dame Elton as a veritable Nelson'south Column of the music biz, observing the many changes in London'due south social (and political) composition from on high. Disco gives way to punk which is replaced by new romanticism, and yet zippo really changes.
28. 'London Boys' – T Male monarch (1976)
Marc Bolan's modern-informed stomper touches on urban life, but is really just a pretty frame for its ofttimes-repeated central refrain of 'We are the London boys'. A glam terrace canticle if ever in that location was i, and a clue as to how burly hooligans could reconcile themselves to music made past fey wisps in glittery make-upwards and stack heels.
27. 'North Circular' – Real Lies (2014)
Curving its mode through 25 miles of suburban n London, the North Round is one of London's major road arteries. The i thing near people have to say near it is that it's a lot better than the South Round. But seen through the optics of immature Londoners Real Lies on this dreamy single, the humble A406 becomes a rain-streaked avenue of hope, honey and bleary-eyed romance: Pet Shop Boys meets The Streets meets LBC traffic news.
26. 'Hype Talk' – Dizzee Rascal (2004)
These days, Dizzee is known and loved as the all-round adorable purveyor of credible-notwithstanding-bouncy rap-pop. Once upon a time, though, he was the tortured prince of grime MCs. 'Hype Talk' details the cluttered menstruation afterwards Rascal won the Mercury, and Bow'due south and then-localised grime scene exploded around his a haze of rumour, innuendo and jealousy.
25. 'Upwards the Junction' – Squeeze (1979)
Finding rhymes for 'Clapham' and 'Common' in the offset 4 lines of a song takes some skill, merely one thing we tin can't credit Chris Difford for is the title for this classic kitchen-sink tale: that was from Nell Dunn's '60s short story collection about the south London slums. The evil-smelling basement where Difford'southward narrator and his girl from Clapham shack up will have been converted into a luxury studio by now, of grade.
24. 'Mario's Caf̩' РSaint Etienne (1993)
Not just whatever erstwhile greasy spoon in Kentish Town, but the favourite of songwriters Bob Stanley (a well-known champion of such former-schoolhouse gaffs) and Pete Wiggs Рand celebrated in song on their anthology 'So Tough'. Information technology later inspired a compilation LP chosen 'Songs for Mario's Caf̩', featuring a collection of tracks by different artists all deemed suitable for playing in a caf̩. Especially, one presumes, a caf̩ with 'squeezy bottles nether Pepsi signs,' where 'Joe and Johnny chew the bacon rind.' If you fancy a bit of Pepsi 'n' salary rind yourself, yous can discover Mario'southward at half dozen Kelly St, NW1.
23. 'Hoover Manufacturing plant' – Elvis Costello (1980)
Wallace, Gilbert and Partners' Art Deco triumph, built in 1932 on the edge of the A40, is the crowning glory of Perivale. Its splendour ('Must have been a wonder when information technology was brand new') is justly celebrated in this song, which mentions its 'scrolls and inscriptions, like those of the Egyptian age.' Information technology's surely the merely song about a vacuum cleaner factory ever written – and who would have figured the bile-filled Costello as a fan of ane of history'southward frilliest architectural movements?
22. 'Junior Spesh' – Cerise Hot Entertainment (2007)
In this era of austerity, it'southward good to know at that place's one place in London you tin go where you won't need to worry about tightening your chugalug. That's because SFC in Canning Town offers the Junior Special repast deal. Contents vary, but ordinarily includes two wings and fries for just, as Ruddy Hot Amusement repeatedly inform us in this cult grime cut, 'one pound and fifty pence'.
21. 'Bar Italia' – Pulp (1995)
Younger readers may find it hard to wrap their heads around this pre-24-hour-licensing tale of a night spent clubbing 'up west' (when the Westward End had clubs), which ends with the narrator people-watching and waiting for the drugs to clothing off in the iconic Old Compton Street cafe of the title. That was what they did in the 1990s, kids. Bar Italia has been dispensing caffeine to the city's lost souls and night owls for decades, and Jarvis Cocker clearly spent a lot of time at that place when he was at St Martins College nearby.
20. 'A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square' – Judy Campbell (1940)
The nigh memorable performance of this romantic London song took identify in 1940, during the early on days of the Blitz. Sylvia Harris was there:
'Information technology was the offset of the air raids, simply nosotros went out, considering we wanted to go out. The Shepherds Bush Empire had such nice shows. Judy Campbell was a successful young starlet then, and she came on in a satin evening frock, looking glamorous. "A Nightingale Sang…" just hit the right notation for the time: it was so divinely escapist: "At that place was magic abroad in the air/There were angels dining at the Ritz…" It was zero to do with air raids. And when she got to the betoken where she sang, "a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square," she held upwardly her paw and sang, "Hark!" – you know, for the nightingale. And then "Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!": instead of the nightingale, we got the air raid siren! The theatre just fell near, they laughed so much, and Judy Campbell just died laughing on stage. It was only a yelp of laughter from the audience: they quite forgot the air raid!'
nineteen. 'The Guns of Brixton' – The Clash (1979)
After the New York bear witness where he was immortalised smashing his favourite bass past lensman Pennie Smith, this clattering, menacing Brit-dub anthem was Paul Simonon's 2d finest 60 minutes. The Disharmonism bassist spent a large part of his childhood in SW9, and 'The Guns of Brixton' (which he wrote and sang) suggests that he was well acquainted with the pressures which were to lead to the riots there in 1981. But the song was really merely a south London retelling of the classic Jamaican movie 'The Harder They Come up'.
18. 'London Belongs To Me' – Saint Etienne (1991)
Saint Etienne's Bob Stanley explains the genesis of this song most moving to London:
'When we got together we'd all merely literally moved to London, out of the suburbs into somewhere more central. Me and Pete [Wiggs] had this basement apartment off Dartmouth Park Hill [near Highgate], which was actually night. It wasn't grim, but I'm glad nosotros moved out of it. That was what actually inspired the song, just the rush of excitement when you showtime move to London and get a flat of your ain.'
17. 'Fake Plastic Trees' – Radiohead (1995)
The lyrics to Radiohead's breach anthem – their 2nd big hit after the success of 'Pitter-patter' – were inspired by the simulated foliage of the Canary Wharf development, which was brand new at the time. It therefore represents a very British response to the mail-Nirvana Gen X malaise pouring out of America at the time, and it's still frighteningly relevant: just look at the shiny CGI renderings for luxury towers and 'mixed-use schemes' that London's property developers plow out on a weekly basis.
16. 'Soho' – Bert Jansch & John Renbourn (1966)
Speaking to Time Out in 2010, the belatedly Bert Jansch recalled the '60s folk scene that inspired him and John Renbourn:
'Effectually the fourth dimension of that song, there used to be a folk social club in Greek Street called Les Cousins and nearly of the folk singers and players would come across in that location. I had a Tuesday residency there for about a twelvemonth, and information technology was an all-nighter so you had to play right through the night. But the song itself is centred around Soho Square because, during the solar day, if it was nice and sunny y'all'd go and sit in the foursquare. Marker Pavey and Davey Graham tried to reopen the place again a few years ago, merely information technology's now a eating place. For a while, the 12 Bar Club in Kingdom of denmark Street was a flake similar but it didn't quite have the magic. And anyway, kids now will have their ain versions of Les Cousins.'
15. 'Born Slippy' – Underworld (1996)
This canticle for the Stella generation was assembled from snatches of a conversation heard on a night out in Soho. Underworld's Karl Hyde remembers his state of mind at the fourth dimension:
'In truth, the song was me literally asking for assistance. I was describing a progressively despairing land of mind. I was using alcohol to numb the senses and thus arrived at the point where "Born Slippy" was written. I was saying, "I'm going to describe a typical night; does anybody recall that this is no mode to alive, and could somebody throw me a lifeline?" In that location was one particular bear witness I think where a forest of lager cans was raised in the chorus and my heart sank – which shows how far my head was upwards my whatsit at the time, because I wasn't in affect with the reality of the vocal. That was the simply song of ours for years that we always printed the lyrics for or explained and, one time we'd done that, so it was okay if people wanted to utilize it as a drinking anthem. I really don't heed at all, now. "Born Slippy" has become a folk song.'
14. 'Herculean' – The Skillful, The Bad & The Queen (2006)
This was the showtime release from the 2007 collaborative project past Damon Albarn, Clash bassist Paul Simonon, former The Verve human being Simon Tong and legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. The name of the project is a reference to the spread of human life which can exist found in the majuscule. "It's a kingdom in itself, the city Of London,' Simonon told Time Out in 2006. 'Although these days it is like lots of villages combined. Yous tin can come up from Bromley now and you're a true Londoner.' 'Herculean' itself combines dub, film music and folk into a downbeat but optimistic anthem for xx-showtime-century London.
13. 'London London' – Caetano Veloso (1971)
Veloso, a pioneer of the Tropicalismo cultural movement in Brazil, looks back on his song about London through the optics of an exile:
'The Brazilian military had forced me and Gilberto Gil to go out Brazil and we ended up in London in 1969. I sing about looking for flight saucers in the sky. I loved London and was obsessed by English rock music, only was very, homesick, very depressed, and initially I hated the music I recorded in London. Now I honey that song. It sums upward the emotions felt past an outsider in this big, cute, grey city.'
12. 'The Fool on the Hill' – The Beatles (1967)
Although Paul McCartney maintains the song is well-nigh the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Apple tree Corps alumnus Alistair Taylor says the title was inspired by a strange encounter on Primrose Hill. While enjoying a stroll and chatting about God (possibly trying to work out whether or not The Beatles were bigger than him nonetheless), the pair saw a man inexplicably materialise side by side to them, earlier promptly disappearing. McCartney went away and quickly wrote an all-time archetype, because that'south the kind of matter that Paul McCartney does.
11. 'Perchance It's Because I'm a Londoner' – Hubert Gregg (1947)
Written past BBC broadcaster Hubert Gregg in 1944, as he watched High german doodlebugs passing over the city, this vocal represents a style of life for Larry Barnes, Pearly King of Thornton Heath:
'If we are doing a pearly evidence and we don't practise it, people will e'er request it. They look it, it's equally simple as that. What is it about the vocal that makes people want to sing along? It's a good, rolling number, it's downward-to-world with unproblematic lyrics; he doesn't endeavour to be maudlin, he doesn't attempt to be over-sentimental. He states a case plainly and simply – which is, I vest to London and London belongs to me.'
10. 'Galang' – MIA (2003)
'London calling – speak the slang now!' Few songs are as representative of London's multiculturalism as this. Non just for its estates-by-way-of-Jamaica slang dictionary, or the singer's Sri Lankan/West London heritage, but also past virtue of this funfair-electro-bashment canticle having been co-written with former Pulp bassist Steve Mackey, west London indie princess Justine Frischmann and Sheffield electro-perv Ross Orton. At present that'due south diversity.
nine. Adele – 'Hometown Glory' (2007)
If only every teenage rebellion could sound this expert. While near kids her age couldn't wait to get out of the house, Adele resisted her mother'southward urgings to flee the nest for further education with this summary of all London'south myriad social and ecology wonders, written – according to Adele – in 10 minutes flat.
8. 'For Tomorrow' – Mistiness (1993)
Damon Albarn explains his chronicle of Britpop-era London:
'It's about beingness lost on the Westway… it's a romantic affair, it'southward hopeful. The nicest matter most that vocal, that I dearest, is the bit at the finish where it goes on most someone going into a flat, and having a cup of tea in Emperor's Gate. That comes from when my parents beginning moved to London – they had a flat in Emperor'south Gate, correct next to The Beatles. For the whole of my life I had this paradigm of my parents living next to The Beatles, so Emperor's Gate, to me, is a romantic thing. Then the person in the song gets in a machine and drives all the fashion up to Primrose Hill and says 'It's windy here and the view's and then overnice.' If y'all go to the top of Primrose Hill, someone'due south written the lyric at that place – information technology's been in that location for what, 12 years at present, which is fantastic. And so information technology is very much a London vocal, it has its own landmark now.'
7. 'Baker Street' – Gerry Rafferty (1978)
The former Steelers Wheel man's story of a struggling musician coming to terms to the grimly impersonal nature of London life is notable for two things. Firstly, employing an instrumental suspension every bit a chorus (though sadly the old myth near Bob Holness playing the sax line is simply that). And secondly, for making London'south seedy cynicism seem impossibly sexy. 'It's awash with booze!' thought a generation, 'And one dark stands! Permit'southward move there!'
six. 'Primrose Hill' – John and Beverly Martyn (1970)
If there'south a more delightful place in London to sit with your lover and watch the sun go down, nosotros'd like to hear about it. Seriously – delight let us know in the comments. Merely until we're taught otherwise, husband and married woman duo John and Beverly Martyn's classic sums up the splendour of a view which takes in the capital'due south greenest and glassiest extremes (and from where, if you're lucky, you tin can hear the lions at the zoo roar).
five. The Minor Faces – 'Itchycoo Park' (1967)
Quite how drugs ended upwardly with the bad reputation they have these days is a mystery when you lot consider the lyrics to 'Itchycoo Park', the first e'er song to exist banned for overt illegal substance references, and Small Faces'south celebration of smoking marijuana in Petty Ilford Park, E12. Did this Unsafe DRUG send the band on an orgy of wanton destruction and ram-raiding? No. They simply lazed around the park, feeding the ducks and crying – aye, crying – at the sheer beauty of nature. This is the kind of behaviour that would go you laughed out of rehab by whatever self-respecting mod drug abuser.
four. 'Streets of London' – Ralph McTell (1969)
Postal service-war poverty, drugs, love and redemption – the nigh recorded London vocal of all time isn't what you call back it is. Ralph McTell explains:
'When I was a busker in Paris in 1965, when we were coming home from our trivial jaunts in the Latin Quarter, there were a lot of very impoverished people – they call them clochards – saturday over the hot-air gratings in the Metro, and I formed this idea of writing a vocal nearly those people. The fourth dimension was right for that sort of song considering of the protestation movement and that social awareness that was apparent in all songs. And so I started writing "The Streets Of Paris". Simply I thought: Wait a infinitesimal, these images are everywhere. Then I wrote it equally "Streets Of London", to a melody that I'd already composed.'
3. 'West End Girls' – Pet Shop Boys (1984)
Neil Tennant remembers Soho in the '70s, which inspired his band's timeless ode to London nightlife:
'"West End Girls" is a song that's very specifically about London. I've lived in London since 1972, and the keen matter about London is that people come up from all over the world live here – fifty-fifty from Newcastle! When I was a kid in Newcastle I e'er dreamed of moving down to London. The first song ['Two Divided by Null'] on the beginning Pet Store Boys anthology is virtually running away to London. When I first moved down to London, we used to get all dressed upwardly in our David Bowie fake clothes, and clatter downwards the staircase at 7 Sisters tube station on to the brand new Victoria Line, and get downward to Shadowramas on Neal Street. And that whole matter of being a northerner and coming down to London: I ever had that feeling, and still practise, of escaping into the W End. I don't even know why really, but it's the difference between day and dark – people become mad at nighttime, and they go mad in Soho. For me, Soho symbolizes that, although information technology'due south a much tidier place these days. I love London and I'yard inspired past information technology. It'southward what we write songs about.'
ii. 'London Calling' – The Clash (1979)
To hell with the Sex Pistols – if any punk band captured the quintessential spirit of tardily-'70s London, information technology was The Clash. 'London Calling' is a not bad counterpoint to their 'London'due south Burning' and sees them shifting their focus from the personal and impressionistic (the xanthous lights of the Westway, the current of air howling around an empty tower block) to the forcefully political and more general – and from from a nihilistic look at the aloofness of Londoners to an apocalyptic rallying cry, made so angrily urgent you tin can virtually hear Joe Strummer's spittle flight.
1. 'Waterloo Sunset' – The Kinks (1967)
Ray Davies explains how he wrote the greatest London song of all:
'I used to go past Waterloo every mean solar day on my way to Croydon Art Schoolhouse; when I was a child my male parent took me to the Festival Of Britain; my get-go existent girlfriend, we walked by the Thames; I was in infirmary at the erstwhile St Thomas's and my room had a balcony looking out over the river. All the imagery comes from memories like that. The song was supposed to be well-nigh the cease of Merseybeat, called "Liverpool Dusk". Just when I was writing the lyrics I started to think about Waterloo and what it symbolised for me.'
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Source: https://www.timeout.com/music/the-100-best-london-songs
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