Baltimore has been many a musician's muse over the years.
Today, the indie rock group Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks release their latest album, Real Emotional Trash. Malkmus was the primary singer and songwriter for the indie rock band Pavement until they split in the late '90s. Based in Portland, Ore., the band looked to the East Coast for the title to its new single, "Baltimore."
The word "Baltimore" has popped up in plenty of songs. But unlike some other cities - New York with Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York," San Francisco with Tony Bennett's "I Left My Heart in San Francisco" - Baltimore doesn't have an anthem, per se.
FOR THE RECORD - An article in yesterday's Today section misspelled Gram Parsons' name.
The Sun regrets the error.
Culturally speaking, Baltimore is better known for the work of John Waters and for the TV show The Wire than one particular song. The Wire was the inspiration for the Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks' single, drummer Janet Weiss told the Web site PaperThinWalls.com.
To mark the release of the newest song named "Baltimore," we ranked 10 songs with the word "Baltimore" in their title.
Here they are - the good, the bad and the cheesy:
1. "Baltimore" by Randy Newman
The sarcastic single "Short People" from Little People made Newman famous and his numerous songs include another city's adopted anthem, "I Love L.A." But the album track "Baltimore" more seriously depicts a dying city in the late '70s, complete with a "beat up little seagull/on a marble stair." Melancholy verses with a hypnotic piano riff give way to an upbeat, disco-like chorus. Even better: Members of the Eagles provide background harmonies.
2. "Streets of Baltimore" by Graham Parsons
With help from backing singer Emmylou Harris, Parsons provides the most poignant version of this classic song by Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard. Fiddles and a pedal steel cry for the main character, who loses his woman to the busy streets and bright lights of Baltimore.
3. "Bmore Banga" by Darkroom Productions featuring Amadaye and DOG
Each of the local MCs featured on the song decided separately they wanted to rap about Baltimore. When they heard the beat - a Baltimore club beat slowed down - everything just clicked, said producer Juan Donovan Bell. This song has brutally honest and stinging lyrics like, "They knew we was hopeless/they told us believe/put it on the benches/they know we ain't read." And Darkroom Productions delivers a backing track that does the song title justice: Piano runs trickle down over thick, bass-heavy beats.
