“The future is much like the present, only longer.”
- Dan Quisenberry
According to the majority of sources I've checked, Memphis is the most sung about city, worldwide. 1074 songs one source states. I started noticing that many years ago, way before I moved to the place in 1986.
737 comin' out of the sky
Oh, won't you take me down to Memphis on a midnight ride
Long distance information, give me Memphis, Tennessee
Let's go to Memphis in the meantime, baby
Let's go to Memphis in the meantime, girl
If you spend any time in Memphis, you start to understand why the place shows up so much. It's a giant cauldron of gumbo with every kind of good, bad, funky, crazy, beautiful, gritty, charming, ominous, delightful, tragic, redemptive, historical ingredient imaginable tossed in. It's a parade of wonders for a songwriter.
After I moved there I really started to notice how many songs have Memphis in the title or is referenced in lyrics. Not long after I arrived, a local rock and roller named Rob Jungklas released an album with a song called Memphis Thing. It's a killer song that manages to capture the vibe of the city. In the last verse before the final chorus he sums it up:
I cannot explain it,
I cannot tell you how
Honey, there's somethin' you'll never know
If you don't know by now
London give you accents
L.A. give you gold
New York give you attitude
But, Memphis…gives you SOUL!
A few years ago I got all wound up about the Memphis song references and I had a graphic artist help with a design that I thought displayed the idea. You can see a picture in the photo gallery. In 2022 when we moved from Memphis, I wrote a love letter song to the city I had spent over half my life in. It's called Song for Memphis. It's on my Nostalgia: It's a Thing of the Past album. The video is below.
Happy New Year in Memphis, Springfield, St. Louis, Kansas City, Tulsa, Denver, Toad Suck, Arkansas or wherever you are. Here's a tune or two: