The 50 States: Kansas
Kansas is the heartland. A steady batch of corn and wheat whizzing past our rock-filled bus' windows. Kansas, you have lawrence. Lawrence, one of the coolest college-towns in the country. The town that seems small but draws national bands on a nightly basis. The town that is all coeds and fast-food. I like lawrence.
Kansas has given this country such great things as the nations biggest ball of twine, Amelia Earhardt, Dwight D Eisenhower, nations largest concentration of wild grouse, wheat, wheat, more wheat, Pizza Hut, Fatty Arbuckle, Bob Dole, Dennis Hopper, Stan Kenton, Barry Sanders, oh yeah, and tornadoes.
Kansas -- you seem to be confused as to where Kansas City stops and Missouri begins. Because of that, I am going to assume that all songs about Kansas City are about Kansas City, KS. Actually -- if I were smarter I would assume that they were about Kansas City, MO since that is the bigger more metropolitan part, but I'm not smarter and it's a lot easier to include these songs with Kansas. Plus -- who really cares.
- Jelly Roll Morton - Kansas City Stomp
- Okkervil River - Kansas City
- Tullycraft - Our Days in Kansas
- Joya Landis - Kansas City
- Frank Zappa - Been to Kansas City in A-Minor
- Josh Ritter - Lawrence, KS
- Neko Case - Train from Kansas City
- Count Basie - Kansas City Shout
- Butthole Surfers - Wichita Cathedral
- Buffalo Skinners - We're Not in Kansas
- Johnny Cash - Wichita Lineman
- Kool and the Gang - Wichita Lineman
- REM - Wichita Lineman
- Urge Overkill - Wichita Lineman
- Sergio Mendes - Wichita Lineman
- John Parish - Kansas City Electrician
- From Autumn to Ashes - Kansas City 90210
- The Get Up Kids - Campfire Kansas
- Junior Brown - Kansas City Blues
- Janis Joplin - Kansas City Blues
- Bob Dylan - Wichita Blues
- Mike Doughty - True Dreams of Wichita
- Brenda Lee - Kansas City
- Dion and the Belmonts - Kansas City
- Graham Parker - Kansas City
- James Brown - Kansas City
- Jay McShann - Kansas City
- Keely Smith - Kansas City
- Little Richard - Kansas City
- Wanda Jackson - Kansas City
- Link Wray - Shawnee
- Roger Miller - Kansas City Star
- Van Morrison - The Eternal Kansas City
Next up is Kentucky, so you want to drop some science in the comments about Kentucky, I'll do my best to include it in my next post. WORD!
posted by Robert @ 10:52 AM
18 Comments:
What a faaaab selection and my fave has to be johnny and withita lineman...wow...love this travelogue of toons...and amerikay is such a vast country that we should be well entertained for a while to come!!!
"Kentucky" - The Louvin Brothers
More obvious: "Kentucky Woman" - Neil Diamond, "Kentucky Rain" - Elvis
Thanks for the great tunes!
How 'bout Deep Purple's version of "Kentucky Woman", dagnabit?
Don't forget Kansas City's finest: Charlie Parker.
Overkill from a devoted adopted Kentuckian:
During the Civil War, Abe Lincoln asserted, "I hope to have God on my side, but I have to have Kentucky." Or at least so Kentuckians claim.
Songs: Van Lear Rose (Loretta Lynn), High on a Mountaintop (Lynn), Blue Kentucky Girl (Emmylou Harris), Kentucky Moon (Kinks), Beaver Creek Mansion (Sam Bush), Pike County Breakdown (Flatt & Scruggs), Blue Moon of Kentucky (Bill Monroe, Elvis, tons of people), Man of Constant Sorrow (Lots of folks, O Brother sndtrk), and any song with "bluegrass" in the title.
People: Henry Clay, Daniel Boone, Hunter Thompson, Barbara Kingsolver, Bobbie Ann Mason, Wendell Berry, Robert Penn Warren, Bill Monroe, Sam Bush, Will Oldham, My Morning Jacket, George Clooney, Ashley Judd, and plenty I'm forgetting.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is an abomination when you've had the real thing.
The Kansas City they're singing about is in Missouri.
Kansas City, Missouri is from where Kansas City grew. I am a Kansas City boy...born and raised. This is a great place to raise children as long as you avoid the actual city limits of Kansas City, Missouri. There is success all around this trash bin of liberalism.
Kentucky? Obviously, mostly country songs.
The Elvis song is essential. Bill Monroe is mandatory. Kentucky Woman was already mentioned. Anything from Loretta Lynn or Crystal Gayle (Lynn's sister). Some bluegrass for the Bluegrass State (Bill Monroe included, of course).
Tom Waits - Kentucky Ave.
Ry Cooder did a version of My Old Kentucky Home (as did a ton of folks).
One of Pearl Jam's released boots was from Lexington.
Dwight Yoakam - Louisville
Ella Fitzgerald - Louisville K-Y
Duke Ellington - Paducah
Everly Brothers or Glen Campbell - Bowling Green
What about the two top things we think of about KY - bourbon and horses?
Thorogood or John Lee Hooker - One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer
Be Good Tanyas - Horses
Large # of singers - Wild Horses
Kristin Hersh - Whole Heap of Little Horses
Most Bourbon songs are actually about Bourbon Street, which brings to mind the fact that you are going to have a huge amount of possibilities for Louisiana (and NY, Texas, and probably NJ).
Ooh - I forgot John Prine's "Paradise," about stripmining in Muhlenburg County. A classic. A must.
Also, "God's Country" bu Loudon Wainwright III, which he says he wrote in Lexington.
If you want a song about horseracing and bourbon, how about Tom Waits's "Jockey Full of Bourbon?" John Hammond's version is great, too.
i've been searching for wichita linesman sung by Johnny Cash for ages. fantastic thanks
fabulous post i've just now found! i'm a native kansas citian. care for me to explain the difference between the two?
you can assume most songs are about kansas city, missouri, which is the most metropolitan. all the rest of the cities/suburbs are basically offshoots of the metro/downtown KC MO. kansas city, kansas, although sharing the same name, is not really what people are referring to when they say KC.
and i'm from a suburb on the kansas side, but i say i'm from kansas city. the suburbs shoot off on both sides of the state line. (my house was actually five minutes away from missouri).
i now live in iowa, but let's not confuse things.
thanks again for the post! reminds me of home :)
This is a great place to raise children as long as you avoid the actual city limits of Kansas City, Missouri. There is success all around this trash bin of liberalism.
So, I do not really suppose this is likely to work.
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