Been Around The World...
One day, on bsn, we started to produce a list of places mentioned in songs... it grew, and we know this is in no way comprehensive. If you have any to add, please join the list and do so there...

North America & Canada
Kids in America - Kim Wilde
Look Inside America - Blur
Magic America - Blur
If White America Told The Truth For One Day Its World Would fall Apart - Manic Street Preachers
White America - Eminem
Born in the USA - Bruce Springsteen
Canada - the Field Mice
You Can in Canada - Nisa
In Canada - BJ Snowden
Canada - Eskimo Joe

New York
New York, New York - Ryan Adams
New York, New York - Frank Sinatra
Buffalo Girls - Malcolm MacClaren
The entire New York album - Lou Reed
Yeah, New York - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
New York - Sex Pistols
The Only Living Boy In New York - Paul Simon
Fairy Tale of New York- The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl
Springtime in New York - Jonathan Richman
No Sleep 'til Brooklyn- Beastie Boys
Harlem Shuffle- Rolling Stones
New Amsterdam - Elvis Costello
Boy From Long Island - That Dog
It Must Be Summer - Fountains of Wayne (Jersey Shore and Long Island Sound)
Utopia Park - Fountains of Wayne
Red Dragon Tattoo - Fountains of Waynes (Coney island)
Coney island Cyclone - Mercury Rev
Six States Away - Bitch and Animal Talking (Brooklyn)
The Getaway - Pretty Girls Make Graves (she said she'd like it to snow the same way it did in upstate new york)
Hi 5 - Beck (Catskills)
My Metrocard - Le Tigre
The New Style - Beastie Boys ("You're from Secaucus - I'm from Manhattan You're jealous of me because your girlfriend is cattin'")

California
California Dreaming – Mamas and The Papas
Gone to Califonia - Pink
Hotel California - The Eagles
California Uber Alles - Dead Kennedys
Picture of Success - Rilo Kiley ("they say California is a bit of a black hole")
California - Joni Mitchell
California One - The Decemberists
California Waiting - Kings of Leon
Goin' to California - Led Zeppelin
Why I Left California - Liz Phair
California Girl - Candy Butchers
I Remember California - REM
California - Steve Ward
California Gridlock -Butch Walker
Califonia Stars - Wilco
California Mudslide- Lightnin' Hopkins
Hills of L.A. - Candy Butchers
Don’t Go Away Mad - Motley Crue (“My friends called today/Down from LA”)
If You’re Going To San Francisco - Tony Bennett
Why you'd want to live here - death cab for cutie
LA Screenwriter Blues - Soul Coughing
Crutch - Buffalo Tom (San Francisco)
Come Back From San Francisco - Magentic Fields
San Diego Zoo - the 6ths
Poor Poor LA - Tim Easton
Tinseltown in the Rain - Simple Minds
Glendora - Rilo Kiley
Come Monday - Jimmy Buffet “Headin' out to San Francisco/For the Labor Day
weekend show/I've got my hush puppies on/I guess I never was meant for
glitter rock and roll” (also mentions LA and Montana)
Celebrity Skin - Hole ("wilted and faded/somewhere in Hollywood")
Diary of a San Fernando Sex Star -Butch Walker
I Love LA- Randy Newman

Mississippi
Mississippi - Pussycat

Blue Hawaii- Elvis Presley
Little Old Lady From Pasadena- Jan and Dean

Las Vegas
Viva Las Vegas - Elvis
Don’t Make Me Come To Vegas - Tori Amos
Ooh, Las Vegas - Gram Parsons

Texas
Do You Know the Way to San Jose?- Dionne Warwick
Folsom Prison Blues- Johnny Cash
West Texas Teardrops - Old 97s

Kentucky
Blue Moon of Kentucky - Patsy Cline
No Rm9, Kentucky - Shudder To Think

Big Sur - The Thrills

Anchorage - Michelle Shcoked (also mentions Texas)

Detroit
Detroit Rock City- KISS
Panic in Detroit - David Bowie

Sweet Home Alabama - Lynard Skynard

Mary, Queen of Arkansas - Bruce Springsteen

Michigan
Paint's Peeling - Rilo Kiley

Ohio
Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio - John Denver

Florida
Miami Nice - Elastica
Walk on the Wild Side - Velvet Underground ("Holly came from Miami, FLA")

Champaign, Illinois - Ranchero Brothers

New Orleans
504 - Old 97s (New Orleans)
King of New Orleans - Better Than Ezra
City of New Orleans - Arlo Guthrie

Rio - Duran Duran

Chicago
Chicago at Night -Spoon
Via Chicago -Wilco
Stratford-on-Guy - Liz Phair ("I was flying into Chicago at night/Watching the lake turn the sky into blue/green smoke...")
Sweet Home, Chicago- Robert Johnson

Philadelphia
Philadelphia Freedom - Elton John
Music for Montgomery County, PA - steve burns

Graceland - Paul Simon

North Dakota - Lyle Lovett

Tunnel Song - The Pulsars ("Pittsburgh has a real cool
tunnel, Pittsburgh has a tunnel through a mountain")

Albuquerque- Weird Al Yankovic

Minneapolis
Minneapolis - That Dog
christmas card from a hooker in minneapolis - Tom waits

Massachusetts
Massachusetts - BeeGees
Lowell, Ma - Death Cab For Cutie

Olympia - Hole

North Carolina Is A Smoking State - Robbie Fulks

Okie from Muskogie - Merle Haggard

In The Springtime of His Voodoo - Tori Amos ("standing on a
corner in winslow, arizona/and i'm quite sure i'm in the wrong song...")

Montreal - The Wedding Present

Long Vermont Roads - Magnetic Fields

Williamsburg - Mendoza Line

Kansas City- Jimmy Witherspoon

Cleveland Rocks - Ian Hunter

Georgia on my Mind- Ray Charles

Seven Bridges Road - Eagles

From Chapel Hill - Tammi Hart

John Linnell recorded the following songs, which he wrote: Illinois, West Virginia, South Dakota, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Pennsylvania, Arkansas, Iowa, Mississippi, Maine, Oregon, Michegan, New Hampshire, and Nevada.
Belle and Sebastian - We Rule The School ("Dont' fall asleep driving from California to New York")
Scott Miller - Amtrak Crescent (New Orleans, Birmingham, Alabama, Georgia, Charlotte, High point, Lynchberg, Danville, Manassas, Bull Run, Virginia, Washington DC, New York, and Baltimore.)
And special mention to Sublime of April 29th, 1992: "Riots on the streets of Miami
Whoa, riots on the streets of Chicago
On the streets of Long Beach
In San Francisco
Riots on the streets of Kansas City
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Cleveland, Ohio
Fountain Valley, Paramount, Vista Buelle
Eugene, Oregon
Eureka, California
Hesperia
Santa Barbara
Motherfuckin Nevada
Phoenix, Arizona
San Diego
Lakeland, Florida
Fuckin 29 Palms"
Starwood in Aspen - John Denver
Rocky Mountain High - John Denver
Country Roads - John Denver (West Virginia, Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River)
Every State Line - Ani DiFranco (Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Alabama and West Texas)
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - Gordon Lightfoot ("The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down of the big lake they called "Gitche Gumee...The ship was the pride of the American side coming back from some mill in Wisconsin...Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings in the rooms of her ice-water mansion...Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams; ...And farther below Lake Ontario...")

Europe
Europe is our Playground - Suede
Eurotrash Girl - Chicks on Speed
Trans Europe Express - Kraftwerk
I'm Taking Europe With Me - Veruca Salt (also mentions Canada)
Hell to Helsinki - The Melons (mentions all but one European Capital)
Every Fucking City - paul kelly (mentions Paris, Lyon, Barcelona, Madrid, Copenhagen, London, Dublin, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Rome, and Stockholm)
Worry My Dome -Candy Butchers ("I wanna give her Paris
and Rome, God Forbid, she ever finds out on her own")

France
Lost in France - Bonnie Tyler
Tour De France - Kraftwerk
Red Ball Express - Scott Miller
Maid of Orleans – OMD
Sexy Eiffel Tower - Bow Wow Wow
Waterloo - Abba
Bored in Paris - Ultrababyfat
Paris Train - Beth Orton
Give Paris One More Chance - Jonathan Richman
Our Retired Explorer (Dines With Michel Foucault In Paris, 1961) - The Weakerthans

Switzerland
Smoke on The Water - Deep Purple ("We all came out to Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline")

Belgium
Down Under – Men At Work ("Buying bread from a man in Brussels")

Denmark
Copenhagen - Scott Walker

Holland
Amsterdam - Jacques Brel
Pragweg at the Melkweg - Half Man Half Biscuit
Holland, 1945 - Neutral Milk Hotel
Amsterdam - David Bowie

Spain
Spain is Pain - The Pribata Idaho
Y Viva Espania - Sylvia
Barcelona - Freddie Mercury & Monseratt Cabale

Russia
Back in the USSR - The Beatles

Ordinary to Enscade - Half Man Half Biscuit

Turkey
Istanbul - They Might Be Giants

United Kingdom
Anarchy In The UK - The Sex Pistols
Panic - The Smiths (London, Humberside, Dublin - which we know isn’t in the UK), Leeds)

Brighton
Annie - Elastica (Brighton beach)
Pool Valley - Blow-Up
Goldstone Rap - Brighton and Hove Albion (also mentions the Seven Dials)

London
A Bomb in Wardour Street - The Jam
Whipsnade - Suede
London Calling - The Clash
White Man in Hammersmith Palais - The Clash
Londoninium - Catatonia
Last Train To London - ELO
Guns of Brixton - The Clash
Hersham Boys - Sham 69
The Only Living Boy In New Cross - Carter USM
Sheriff Fatman - Carter USM ("from Lands End to Chelsea")
I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea - Elvis Costello
Abbey Road- The Fuckwits
Ghosts of Cable Street - The Men they Couldn't Hang
London Dungeon- The Misfits
Werewolves of London- Warren Zevon
London Rain - Heather Nova
London's Brilliant - Wendy James
Londons Got Me Down - Belle and Sebastian
London in the Rain - Purressence

Birmingham
Birmingham Blues - ELO

Manchester
Suffer the Children - The Smiths ("Oh, Manchester, so much to answer for")
Cheetham Hill - The Fall
Manchester - The Times

Liverpool
In Liverpool - The Rhythm Sisters
Penny Lane - The Beatles
Strawberry Fields Forever - The Beatles
Anfield Rap - Liverpool FC
Liverpool - Bradford
Ferry Cross The Mersey - Gerry and the Pacemakers
Going Down To Liverpool - Katrina and the Waves
Always Liverpool - Dubsex

Elvis Impersonator, Blackpool Pier - Manic Street Preachers
Down To Margate - Chas and Dave
Eton Rifles - The Jam
Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
Scarborough Fair - Simon and Garfunkel
Sheffield, Sex City - Pulp
Only A Prawn in Whitby - Cud
Durham Town - Roger Whittaker
Grimsby - Elton John
Sorted For Es and Whiz - Pulp (Camden and Bournemouth)
Driving Away From Home - It’s Immaterial (Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow)
Granadaland - The Wedding President
A Child's Christmas In Wales - John Cale
England, My Lionheart - Kate Bush
England Swings - Roger Whittaker (also mentions Westminster Abbey)
I Hate Scotland - Ballboy
Blue Skys Over Dundalk - Mary Prankster

Middle East

The Lebanon - Human League
Night Boat to Cairo - Madness
Fire in Cairo - The Cure
Kashka From Baghdad - Kate Bush
Jerusalem - Billy Bragg
Babylon - David Grey

South & Central America

Cuba - Earth Wind and Fire
Copacabana - Barry Manilow ("north of Havana")
Girl From Ipanema - B52s
Mexican Radio - Wall of Voodoo

Fly Down To Rio - Mike Nesmith
Me and a Gun - Tori Amos ("But I haven't seen Barbados/So I must get out of
this")

Australia

Australia - Manic Street Preachers
Melbourne - The Whitlams
You Gotta Love This City - the Whitlams (Sydney)
400 Miles From Darwin - the Whitlams (also mentions East Timor)

Africa

Radio Africa - Latin Quarter
Ethiopia - Patti Smith
Radio Abyssinia - Patti Smith
Mogadishu - Baader Meinhof
Song of the Nile - Dead Can Dance
Sun City - Artists United Against Aparthied

Asia

Cambodia - Kim Wilde
Holiday in Cambodia - Dead KennedysBig in Japan - Alphaville
Turning Japanese - The Vapours
Tokyo Storm Warning - Elvis Costello
My Vietnam - Pink
China Crisis - Hefner
Somewhere In China - Shop Assistants
The India Song - Big Star

Antarctic

My Antarctica - Duran Duran
The Moon and Antarctica - Modest Mouse
Antarctica - Absinthe Blind

Worldwide

All Around the World - Daft Punk
This is the World Calling - Bob Geldof
Pop Muzik - M ("London, Paris, New York, Munich")
Olivers Army - Elvis Costello (The Mersey, the Thames, the Tyne, Johannesburg, London etc)
Ballad of the sin father - Ted Leo and the Pharmacists (Belfast, Ibixa, San Sebastian, Russia, Damascus, Kigali, Jersey, Sierra Leone, Selby, & Leeds)
stay faraway so close us miami, new orleans,london, belfast and berlin.