Sunday morning coming down | Power Line

Having revisited “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” last week, I thought it might be fun to post a set of 10 songs with a New York City theme if I could avoid show tunes and limit myself to folk, pop, and rock artists.

This has been a big year for Bob Dylan. I’m warming up to celebrate his 84th birthday next month. “Talkin’ New York” (1962) is one of the two songs he wrote that made it on to his debut album. It’s autobiographical and self-deprecating. He quotes Woody Guthrie and alludes to a visit with him in East Orange. See more of the deep background of the song here.) As Emerson said to Whitman upon the publication of the first edition of Leaves of Grass: “I greet you at the beginning of a great career” (“which yet must have had a long foreground somewhere for such a start”).

You can feel the city streets (“hotter than a match head”) in the Lovin’ Spoonful’s “Summer In the City” (1966).

Richie Havens doesn’t identify the city in “New City” (1968), but I think he conveyed what it felt like when he crossed from Brooklyn to Manhattan to make a career in music.

“Up On the Roof” is the classic song written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. Laura Nyro made it her own on Christmas and the Beads of Sweat (1970). Backed by the Muscle Shoals rhythm section, Laura accompanied herself on piano. Felix Cavaliere joined in on the bells.

Laura called songs like “Up On the Roof” — the songs of her youth — “primal teenage heartbeat songs.” She recorded an album full of them on Gonna Take a Miracle (1971) accompanied by the ladies of LaBelle and produced by latter day Philadelphia soul maestros Gamble and Huff. In the liner notes to one of her albums she explained: “That music is about real singing. There’s a passion for melody, for phrasing.”

The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle (1973) was Bruce Springsteen’s second album. He wanted to do for New York what Van Morrison had done for Belfast on Astral Weeks. It concludes with “New York City Serenade.” E Street keyboard player David Sancious is all over the track and the album.

“New York City Song” (1975) is one of several songs New York City songs written by Dion. Among them are “King of the New York Streets” (1989), “New York Is My Home” (2015), and, most recently, “New York Minute” (2025).

Of course the official Bee Gees video of “Stayin’ Alive” (1977) locates the song in New York City. It deserves a place here if only for Barry Gibb’s great line: “We can try to understand the New York Times’ effect on man.” We can try, but we will never understand.

Tim Hauser was the founder of Manhattan Transfer. Among the jobs he worked while pursuing a career in music was taxi driver. When Hauser re-formed the group, he had them record the Ad Libs’ 1964 hit “The Boy From New York City” (1981). You couldn’t ignore the sound of the single popping out of the radio that year. I was so grateful to see the group at the Dakota with Hauser in 2012. He died only two years later. Written by John T. Taylor and George Davis, the original Ad Libs recording was produced by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller.

Bernie Taupin and Elton John wrote “Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters.” The Indigo Girls recorded this cover live in 2005. Their gifted harmony singing adds to the pathos. “I thank the Lord there’s people out there like you.”