Great London Songs

4. Waterloo Sunset – Kinks

Released in 1967, based on memories of his time in St Thomas’ hospital when he was 13. It went to No.2 in the British charts and was their biggest hit. Rumors at the time that “Terry and Julie” were Terence Stamp and Julie London who were London’s hip celebrities at the time, but Ray Davies has denied this. It was never a hit in the US, but it is listed at No.14 in the Rolling Stone’s greatest songs of all time. There have been some great covers, including one by another brilliant London band, The Jam. Peter Gabriel also did a very good version.

Advertisement

Great London Songs

3 London Calling – The Clash

Released in Dec 1979. With a title from a BBC radio WWII phrase, London Calling is like a wartime radio broadcast from a dystopian future London. It chimed well with the punk popularity of the time, because of the angry delivery of the lyrics and the staccato guitar riffs. London and the UK, in the late 1970’s, felt like their best times were behind them and this song is an enraged rant about this. Cleverly written and well produced, albeit with punk ethic, I remember being annoyed when radio DJs would cut the morse code ending – which spelled out SOS.

A classic 21st century T-Shirt

Despite never making the top 10 when it was released, it came in at 15 in the Rolling Stone magazine’s best all-time songs (2004), and at 42 in VH1’s 100 greatest songs of the 1980s (sic). Ukraine band, Beton, released a cover version called “Kyiv Calling” in March 2022, following the Russian invasion of their country.

I have created a playlist on Spotify and I will add the songs included in the “Great London Songs” as I go along. It’s called “The London Playlist” – if you think of any songs that I should include please let me know.