No other city in the world has been the host of - or the inspiration for - so much popular music worldwide over the years than New York City. However, I was a surprised, after extensive searching, that a comprehensive and accessible playlist mix of great and diverse songs about New York City was nowhere to be found.

Therefore, it wasn't difficult to figure out what needed to be done. The deeper I dug looking for songs about New York - other than the more obvious songs - the more it became apparent that a number of playlist mixes would be required to produce a good representation of New York songs.

Hopefully, New Yorkers and others will find this playlist mix series does the city justice; if you missed the first playlist NYC song mix in this series, it features songs from Lou Reed, Conor Oberst, Belle and Sebastian, LCD Soundsystem, Jay Z and others.

"Positively 4th Street" - Bob Dylan from Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (1967)

"The Long Island Sound" - Beirut from Lon Gisland EP (2007)

"Walk On The Wild Side" (Lou Reed Live Cover) - The Strokes from unreleased (2006)

"The Only Living Boy In New York" - Simon and Garfunkel from Bridge Over Troubled Water (1967)

"Coney Island Cyclone" (Alternative Version) - Mercury Rev from Lego My Ego (2007)

"Downtown Train" - Tom Waits from Smoke (1985)

"Lovecraft In Brooklyn" - The Mountain Goats from Heretic Pride (2008)

"New York City" - John Lennon from Lennon (1990)

"Marching Bands Of Manhattan" - Death Cab for Cutie from Plans (2005)

"Superman" - The Kinks from Low Budget (1979)

"Empire State" - Guster from Ganging Up On The Sun (2006)

"Brooklyn" - Mos Def from Black On Both Sides (2002)

"53rd & 3rd" - The Ramones from We're Outta Here (1976)

"One Day You'll Dance For Me, New York City" - Thomas Dybdahl from One Day You'll Dance For Me, New York City (2006)

"Bulls In Brooklyn" - The Academy Is from Santi (2007)

"Boy From New York City" - The Ad-Libs from The Boy From New York City (1965)

"Living For The City" - Stevie Wonder from Legends: Do It Again (1973)

The following video cover by YouTuber Chunnyman of "The Only Living Boy in New York" (Simon & Garfunkel) is very nicely done.

Labels: Indie Rock Playlists, Songs About New York

New York City has been a mecca for popular music going all the way back to Harlem's Cotton Club and greats like Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, Elvis on The Ed Sullivan Show, the rise in popularity of rhythm and blues, the folk rock movement of the early 1960s, spurred largely by Bob Dylan, followed by The British Invasion (The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks) and Fillmore East and psychedelic rock, the advent of funk and soul, disco and Studio 54, and successive waves of the punk, pop, rock, rap, hip hop, indie and the list goes on and on. Whatever music genre you're looking for - from acid jazz to shoe gaze, Mississippi blues to garage rock, city-slicked bluegrass to Broadway musicals, New York, the world's music capital, has it all.

From The Velvet Underground to The Ramones, Billie Holiday to Simon and Garfunkel, The Strokes to Animal Collective the list of iconic New York musicians and bands is mind-boggling, but not more so then the sheer number of songs recorded in the past nearly 100 years that reference New York in some way, either in the track title or song lyrics.

In this first installment of three special playlist mixes, IRC features some of our favorite songs about NYC. This mix is an extension of the popular State of Music playlist mixes, an on-going series that has focused mostly on songs that are about the 50 states. In time, there will be more mixes of songs about cities around the U.S. and the world. But right now it's New York time.

"NYC, Gone, Gone" - Conor Oberst from Conor Oberst (2008)

"Walk On The Wild Side" - Lou Reed from Transformer (1972)

"New York State Of Mind" - Billy Joel from Turnstiles (1976)

"Hello Brooklyn" - Jay Z and Lil Wayne from American Gangster (2007)

"New York City Heat" - Dead Heart Bloom from Chelsea Diaries (2007)

"The Last Tango In Brooklyn" - Frightened Rabbit from TLB4 CD2 (2009)

"Piazza, New York Catcher" - Belle & Sebastian from Dear Catastrophe Waitress (2003)

"Fairy Tale Of New York" (Pogues Cover) - Stars from Your Ex-Lover Is Dead (2005)

"Brooklyn" - Creaky Boards from Brooklyn is Love (2008)

"New York, New York" - Cat Power from Jukebox (2008)

"New York City" - They Might Be Giants from Factory Showdown (1996)

"Harlem Sunrise" - Rainbow Arabia from Kabukimono (2009)

"Chelsea Hotel" - Leonard Cohen from So Long, Marianne (1999)

"New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down" - LCD Soundsystem from Sound of Silver (2007)

"Brooklyn" - Blue Train from No Free Lunch (2002)

See Songs About New York, Mix II

Labels: Indie Playlists, Songs About New York