John Herety's NYC Playlist

I emailed John to ask him to do another playlist for the blog. Interestingly, John replied to me via his iPad, which I presume he acquired whilst in New York City. This is what he wrote:

As our enforced stop-over in New York continues, I thought it only correct I put my images of New York down in song. Not sure they were all written specifically about New York, but they are the songs that I have listened to over the years that brought classic images of New York to my mind.

No apologies for 3 tracks by Billy Joel, likewise for some cover versions, otherwise Lou Reed would have hogged the whole playlist. As it is, there are 4 tracks penned by Mr New York himself and to be honest his whole album New York New York is my all time favourite album so could have had every track listed. (Go listen to it)

Before anyone starts, I know there's no Blondie, no Talking Heads, no Frank Sinatra and I'm sure countless others as well, but as we head upstate for some training, waiting for Europe to return to some form of normality, these are the tunes I'll be inflicting on my fellow team members.

I have to say New York has surprised me, quite often places that you really want to go and see rarely live up to your expectations. In the case of NYC that has not been the case. Sure it's busy, sure the locals can be a bit brusque, sure everything is large, but there is an electricity to the place that I know writers and musicians refer to. There is, I felt it, I liked it and I would come back in a shot…That's if they ever let me leave.

NYC PLAYLIST

• Across from 110 St - Bobby Womack
• Scenes from an Italian Restaurant - Billy Joel
• Walk on the Wild Side - Jesse Malin
• Big Yellow Taxi - Counting Crows
• Coney Island Baby - Lou Reed
• Do like you do in New York - Boz Scaggs
• Hotel Chelsea Nights - Ryan Adams
• Hey Manhattan - Prefab Sprout
• I'm Waiting for the Man -The Velvet Underground
• King of the New York Streets - Dion
• Miami 2017 Seen the lights go out on Broadway - Billy Joel
• The Rising - Bruce Springsteen
• Andy Warhol- David Bowie
• Sheena is a Punk Rocker - The Ramones
• The Message - Grand Master Flash and the Furious five
• New York -Ryan Adams
• Dirty Boulevard - Lou Reed
• Englishman in New York - Sting
• Living for the City - Stevie Wonder
• New York state of Mind - Billy Joel
• Harlem Shuffle - Bob & Earl
• Downtown Train - Tom Waits
• After Hours (Twelve Bars Past Midnight) - Rickie Lee Jones
• Freddie's Dead- Curtis Mayfield
• Theme from Taxi Driver – Bernard Herrmann
• Slaughter on 10th Avenue - Mick Ronson

Listen to the playlist on LAST FM

(ed.) John Herety is now back in the UK, but still listening to Billy Joel records.