13 Great Songs About Sydney

Songs about SydneyI recently came across a song that I remembered as a teenager – the classic Cicadas That Ate Five Dock. Sure it’s a bit of a novelty but it did start me wondering about other songs that included mentions of Sydney and it’s suburbs. Back in the days when Sydney’s pub rock scene was booming it seemed a lot of bands were very much playing to the local audience – Midnight Oil, The Whitlams, Richard Clapton, Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, Paul Kelly were all singing songs about Sydney, but not much these days… Here’s a selection that I pulled together. Got any more you’d like to add?

1. Outline – Cicada That Ate Five Dock

2. XL Capris – My City Of Sydney
Always liked this one because the brother of a history teacher at school was in the band! (No idea why the embed link from Youtube is only working every now and then – you may have to click out to view this one)
http://youtu.be/HWvKyDfE7zc

3. Section 5 (Bus to Bondi) – Midnight Oil

4. Darlinghurst Nights – The Go-Betweens

5. Girls on the Avenue – Richard Clapton (Kings Cross)

6. Breakfast at Sweethearts – Cold Chisel 
Sweethearts café was where the McDonalds now stands in Kings Cross!

7. Deep Water – Richard Clapton

8. Wedding Cake Island – Midnight Oil

9. Reckless – Australian Crawl

10. Long Jumping Jeweller (of Lavender Bay) – Little River Band

11. Stomping at Maroubra – Little Pattie (1964)

12. The Day John Sattler Broke His Jaw – Perry Keyes

13. Somewhere in Sydney – Skyhooks

4 Comments on “13 Great Songs About Sydney

  1. Great list! The Whitlams’ “You Gotta Love This City” would be another (slightly depressing) addition.

  2. Girls on The Avenue is not about Kings Cross. Clapton used to live near a street called The Avenue (probably at Randwick). There was a house there where four girls lived. The band used to walk past to have a perve at them, got smitten, but never spoke to them.

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