San Francisco

Maxime le Forestier, 1972

C'est une maison bleue/ It’s a blue house
Adossée à la colline / Leaning on the hill
On y vient à pied / We go there on foot
On ne frappe pas / We don’t knock
Ceux qui vivent là / Those who live there
Ont jeté la clé / Have thrown out the key
On se retrouve ensemble / We find ourselves together
Après des années de route / After years on the road
Et on vient s'asseoir / And we come sit down
Autour du repas / Around the meal
Tout le monde est là / Everyone is there
À cinq heures du soir / At 5 p.m.
Quand San Francisco s'embrume / When San Francisco fogs up
Quand San Francisco s'allume / When San Francisco lights up
San Francisco / San Francisco
Où êtes-vous? / Where are you?
Lizzard et Luc / Lizzard and Luc
Psylvia, attendez-moi / Psylvia, wait for me
Nageant dans le brouillard / Swimming in the fog
Enlacés, roulant dans l'herbe/ Entwined, rolling in the grass
On écoutera Tom à la guitare / We listen to Tom on the guitar
Phil à la quena, jusqu'à la nuit noire / Phil on the quena, until the black night
Un autre arrivera / Another arrives
Pour nous dire des nouvelles / To tell us news
D'un qui reviendra / Of one who will return
Dans un an ou deux / In a year or two
Puisqu'il est heureux / When he is content
On s'endormira / We sleep
Quand San Francisco se lève / When San Francisco wakes up
Quand San Francisco se lève / When San Francisco gets up
San Francisco / San Francisco
Où êtes-vous? / Where are you?
Lizzard et Luc / Lizzard and Luc
Psylvia, attendez-moi / Psylvia, wait for me

C'est une maison bleue / It’s a blue house
Accrochée à ma mémoire / Hanging in my memory
On y vient à pied / We go there on foot
On ne frappe pas / We don’t knock
Ceux qui vivent là / Those who live there
Ont jeté la clé / Have thrown out the key
Peuplée de cheveux longs / Populated with long hair
De grands lits et de musique / With big beds and music
Peuplée de lumière / Populated with light
Et peuplée de fous / And populated with crazies
Elle sera dernière / It will be the last one
À rester debout / Left standing
Si San Francisco s'effondre / If San Francisco crumbles
Si San Francisco s'effondre / If San Francisco crumbles
San Francisco / San Francisco
Où êtes-vous? / Where are you?
Lizzard et Luc / Lizzard and Luc
Psylvia, attendez-moi / Psylvia, wait for me

Maxime le Forestier was a French folk artist popular in the 70’s and 80’s. He spent the summer of 1971 living in San Francisco in a hippie commune called Hunga Dunga in the Castro, and wrote this song about his experience there.

La maison bleue remains somewhat of a Mecca for French tourists in SF to this day, though the hippies who lived there moved out long ago. The house was repainted blue in 2011 and a plaque dedicated to Le Forestier.

I like to think that Le Forestier was right that la maison bleue would be the last thing left standing if San Francisco were decimated by an earthquake or tsunami or something, not because the wooden beams of the house would be strong enough to survive that, but because the community represented in the song would.

There’s clearly something about this charming space filled with music, light, food, wild and welcoming people that resonates with so many people if they’re still making the pilgrimage 50 years later, and I think the same music, light, food, and of course wild and welcoming people live on in SF if you only know where to look.

Saint Dominic's Preview

Van Morrison, 1972

Shammy cleaning all the windows
Singing songs about Edith Piaf's soul
And I hear blue strains of non regredior
Across the street from Cathedral Notre Dame
Meanwhile back in San Francisco
We're trying hard to make this whole thing blend
As we sit upon this jagged
Storey block, with you my friend
And it's a long way to Buffalo
It's a long way to Belfast city too
And I'm hoping the choice won't blow the hoist
'Cause this town, they bit off more than they can chew
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
Saint Dominic's preview
Saint Dominic's preview
Saint Dominic's preview
All the orange boxes are scattered
We get to Safeway's supermarket in the rain
And everybody feels so determined
Not to feel anyone else's pain
No one making no commitments
To anybody but themselves
Talkin' behind closed doorways
Tryin' to get outside, get outside of empty shells
And for every cross-cuttin' country corner
For every Hank Williams railroad train that cried
And all the chains, badges, flags and emblems
And every strain on brain and every eye
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
Saint Dominic's preview
Saint Dominic's preview
Saint Dominic's preview
All the restaurant tables are completely covered
And the record company has paid out for the wine
You got everything in the world you ever wanted

Right about now your face should wear a smile
That's the way it all should happen
When you're in, when you're in the state you're in
And you’ve got your pen and notebook ready
I think it's about time, time for us to begin
Meanwhile we're over in a 52nd Street apartment
Socializing with the whino few
Just to be hip and get wet with the jet set
But they was flying too high to see my point of view
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
As we gaze out on, as we gaze out on
Saint Dominic's preview
Saint Dominic's preview
Saint Dominic's preview
See them freedom marching
Out on the street, freedom marching
Saint Dominic's preview

This song has been described as Morrison’s “most Dylanesque,” and “by some distance, the densest and most allusive song on the record and one of the most striking in the Morrison canon.”

Morrison had been working on a song about a Saint Dominic’s church in Northern Ireland when he picked up a newspaper in Reno that had an ad for a mass for peace at Saint Dominic’s church in San Francisco. The song became about both Belfast and San Francisco, as well as Paris and Buffalo, NY.

One of the reasons I moved here was because when I first visited during my birthday week in 2022, I was so struck by how much this one city reminded me of so many other cities I had visited and lived in around the world. Apparently Van Morrison was similarly transported when writing Saint Dominic’s Preview. For me, different neighborhoods in SF remind me of Istanbul, Boston, New York, Athens, Tokyo, Annecy, and South Orange, NJ.

San Francisco

Cascada, 2011

Are you going to San Francisco?
I'll take you back to 1969
Let's hit the city of freedom like old times
It's getting dirty underneath the blue sky
Imagine you and me counting the butterflies
One, two, three!
Let's bring it on
Keep on dancing in the streets of love
French kissing on JFK drive
'Til we crash at the beach
Where we watch the sun rise
Tell me what you're waiting for
We're crossing the Golden Gate
Party at the Frisco Bay
Wake me up in San Francisco
Where you got flowers in your hair girl
Party everywhere girl
Wake me up in San Francisco
Where the love is in the air
All the people stop and stare
Baby, take me back to the city of love
(Right) to the place that I've been dreaming of
(San Francisco)
Wake me up in San Francisco
Everybody go Oh Oh
It's 10pm getting ready for the night
Wanna be a hippie when the city's getting high
Cruising down Broadway, you on my side
Pulling over my pink rover at the hungry i
One, two, three!
Let's bring it on
DJ, play my favorite beats all night long
Popping some bottles; champagne, red wine
And we both giddy up on the rooftop
And watch the city lights
Tell me what you're waiting for
We're crossing the Golden Gate
Party at the Frisco Bay
Wake me up in San Francisco
Where you got flowers in your hair girl
Party everywhere girl

Wake me up in San Francisco
Where the love is in the air
All the people stop and stare
Baby, take me back to the city of love
(Right) to the place that I've been dreaming of
(San Francisco)
Wake me up in San Francisco
Everybody go Oh Oh
We're playing songs of life like it's '69
We sing and dance under the neon lights
(San Francisco)
Stars shine so bright over the city tonight
We're crossing the Golden Gate
Party at the Frisco Bay
Wake me up in San Francisco
Where you got flowers in your hair girl
Party everywhere girl
Wake me up in San Francisco
Where the love is in the air
All the people stop and stare
Baby, take me back to the city of love
(Right) to the place that I've been dreaming of
(San Francisco)
Wake me up in San Francisco
Everybody go Oh Oh
Come on take me back to the city of love
To the place
The place that I've that I've been dreaming of
So wake me up in San Francisco
Everybody go Oh Oh

The hungry i was originally a famous nightclub located in the Barbary Coast district around 1950 that boosted many careers such as Barbra Streisand and Tom Lehrer, and was instrumental in the resurgence of folk music in the 60’s in San Francisco. The Kingston Trio recorded two famous albums there, including the first live performance of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” In '67 the hungry i moved to Ghirardelli Square and operated as mostly a rock music venue until it closed in ‘70. The owners sold the name rights in the late 60’s to the strip club on Broadway that ran until 2019 and has since reopened as a dive bar.

We Built This City

Starship, 1985

We built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Built this city
We built this city on rock and roll
Say you don't know me or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too many runaways eating up the night
Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember?
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Someone always playing corporation games
Who cares, they're always changing corporation names
We just want to dance here, someone stole the stage
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page
Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember?
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
It's just another Sunday in a tired old street
Police have got the choke hold, oh, then we just lost the beat
Who counts the money underneath the bar?
Who rides the wrecking ball into our guitars?
Don't tell us you need us 'cause we're the ship of fools
Looking for America, coming through your schools
(I’m looking out over that Golden Gate bridge)
(On another gorgeous sunny Saturday)
(And I’m seein’ that bumper to bumper traffic)
Don't you remember? (Remember)
(Here’s your favorite radio station)
(In your favorite radio city, the city by the Bay)
(The city that rocks, the city that never sleeps)

Marconi plays the mamba, listen to the radio, don't you remember?
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
We built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
Built this city, we built this city on rock and roll
We built, we built this city, yeah (Built this city)
We built, we built this city
We built, we built this city yeah (Built this city)
We built, we built this city
We built, we built this city yeah (Built this city)
We built, we built this city (Built this city)

This song was originally about LA but when Starship, a San Francisco band, took it on, they changed it to be about SF instead. (This is really only apparent in the radio-announcer-style spoken interlude.)

I think it’s kind of tragicomic to consider the line “Someone always playing corporation games / Who cares, they’re always changing corporation names” in the context of ~someone~ throwing a 44-billion-dollar fit this year because some kid kept posting his flight details to Twitter because he exploits workers, changing Twitter’s name to X, and that whole ensuing fiasco with the building permits at their headquarters on Market Street.

There’s so much more to San Francisco than tech corporation politics, and yet it does affect the city, unfortunately way more than just building façades and permits.

It makes me feel better to remember that San Francisco’s long-enduring culture and character was built on music, youth, counterculture, and queerness, and that’s something we all have the power to contribute to and protect.

Grace Cathedral Hill

The Decemberists, 2003

Grace Cathedral Hill
All wrapped in bones of setting sun
All dust and stone and moribund
I paid twenty-five cents to light a little white candle
For a New Year’s Day
I sat and watched it burn away
Then turned and weaved through slow decay
We were both a little hungry so we went to get a hot dog
Down the Hyde Street pier
The light was slight and disappeared
The air, it stunk of fish and beer
We heard a Superman trumpet play the national anthem
And the world may be long for you
But it’ll never belong to you
But on a motorbike
When all the city lights blind your eyes tonight
Are you feeling better now?
Are you feeling better now?
Are you feeling better now?
Some way to greet the year
Your eyes all bright and brimmed with tears
The pilgrims, pills, and tourists here
All sing “Fifty-three bucks to buy a brand new halo”
I’m sweet on a green-eyed girl
All fiery Irish clip and curl
All brine and piss and vinegar
I paid twenty-five cents to light a little white candle
And the world may be long for you
But it’ll never belong to you
But on a motorbike
When all the city lights blind your eyes tonight
Are you feeling better now?
Are you feeling better now?
Are you feeling better now?

The story goes that The Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy wrote this song after going to his wife (then girlfriend)’s father’s funeral at Grace Cathedral one New Year’s Day. As they sat in this beautiful old church and she grieved and was in a foul mood (“brine and piss and vinegar”), he couldn’t help falling more and more in love with her. In the song he tries to cheer her up by taking her across the city on his motorbike.

I was lucky enough to move to San Francisco in January of this year, at a time in the city’s history where it’s been undergoing so much change, recovering from COVID, homelessness is on the rise, streets are supposedly getting noticeably grimier, and there’s big tech and rising rents displacing residents and small businesses and thereby erasing culture. But at its core, this city remains so beautiful to me and it feels like every day I find something new to love.

I hope that through all these adventures across town I’ve been able to impart to you a fraction of the beauty and wildness and weirdness that I see in this city that makes me love it so much.