Research Guides

Boston and Its Neighborhoods

Music lyrics with a Boston theme

The Boston composers project : a bibliography of contemporary
music / Boston Area Music Libraries ; Linda I. Solow, editor
Cambridge, Mass. : MIT Press, c1983.
Music Reference ML107.B7 B67 1983 LIB USE ONLY

Selected popular music with Boston themes
Note: To find lyrics, type the song title (with quotation marks) in Google and add lyrics.

Dirty Water
http://www.webfitz.com/lyrics/Lyrics/1966/871966.html
The Standells wrote this humorous song about the Charles River.

Irish music in Boston
http://www.bc.edu/libraries/centers/burns/services/irishmusic/overview/#collections
This site at Boston College provides access to Irish music, including the history of Irish music in the Boston area.

Please Come to Boston
http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/pleaseco.htm
Song made popular by Joan Baez.

Boston
http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/boston.htm
One of musical satirist Tom Lehrer's earliest songs. This parody was written when he was attending Harvard in 1944.

I Want My City Back
http://www.lyricstime.com/lyrics/40753.html
This song was written by the Bosstones, a popular '80s Boston band.

M.T.A.
http://ingeb.org/songs/letmetel.html
This song about Charlie riding the Boston subway was made popular by the folk song group, the Kingston Trio. According to the lyricist Sam Berman, it was sung on the campaign truck for Walter O'Brien who ran for Mayor of Boston on the Progressive Party Ticket in 1949 .

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