In 1975, Bon Scott and the lads took their metal boogie to the streets of Melbourne. It’s A Long Way To the Top (if you wanna rock and roll) and the clip are key moments in Australian rock lore. So much so that a couple of years ago a laneway, Corporation Lane, was renamed AC/DC Lane.
Then this week in Brisbane, 2000 miles to the north of Melbourne, a bridge was named in honour of The Go-Betweens, the band as much as any, catches the moods of the Queensland capital. The Hale Street Bridge is now The Go-Betweens Bridge. In their pomp, most of the band’s success was outside of Brisbane, and they wasted little time hitting the road for cities more receptive to their Velvets/Monkees/Richman/Television skinny pop thing.
The question is, are there other places named in honour of a band or song?
I know there’s a bridge in Macon, GA named for Otis Redding. Also, how about that Strawberry Fields Forever portion of Central Park opposite the Dakota?
The corner where CBGB’s once stood is now Joey Ramone Place, or something like that.
We’ve got the Duke Ellington Bridge here in Dee-Cee. We’ve also got Marvin Gaye Way, which leads to Marvin Gaye Park. It’s only a block long, though. The Way, that is.
The section of Highway 51 that runs through south Memphis is called Elvis Presley Blvd. It was so named for it’s famous resident. It was actually named that while The King was still alive.
Also, the section of Union Avenue that runs in front the Sun Studios is named after Sam Phillips.
There’s a ton of those markers and honorary street names around Memphis. “Honorary” is a little shady to me, but E.P. Blvd. seems pretty legit.
TB
I can’t think of streets in Philly that are rock/R&B related. We’ve got something or other named after Marion Anderson, whom I believe was an African American opera singer, but I don’t recall coming to the intersections of Gamble and Huff or Hall and Oates or cruising down MSFB Boulevard or Dead Milkmen Drive.
Not rock’n’roll, but you could take a trek down the “country music highway”:
http://www.countrymusichighway.com/history.html
There’s a section (does that count?) of a Detroit street named for Berry Gordy, Jr. It was approved, of course, by councilwoman Martha Reeves.
Since Berry was a singer before founding Motown, this fits the criteria.
When my brother lived outside of Nashville, you had to take Barbara Mandrell Hwy to get to his house. So did Johnny Cash. That is so wrong.
When you take I-65 from Mobile to Montgomery, a stretch of it is named The Lost Highway, after the Hank Williams song.
As far as I know, there are no streets in New Orleans or Kansas City named after either city’s famous musicians, though New Orleans does have (Louis) Armstrong Park.
I think that naming a block or two of a street honorarily after someone is lame.
BigSteve, I agree with you on the whole “honorary” thing. I think the local Memphis channel had an expose on what a sham these things were (and how easy it was to get one).
That’s awesome about the “Lost Highway.” I’ve been down that stretch. It’s a wonder I never noticed it.
During my Blues Trail Marker exploration, my daughter and I had a running joke about there being an MLK Blvd in EVERY town we stopped off in. Most of these rural Delta towns have about four streets total, but they all had at least one of them named for Dr. King. “Hey, Abi, look, we found MLK…”
TB
Chris Rock used to have a funny bit in which he observed that without fail, the most violent, un-peaceful street in any city is Martin Luther King Blvd.
There’s Dean Martin Blvd. in Las Vegas. Took it to get to the world’s largest guitar shop…
This thread has me thinking what roads-highways-buildings-parks-places-etc would be chosen to have the “honorary” name of said band or person and why?
The Lost Highway…that takes some topping. Brilliant.
To answer your question, petesecrutz, I guess renaming “Dead Man’s Curve” as the Jan and Dean Turnpike would NOT be a good idea.
I honestly think Philadelphia needs to name an intersection after Gamble and Huff.
the flaming lips have some street in oklahoma city.
It turns out that in the jazz district in Kansas City there are a bunch of streets named after musicians — Mary Lou Williams Lane, Moten Place, Basie Street, and Gillespie Place. No Parker Blvd. for some reason, even though he’s from here and Dizzy Gillespie is not. These are all very short streets, but they’ve been renamed and are not just a few block sections of larger streets.
There used to be a Parker Blvd, but it was prone to needle marks – I mean, potholes.
There is a Dylan Drive in Hibbing MN on the street where Bob lived, although it’s honorary. Been there, got the picture, tried to (unsuccessfully) steal one of the signs…