These aren’t “the best”, just ones I like. And I’m pretty-much ignoring hip-hop/soul here, because that is a real void in my musical knowledge. The impetus was listening to the first one, and thinking about other tracks I keep coming back to.
1. Gil Scott-Heron “New York City”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_Z81WM5VGSY\[/embed\] This album was my intro to Gil Scott-Heron. I’m pretty sure I found it amongst my uncle’s album collection as a kid while visiting. It was on a mix-tape I made from his collection, and I played that cassette until a dying Walkman destroyed nearly a decade later.
2. Cub “New York City”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFKThNh5Vqk\[/embed\] Vancouver’s own Cub. You may know this song from They Might Be Giants’ cover, but this is the original. It is perfect pop-punk.
3. LCD Soundsystem “New York I love you, but you’re bringing me down”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eohHwsplvY\[/embed\] (NB: pretty sure that’s not an official video, but how could you not love it?) This song is also peak LCD Soundsystem.
4. Lou Reed “Walk on the Wild Side”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6fayQBm9w\[/embed\] Could any list about NYC music not contain a Lou Reed song? I probably could have chosen any number by him. But this, while an obvious choice, is the soundtrack of when I think about the New York that was.
5. Leonard Cohen “Chelsea Hotel No. 2”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pekuZglq-Sg\[/embed\] Like Lou Reed’s track, this is a hymn to what was, only from the singer’s viewpoint, a leisurely look back to days long gone.
Honourable Mention - Ryan Adams “New York, New York”
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmHgY\_J63Ik\[/embed\] This song, with the lyric “hell I still love you New York” was ubiquitous in the wake the of September 11th, 2001 (the video was shot apparently just days before). I had to put it down for a while because of that, but I’ve recently been rediscovering Ryan Adams, and this song along with it.