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I Love Livin' in the City
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Wikipedia article
"'I Love Livin' in the City'" is the first single by the punk rock band Fear. It was originally released in 1978 on the Los Angeles-based Criminal Records.
Background
"I Love Livin' in the City" was re-recorded twice: once during the group's unreleased 1979 sessions, and again for its debut album, 'The Record'. The song exaggeratedly describes a stereotypical, turbulent life one may face in Los Angeles, where blood and corpses litter the street. The B-side, "Now You're Dead", details John F. Kennedy's assassination and the resulting conspiracy theories.
In popular culture
"I Love Livin' in the City" was featured in the 1998 movie 'SLC Punk!' as well as two video game soundtracks, 'Tony Hawk's Underground 2' (2004) and 'The Warriors' (2005).
Legacy
University of Southern California film professor David E. James has cited this song as a paradigm of punk's "style that would always be in the process of pushing itself over into self-parody", and he compared its imagery to the work of Charles Bukowski.David E. James, "Poetry/Punk/Production: Some Postmodern Writing in L.A.", in Oregon State University film studies professor Jon Lewis said the lyrics exemplified punk's perception of "the aesthetics of ugliness that characterize downtown LA".Jon Lewis, "City/Cinema/Dream", in A 2001 'Spin' magazine retrospective about the L.A. punk scene found it to be "a virtual prototype for the reality-of-my-surroundings gangsta rap of the late '80s."Brendan Mullen and Marc Spitz, [https://books.google.com/books?id=EdRggHm3lkoC&lpg=PA106&dq=%22I%20Love%20Livin'%20in%20the%20City%22%20fear&pg=PA106#v=onepage&q=%22I%20Love%20Livin'%20in%20the%20City%22%20fear&f=false "Sit on My Face, Stevie Nicks: The Germs, Darby Crash, and the Biorth of SoCal Punk"], 'Spin', May 2001, p. 101, 106. In a 2016 list of "best love songs inspired by NYC", 'Village Voice' critic Kim Kelly described the song as "a shit-stained love letter to the filthy beating heart of the city itself" and as Fear's "magnum opus and an instantly recognizable battle cry for anyone who calls this big, beautiful bastard city home."[https://www.villagevoice.com/2016/02/11/here-are-the-best-love-songs-inspired-by-nyc/ "Here Are the Best Love Songs Inspired by NYC"], 'The Village Voice', February 11, 2016.
Track listing
A) "I Love Livin' in the City" (1:54)
B) "Now You're Dead" (2:00)
2021 CD Reissue
#"I Love Livin' in the City" (2:11)#"Now You're Dead" (2:05)
#"Do Me Some Damage" (2:46)
#"No More Nothing" (2:29)
Personnel
*Lee Ving vocals
*Burt Good guitar
*Derf Scratch bass, vocals
*Johnny Backbeat drums
References
Category:The Warriors (franchise)
Category:1978 singles
Category:Fear (band) songs
Category:1977 songs
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