New York Times and Rhymes

26/11/2025

New York. A legendary venue. The Beastie Boys.

From Greenwich Village folk to CBGB punk, from disco lofts to downtown art rock and hip hop — this episode traces the ever-changing heartbeat of New York's music scenes. Featuring songs by The Ramones, Talking Heads, Blondie, Grandmaster Flash, Madonna, The Strokes, and many more you may never have heard. It's a guided wander through the city that never stops reinventing itself.

In his excellent book 'This Must Be The Place', Jesse Rifkin explains that it all began with the price of property, and landlords that let buildings fall empty and into disrepair. It was an open invitation to squatters, and squatters were often from the creative classes particularly musicians. More and more gathered together to form a scene. The scene attracted more people from outside the area and property prices rose, driving out the creatives. They moved elsewhere and created even newer scenes. One thing they had in common? They were all different from each other and from what had come before.

Mixcloud NY Pop aims to capture the range and inventiveness of New York Music over sixty years, and to give credit where it's due no matter how unlikely the contributor. As a taster, here's a song that had passed me by until I researched this show It's E.S.G. and 'Dance'.

Pop In The Real World : New York Groove can be found at https://www.mixcloud.com/Chris2023/pop-in-the-real-world-new-york-groove/

And here are the songs featured in the show.

  1. Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
  2. Don't Think Twice, It's Alright - Peter, Paul and Mary
  3. Personality Crisis - New York Dolls
  4. Venus In Furs - Velvet Underground and nico
  5. Hanging On The Telephone - Blondie
  6. First Week, Last Week...Carefree - Talking Heads
  7. Rock Lobster - B-52s
  8. Blank Generation - Richard Hell and the Voidoids
  9. Misery Train - Suicide
  10. Hold Your Head Up - Argent (Yes - part of the New York scene)
  11. Walking In Rhythym - The Blackbyrds
  12. The Message - Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five
  13. Too Many Creeps - Bush Tetras
  14. Superstar - sonic youth
  15. New Rose - The Damned
  16. I will Follow (Live) - U2
  17. Borderline - Madonna
  18. Keep It Chill In The East Vill - Jeffrey Lewis
  19. Fight For Your Right - Beastie Boys
  20. Dance - ESG
  21. Hard To Explain - The Strokes
  22. Giving Up The gun - Vampire Weekend
  23. Haunted World - Real Estate 
  24. New York, New York - Frank Sinatra
Share