Once You Visit The Renovated Strawberry Fields, Try These Other Places Imomortalized In Song
This Quaint Place Of Worship Inspired An Excellent Bluegrass Tune
It Is Too Bad That There Really Is No Meeting Place Of The Harper Valley PTA
Strawberry Fields Never again, or at least that is how it has appeared for the last seventy years. The Salvation Army children's home that served as the inspiration for John Lennon's famous song had been closed to the public since 1960, but on Saturday it began accepting tourists for the first time since its grounds were walled off by a brick wall and a metal gate.
According to Rolling Stone reporter Daniel Kreps, the Salvation Army has completed the conversion of the on-site building into a visitor's center dedicated to the childhood of John Lennon. His sister, Julia Baird, was involved in the project and its potential to change the lives of the young people of Liverpool.
Here are ten other places made famous by songs that would be on a travel bucket list along with Strawberry Fields. Keep in mind that the Blueberry Hill where Fats Domino found his thrill does not exist, nor does the Melancholy Hill gorgeously captured by Gorillaz on the Plastic Beach album.
1. Billy Goat Hill
It is doubtful that the little green house where the girl was left by her lover is still standing, but the little place for which this Kingston Trio song was titled is located in Louisiana.
2. Palisades Park
Written by future Gong Show host Chuck Barris, this song about the amusement park in New Jersey made the Top Ten for singer Freddie Cannon.
3. Oak Grove Church
Located in the central Ohio town of Washington Courthouse, this place of worship was immortalized in a sweet song by the bluegrass band Dry Branch Fire Squad, whose front man Ron Thomason grew up not far from there.
4. The 59th Street Bridge
More commonly nowadays known as the Queensborough Bridge, this span of concrete and steel should leave you "Feelin' Groovy" like Simon and Garfunkel.
5. Solsbury Hill
Peter Gabriel, thanks to this classic single from his first album after leaving Genesis, immortalized this battle ground near Somerset, England.
6. Chelsea Hotel
This landmark was already well-known before Lloyd Cole decided to cover the song on a tribute album to Leonard Cohen.
7. Smith Tower
Ben Gibbard sympathizes with this once tallest West Coast landmark, which was the literal "high" light until Seattle's Needle was built in 1962. Gibbard's poignant personification of the building can be found on his excellent Former Lives record, released during a lull for his band Death Cab For Cutie.
8. Tallahachie Bridge
Shortly after Bobbie Gentry sang about Billie Joe throwing flowers from it, this bridge was closed down. Recently it has been rebuilt, so you, too, can toss flowers from it if you travel to Greenwood, Mississippi.
9. Lake Marie
John Prine penned a beautifully mysterious ballad about this lake on the Illinois and Wisconsin border, where he recalls "Standing by peaceful water."
10. Hotel Yorba
Detroit was the home town of Jack White, so it seems fitting that he would pay tribute to one of its historic buildings in this title from White Blood Cells.
