Zoom-in Online

This summer in New York is abuzz with tragic "lasts" -- last year of the McCarren Pool being used as a music venue, the impending last season of baseball in the old Yankee Stadium, and the last year of Coney Island in all its pre-war glory. All of these "lasts" make me wonder if good old New York will ever be the same. So, here are ten songs that honor the place. I hope, when you listen to them, that they create, in the words of Lawrence Ferlinghetti, "a kind of Coney Island of the mind, a kind of circus of the soul." 1. "Mermaid's Avenue" - The Klezmatics (lyrics by Woody Guthrie) Last year, the Klezmatics won a Grammy for their 2006 Guthrie-lyric album Wonder Wheel. And since Woody's birthday was yesterday and his son Arlo's was last Thursday (which was also my birthday), long live the Guthrie legacy and American folk music and the Klezmatics and Coney Island. And me, I suppose. Here's a video of Mermaid Avenue's own Woody Guthrie in one of only two surviving film clips of him performing. 2. "Coney Island Steeplechase" - The Velvet Underground Steeplechase is just one of those great compound words that is fun to say. Though it doesn't really have anything to do with what it represents, it's simply the right word. Kind of like how this Velvet Underground track simply, perfectly, communicates the lure of Coney Island. 3. "Coney Island Washboard Woman" - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole RIP, gentle giant. Thanks for the ukelele version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" that Jason Castro so aptly copied on this year's American Stoner, er, Idol. 4. "Coney Island Shuffle" - Andrew Bird Here's the ever-introspective and weird Mr. Bird's contribution to the Coney, a kind of fiddle ditty. And for those of you not already following Bird's play-by-play internal songwriting monologue, here's his New York Times blog. 5. "Eleanor Put Your Boots On" - Franz Ferdinand Remember these guys? Here's their song about a girl running crazy all over Brooklyn, even to the top of the Cyclone. Side note: Only a bunch of Brits would call the Statue of Liberty "that statue with the dictionary." 6. "Coney Island, USA" - Amy Correia A song about falling asleep on the F Train in the middle of the night and finding yourself in a land of magical realism where a whale blinks at you from the sky above. Plus, she was drunk. 7. "Coney Island" - Death Cab For Cutie Another soft-sational, smooth, earnest track from the Death Cabbers. (Notice how similar their Narrow Stairs website is to Radiohead's In Rainbows website. Just sayin'.) This one's about everything being closed in Coney Island. Sad face. 8. "Down On Your Luck" - New York Times Breaking news: New York Times is the best band you've never heard. And this ode to the Isle of Coney is truly indie-rock-tastic, equal parts whimsy, nostalgia, and anthem. The track is not available on iTunes, so here's the NYT doing it live. 9. "Goodnight Peggy Shannon, or Goodnight Miss Coney Island (1925)" - Deerheart Um, this title is kind of amazing. And here is Peggy Shannon in all her glory. 10. "Coney Island Baby" -Tom Waits I picked this "Coney Island Baby" because Lou Reed was already partially represented in the Velvet Underground track. And oh, how Tom can pour on the mournful adoration we all kind of feel for Surf Avenue and the Wonder Wheel and Ruby's and Shoot the Freak, etc., etc. Bonus Tracks "Coney Island Cyclone" - Mercury Rev Had to put a song in here about the Cyclone. I rode it once. Never again. I'm too much of a wuss. "Coney Island" - Dizzy Gillespie A muted trumpet, a mournful tune, a shuffling snare kissed by a brush: Coney Island at dawn. "Mermaid" - Sade One of the yummiest, most mesmerizing tracks off of 1992's Love Deluxe, the smooth R&B record that even an indie rock kid could love. It literally makes you feel like you are floating in a ten-gallon tank, pink coral and green seaweed and undulating anemones and all.