This first list of many of my favorite things in LA and it is devoted to my picks for the top five songs about L.A. As will be the case with forthcoming “L.A. Top Five” posts, this won’t reflect logical choices based on any methodology, just my own biases. Enjoy.

1. “Desperados Under the Eaves” by Warren Zevon

This song from Warren Zevon’s eponymous 1976 album was my top pick because it’s beautiful, funny, and tragically under heard. If just one of you dear readers checks out this song, I’ll feel I’ve done my job here. The late, great Zevon (pictured) lived most of his life in L.A., and the city was his muse for some of his best songs. His biggest hit, 1978’s “Werewolves of London” even made a reference to Trader Vic’s. Yet none of these songs evokes L.A. like “Desperados,”which name checks the long gone Hollywood Hawaiian Hotel, Gower Avenue, and all the salty margaritas in Los Angeles. Drink it up.

Sample lyric: “And if California slides into the ocean/ Like the mystics and statistics say it will/I predict this motel will be standing until I pay my bill”

2. “Topanga Canyon” by John Phillips

This one sits high on my list for the same reasons as does “Desperados Under the Eaves.” Sure, “California Dreamin’,” the wistful paean to L.A. Philips wrote as leader of the Mamas and the Papas is far better known, but this under-the-radar gem still sounds fresh today. The song appears on Phillips’ first solo album John the Wolfking of L.A., a cult classic known for its great backing band and Phillips’ deeply personal lyrics. (In “Topanga Canyon,” for example, he sings of scoring drugs then going to the Farmer’s Market as if reciting his daily “to-do” list.) He recorded the album while splitting from Mama Michelle Phillips and starting a new relationship with actress Genevieve Waite, and the tug-of-war between heartbreak and hope can be heard all over the record. On this track he sings, “I’m in deep water, and it’s way, way over my head,” but with Darlene Love’s powerhouse vocals behind him, he sounds not like a man drowning, but one being saved.

Sample lyrics: “Sometimes I drive out to Topanga and park my car in the sand/ Watching and waiting for a pick up from my man”

3. “I Love L.A.” by Randy Newman

While far better known than the first two on the list, this 1982 hit is still worth listening to again. At first “I Love L.A.” seems sunny and breezy (and if you’re opposed to such things, perhaps a bit asinine), but a close listen reveals the song’s dark underbelly. Still, the chants of “We love it!” are infectious. Like all of Randy Newman’s best songs, it captures the light and dark sides of its subject and makes for a fitting tribute to our city – whether or not the often satirical Newman intended it that way.

Sample lyric: “Look at those mountains/Look at those trees/ Look at that bum over there, he’s down on his knees/ Look at these women, ain’t nothing like ‘em nowhere”

4. “L.A. Woman” by the Doors

Perhaps even more overplayed than “I Love L.A.,” this one still never fails to excite when it comes on 95.5 KLOS. I defy you not to turn up your car radio and drive a little faster if traffic permits, dreaming of a long-ago time when the Sunset Strip was authentically cool and rocker chicks could afford the rent in Hollywood bungalows. Jim Morrison would be dead within months of this song’s release, but his vocals sound potent and vital here. A fitting tribute to both the man and the city that spawned his legendary band.

Sample lyric: “Are you a lucky little lady in the City of Light/ Or just another lost angel…City of Night”

5. “Los Angeles, I’m Yours” by the Decemberists

This is the song for anyone who has a love-hate relationship with L.A. The Decemberists, a talented band with literary pretensions and a sense of humor, send up L.A. glamor in a serious way. Sallow-cheeked ladies, their vacant boyfriends, and burnt cocaine permeate this song, but even if you’re as disgusted with all of it as the song’s narrator, the gently insistent melody and the song’s title nonetheless evoke L.A.’s seductive qualities.

Sample lyric: “Its streets and boulevards, orphans and oligarches it hears/ A plaintive melody, truncated symphony/ An ocean’s garbled vomit on the shore/Los Angeles, I’m yours”

Honorable mentions: “Los Angeles” by X, “Hollywood Nights” by Bob Seger, “Walking in L.A.” by Missing Persons, “Beverly Hills” by Weezer, “Celluloid Heroes” by the Kinks, “Coming into Los Angeles” by Arlo Guthrie, “Say Goodbye to Hollywood” by Billy Joel.

Photo of Warren Zevon courtesy of Wikipedia

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