Duluth Songs: A list of songs with “Duluth” in the lyrics or title
Perfect Duluth Day began tracking songs that reference Duluth in 2009 and the list continues to expand as new ones are reported. Links to posts with audio (and video if available) of the songs are included where applicable.
Abort Scene – “Born Pinned to the Duluth Wheel”
Teague Alexy – “Christmas Bells, Holiday Drums (Jingle, Jangle)”
Richard Lee Armstrong – “Landlord of Duluth”
Big Jon Arthur – “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
Atmosphere – “Say Shh …”
Autumn Leaves – “Back to Me”
Dan Bern with Jane’s Great Dane – “Cowboy”
Olivia Blair – “Duluth”
Will Branch – “Duluth”
Bullet – “Duluth Blues”
Charles Atlas – “Duluth (Alan Sparhawk Mix)”
Chris Blanchard’s Band – “Duluth”
Mary Bue – “The Shit I Left in Duluth”
T-Bone Burnett – “Every Time I Feel the Shift”
Joe “Fingers” Carr – “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
Alice Cooper – “Remarkably Insincere”
Vic Damone – “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
Darling Drive – “At a Loss”
Dave Rave and the Governors – “Duluth”
Da Yoopers – “I-500 Snow Machine Race”
The Decemberists – “Traveling On”
Dirtbike Boyfriend – “Duluth”
David Dondero – “Oh Minnesota”
De Elliot Bros. – “I Like it in Duluth”
Detroit – “I Like it in Duluth”
Bob Dylan – “Something There is About You”
Maya Hawke – “Sweet Tooth”
Father Hennepin – “I Like it in Duluth”
Fattypants – “Blue Light Special”
The Feelin’ – “Bob Dylan Loves Duluth”
The Felice Brothers – “Aerosol Ball”
Finian’s Rainbow cast – “The Begat”
Fish Heads – “I Like it in Duluth”
Red Foley – “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
Tennessee Ernie Ford – “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
Giljunko – “St. Paul Caves”
Goats in Trees – “Midnight Road to Duluth”
Good Knight – “Duluth Minnesnowta”
Good Knight – “Two Eighteen (Duluth Minnesnowta Part II)”
Betty Grable & Dick Haymes – “The Back Bay Polka”
Merv Griffin – “Christmas City”
Jim Hall – “Duluth Blues”
Hauliwood Dreams – “Finns in America”
Jacob Hermann – “Duluth”
Richard G. Hofacre – “City Lights of Duluth”
The Hoot Owls – “Scandinavian Hot Rod”
Dave Hudson – “Samson in Duluth”
Annie Humphrey – “500 Years”
Ian Gillan Band – “Clear Air Turbulence”
Idle Generican – “Go to Duluth”
Japancakes – “Duluth 7.5”
The Jayhawks – “Life Floats By”
Mason Jennings – “Duluth”
Brian Just – “Duluth”
Gene Krupa and His Orchestra – “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”
Brianna Lane – “Duluth”
Jay Leonhart – “The Couple from Duluth”
Jenny Lewis – “Heads Gonna Roll”
Lindula Brothers – “A Cold Day in Duluth”
LowH1Funk – “Looking for Love”
Heller Mason – “Duluth”
Matt the Electrician – “Sad Lisa Waltz”
Clare Means – “Duluth Song”
Bob Merrill – “The Couple from Duluth”
Charlotte Montgomery – “Duluth’s Song”
James Moors – “Welcome to Duluth”
The Magnolias – “Playing to Win”
Marty Marflow – “Duluth, St. Paul & Winona”
Meat Puppets – “Lake of Fire”
Moe – “Bring You Down”
The Moose Wallow Ramblers – “I Like it in Duluth”
More Then Merry – “Duluth”
Nicholas Mrozinski – “Bob Dylan Loves Duluth”
David Munyon – “Coffee in Duluth”
Josh Musikantow – “Duluth 99”
Mystery Science Theater 3000 Cast – “What a Pleasant Journey”
Natural’grass – “I Like it in Duluth”
Jeb Loy Nichols – “Say Goodbye to Christopher”
Nirvana – “Lake of Fire”
Noon – “Duluth”
Peter, Paul & Mary – “Love City (Postcards to Duluth)”
Phish – “Halfway to the Moon”
The Red Clay Ramblers – “Blue Duluth”
Luke Redfield – “Ides of May”
The Repairmen – “Duluth Song”
The Replacements – “Treatment Bound”
Jonathan Richman – “They’re Not Tryin’ on the Dance Floor”
Haroula Rose – “Duluth”
Ben Rosenbush and the Brighton – “Duluth”
Tom Russell – “Mesabi”
Saturday Night Live Cast – “Fly High, Duluth”
Jeremy Schwarze – “Duluth”
Doug Setterberg & Stan Boreson – “Scandinavian Hot Shot”
Sexhawk – “Duluth is Still Afloat (In Our Hearts)”
Shuggy Ray Smith – “Ruth from Duluth”
The Slamming Doors – “Goddamn Duluth”
Jim Snidero Quartet – “Duluth at Noon”
Stevenson – “I Love My Lips”
Claire Stewart – “Duluth, My Home Town”
The Stonemans – “Two Kids from Duluth, Minnesota”
Sugar on the Roof – “Over the Great Saltless Sea”
Pierre Tanguay – “Madame Duluth”
Eric Thiegs – “Duluth”
They Might Be Giants – “Rabid Child”
Dylan Thomas – “Duluth Street”
Greg Tiburzi – “Perfect Duluth Day”
Tin Can Gin – “Duluth”
Al Trace and the Revelers – “Duluth M-I-double-N”
Traditional rugby song – “In Duluth”
Trampled by Turtles – “Duluth”
VeggieTales – “I Love My Lips”
Vinnie & the Stardusters – “Duluth”
Matt Wahl – “Just Look at the Lake”
Wet Dog – “Help Me Scream”
White Iron Band – “Drunk in Duluth”
Winterwood – “Duluth”
Frankie Yankovic and His Yanks – “Duluth Polka”
Yeltzi – “Duluth”
Luke Zimmerman – “Duluth“
“Treatment Bound” by the Replacements
We get a noseful from our so called friends. We’re gettin’ nowhere, quick as we know how. We whirl from town to town, Duluth to Madison Treatment bound …
“Lake of Fire” by the Meat Puppets
I knew a lady who came from Duluth
She got bit by a dog with a rabid tooth.
Perhaps you should check out this book.
Oh Lordy, this is already out of control.
They Might Be Giants – Rabid Child
(“Chess Piece Face and The Big Duluth call her every day…”)
Mystery Science Theater 3000 – What a Pleasant Journey
(“The 5:15 from Duluth
Oh my! It just derailed!
The toxic waste is spillin’,
The conductor’s been impaled.
A benzine cloud has risen,
and the whole town’s startin’ to cough.
Within in a matter of daaaaaaays,
All of our skin will fall off.”)
Rabid Child by They Might Be Giants;
Chess Piece Face and The Big Duluth
call her every day
“Hammer down” and “rabbit ears”
are the only words they know
There is a traditional rugby song called “In Duluth.”
Ah, yes, thanks Udarnik!
Oh the eagles they fly high in Duluth.
Oh the eagles they fly high in Duluth.
Oh the eagles they fly high and they shit right in your eye,
Thank the Lord that cows don’t fly in Duluth.
What about Not Trying on the Dancefloor by me?
they’re not movin very much
they just have that certain touch
and that’s really all there is to it
if they don’t feel it they won’t do it
like Centralia or Duluth
well they’re tellin ya the truth
They’re not tryin’ on the dance floor no
they’re just movin slow
I don’t know if this counts, but de Elliott Brothers also covered “I Like It in Duluth.”
Jonathan, I’m not familiar with that song, but the Internet confirms it exists, so on the list it goes.
Matt, thanks! I forgot that version. Now we’re up to four!
If you go here https://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll and type in “Duluth” you’ll get about ~20 songs with Duluth in the title.
Trampled by Turtles’ and Yeltzi’s latest albums both have songs called “Duluth.”
Totally forgot about this one: Nicholas Mrozinski of the Feelin Band’s “Bob Dylan Loves Duluth”
We were deeply moved when we caught our 6 year-old singing along to “I Like it in Duluth” a couple weekends ago.
is a PDD-sponsored mix cd/box set inevitable? i want one
I can’t believe nobody has postd this one yet:
The Jayhawks’ “Life Floats By”
“We hit Duluth on a jag, baby….”
Wet Dog’s “Help Me Scream”
First Line:
“I know a city
it’s called Duluth”
There’s also references to the NorShor AND it’s sung by Jamie Ness, so that’s about as Duluth as you get.
da yooper’s I-500
No “Duluth” in the lyrics, but there’s a real beautiful / haunting kinda-Christmas song by Holopaw that seems to be about the loss of certain sleigh over Lake Superior. You can hear a snippet at electricfetus.com, it’s on the album “Quit +/or Fight”. Couldn’t find any lyrics online but here’s my best shot at the relevant parts:
Without a thought he said,
“Go Dasher, go Dancer,”
and they dropped their heads
disappeared into the cloud bank
following those silver sparks
gathering the distance
between this chilly flood
and sugar plums dancing.
Those silver bells didn’t make a sound
when they fell to rest at the bottom of Superior.
Just above earshot he said,
“Go Dasher, go Dancer,”
and they dropped their heads
disappeared into the Lake
through the splintery ice
into the slippery waters
towards the falling embers…
…Remembers velveteen dust
the season’s first snow
he’s sorry to have left you
but there was so far left to go
and the lake was icing over…
…All is calm, all is bright
and they’re dragging the Lake
with peppermint hooks…
Are these referenced to Duluth, MN only? I would hate to share with our ‘bizzaro friend’ in Georgia.
Wow – what a list – thanks for this, everybody : )
Don’t think it was part of the regular lyrics and don’t even recall the song right now, but at a show in Pequot Lakes, MN a few years ago, Greg Brown made reference to a “sadass up in Duluth.”
fattypants –
blue lite special : “is it west duluth, is it lincoln park, the west end or spirit valley?…please tell me”
I did an interview with Ian Gillan of Deep Purple back in 2001 before a show at the Target Center. After the interview, Gillan asked me where I was from and I said “Duluth” … to which he started singing “get in to Duluth, get in to Duluth.” I asked him what that was from and he said it was a song from one of his solo albums from the 70s … and he wrote it about a really rough plane ride that Deep Purple had taken for a gig in Duluth! Pretty cool huh?
Anyway, the song is called “Clear Air Turbulence” by the Ian Gillan Band.
Here are the lyrics:
Get up
Get right up
Get it up
Up in the sky
White knuckles and blank staring faces
Get a leg up head for them spaces
Panic
And confusion
Electric voices
Creating morbid delusions
White knuckles and blank staring faces
Get a leg up head for them spaces
Ten thousand
Astral explorers
Head for the lights
Ace cosmic tours
Caught up in slow races
Motionless jets in turbulent spaces
Smooth blue sky
Feeling high
Turn back the page
Peaceful as a bygone age
Chariot to the sun Safe as a gun
Get in to Duluth
I’ve got it
Now I’m learning
A million souls
Helplessly returning
To blue dawn before the beginning
Ancient bells are ringing
My co-worker just played a song that has Duluth in the lyrics. Band is Autumn Leaves, song is Back to Me.
“Duluth” was also the title of a 45rpm single from 1977 by Winterwood, part of a WEBC sponsored “I Love Duluth” campaign. It is included on the Duluth Rocked compilation, “Volume 111 – Air Play.” duluthrocked.com
Little Black Books: “They’re Never Wrong”
“Playing to Win” by the Magnolias off of Off the Hook (featuring Drummer Guy for those down with Common/Dan from Woodbury)
“Hide away in Duluth/Hide away if you can; Go halfway ’round the world/Stand out in Japan”
In Duluth I saw Christopher
That’s a place I’ll never go again
Foggy breath, coat buttoned up
To keep away the winter wind
You might think it was Georgia until you read the last two lines. The song is “Say Goodbye to Christopher” by Jeb Loy Nichols.
From Duluth to Birmingham
He’s the pork chop Dapper Dan,
He’s the keenest ham what am,
Cincinnati dancing pig
I heard it sung in a Porky Pig voice on the 365 Music Project. The title of the song is “Cincinnati Dancing Pig”.
Almost forgot. I think the name of the song was “Scandinavian Hot Shot”. In the old polka, the line is “He’s a hotshot from Duluth”.
moe.
I don’t want to go to Duluth
I just want to leave this town
I don’t want to know the truth
I just want to bring you down … here with me
I don’t want to go home now
I just want to go home soon
Name of the song by moe. is “Bring You Down’
sad lisa waltz by matt the electrician
it’s a long way home from duluth minnesota
in the ice and cold
where the ships come in
you can hear it on the sample here:
Music and Podcasts, Free and On-Demand | Pandora
Hey Paul, met you at the thing for Doug Hatten, we are the Fish Heads…we have two recorded versions of I Like It In Duluth…one with Natural’grass and the other with the Fish Heads…and of course we perform this all the time now when we play with John Berquist..the writer. I enjoyed hearing you guys at the Sacred Heart, too bad we could not have just been playing music for some other reason…like you said that night…it would be fun to jam sometime…thanks…:) Kim
Kim, I think you have me confused with someone else. I wasn’t at the thing for Doug Hatten, I’ve never performed at Sacred Heart and I don’t jam.
But, ironically, my girlfriend has a Fish Heads album, and it got jammed in her car CD player the first time she tried to play it. Seriously. It wouldn’t play and wouldn’t eject. After a few months she eventually removed it with a tweezer.
I’ve added the Fish Heads version of “I Like it in Duluth” to the list. Is the other one just Natural’grass, or is it “Fish Heads (with Natural’grass)”? Your use of “we” has me not quite sure.
Paul, sorry for the confusion…I guess I thought that was you, but hey…now I know it wasn’t. Natural’grass is just on it’s own…tell your girlfriend I’d like to get her another copy…if the CD doesn’t work we have all our info on the cover just for that reason, in case . We make them at home, so sometimes that happens. Please let me know how I can do that. And thanks for the addition. I am enjoying this website…Chip Stewart from Amazing Grace is a very close friend and I heard about this from him and Dave Hopkins… Again, sorry about the confusion…you looked familiar from that setting. 🙂 Kim
Paul, I think I may have met Lindquist…that’s where the confusion is…does he play with the Fat Hens???? Kim
Kim, I think the CD works, it just got jammed.
Lindquist isn’t technically a member of Father Hennipen, but he was supposed to play with them at Homegrown until he broke a finger that morning.
Kim,
let’s all get together @ carmody and work this all out .. I’ll line up lindquist, lundgren and lunt so you can get your “L” named sceneirati straight. Then we’ll make lundgren jam some Irish music
Azure Du Jour has Duluth Blues, i think written by Jim Hall. lots of evil weather references to duluth.
“you can’t get nowhere when you’re stuck in Duluth, and i’m still here, that’s the sad truth. what can i say, my minds been shattered, 30 below nothin’ else matters.”
who’s buying my pint????????
“Duluth” doesn’t appear directly, but these lines are plainly a Duluth reference–I’d never paid close attention to these lyrics before. Apparently Dylan’s father, then 9 years old, lived at 221 Lake, a couple of blocks from the lynching site.
I have a song called “Duluth Minnesnowta” on my website. Check out some MN hip-hop!
In the song “Remarkably Insincere,” off his Zipper Catches Skin album, Alice Cooper says,
“My reputation for exaggeration,
It never got to you?
That’s why I left Duluth,
Sometimes I stretch the truth.”
He also mentions, on the album, getting a Porsche and leaving Grand Rapids, but given the man’s connection to Detroit, I always figured this was the Michigan city he was referencing, and not the smaller Minnesota version.
We just got an album at KUMD by a woman named Haroula Rose that features a cover of Mason Jennings’ “Duluth.”
T-Bone Burnett has a song, “Every Time I Feel the Shift” that has the lyric:
“It all comes down to a moment of truth,
clock ticking in a soundproof booth.
From Corpus Christi to Duluth,
from Genghis Khan to Babe Ruth.”
sorry didn’t read previous posts.
I’m not sure if there are recorded versions of this song in existance, but here’s a Duluth song from 1916. (Duluth’s Fairy Research Spy hopes a local band will release a rendition of this ditty in time for the August regatta.)
Luke Redfield has a song called “Ides of May” that mentions Duluth (and rhymes it with vermouth) on his latest album, Tusen Takk. He was born in Duluth but grew up elsewhere in Minnesota. By the way, he’s playing tonight, June 29, at Red Mug, tomorrow at the Brewhouse, and we’ll have him live on KUMD today at 2 p.m.
“The Begat” from the musical Finian’s Rainbow contains a reference to Duluth (although whether it’s Duluth, MN or Duluth, GA is unclear):
“It was a-pleasin’ to Jezebel
A-pleasin’ to Ruth.
It pleased the League of Women Shoppers
In Duluth.”
“They’re Never Wrong” by the Little Black Books was mentioned above, but it never actually mentions Duluth by name. Cloquet is mentioned by name. Aladdin’s Castle and Pizza Luce are mentioned by name. But the word “Duluth” isn’t in there.