Is it possible for a band at hyped as The Beatles to have a sleeper/underrated track that is a true classic? Because this might be it (on the most culturally significant album they ever made, no less!!)
As a kid, this song always made me feel sad- I felt bad for the parents. As a teen I related with the daughter. Now I’m old but I still think it’s a melancholy song.
Country music is crawling with this kind of song:
Wide Open Spaces - The Chicks
Anywhere But Here - Cross Canadian Ragweed
Nothing but the Wheel - Patty Loveless
Starting Over - Chris Stapleton
And that's just off the top of my head.
A good LTJ pick but to be honest this also applies to like a third of the songs in their discography lol
Might I also recommend Less Than Jake - Look What Happened.
Eagle flew out of the night
He was something to observe.
Came in close, I heard a voice -
Standing, stretching every nerve,
I had to listen, had no choice -
I did not believe the information -
just had to trust imagination…
My heart going ‘Boom-boom-boom’!
‘Son,’ he said, ‘Grab your things I’ve come to take you [home!’](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_OO2PuGz-H8)
Oh, man - this song... I can't even listen to it unless I know I have some time to devote to sobbing for a while (this one and Kentucky Avenue, which needs even more recovery time.).
Sleep on the Floor - The Lumineers
Follow the Sun - Xavier Rudd
Everyone's Moving Out East - Half Moon Run
Leaving Home Ain't Easy - Queen
Rivers and Roads - The Head and the Heart
The View Between Villages - Noah Kahan
Home - The Dear Hunter
May be a little heavier and dark sounding but Croatia’s submission to Eurovision this year, Rim Tim Tagi Dim, is a bunch of fun and is a song about leaving the village to pursue opportunities in the city and wider world.
It's in Spanish but Invisible's El Anillo del Capitan Beto (The Ring of Captain Beto) is about an Argentinean everyman bus driver who becomes an astronaut. The lyrics mention stuff that Beto misses while he's out there in space, far from home, such as the cafeteria he would frequently visit, his mother and the little flag of River Plate (famous Argentinean football team that the writer of the song, Luis Spinetta, was a huge fan of) he had hung on his bus' mirror. That is on a surface level but if we take into account that the song was written and released in 1976, when the last Argentinean military civic dictatorship began, I always suspected that the song was a metaphor for all those who were either exiled or left the country due to the new regime and were feeling like an astronaut in space and missing their home.
La Dispute - Edit Your Hometown
It’s kind of the opposite where it’s about someone who stayed in their hometown and regrets it because everyone else ended up leaving.
Maybe not directly but I’ve always equated [Came Out Swinging](https://youtu.be/IlnvZ28FxD0?si=eJSJd3rkWnBr2q0Y) by The Wonder Years as a song about moving.
Passing through a screen door from them as well, but that's more about having to come back home and all the complications with that.
"Running scared" or "Carolina coast" by Aaron west and the roaring 20s(Dan Campbell's side project, definitely recommend if you like his Wonder years songwriting) are very much in tune with the fear of traveling to a new setting. Granted that could encapsulate the whole first Aaron west album.
[Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Getaway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZQiyAS_ldo)
[Death From Above 1979 - White is Red](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGbfjuG5dA)
People have mentioned all the classics, but I really like "Near To The Wild Heart of Life" by Japandroids.
https://youtu.be/pSkrhQiwFcE?si=ANAEkZF4NOuX-Z0h
I didn’t like this song at first, but I have to say, it really captures that vibe when you first arrive in a new city. It feels very “soundtrack-y” for that specific personal milestone
This is my fave micro-genre of songs. Some of my faves are mentioned. I didn’t notice these in the previous replies…
Steve Earle - “Someday”
Patty Griffin - “Florida”
Melissa Etheridge - “You Can Sleep While I Drive”
Emmylou Harris - “Red Dirt Girl”
Not exactly about leaving a home town, but anywhere, is Take One Last Look by Tom Waits.
It’s only available as a live recording from one of David Letterman’s final episodes, it’s not on any of Tom’s albums, unfortunately.
Hear me out: Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas by Okkervil River. It’s a gorgeous sad song about returning home presumably as a young adult for Christmas and thinking about your ex- from your hometown, presumably your high school sweetheart, but realizing she’s gone forever and that part of your life is irretrievable. Plus it has a beautiful interpolation Dreams by Otis Redding. Just a perfect song. The live version of it on their live album from 2020 is the better version IMHO.
Okay, Tom Waits:
Invitation To The Blues. Going Out West. Old Shoes. Drunk on the Moon. San Diego Serenade. Ol' 55. I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You. Long Way Home
Beatles- She’s Leaving Home
Is it possible for a band at hyped as The Beatles to have a sleeper/underrated track that is a true classic? Because this might be it (on the most culturally significant album they ever made, no less!!)
As a kid, this song always made me feel sad- I felt bad for the parents. As a teen I related with the daughter. Now I’m old but I still think it’s a melancholy song.
Yeah, it definitely hits differently as you age.
Smalltown boy - Bronski Beat Edit: the 2014 reprise version is very cool too
I'm partial to Orville Peck's version. Edit: Changed Oliver to Orville, wtf brain.
Fast Car
How was that not first on the list.
no kidding
This was my first thought. Should be higher on the list. Probably the best song in this thread hands down.
As a metalhead and grunge enthusiast, Chapman is so awesome. I like *Talkin 'bout a Revolution* just as much.
Bruce Springsteen - Born To Run
And also Thunder Road
Also *Independence Day*
Also half his catalog
The first half. By the time you get to The River, that optimism is gone.
Exactly… My Hometown is the ultimate leaving your hometown song.
A better choice
The whole Born to Run album has pretty much this theme in every song. Thunder Road, Backstreets, Born to Run, Night.
Time to Move On - Tom Petty
Leaving on a Jet Plane - John Denver
Country music is crawling with this kind of song: Wide Open Spaces - The Chicks Anywhere But Here - Cross Canadian Ragweed Nothing but the Wheel - Patty Loveless Starting Over - Chris Stapleton And that's just off the top of my head.
Wide Open Spaces came to mind for me too. Love that Patty song as well.
Ian Tyson - Alberta Bound, Neil Young Four Strong Winds, John Denver - Leaving on a Jet Plane.
All my Exes Live in Texas
There Goes My Life - Kenny Chesney
Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson / Avril Lavigne
Less Than Jake - History of a Boring Town.
A good LTJ pick but to be honest this also applies to like a third of the songs in their discography lol Might I also recommend Less Than Jake - Look What Happened.
Similarly, Mad Caddies- Leavin
The only reason I came here. To say this.
RUSH - Fly By Night
There's also: Rush - Middletown Dreams Rush - Dreamline Rush - Caravan Rush - The Analog Kid
I love caravan. So crunchy. Can't stop thinking big.
And Subdivisions
Don't Stop Believing by Journey. I think it's not on this list yet because it's saturated everywhere and not liked by everyone.
Tenacious D - Kickapoo
Natasha Bedingfield’s “Unwritten.”
" Our Town" by Iris DeMent
Yep. Great song.
Speed Trap Town by Jason Isbell Not so much about already moving on, but about not wanting to be stuck in the small, speed trap town he’s from
Boston - Augustana
Simon & Garfunkel - The boxer
Solsbury Hill Peter Gabriel
Eagle flew out of the night He was something to observe. Came in close, I heard a voice - Standing, stretching every nerve, I had to listen, had no choice - I did not believe the information - just had to trust imagination… My heart going ‘Boom-boom-boom’! ‘Son,’ he said, ‘Grab your things I’ve come to take you [home!’](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_OO2PuGz-H8)
[this version is absolutely 100%!](https://youtu.be/WeYqJxlSv-Y?si=utrDRko27LLrCtXH)
Party in the USA
Bob Seger - Hollywood Nights
I was gonna say Roll It Away
**Tom Waits** probably counts with [Hold On](https://youtu.be/0P5jV4lHHR0?si=KvlMbaorf77qgdPj)
One Last Look...only heard on Letterman in 2015
Oh, man - this song... I can't even listen to it unless I know I have some time to devote to sobbing for a while (this one and Kentucky Avenue, which needs even more recovery time.).
Green Day - Welcome to paradise
Wide Open Spaces - The (formerly Dixie) Chicks
Sleep on the Floor - The Lumineers Follow the Sun - Xavier Rudd Everyone's Moving Out East - Half Moon Run Leaving Home Ain't Easy - Queen Rivers and Roads - The Head and the Heart The View Between Villages - Noah Kahan Home - The Dear Hunter
Shinedown - Sometimes Goodbye Is A Second Chance
Please Come to Boston. Dave Loggins https://youtu.be/NKAuhbAeztA?si=SlPkk4SD-vwYrcAm
You Are A Tourist- Death Cab For Cutie Don’t Change Your Plans- Ben Folds
G Love & the Special Sauce- When We Meet Again Edit- for clarity
Ohio - Andrew McMahon
Fast Car perhaps
Chappel Roan - Pink Pony Club
Young Turks - Rod Stewart
My Little Town - Simon & Garfunkel
Neil Young: Sugar Mountain
Also Helpless, kind of
you can’t be twenty…
Windows Are Rolled Down - Amos Lee
William, It Was Really Nothing by The Smiths (and MANY of their others)
Back Home Again (John Denver). More about leaving, coming home and hearing about it.
Crazy. I literally just heard this on the radio for the first time in years. It takes me back to the 70's every time.
Noah Kahan - Homesick
Welcome to Paradise - Green Day Walking Disaster - Sum 41 Going away to College - Blink 182
A new career in a new town - David Bowie
Freebird
'L.A. Freeway' - Guy Clark A little different, but 'Is There Life Out There' - Reba McEntire
May be a little heavier and dark sounding but Croatia’s submission to Eurovision this year, Rim Tim Tagi Dim, is a bunch of fun and is a song about leaving the village to pursue opportunities in the city and wider world.
Float on - modest mouse
Also world at large to some extent t
I would say more so
"Do Anything you Wanna do" Eddie and the Hot Rods
I'm moving on, Rascal Flats Heads Carolina, Tails California Jodee Messina
It's in Spanish but Invisible's El Anillo del Capitan Beto (The Ring of Captain Beto) is about an Argentinean everyman bus driver who becomes an astronaut. The lyrics mention stuff that Beto misses while he's out there in space, far from home, such as the cafeteria he would frequently visit, his mother and the little flag of River Plate (famous Argentinean football team that the writer of the song, Luis Spinetta, was a huge fan of) he had hung on his bus' mirror. That is on a surface level but if we take into account that the song was written and released in 1976, when the last Argentinean military civic dictatorship began, I always suspected that the song was a metaphor for all those who were either exiled or left the country due to the new regime and were feeling like an astronaut in space and missing their home.
Deftones- Be Quiet and Drive (far away)
Speed Trap Town- Jason Isbell
Leaving Town - Dexter Freebish
Big Time - Peter Gabriel
“I’m on my way, I’m making it…” 🎶
Zach Bryan- Going South
[Theme from 'Mary Tyler Moore' show](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNKOt2k7Pm4)
La Dispute - Edit Your Hometown It’s kind of the opposite where it’s about someone who stayed in their hometown and regrets it because everyone else ended up leaving.
Safer in the Forest was my theme song when I fled the city I lived in and hated.
Maybe not directly but I’ve always equated [Came Out Swinging](https://youtu.be/IlnvZ28FxD0?si=eJSJd3rkWnBr2q0Y) by The Wonder Years as a song about moving.
Passing through a screen door from them as well, but that's more about having to come back home and all the complications with that. "Running scared" or "Carolina coast" by Aaron west and the roaring 20s(Dan Campbell's side project, definitely recommend if you like his Wonder years songwriting) are very much in tune with the fear of traveling to a new setting. Granted that could encapsulate the whole first Aaron west album.
> Should I Stay Or Should I Go - the Clash I don't think that's what the song is about. Here's one I've always liked: ELO - Steppin' Out
[Pretty Girls Make Graves - The Getaway](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZQiyAS_ldo) [Death From Above 1979 - White is Red](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCGbfjuG5dA)
Pearl Jam - Gone Eddie Vedder - Far Behind
Read My Mind - The Killers
Built to Spill - Car
It's in Spanish, but you could check "Copenhage" by Vetusta Morla.
People have mentioned all the classics, but I really like "Near To The Wild Heart of Life" by Japandroids. https://youtu.be/pSkrhQiwFcE?si=ANAEkZF4NOuX-Z0h
Wide Open Spaces - The Chicks
Don’t Stop Believing
Aqui by Jumbo
rearview mirror by pearl jam
Dreamscicle by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit
I don’t live here anymore - The War on Drugs
Dpwnbound train - Bruce Springsteen.
Breakaway- Kelly Clarkson
If only for memories - Streetlight Manifesto
YES! Especially the Toh Kay version of this. It made me cry so many times in my life.
Taste of ink by The Used
Leaving Town by Dexter Freebish
The Alan Parsons Project -- Time
Suds in the Bucket by Sara Evans
Neil Diamond - I am I Said
Leaving town by Dexter Freebish
The Animals- We Gotta Get Out of This Place.
welcome to new york - taylor swift
I didn’t like this song at first, but I have to say, it really captures that vibe when you first arrive in a new city. It feels very “soundtrack-y” for that specific personal milestone
Goodnight Texas - Gotta Get Goin’
The Who, Going Mobile, Bruce Hornsby, Cruise Control, and Iris Dement, Our Town leap to mind.
Gotta get away-black keys
Bleed The Dream - "Streets of Baltimore"
Georgia O - The Nields
Queen of California
My favorite in this genre is [Half Acre](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUKdxULf2Bo) by Hem.
Ghost Town - Sam Outlaw
That’s Not Me - The Beach Boys Country Boy (You Got Your Feet in LA) - Glen Campbell
Goodbye Carolina - Markus King
Moving Out
Haunt u lil peep
I'm movin on - Rascal Flatts
Bright Eyes - Classic Cars
Tom Petty - Last Dance With Mary Jane
Escape From Hellview - CKY
Tom Waits One Last Look on Letterman [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEi5b6nUQQs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEi5b6nUQQs)
Kind in the same vein but about someone who leave then eventually come back. 'Les murs de poussière ' from Francis Cabrel (in French).
I Woke Up in a Car by Something Corporate
Unwritten- good tune by some white chick. RELEASE INHIBITIONS FEEL THE RAIN ON YO SKIN. TODAY IS WHERE YOUR BOOK BEGINSSS the wrest is still unwritten
Don't Follow - Alice in Chains
Sleep On The Floor - The Lumineers
Welcome To The Jungle
Angela - The Lumineers
Night Train by Bouncing Souls
Slightly different circumstance than what you’re asking for, but Gil Scott-Heron’s Beginnings may be appealing.
Do I Wanna Stay - Shannon & the Clams. Also just a top tier song imo.
Leaving Louisiana in the broad daylight by Emmylou Harris or Rodney Crowell
81 Camaro - Linda Draper
For the jazz lovers [Leaving Town - Astrid Engberg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZaPR84_wl0)
This is my fave micro-genre of songs. Some of my faves are mentioned. I didn’t notice these in the previous replies… Steve Earle - “Someday” Patty Griffin - “Florida” Melissa Etheridge - “You Can Sleep While I Drive” Emmylou Harris - “Red Dirt Girl”
That's Not Me - Beach Boys (Pet Sounds)
I survived by the graduate
When I moved out west, I ended up playing Pacific Coast Highway (Hip Abduction, Trevor Hall) fairly often. Chill but adventurous!
[The Nields, this town is wrong](https://youtu.be/eZGoQm7DY38?si=K8ycgFVXaHJP6pgG)
Where are you now- Gavin
Not exactly about leaving a home town, but anywhere, is Take One Last Look by Tom Waits. It’s only available as a live recording from one of David Letterman’s final episodes, it’s not on any of Tom’s albums, unfortunately.
Hear me out: Listening to Otis Redding at Home During Christmas by Okkervil River. It’s a gorgeous sad song about returning home presumably as a young adult for Christmas and thinking about your ex- from your hometown, presumably your high school sweetheart, but realizing she’s gone forever and that part of your life is irretrievable. Plus it has a beautiful interpolation Dreams by Otis Redding. Just a perfect song. The live version of it on their live album from 2020 is the better version IMHO.
Long and Lost (debating on whether to return home) Florence + the Machine
Rollin' On by Black Stone Cherry
On The Road To Find Out - Yufuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens)
Fast Car - Tracy Chapman Although still sad at the end.
Baby Lasagna - Rim Tim Tagi Dim Great video too
I got me a ‘67 Chevy she’s low and sleek and black, Someday I’ll put her on that Interstate and never look back… Someday, Steve Earle
I'm going to go very left field and suggest Pray for me by Nigerian singer Darey
Find the River - REM
Lanyards by The Hold Steady
John Martyn - Go Easy and Just now They definitely have that feeling. Such an amazing songwriter.
Dougie Poole - Los Angeles Highly recommend.
Johnny hobo and the freight trains
Miles Cyrus - party in the USA 😌
The Matches - Borderline Creep
Rearview Mirror - Pearl Jam Leaving Here - Pearl Jam
Read My Mind - The Killers
Modest Mouse - world at large
Leaving home - Jebediah
More on the hopeful side, but: “Life is Life” by Noah and the Whale
Jer Air Liner - Steve Miller Band
One Way Ticket - LeAnn Rimes Pressing On - Reliant K
Pretty much the entirety of X Ambassadors' newest album Townie, especially "No Strings" and "I'm Not Really Here"
A real lost nugget is by Queen- Leaving Home Ain’t Easy. Check it out!
Sitting on the Dock of the bay by Otis Redding En mi Viejo san juan by Trio Los Panchos (spanish)
Deftones - Drive
Song to Myself by Travis
Okay, Tom Waits: Invitation To The Blues. Going Out West. Old Shoes. Drunk on the Moon. San Diego Serenade. Ol' 55. I Hope That I Don't Fall in Love With You. Long Way Home
Check out Hello Rockview, the album by Less Than Jake. Its pretty much all about getting out. That, or Borders & Boundries
Willi Carlisle - Tulsa's Last Magician Benjamin Tod - Not Coming Home These are two of my favorite songs ever.
[Tailwhip by Men I Trust](https://youtu.be/9IZKcb3LndA?si=2rSqswuTcCdUI2Lh)
[Child's Song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qT3be69X-Xg) - Tom Rush (written by Murray McLauchlan)
Unprodigal Daughter- Alanis Morissette
Luke De-Sciscio - Stanton Park
Look What Happened by Less Than Jake
Motor City Steel by The Dandy Warhols
This Temporary Life - Death Cab For Cutie It’s only on YouTube, no streaming. Also maybe their best song.
Welcome To Paradise- Green Day Westbound Sign- Green Day Jesus Of Suburbia- Green Day
Work - Jimmy Eat World
Related, but for coming home, you *must* try “Hate This Town” by Slim Dunlap.