The Soundtrack of LA: How Many Times Have L.A. Guns Mentioned The City Of Angels in Their Songs?

Alright, the fact is as we all know. that L.A. Guns is a band that emerged from the Hollywood Sunset Strip scene in Los Angeles. They even named themselves after the city by using city of angels’ initials in their band name. But, have you ever wondered how many times L.A. Guns have mentioned Los Angeles, California, Hollywood, or Sunset Strip in their songs? No? Well, don’t worry because Junkyard is here to provide you with the answer. Just for fun, we conducted an analysis and counted how many times these names were mentioned in their songs.

And just to clarify, these names have different geographical meanings, but they symbolically form a cohesive whole and are synonymous with this music subgenre. We are not from Los Angeles so if we missed some other reference to it, let us know.

Once again, this is done just for fun and because L.A. Guns is one of the favorite bands of the writer of this post. Also, we included only songs from the official albums. No EP’s, Box Sets etc.

So, the songs referring to Los Angeles (California, Hollywood and Sunset Strip) in the L.A. Guns discography are:

1.Hollywood Tease (L.A. Guns 1988) – “Stare in amazement at my Hollywood basement, I’m the Hollywood Tease“, mentioned several times at the end of the song

2.Down In The City (L.A. Guns 1988) – “A boy shoots a gun, a girl looks for fun, Runnin’ round in the Hollywood streets” ,”Shake it down, lay it down, Sin City all around, Hollywood’s the city of sleaze”

3.Sleazy Come Easy Go (Cocked And Loaded 1989) – “New York City, Hollywood, She’s like she always knew she would, she’s Riding high, playing the game, Moving fast as a hurricane“

4.Showdown (Riot On Sunset) (Cocked And Loaded 1989) – “Showdown Riot On Sunset, Showdown we’re coming ready or not, Gonna give u all that we got“

5.Dirty Luv (Hollywood Vampires 1991) – “I’m calling all the home girls in L.A., I’ve got some thing good, gonna come your way“

6.Nothing Better To Do (Vicious Circle 1994) – “Well it was raining that December, I was turning 23, On my way to Hollywood, Via Tennessee“

7.Girl You Turn Me On (Shrinking Violet 1999) – “Girl, you turn me on, You’re like the best laid plans gone wrong, Sold your soul to the Hollywood harlots, Wouldn’t give you half a chance,Because girl, you turn me on“

8.California (Shrinking Violet 1999) – “Won’tcha take me back, back there, Take me back to California,
Yeah yeah yeah“

9.Bad Whiskey (Shrinking Violet 1999) – “4 o’clock in the mornin’, To the break of day, In a Hollywood apartment, Two lost souls about to pay“

10.City Of Angels (Waking The Dead 2002) – “Cause I’m lost, (I am not lost) x3, Lost in the city of angels” no direct mention of the aforementioned terms, but the whole song is about Los Angeles

11.It Don’t Mean Nothing (Tales From The Strip 2005) – “Sitting in my jag on the Sunset strip, I’ve got bim da jour flapping her lip“, “In Hollywood. West Hollywood. Live from Hollywood, Hooray for Hollywood” , this one has it all, Rainbow Bar and Grill and California are also mentioned

12.Vampire (Tales From The Strip 2005) – “Walking down the Sunset strip, Cast no shadow at The Whisky, At the Rainbow getting lit” , Hollywood is mentioned also in this song

13.Hollywood’s Burning (Tales From The Strip 2005) – “Hollywood’s burnin’ house by house, Goin’ down in flames, can’t put it out, Hollywood’s burnin’ mile by mile, Can’t put it out, burnin’ down in style“

14.Rox Baby Girl (Tales From The Strip 2005) – “Rox baby girl is kissed not seen ,he’s left a trail of broken hearts on the Sunset scene“

15.Hollywood Forever (Hollywood Forever 2012) – “With our lives so vain, And scream Hollywood forever!“

16.Stay Away (The Devil You Know 2019) – “I draw the line in the sand, I’m not bitch that you hoped, Like any film where the girl and monster play, Set in LA“

17.Boom – Bonus Track (The Devil You Know 2019) – “From the mean Hollywood boy you’re running to, Just a click before you hear the boom“

There are also two bonus songs here that have references to some other parts in Los Angeles like Rip N Tear – referring to the Mulholland Drive and Electric Neon Sunset that is clearly referring to the sunset that can be seen from Venice in Los Angeles. Albums without these kind of songs are American Hardcore (1995), Man In The Moon (2001), Renegades (2020), Checkered Past (2021) and Black Diamonds (2023).

For everybody that want to listen to these songs, don’t worry, we made a Spotfify playlist that you can check out!

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