Ranking the NFC East Cities by Musical Talent

Ranking the NFC East Cities by Music Talent

So, Kenny Meringolo and I have been texting a bunch lately and he asked if I wanted to come back and do some semi-regular writing on HH. I do miss this HTTR community, so I happily obliged (if you all don’t mind my horrible grammar and spelling mistakes despite my thirteen proofreads). I’ve been keeping busy doing a lot of concert blogging and photography, so I thought a good, barely still off-season post segue would be talking music about the three awesome, party cities in our division and Dallas.

So, which NFC East city has produced the best music? Before I even did my research, I knew D.C. was going to be stretched to win this. Off the top of my head, the Giants have Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, and Frank Sinatra. How can you top that? I assumed Dallas would have a ton of country mega stars I’d dig up, but that was not the case. They do represent Vanilla Ice, Nick Jonas, and Ashley Simpson though!! That’s Ken’s dream concert right there. I knew Philly was stacked, but I didn’t realize how stacked they were. Naturally, doing an article like this is trying to make a very subjective topic objective, but it beats another way-too-f’n-early preseason, power rankings post where the Redskins are annually disrespected, right? Eh?

To set some boundaries, the Giants play in N.J. and are N.J...so the five boroughs are out. To anyone that grew up in D.C., the punk scene and go-go music was revolutionary. That was evident when Bad Brains made the final cut for the Hall of Fame two years ago (with MC5) but got denied. What? However, Chuck Brown and Bad Brains are bands most people have never heard of outside of D.C. and that’s an unfortunate reality. So, I’ll just present the list and a poll and let’s have at it in the comments. I imagine I missed a few bands so feel free to let me know.

So, things get a bit foggy when musicians live in a city for a few years then move. Dave Grohl was born in Ohio, but his formative years were going to punk shows at the old 9:30 Club in Chinatown and deciding to leave Bishop Ireton High School to become a rocker. For that reason, and his mom still living in Alexandria, VA, and him recording several Foo albums in D.C, we can claim him. What was news to me was that Bo Diddley bought a house in NE D.C. and recorded music there for ten years. Also of note, The Doors, Jim Morrison, was a brat living in D.C. for over four years doing two years elementary school in Fairfax, VA, and two and half years high school in Alexandria, VA. Mr Mojo Risin gets an asterisk because he’s still 100% California to me.

Philly though is just so damn impressive. The Roots, Joan Jett, Patti Labelle, and Hall & Oates. Eclectic to the max.