L.A. Songs: Coming Into Los Angeles

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We’ve gone Hollywood, now let’s head to Los Angeles proper. Today’s song was banned on radio back in the old days. We’ll talk about that as we celebrate the next song on the list. Coming Into Los Angeles - Arlo Guthrie It was banned because of something about this guy carrying his keys (“bringing in a couple of keys”). Hey, it’s Arlo Guthrie’s third-best-known song (behind “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree” and his cover of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans”). Back in the late 60s and early 70s, banning a song from airplay was a good way to get it noticed, so this song about toting some unspecified drug in a person’s baggage on an international flight from London to L.A. got unintended publicity. (It’s like the joke people made about the PMRC putting those “explicit lyrics” warning labels on records, making the kids actively seek those records out!) Oh, and Ry Cooder, the singer of today’s “Hollywood” song, is playing guitar on this song. Coming Into Los Angeles Written by Arlo Guthrie Recorded by Arlo Guthrie From Running Down the Road, 1969 L.A. LYRICS: title Said he was the Lone Ranger: