Alternate routes

We did “street” songs, then “road” songs, so here are the songs that didn’t quite fit into those lists.

The stars they’re just pretending to hide

“Avenue B,” Gogol Bordello
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” Green Day
“Desolation Row,” Bob Dylan
“Kentucky Avenue,” Tom Waits
“Manhattan Avenue,” Nellie McKay
“Memory Lane,” Daniel Amos
“On the Avenue,” Aztec Camera
“Penny Lane,” The Beatles
“The Righteous Path,” Drive-By Truckers
“Rodeo Drive,” The Swirling Eddies
“Route 66,” Nat King Cole
“Ruby Lane,” Milla
“Scenic Routes,” The Lost Dogs
“Sixth Avenue Heartache,” The Wallflowers
“Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley,” Lee Dorsey
“Tenth Avenue Freeze Out,” Bruce Springsteen

This turns out to be a fun list, with two generations of Dylans and three incarnations of Terry Taylor.

(I would really love to know what Bob Dylan thinks of the punk-ish cover versions of “Desolation Row,” such as this one by My Chemical Romance. But then if anyone asked him, I doubt we’d be able to make sense of his answer.)