Taylor Swift Wrote a Song About Cleveland. Here Are 10 Other Great Ones

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

When Taylor Swift dropped the track listing to the deluxe edition of Life of a Showgirl earlier this month, the title that jumped out to most people was “Cleveland!” This came not long after news that Swift and husband Travis Kelce had purchased a lakefront house near downtown Cleveland, not far from the eastern suburbs where he grew up, and natives of “The Land” were very curious to hear what she had to say about their beloved city.

It turns out the song was largely a chance for Swift to bite back at her haters, and revel in the joy of loving a man from Northeast Ohio. “He already took me to Cleveland,” she sings. “And showed me The Heights, so hate all you like, This is the love of my life, hey, hey, hey…There, that house with the porch is where he lived as a kid.”

For you non-Clevelanders out there, “The Heights” is a reference to the eastern suburb of Cleveland Heights, where Kelce grew up and made a name for himself as the quarterback for Cleveland Heights High School’s football team, the Tigers. (They have a 1-5 record so far this year, so they could really use his help again.)

This is far from the first time a great songwriter has written a song about the town that gave us the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Paul Newman, Tracy Chapman, and Superman. Here’s a look at 10 great ones that came before Taylor Swift drove through Cleveland Heights, and grabbed a meal at JoJo’s Bar in Chagrin Falls. (If she ever heads back to that area, we recommend Hunan by the Falls.)

• “Pancho and Lefty,” Townes Van Zandt

  Image Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

  When Bob Dylan played Nautica on the Cleveland waterfront in the summer of 1991, he broke out a cover of “Pancho and Lefty” by Townes Van Zandt. “That’s about the only song in my repertoire that’s got Cleveland in it,” he said. “Is there a president by that name too?” Unlike most of the songs on this list, “Pancho and Lefty” isn’t predominantly about Cleveland (which is why it isn’t ranked much higher), but it is where poor Lefty finds himself at the end of this sad tale about a couple of doomed outlaws. “Lefty’s living in a cheap hotel,” Van Zandt sings. “The desert’s quiet, Cleveland’s cold/So the story ends, we’re told.” (He never specifies which “cheap hotel” Lefty picked, but whenever I drive past the dreary Solon Motel on Aurora Road, I picture Lefty hunkered down in one of the dingy rooms.)