"Fake Tales of San Francisco" is a song by English indie rock band Arctic Monkeys originally released on the band's first EP Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys in May 2005. After being featured on the band's debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, the song was released as a radio only single in the United States instead of "Leave Before the Lights Come On", which was released there at the end of October. The song was also released in the Netherlands, where it reached number 31 on the Dutch Singles Chart. The song was popular on alternative rock radio in the U.S. in late 2006, but ultimately did not chart on the Billboard Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart.
The song has been one of the band's signature tracks, with its popularity as the band's first recorded track. The song derides a fictional South Yorkshire band for taking its inspiration from the USA while never having been there, with lyrics such as "I'd love to tell you all my problem / You're not from New York City, you're from Rotherham", and "He talks of San Francisco, he's from Hunter's Bar". The song's title, however, has made it a fan favorite in the United States.
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Famous quotes containing the words san francisco, fake, tales, san and/or francisco:
“We had won. Pimps got out of their polished cars and walked the streets of San Francisco only a little uneasy at the unusual exercise. Gamblers, ignoring their sensitive fingers, shook hands with shoeshine boys.... Beauticians spoke to the shipyard workers, who in turn spoke to the easy ladies.... I thought if war did not include killing, I’d like to see one every year. Something like a festival.”
—Maya Angelou (b. 1928)
“So cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can’t fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.”
—William Burroughs (b. 1914)
“Shall we rest us here,
And by relating tales of others’ griefs,
See if ‘twill teach us to forget our own?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“the San Marco Library,
Whence turbulent Italy should draw
Delight in Art whose end is peace,
In logic and in natural law
By sucking at the dugs of Greece.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“Today, San Francisco has experienced a double tragedy of incredible proportions. As acting mayor, I order an immediate state of mourning in our city. The city and county of San Francisco must and will pull itself together at this time. We will carry on as best as we possibly can.... I think we all have to share the same sense of shame and the same sense of outrage.”
—Dianne Feinstein (b. 1933)