Today, the Oklahoma state legislature announced that “Do You Realize??,” the 2002 hit by professional hallucinogen-abusers and occasional rock band Flaming Lips, would be the state’s official rock song! This new honor sits perfectly next to their state bird (scissortail flycatcher), the state tree (Eastern Redbud) and the state testicle (left one). This special honor got us thinking—what are the other 49 states’ State Rock Songs? Did you know every state has one? Check out the full list after the jump!
ALABAMA: .38 Special, “”Hold on Loosely”"
ALASKA: Anything but Jewel
ARIZONA: Lynryd Skynyrd, “Sweet Home Alabama”
ARKANSAS: The Big Bopper, “The Little Little Rock Rock Rock”
CALIFORNIA: The theme from television’s Full House
COLORADO: The Specials, “These Actual Ghost Towns are Much Like a Ghost Town”
CONNECTICUT: Wheatus, “Teenage Dirtbag”
DELAWARE: Whitesnake, “Did You Know Judge Reinhold Was Born In Delaware?”
FLORIDA: Nick Drake, “Seriously, Anyone Who Doesn’t Like The Gators Is a Fucking Pussy”
GEORGIA: Shellac, “Prayer To God”
HAWAII: GG Allin, “Aloha, Assholes!”
IDAHO: They Might Be Giants, “Some Whimsical Minutiae That Happened In Idaho”
ILLINOIS: The guy from Tortoise playing a vibraphone solo
INDIANA: AC/DC, “I Was Indiana Once… Get It?”
IOWA: Joe Satriani, “Chromatic Scales Mean ‘I Love Iowa’”
KANSAS: Kansas, “Kansas”
KENTUCKY: Belle And Sebastian, “Funky, Funky Kentucky”
LOUISIANA: I don’t know the name of it, but it’s on the new Weezy tape
MAINE: Any number of Anthrax songs about Stephen King
MARYLAND: Animal Collective, “BFF Brofriendbros” (leak)
MASSACHUSETTS: Aerosmith, “Guess Which One of Us Fingerbanged Your Sister In High School”
MICHIGAN: MC5, “The Government Is Totally Stupid, Brothers And Sisters”
MINNESOTA: Prince, “I Would Pick The State Fruit, a Honeycrisp Apple, 4 U”
MISSISSIPPI: 1910 Fruitgum Company, “M-I-S-S-I-S-S-I-S-S… Oh Shit!”
MISSOURI: Sufjan Stevens, “A Long And Quite Involved Story About Someone Who Wanted To Go To Missouri But Then It Turned Out He Hadn’t”
MONTANA - AC/DC, “Guess What Butte Sounds Like”
NEBRASKA - Buster Poindexter, “Zat You, Santa Claus?”
NEVADA: The Killers, “My Sex is Like a Sex Boner”
NEW HAMPSHIRE: Isaac Hayes, “By The Time I Get To Phoenix”
NEW JERSEY: Bruce Springsteen, “Hi, I’m Bruce Springsteen”
NEW MEXICO: Napalm Death, “You Suffer”
NEW YORK: The Hold Steady, “God and Beer and Sex or Something”
NORTH CAROLINA: The theme song to The Andy Griffith Show whistled by an 8-year-old
NORTH DAKOTA: Rick Springfield, “Dear God, Get Me The Fuck Out North Dakota!”
OHIO: Mad Cobra, “Flex”
OKLAHOMA: The Flaming Lips, “Do You Realize??”
OREGON: The Subway Five-Dollar Footlong Song
PENNSYLVANIA: The Dixie Dregs, “Scranton Rocks!”
RHODE ISLAND: Sigur Ros, “Blup Blip Blurgen Maryland Flurg”
SOUTH CAROLINA: Wesley Willis, “South Carolina”
SOUTH DAKOTA: Wesley Willis, “South Dakota”
TENNESSEE: Wesley Willis, “I Whipped Batman’s Ass”
TEXAS: Haircut 100, “Love Plus One” (DJ Screw Remix)
UTAH: [Rock music, dancing banned since 1957]
VERMONT: This one time I saw Phish, bro, seriously.
VIRGINIA: AC/DC, “I Wish I Was In Virginny, and I Hope The Subtle Innuendo Wasn’t Lost On You”
WASHINGTON: Whatever Starbucks recommends this week
WEST VIRGINIA: Chaka Khan, “I’m Every Woman”
WISCONSIN: Yoko Ono, “The Sound Of Cheese Sitting On A Plate, Growing Mold”
WYOMING: Ted Nugent, “Ding Dang Doodle, Lick My Poodle (Wyoming)”
Tulsa World: Flaming Lips’ ‘Do You Realize??’ named state rock song [Tulsa World]
“Professional halluciogen abusers,” eh?
I’d like a comp with all of those songs on it.
I respectfully disagree about the Rhode Island song.
It would have to be something by the Throwing Muses, or Belly,
as both bands are actually from RI. Considering the massive unemployment
here (a crushing 10% and rising), maybe “Counting Backwards” or “Feed The Tree.”
I grew up in the tri-state area but in CT, so “Teenage Dirtbag” suited me fine during adolescence and The Hold Steady totally works now that I’m a NY resident in my mid-twenties.
My Sex is Like a Sex boner? WTF?
Fucking Nevada…
Kick out the jams, motherfuckers. I can dig it.
My best friend lives in NM, and he would totally agree with using all 1.3 seconds of “You Suffer”.
As far as my state, NJ, we could always alternatively use Bon Jovi’s “Remember When We Played Rock Music?”
Washington’s is actually “Louie Louie”
Awesome. Would have expected any Stamos reference to refer to Kokomo, IN, however.
No… not Andy Griffith. :(
The Arizona song is closer to the truth than you’d think. But I’d still rather have the WV state song.
And half of They Might Be Giants actually recorded a song called “Idaho.”
Truth, fiction, etc.
Maybe we should just turn all the other states over to Wesley Willis.
Wire’s “Map Ref. 41°N 93°W” would be a good choice for Iowa.
@slowburn: too bad he’s dead.
wait. i’m almost 100% sure that Ohio’s rock song is “Hang on Sloopy”.
…you can credit too many years in marching band for that gem of wisdom…
@MConnor: But surely there’s enough in his songbook for the other 47?
Our state song is a corny TV show’s theme? I’m writing my representative.
Our state song is a corny TV show’s theme? I’m writing my representative.
KANSAS: Kansas, “Kansas”
Of all the great things in that list, this is what made me giggle.
Me too, Defenestrated.
Too bad we’re called the US of A instead of “Big Country.”
@Michaelangelo Matos: Yeah, that’s a weird, Neil Hamburger-esque dig on the band.
BTW, Florida’s=LOLz.
South Dakota = Andre Williams’s “Only Black Man in South Dakota”
lol @ “God and Beer and Sex or Something”
echoing someone above, i have absolutely no problem with the songs of the two states in which i reside being “teenage dirtbag” and some made-up hold steady song.
@MickFNS: I think these are jokes. But if there was a state song for Rhode Island it wouldn’t be by any of the cool bands that came from the state (Belly, Throwing Muses, Lightning Bolt, Les Savy Fav), or the one band that formed at RISD and then took over the world (The Talking Heads), but “On the Dark Side” by Jon Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band (a band and song that the rest of the world forgot almost immediately after the whole Eddie & The Cruisers cult dispersed, but both remain wildly popular among baby boomers in Rhode Island)
Also, Washington and Ohio actually have official State Rock Songs: Washington’s is “Louie Louie” by The Kingsmen and Ohio’s is “Hang On Sloopy” by the McCoys. And there’s probably legislation to make “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys’ Massachusetts’ official state rock song.