About The Song
“I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town)” is a 1970 single by Buck Owens and His Buckaroos, released on Capitol Records. Most discographies list it as Capitol 2947, a 7-inch single running just under three minutes, with “No Milk and Honey in Baltimore” on the B-side. The track was written by Buck Owens himself and produced by longtime collaborator Ken Nelson. It was recorded at Buck Owens Studios in Bakersfield, California, with notes on some LP editions adding that street sounds used on the album’s opening cut were captured live in New York to frame the city concept.
The song later became the title track of the album I Wouldn’t Live in New York City, issued by Capitol in late 1970 (catalogue number ST-628). The ten-track LP is built entirely around place-names, with songs set in Reno, New Orleans, Chicago, Kansas City, Londontown, Houston, Santo Domingo and Baltimore, as well as Las Vegas via “Big in Vegas.” Reissue notes from Omnivore Recordings and other labels emphasize that all ten titles were written or co-written by Owens and that the album introduced Jim Shaw as a new Buckaroo on organ, harmonica and piano. On release it reached No. 12 on the Billboard country albums chart and around No. 190 on the main Billboard 200, giving Owens another Top 20 country LP at the start of the 1970s.
As a single, “I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town)” performed solidly on U.S. country radio. Billboard-based summaries and later chart compilations agree that it reached No. 9 on the Hot Country Singles chart and made a brief appearance on the Hot 100, peaking just outside the Top 100 at No. 110. It did not chart on the Canadian country listing, but within Owens’ own discography it is counted among the run of early-1970s Top 10 country singles that included “The Kansas City Song,” “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” “Ruby (Are You Mad)” and “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
Lyrically, the song is written as a first-person report from someone overwhelmed by New York City. The narrator describes the metropolis as a “concrete jungle” where people are packed together and always rushing, trying to live beyond their means, and compares the residents to “fleas on a puppy dog” with nowhere to go. Later verses mention the lack of sunshine, the struggle just to survive and the idea that a person is barely noticed until they are “six feet underground,” at which point they become a statistic. Each verse returns to the central refrain: the singer would not live in New York City even if he were given the whole town, underlining that the song is a rejection of big-city life rather than a travel postcard.
Musically, “I Wouldn’t Live in New York City” stays close to the Bakersfield sound that had made Owens famous, while adding a slightly broader production palette. The track moves at a medium tempo with a firm backbeat, twangy electric guitars and steel guitar in the foreground, supported by bass, drums and organ. Jim Shaw’s electric organ gives parts of the arrangement a different colour from Owens’ earlier, more guitar-dominated singles, but the overall sound remains lean compared with the heavily orchestrated Nashville productions of the same period. The running time is concise—around 2:50–3:00 depending on the source—keeping it well suited to country radio playlists of 1970.
Within Owens’ catalogue, the track and album mark the point where his “city” theme becomes explicit. Earlier that year he had released The Kansas City Song, another place-focused project; promotional material and later reissue essays treat I Wouldn’t Live in New York City as a follow-up that extends the idea into a full set of urban and travel songs. At the same time, Owens was highly visible as co-host of the television show Hee Haw, and a performance clip of “I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town)” was filmed for the series using visual scenes to match the lyric. Those segments have been rebroadcast on classic-country channels, helping the song remain familiar beyond its original chart run.
In later years, “I Wouldn’t Live in New York City (If They Gave Me the Whole Dang Town)” has continued to appear on compilations of Owens’ Capitol recordings, including box sets such as The Complete Capitol Singles: 1967–1970 and collections like Bakersfield Gold: Top 10 Hits 1959–1974. Streaming and download editions keep the single and album available in their original configurations, and reissue notes typically highlight the song’s No. 9 country-chart peak and its role in giving Owens another city-themed signature tune. For listeners exploring his work beyond the mid-1960s hits, it offers a clear example of how he carried the Bakersfield sound into the new decade while commenting, in plain language, on big-city life.
Video
Lyric
It ain’t nothin’ but a concrete jungle with people packed like sardines
Where everybody’s tryin’ to live beyond their means
Where all the natives hurry and scurry too and fro
And like a fleas on a puppy dog they got no place to go.I wouldn’t live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town
Talk about a bummer it’s the biggest one around
Sodom and Gommorah was tame to what I found
I wouldn’t live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town.Well, I ain’t seen the sunshine since the day that I arrived
‘Cause brother I’ve been busy a-tryin’ to survive
Nobody knows you’ve been here till you’re six feet under ground
Than you become a statistic if they remember to write you down.I wouldn’t live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town
Talk about a bummer it’s the biggest one around
Sodom and Gommorah was tame to what I found
I wouldn’t live in New York City if they gave me the whole dang town…