Songfacts®:

• According to David Ewen in the 1987 book American Songwriters, "With its deprecating remarks about the city" this song "generated controversy."
  
  Newman grew up in Los Angeles and Louisiana so it is quite likely that his "Baltimore" is not to be taken too literally; Nina Simone recorded a reggae version which is probably more palatable to the citizen's of this East Coast port. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Alexander Baron - London, England
• Randy Newman wrote the song without ever going to Baltimore. He explained to The Guardian: "I had been through it in a train and I saw this story about it in National Geographic."
• Newman is quite harsh about Baltimore.
  
  The city's dyin' and they don't know why
  
  He admitted: "I didn't feel good about that. [Laughs] I think people in Baltimore who objected to that song had a real good case because I didn't know anything about it."