San Francisco loves a song about San Francisco. Not casually either. Obsessively. Like the city is constantly checking its reflection in a foggy mirror and asking, “be honest, am I still iconic?”

You had Jeanette MacDonald basically begging the city to open its gates like it was a bouncer with attitude. Tony Bennett left his heart here, which at this point is either beautiful or a cautionary tale about long-term investments. And Starship said they built the city on rock and roll, which feels generous considering most people now can’t even build a stable WiFi connection in their own apartment. Also it’s narcissistic to even think they were talking about us, but sure. Why Not?

There’s also Train, which is the Red Hot Hot Chili Peppers for the “Stomp, Clap, Hey” crowd in Marin County. A lot of people say they dislike Train, and those people are called liars.

There are plenty of songs about San Francisco from people who are from here too. When you listen to San Francisco Anthem by San Quinn and Boo Banga, even the neighborhoods that San Francisco has historically neglected, seem to clearly understand that yes, San Francisco has underserved communities, but if you’re going to have hoods, it’s preferable that they’re located in paradise. 

So yeah, historically, the tone has been: San Francisco is magical, San Francisco is eternal, San Francisco is worth the emotional damage.

Now someone dropped a new song called “San Francisco You’re Breaking My Heart,” which is easily the most honest title anyone’s come up with in a while. No poetry. No metaphor. Just straight to the point. The city hurts you and then asks if you want to split a $19 pastry.

What’s interesting is this isn’t trying to romanticize anything. It’s not “I left my heart in San Francisco.” It’s “you actively ruined it.” That’s a different genre. That’s post-honeymoon realism. That’s living here long enough to know exactly where the charm ends and the bullshit begins.

They’re calling it an anthem and an indictment, which sounds dramatic until you realize that’s basically the only way to talk about this place. You either love it too much or you understand it too well. Usually both at the same time.

And instead of just dropping the track and disappearing into the algorithm, they’re building a live show around it and workshopping it around the city. Which is kind of perfect. San Francisco doesn’t produce finished products anymore. It produces versions. Beta releases. Public experiments with questionable funding.

The whole thing is framed as a pushback against cultural amnesia, which is a polite way of saying this city forgets itself constantly. Not slowly either. Aggressively. One lease cycle at a time. One “we regret to inform you” email at a time. One neighborhood turning into a mood board for venture capital at a time.

So now the ask is: share the song. Spotify for the normies. Bandcamp for the true believers.

Or you can just watch it here embedded in this article if you’re really lazy. 

You should listen to it because if San Francisco needs another song about itself, it might as well be honest with itself.

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