The song by Journey came out thirty years ago, but after its initial hit status, "Don't Stop Believin'" got more mileage thanks to the TV shows The Sopranos and Glee. After all this time, I just learned a fact that everyone in Detroit knew all along.

For nearly 31 years, this flash of distracting cognitive dissonance has struck each time Steve Perry's bright tenor lands on the iconic but geographically flawed second line: “just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit." Because, as anyone with a tie to the Motor City knows, South Detroit doesn’t exist, either as a term of art or a geographical locale.

East Side? Sure. It’s where Eminen spent his adolescence. West?* Home to the original Motown Records. Southwest? Best Mexican food in the state. But South Detroit is as fictional as the Shire of Middle-earth.

Even songwriter Perry did not realize that there was no such place until just a couple of years ago. He finally explains how it ended up in the song. Link -via Metafilter