Almanac Music: ‘Walk This Way’ – Songs Referencing Walking
[Wikimedia Commons.]
Almanac Music: ‘Walk This Way’ – Songs Referencing Walking
Hi, Almanackers! This piece in my long-running series about key popular song themes concerns songs that reference walking. Closely related synonyms like strolling, strutting, sauntering etc are acceptable in terms of this theme. Add a few words of explanation to your chosen song if you feel it’s necessary.
So, dear readers, please put your relevant ‘walking’ songs in the ‘Comments’ section. Below, as usual, are some examples from me to get the ball rolling.
‘Walkin’ After Midnight’, written by Alan Block and Don Hecht, performed by Patsy Cline (1957)
‘These Boots are Made for Walkin’’, written by Lee Hazlewood, performed by Nancy Sinatra (1965)
‘Step Inside Love’, credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney (actually written by Paul), performed by Cilla Black (1968)
‘Darktown Strutters’ Ball’, written by Shelton Brooks, performed by Ted Mulry Gang (1976)
‘Reminiscing’, written by Graeham Goble, performed by Little River Band (1978)
‘Dancing in the dark / Walking through the park / and reminiscing
‘Denis’, written by Neil Levenson, performed by Blondie (1978)
‘Oh, when we walk, it always feels so nice / And when we talk, it seems like paradise’
‘Is She Really Going Out with Him?’, written by performed by Joe Jackson (1978)
‘Pretty women go walking with gorillas down my street’ (one of the best opening lines in a song lyric of the entire rock’n’ roll era, in my opinion – KD)
‘Walk This Way’, written by Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, performed by Run-DMC and Aerosmith (1986)
‘When You Walk In The Room’, written by Jackie DeShannon, performed by Paul Carrack (1987)
…………………………………
Now, dear readers / listeners – it’s over to you. Your responses to this topic are warmly welcomed. In the ‘Comments’ section, please add your own choice of a song (or songs) referencing walking, along with any other relevant material you wish to include.
[Note: as usual, Wikipedia has been a solid general reference for this piece, particularly in terms of checking dates and other details.]
Read more from Kevin Densley HERE
Kevin Densley’s latest poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises is available HERE
Read more Almanac Music HERE
If you would like to receive the Almanac Music and Poetry newsletter we will add you to the list. Please email us: [email protected]
To return to our Footy Almanac home page click HERE.
Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.
Do you enjoy the Almanac concept?
And want to ensure it continues in its current form, and better? To help things keep ticking over please consider making your own contribution.
Become an Almanac (annual) member – click HERE.
About
Kevin Densley is a graduate of both Deakin University and The University of Melbourne. He has taught writing and literature in numerous Victorian universities and TAFES. He is a poet and writer-in-general. His sixth book-length poetry collection, Isle Full of Noises, was published in early 2026 by Ginninderra Press. He is also the co-author of ten play collections for young people, as well as a multi Green Room Award nominated play, Last Chance Gas, published by Currency Press. Other writing includes screenplays for educational films.
First songs that come to mind KD are:
‘Walk Away Renee’ – Four Tops. (One of the great pop songs!)
‘Walk Like A Man’ – Four Seasons
‘Walkin’ to New Orleans’ – Fats Domino
‘I’m Walkin’ – Fats Domino
‘Walk a Mile in my Shoes’ – Joe South
and I’ll think of many more I’m sure!
Great bunch of selections to kick off our walking theme, Col! Thanks for these.
Girlfriend – Modern Lovers
“If I were to walk to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston
Well, first I’d go to the room where they keep the Cézanne
But if I had by my side a girlfriend
Then I could look through the paintings
I could look right through them
Because I’d have found something that I understand
I understand a girlfriend
That’s a girl friend
Said G-I-R-L-F-R-E-N
That’s a girlfriend, baby
That’s something that I understand
Alright
I walk through the Fenway
I have my heart in my hands
I understand a girlfriend
That’s a girl friend
Oh that’s a G-I-R-L-F-R-E-N
Well that’s a girlfriend, baby
That’s something that I understand
Four o’clock in the afternoon in the Fenway
I have my heart in my hands
I understand a girlfriend
That’s a girlfriend
That’s G-I-R-L-F-R-E-N
That’s a girlfriend, baby
Well that’s something that I understand”
The Space Race Is Over – Billy Bragg
“When I was young, I told my mum
I’m gonna walk on the moon someday
Armstrong and Aldrin spoke to me
Houston and Cape Kennedy
And I watched the Eagle landing
On a night when the moon was full
And as it tugged at the tide, I knew that deep inside
I too could feel its pull”
Greetings To The New Brunette – Billy Bragg
“Shirley, it’s quite exciting
To be sleeping here in this new room.
Shirley, you’re my reason
To get out of bed before noon.
Shirley, you know when
We were sat on the fire escape talking,
Shirley, what did you say
About running before we were walking?
When we’re looking close tonight,
It’s like we’re in a dream.
How can you lie there,
And think of England
When you don’t even know who’s in the team?”
Anglo Girl Desire – Radio Birdman
“When you’re walking down the street
You never know I’m around
But I am there and I’m watching
Everywhere you go
I’m the eye from outer space
And my hand is on your life
Your eyes reflect reflections
Of fires burning in my heart”
Walk On The Wild Side – Lou Reed
The Walk – The Cure
When I’m Walking – Jonathan Richman
Walking Down Madison – Kirsty MacColl
We Walk – REM
I Don’t Wanna Walk Around With You – Ramones
Walking Down A Road – Split Enz
I Walk Away – Split Enz
Walk Softly But Carry A Big Stick – Stephen Cummings
Jesus Walking On The Water – Violent Femmes
Walking On The Surface Of The Moon – Wreckless Eric
Sidewalkin’ – The Jesus And Mary Chain
You Gotta Walk (Don’t Look Back) – Peter Tosh
You’ll Never Walk Alone – Gerry And The Pacemakers et al
Lover’s Walk – Elvis Costello And The Attractions
Walking On Thin Ice – Yoko Ono
Walking On The Moon – Police
Thank you, Swish, for this highly interesting and eclectic array of ‘walking songs’, including what, for me, is probably Yoko Ono’s best solo song, ‘Walking On Thin Ice’.
Thanks KD – Re Yoko, that’s like being the world’s tallest pygmy.
I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash
Walk On By – Dionne Warwick (or if you prefer, The Stranglers)
Greetings KD
I’ll add the first non-Bob song to come to mind
Walk Like An Egyptian – The Bangles (1987)
I already see a number of gold & silver medal winners in the offerings so far. The award ceremony will be conducted later on.
Swish, I like some of Yoko’s performance art – and other artworks, like the peace tower she designed in Reykjavik as a memorial to John. Specifically in relation to her music, I suppose I’m simply indicating that ‘Walking On Thin Ice’ is a good song – I’m no fan of hers when (for example) she’s in wailing mode in various other songs.
Thanks for ‘I Walk The Line’ and ‘Walk On By’ – certainly two classics there.
Greetings, Karl. I really like ‘Walk Like An Egyptian’ – thank you for that one (of the ‘non-Bob’ side of the dichotomy).
Yes, I agree that there are already a bunch of podium-worthy numbers.
Another great theme KD, first song that came to mind reading your introduction was the Fats song (which CR put forward, great call), Walking to New Orleans, and now I can’t get it outa my head! By the way, CRs set of songs are top shelf.
Walk Like a Man, Bruce S, and not to be confused with the FVatFS song, other than both are top shelf songs (I remember how rough your hand felt on mine/On my wedding day/And the tears cried on my shoulder
I couldn’t turn away/Well so much has happened to me/That I don’t understand/All I can think of is being five years old following behind you at the beach/Tracing your footprints in the sand/Trying to walk like a man)
I Walk the Line Revisited, Rodney Crowell, not to be confused with the incredible JC song other than this is an update on that, with JCs blessing and contribution! and a ripper of a song (All these long years later it’s still music to my ears/I swear it sounds as good right now as anything I hear/I’ve seen the Mona Lisa, I’ve heard Shakespeare read real fine/Just like hearing Johnny Cash sing I Walk The Line/[Hook 3: Johnny Cash] As sure as night is dark and day is light/I keep you on my mind both day and night/And happiness I’ve known proves that it’s right/Because you’re mine, I walk the line)
Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Chuck, one of the all time great political/protest songs (Flyin’ across the desert in a TWA/I saw a woman walk across the sand/She been a walkin’ thirty miles en route to Bombay/To meet a brown eyed handsome man/Her destination was the brown eyed handsome man)
Honey I’m a Big Boy Now, Billy Bragg (I haven’t touched the garden/Since the day she walked away/From a love affair that bore only bitter fruit/She took everything she wanted/Which is why she left me here/With these pots and pans and my old wedding suit)
Colin Ritchie has posted probably the best cover version of Walk Away Renee (The Four Tops) but I fell in love with the original version by The Left Banke back in 1966. They were nowhere near as accomplished singers as The Tops or for that matter Linda Ronstadt or Rickie Lee Jones amongst the many cover versions, but there was something about the original version and the way it was arranged.
I was going to post a YouTube video to prove my point but I can’t find the one that used to be accessible.
Here’s a triplet that have sprung to mind:
Hey Big Spender – Sweet Charity/Shirley Bassey
‘The minute you walked in the joint…..’
These Days – Jackson Browne (1973) (one of my all time favourite songs)
‘Well, I’ve been out walking
I don’t do that much talking these days/These days
These days I seem to think a lot
About the things that I forgot to do/For you
And all the times I had the chance to’
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) – The Proclaimers (you know how it goes!!!!)
‘But I would walk five hundred miles
And I would walk five hundred more
Just to be the man who walked a thousand
Miles to fall down at your door
Da-da da da (Da-da da da)
Da-da da da (Da-da da da)
Da-da dum diddy dum diddy dum diddy da da da’ (repeat!)
I’ll come up with more later, but here’s five that come to mind quickly:
Walk it down: Talking Heads
Walking in my sleep: Roger Daltrey
Sleepwalk: Ultravox
Do Wah Diddy Diddy: Manfred Mann
Can’t get it out of my head: Electric Light Orchestra
A Walk in the Light Green – Redgum (The original title of I Was Only 19)
Talking Birmingham Jam – Phil Ochs
Walkin’ down to Birmingham
Way down south in Dixieland
I thought that I would stop awhile
Take a vacation Southern style
Got some Southern hospitality
Down there in a Southern hospital
Well, all the signs said, “Welcome in, son”
But governor Wallace and Rin Tin Tin
They said, “Come along and watch the fights
While we feed our dogs on civil rights”
Now, don’t get us wrong
Some of our best Negroes are friends
Well, I’ve seen travel in many ways
I’ve traveled in cars and old subways
But in Birmingham some people chose
To fly down the street from a fire hose
Doin’ some hard travelin’
From hydrants of plenty
Humpin’ Me Drum – Danny Spooner (traditional)
The word “walk” doesn’t appear in the lyrics but it’s a song about carrying a swag and that was mostly done while walking.
I’ve humped my drum from Kingdom Come
To the back of the Milky Way,
I’ve boiled my quart out on Cape of York
And i starved last Christmas Day.
I cast a line on the old Condamine
And one on the Nebine Creek.
I’ve driven through bog, so help be Bob,
Up Mungindi’s main street.
I crossed the Murray and drank at Cloncurry
Where they charged me a bob for a nip.
I worked in the Gulf where the cattle they duff
And the squatters they give ’em jip.
I’ve worked from morn in the fields of long corn
Till the sun was out of sight.
I’ve caused to know the Great Byno
And the Great Australian Bight.
I danced with Kit when the lamps was lit
And Doll when the dance broke up.
I flung my ’at on the Myall Track
When Bowman won the Cup.
I laughed aloud with the merry crowd
In the city of the plains;
I sweated too on Omdooroo
While bogged in those big bore-drains.
I wheeled my bike from the Shearer’s Strike,
Not wanting a funeral shroud.
And I made the weights for the Flying Stakes
But I dodged the lynchin’ crowd.
I carried a gun through World War One,
Then went on the track again;
From Omeo to Bendigo,
To Bourke and back again.
I lost some tears in the hungry years
When jobs were short and few,
And I packed up my swag and my old tucker bag,
There was nothing else to do.
Yes, I’ve humped my drum from Kingdom Come
To the back of the Milky Way.
(and the same applies to this one)
Springtime Brings on the Shearing
Oh the springtime it brings on the shearing
And it’s then you will see them in droves
To the west country stations all steering
A seeking a job off the coves
Chorus
With a ragged old swag on my shoulder
And a billy quart pot in my hand
I tell you we’ll astonish the new chums
To see how we travel the land
You may talk of your mighty exploring
Of Landsborough McKinley and King
But I feel I should only be boring
On such frivolous subjects to sing
For discovering mountains and rivers
There’s one for a gallon I’d back
Who’d beat all your Stuart’s to shivers
It’s the men on the Wallaby Track
From Billabone Murray and Loddon
To the far Tartiara and back
The hills and the plains are well trodden
By the men on the Wallaby Track
And after the shearing is over
And the wool season’s all at an end
It is then that you will see those flash shearers
Making johnny cakes round in the bend
And to move from folk to Rock or if you prefer Rhythm and Blues I can’t believe that this song hasn’t been posted yet.
Walkin’ the Dog – The Rolling Stones.
Glad you feel the way you do about this new ‘walking’ theme, Rick – it came into my head only a few days ago, but instantly felt like a good ‘un! Thank you for your opening four selections; interestingly the first two of them (of course) play quite directly off past classics, in that they utilize the wording of the original titles in an important way.
Also, this new theme gave me a good reason to list one of my favourite collaborations in (quite possibly) the whole rock’n’ roll era – Run-DMC and Aerosmith’s ‘Walk This Way’, which, as many would know, was first released by Aerosmith alone.
Some PK:
To Her Door (She said, “I’m not standing by to watch you slowly die/So watch me walking out the door/Out the door, out the door”/She said, “Shove it, Jack, I’m walking out your fucking door” … He came in on a Sunday, every muscle aching/Walking in slow motion like he’d just been hit/Did they have a future? Would he know his children?/Could he make a picture and get them all to fit?)
Same Old Walk (My house burned down a year ago and all your letters and photos I lost them/Waiting at the terminal, suddenly I see you stroll through customs/Your hair is long and bottle red, it used to be light brown/I nearly didn’t recognize you, then my heart unwound/I see you’ve got the same old walk)
I Don’t Remember a Thing (I woke up one morning, my head was feeling sore/Woke up to the sound of knocking, detectives at my door/There were two of them, they walked right in, I said “What’s going on?”/The sergeant shook his head and said “Don’t you know what you have done?”/I don’t remember a thing)
Standing on the Street of Early Sorrows (It was just a quarter mile/To your house in Kensington
It was always 95 degrees/(Hey Julie)/Walking to the swimming pool/February back to school/All that summer you were cool/(Hey Julie)/I’m standing on the street of early sorrows)
Thanks, Dave, for your opening songs and comments. All the songs you’ve posted are hightly apt theme-wise, either in terms of containing walking-related imagery and/or words synonymous with walking (e.g. in the latter context in ‘Springtime Brings on the Shearing’: ‘The hills and the plains are well trodden / By the men on the Wallaby Track’).
Regarding ‘Walkin’ the Dog’, it’s still early days for this new theme, but you were the one who actually mentioned the song, even if quite possibly it has floated through the minds of a number of us already.
Thanks, Karl, for your fine triplet – all beauties, with The Proclaimers’ ‘I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)’ being a ‘walking song’ par excellence – and worthy of the highest position on the podium!
Thank you, Rick, for your PK four, all excellent additions to our new theme, which is quickly eliciting a cracker of a list.
Welcome aboard the latest ‘theme train’, Liam – great to receive your initial five choices, including the classic ‘Do Wah Diddy Diddy’.
(Note: occasionally, your selections arrive on the thread later than the time you sent them, hence my responses to you are sometimes out-of-sequence.)
No worries Kevin, I’m aware that my comments sometimes appear later than when when I originally post them.
Here are some more “walking” songs:
Love beats me up: Australian Crawl
Easy on your own: Australian Crawl
Walk my way: Australian Crawl
Shutdown: Australian Crawl
Walking in the dreamtime: James Reyne
Winds of change: James Reyne
Stood up: James Reyne
Philosophy: Ben Folds Five
Not the same: Ben Folds
Fired: Ben Folds
Walk upon the water: The Move
Don’t walk away: Electric Light Orchestra
Strange magic: Electric Light Orchestra
Look at me now: Electric Light Orchestra
No way out: Electric Light Orchestra
Without someone: Electric Light Orchestra
Bitter green: Idle Race
End of the line: Idle Race
Sitting in my tree: Idle Race
Winter sky: Mondo Rock
Step up step out: Mondo Rock
King of the mountain: Midnight Oil
In the valley: Midnight Oil
Dreamworld: Midnight Oil
One country: Midnight Oil
Stars of Warburton: Midnight Oil
The sound of silence: Simon and Garfunkel
Fakin’ it: Simon and Garfunkel
April come she will: Simon and Garfunkel
a couple more:
Neil Young ~ Walk On (1974)
Katrina & The Waves ~ Walking On Sunshine (1983)
Now for some Belinda Carlisle:
Heaven is a place on earth
Love walks in
Love revolution
Should I let you in?
Circle in the sand
Live your life be free
A woman and a man
California
Deep deep ocean
Too much water
Always breaking my heart
Feels like I’ve known you forever
Band of gold (previously by Freda Payne)
Thank you for your latest pair, Karl – I particularly recall ‘Walking On Sunshine’ getting a great deal of airtime, back in the day.
Thanks, Liam, for your numerous latest ‘walking’ song choices – a fine bunch of inclusions. I could say something about many of these songs, of course, but one such as Midnight Oil’s ‘Dreamworld’ jumps out at it me particularly strongly because it’s definitely among my top half dozen favourite Oils numbers
The day walk (never before): The Byrds
I feel free: Cream
Woodstock: Crosby Stills Nash and Young
Straight line: Crosby Stills and Nash
Our guessing game: Moody Blues
Lovely to see you: Moody Blues
Remember me my friend: Justin Hayward and John Lodge
Uptown girl: Billy Joel
Complex: Gary Numan
Twelve thirty: Mamas and the Papas
California Dreamin’: Mamas and the Papas
You’re so strong: Mental as anything
Rain all day: Fleming and John
It’s raining again: Supertramp
So fine: Electric Light Orchestra
Every night: Electric Light Orchestra Part II
That’s the way I’ve always heard it should be: Carly Simon
You’re so vain: Carly Simon
I see red: Split Enz
If you belong to me: Toto
Vienna: Ultravox
Angel fingers: Wizzard
Another fine, extensive list from you – thanks, Liam – including some absolute classics like ‘California Dreamin” and ‘You’re So Vain’.
Two very different ‘walking songs’:
‘Armstrong’, written by John Stewart, released by Reg Lindsay (1971) (‘a man named Armstrong walked upon the moon’) and ‘Wide Boy’, written and released by Nik Kershaw (1985) (‘He struts and he crows / you never know where you are with him’) In the second selection, ‘struts’ indicates a kind of walk, in case anyone was wondering.
And if I’m being exact with the ‘Armstrong’ lyric, I just double-checked and the quoted bit should be ‘walk upon the moon’, not ‘walked’.
Well, well, well ~ seeing how it is EPic week on the FA site, here’s:
Blue Suede Shoes
which includes a not so obvious on theme lyric
‘Don’t you step on my blue suede shoes
You can do anything but lay off of my blue suede shoes
Now let’s go cats (oh walk the dogs)’
Which nicely segues to a song referenced in your previous ‘instrument’ themed article but is more rightly slotted into this one:
Walking In Memphis – Marc Cohn
‘Then I’m walking in Memphis
Was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?’
Some Zevon:
Life’ll Kill Ya (/You’ve got an invalid haircut/And it hurts when you smile/You’d better get out of town/Before your nickname expires/It’s the kingdom of the spiders/It’s the empire of the ants/You need a permit to walk around downtown/You need a license to dance/Life will kill you/That’s what I said/Life will kill you/And then you’ll be dead/Life will find you/Wherever you go/Requiescat in pace/That’s all she wrote)
Mohammed’s Radio: (You know, the sheriff’s got his problems too/He will surely take them out on you/In walks the village idiot and his face is all aglow/He’s been up all night listening to Mohammed’s radio/Don’t it make you wanna rock and roll?/All night long, Mohammed’s radio/I heard somebody singin’ sweet and soulful/On the radio, Mohammed’s radio)
Johnny Strikes Up the Band (Dry your eyes, my little friend/Let me take you by the hand/Freddie gettin’ ready, rock steady/When Johnny strikes up the band/They’ll be rockin’ in the projects/Walkin’ down along the Strand/Freddie gettin’ ready, rock steady/When Johnny strikes up the band)
Werewolves of London (I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand/Walking through the streets of Soho in the rain/He was looking for the place called Lee Ho Fook’s/Gonna get a big dish of beef chow mein/Ah-hoo, werewolves of London/Ah-hoo/Ah-hoo, werewolves of London/Ah-hoo … Well, I saw Lon Chaney walking with the queen/Doing the werewolves of London/I saw Lon Chaney, Jr. walking with the queen, uh/Doing the werewolves of London/I saw a werewolf drinking a piña colada at Trader Vic’s/And his hair was perfect)
Well, if we’re referencing Big Elvis, we better get Kentucky Rain in there (So I’m walking in the rain, thumbing for a ride on this lonely Kentucky backroad/I’ve loved you much too long, my love’s too strong to let you go, never knowing what went wrong/Kentucky rain keeps pouring down/And up ahead’s another town/That I’ll go walking through/With the rain in my shoes/Searching for you/In the cold Kentucky rain/In the cold Kentucky rain)
And, Devil in Disguise (You look like an angel (Look like an angel)/Walk like an angel (Walk like an angel)/Talk like an angel/But I got wise/[Chorus]/You’re the devil in disguise/Oh, yes you are/The devil in disguise, mmm/You fooled me with your kisses/You cheated and you schemed/Heaven knows how you lied to me/You’re not the way you seemed)
And (drum roll) You’ll Never Walk Alone:
When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on (Walk on) walk on (Walk on) with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never, ever walk alone
Walk on (Walk on) walk on (Walk on) with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never, ever walk alone
Some songs by Gordon Lightfoot
Daylight Katie Come On
She walks by the sea where the sea world is
And she waits for the man to come
She lives in town with her high-heeled friends
And she knows it’s a long way down
But she doesn’t have to get up in the mornin’
With her hair so soft and long
[Chorus]
Daylight Katy come on
Daylight Katy come on
If you can’t follow me down
Daylight Katy go home
Daylight Katy come on
Daylight Katy come on
If you can’t follow me down
Daylight Katy go home
Canadian Railway Trilogy
There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run
When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun
Long before the white man and long before the wheel
When the green dark forest was too silent to be real
But time has no beginnings and the history has no bounds
As to this verdant country they came from all around
They sailed upon her waterways and they walked the forests tall
Built the mines, mills and the factories for the good of us all
And when the young man’s fancy was turnin’ to the spring
The railroad men grew restless for to hear the hammers ring
Their minds were overflowing with the visions of their day
And many a fortune lost and won and many a debt to pay
For they looked in the future and what did they see
They saw an iron road running from the sea to the sea
Bringing the goods to a young growing land
All up from the seaports and into their hands
“Steel Rail Blues”
Well I got my mail late last night
A letter from a girl who found the time to write
To her lonesome boy somewheres in the night
She sent me a railroad ticket too
To take me to her lovin’ arms
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Well I been out here many long days
I haven’t found a place that I could call my own
Not a two bit bed to lay my body on
I been stood up I bin shook down
I been dragged into the sand
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Well I been uptight most every night
Walkin’ along the streets of this old town
Not a friend around to tell my troubles to
My good old car she done broke down
‘Cause I drove it into the ground
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Well I look over yonder across the plain
The big drive wheels are poundin’ along the ground
Gonna get on board and I’ll be homeward bound
Now I ain’t had a home cooked meal
And Lord I need one now
And the big steel rail gonna carry me home to the one I love
Now here I am with my hat in my hand
Standin’ on the broad highway will you give a ride
To a lonesome boy who missed the train last night
I went in town for one last round
And I gambled my ticket away
And the big steel rail won’t carry me home to the one I love
Gordon also wrote Bitter Green. Liam posted the song attributed to the Idle Race, whom I have never heard of.
Thanks for your topical Elvis-related material, Karl. Well chosen, indeed!
Some top-level songs in your latest choices, Rick, involving telling use of quotation. To select three numbers – one couldn’t get more archetypal in terms of’walking songs’ than Werewolves of London’, ‘Kentucky Rain’ and ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Superb!
Lightfoot is always.most welcome in our themed songlists, Dave – thanks for these selections from the great Canadian’s body of work.
Now let’s go back to America in 1856, with the Stephen Foster song ‘Gentle Annie’. There are a number of walking ‘variations’ in this lyric; in this respect, roaming, wandering and straying are referenced.
‘We have roamed and loved mid the bowers’ (Verse 2, Line 1 – see the whole song below)
‘And my heart bows down when I wander / By the streams and the meadows where we strayed’ (Verse 3, Lines 3-4 – again, consult the whole song below)
Gentle Annie
(Verse 1)
Thou wilt come no more, gentle Annie
Like a flower thy spirit did depart;
Thou are gone, alas! like the many
That have bloomed in the summer of my heart
(Chorus)
Shall we never more behold thee;
Never hear thy winning voice again
When the Spring time comes, gentle Annie
When the wild flowers are scattered o’er the plain?
(Verse 2)
We have roamed and loved mid the bowers
When thy downy cheeks were in their bloom;
Now I stand alone mid the flowers
While they mingle their perfumes o’er thy tomb
(Chorus)
Shall we never more behold thee;
Never hear thy winning voice again
When the Spring time comes, gentle Annie
When the wild flowers are scattered o’er the plain?
(Verse 3)
Ah! the hours grow sad while I ponder
Near the silent spot where thou are laid
And my heart bows down when I wander
By the streams and the meadows where we strayed
(Chorus)
Shall we never more behold thee;
Never hear thy winning voice again
When the Spring time comes, gentle Annie
When the wild flowers are scattered o’er the plain?
One should note that over the years the song has come to exist with various variations in the lyrics, and has been performed by many artists. One rendition I particularly like is by Linda Ronstadt, Kate McGarrigle and Anna McGarrigle, from the 1998 album The McGarrigle Hour.
‘Step in Step out’ Weddings Parties Anything
‘Sunny side of the street’ Pogues
‘Walk away’ Dropkick Murphys
‘Walking by myself’ Gary Moore
‘Baby elephant walk’ Henry Mancini
‘Walking on the Sun’ Smashmouth
Fine, interesting, thematically spot-on choices – thank you, Smokie.
Ego Is Not A Dirty Word by Skyhooks
Some people keep their egos in a bottom drawer
A fridge full of Leonard Cohen
Have to get drunk just to walk out the door
Stay drunk to keep on goin’
This was released when I was in primary school and the fridge/Cohen metaphor was intriguing and utterly beyond my comprehension. It was like peering through a crack in a doorway to a party your parents were throwing and then scampering back to bed.
Enjoying the suggestions. Thanks, KD.
The theme is really starting to pick up KD.
I was just wondering ~
‘how many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man?’
Thanks for ‘Ego Is Not A Dirty Word’, Mickey – great pickup, worthy of a Karl Dubravs medal! (Even if that’s ultimately up to Karl to decide.)
Yes, Karl, this theme train is really rollin’ now!
And, in response to your (Bob’s) question of course ‘The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind / The answer is blowin’ in the wind…’
Jocko Homo – Devo
“They tell us that
We lost our tails, evolving up
From little snails
I say it’s all, just wind in sails
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
We’re pinheads now
We are not whole
We’re pinheads all
Jocko homo
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
Are we not pins?
We are Devo
Monkey men all
In business suit
Teachers and critics
All dance the poot
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
Are we not pins?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
D E V O
Jocko homo
Jocko homo
Jocko homo
We go now, God made man
But he used the monkey to do it
Apes in the plan
We’re all here to prove it
I can walk like an ape, Talk like an ape
I can do what a monkey can do
God made man
But a monkey supplied the glue
Are we not men?
We are Devo
Are we not men?
We are Devo”
Brass In Pocket – Pretenders
“Gonna use my arms
Gonna use my legs
Gonna use my style
Gonna use my sidestep
Gonna use my fingers
Gonna use my, my, my imagination”
and the lyric-free Walk Don’t Run – The Ventures
Three excellent picks, thanks Swish. An interesting side note to The Ventures’ instrumental you listed is that their album which includes this song (also called ‘Walk, Don’t Run’ also contains the instrumental ‘Raunchy’, which George Harrison played to Lennon and McCartney on the top deck of a Liverpool bus as his successful impromptu audition for the band that became the Beatles.
Streets of London – Ralph McTell
Have you seen the old girl
Who walks the streets of London
Dirt in her hair and her clothes in rags?
She’s no time for talking
She just keeps right on walking
Carrying her home in two carrier bags
Heron Song – Ralph McTell
And once I walked a million miles
All the way to Yugoslavia
And I carried you all of the way
For where I was then there you are.
Year of the Cat – Al Stewart
On a morning from a Bogart movie
In a country where they turn back time
You go strolling through the crowd like Peter Lorre
Contemplating a crime
She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running
Like a watercolour in the rain
Don’t bother asking for explanations
She’ll just tell you that she came
[Refrain]
In the year of the cat
Long Black Veil – Lefty Frizell (but everybody from Joan Baez to Johnny Cash has recorded this song
She walks these hills in a long black veil
She visits my grave while the night winds wail
Nobody knows, nobody sees
Nobody knows but me
Love these four selections – thank you, Dave. Keep ’em coming in!
Right Track, Billy Butler, brother of The Impressions lead singer, Jerry and their great hit, Only the Strong Survive (I’m gonna keep on stepping, never looking back/I believe that I’m on the right track)
Boulder to Birmingham, Emmylou, her song to Gram (I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham/I would hold my life in his saving grace/I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham/If I thought I could see, I could see your face)
Knoxville Girl, The Louvin Brothers a murder ballad and I reckon there’s many more songs from this sub-genre that would fit this theme (I met a little girl in Knoxville, a town we all know well/And every Sunday evening, out in her home I’d dwell/We went to take an evening walk about a mile from town/I picked a stick up off the ground and knocked that fair girl down)
Lonesome Valley, The Carter Family, a hauntingly beautiful gospel song (Everybody’s got to walk this lonesome valley/We’ve got to walk it by ourselves/There’s nobody here can walk it for us/We’ve got to walk it by ourselves)
Lonesome Valley 2003, Carlene Carter’s homage to her mother June and their dynasty (There’s a road that leads to glory/Through a valley far away/Nobody else can walk it for you/They can only point the way/Mamma and daddy loves you dearly/Sister does and brother, too/They may beg you to go with them/But they cannot go for you/I’m gonna walk that lonesome valley/I’m gonna walk it by myself/Don’t want to nobody to walk it for me/I’m gonna walk it by myself)
Here’s a triplet from James Taylor’s ‘Sweet Baby James’ album.
Fire & Rain (probably the first song that made me want to be a songwriter)
‘Just yesterday mornin’, they let me know you were gone
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you
I walked out this morning and I wrote down this song
I just can’t remember who to send it to
…..Been walking my mind to an easy time
My back turned towards the sun
Lord knows, when the cold wind blows
It’ll turn your head around’
Country Road (not the Denver song)
‘Because I could feel it, child, yeah
On a country road
I guess my feet know where they want me to go
Walkin’ on a country road, yeah’
Anywhere Like Heaven
‘When I walk along your city streets/And look into your eyes
When I see that simple sadness/That across your features lies
If my spirit starts to sink/It comes as no surprise
It’s been a long way from anywhere/Like heaven to your town’
Thank you for these latest choices, Rick. Just had a listen to the Carter Family’s 1930 version of ‘Lonesome Valley’ and had a flashback to visiting some rural relatives and staying on their farm in the Grampians in Victoria when I was around 12. The relatives’ farm straggled – or maybe struggled is a better word – up the side of a small mountain in a ramshackle but picturesque way and I couldn’t tell you now what on earth they made their money out of! I remember a greyhound enclosure, an enormous outdoor meat safe, a clean, airy weatherboard farmhouse with a Coolgardie safe, a great deal of dry earth in need of a good downpour, random junk and scattered farm machinery. Maybe this was similar in various ways to many farms in the Appalachian region where the famous Carter musicians had their roots.
Thanks for the James Taylor triplet, Karl – ‘Fire & Rain’ is certainly a standout song. Very recently, I saw Taylor on TV, being interviewed on the Stephen Colbert show. Taylor still seems in pretty good nick as he approaches eighty.
Country’s best:
Moy Shoes Keep Walking Back to You, Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys, and pretty much everybody else
Walking the Floor Over You, Ernest Tubb
Wearin’ Out Your Walkin’ Shoes, Hank
My
Hey KD ~ yes, JT certainly has looked after himself and can still captivate an audience better than most his from his era.
I’ve settled into Bob mode and I believe his footsteps could be reverberating on this theme for a long long while. When Bob first moved to NY in Jan 1961, he had to do lots of walking & this is reflected in the only two original songs that appeared on his debut ‘Bob Dylan’ album:
Talkin’ New York
‘Wintertime in New York town/The wind blowing snow around
Walk around with nowhere to go/Somebody could freeze right to the bone
I froze right to the bone
New York Times said it was the coldest winter in seventeen years
I didn’t feel so cold then
……..Greenwich Village
I walked down there and ended up/In one of them coffee-houses on the block
I get on the stage to sing and play/Man there said, “Come back some other day
You sound like a hillbilly/We only want folksingers here”
Song To Woody
‘I’m out here a thousand miles from my home
Walkin’ a road other men have gone down
I’m seein’ your world of people and things
Your paupers and peasants and princes and kings’
Stepping Stone – The Monkees
Step Back – Johnny Young
Magical Mystery Tour – Beatles
“Roll up, roll up for the “Magical Mystery Tour”
Step right this way”
Tiptoe Through The Tulips – Tiny Tim
Thank you, Rick, for your trio of ‘Country’s best’ – jeez, the way this current themed songlist is shaping up, in both quality and size terms it will rival any we’ve collectively assembled previously!
Hi Karl -excellent to see that the Bobcat has entered the building – he just walked in, so to speak, and his songs have already made their presence felt.
Thanks for your latest selections, Swish – ‘Step Back’ created a particular frisson (as the French would say) for me, as Oz songs like these were very much part of the soundtrack of my childhood.
America – Simon and Garfunkel
“Let us be lovers, we’ll marry our fortunes together
I’ve got some real estate here in my bag”
So we bought a pack of cigarettes and Mrs. Wagner pies
And walked off to look for America
Gentle on My Mind – Glen Campbell (written and also recorded by John Hartford)
It’s not clinging to the rocks and ivy
Planted on their columns now that bind me
Or something that somebody said
Because they thought we fit together walking
It’s just knowing that the world will not be cursing or forgiving
When I walk along some railroad track and find
That you’re moving on the back roads by the rivers of my memory
And for hours you’re just gentle on my mind
Time after Time – Cyndi Lauper
Sometimes, you picture me
I’m walking too far ahead
You’re calling to me
I can’t hear what you’ve said
Then you say, “Go slow”
I fall behind
The second hand unwinds
If you’re lost, you can look, and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall, I will catch you, I’ll be waiting
Time after time
Walking the Long Miles Home – Richard Thompson
[Verse 1]
O the last bus has gone
Or maybe I’m wrong
It just doesn’t exist
And the words that flew
Between me and you
I must be crossed off your list
[Chorus]
So I’m walking the long miles home
I don’t mind losing you
In fact I feel better each step of the way
In the dark I rehearse all the right things to say
I’ll be home, I’ll be sober by break of day
Walking the long miles home
[Verse 2]
Not a soul is around
As I put more ground
Between me and you
And the whole town’s asleep
Or maybe they’re deep
In the old voulez-vous
[Chorus]
So I’m walking the long miles home
And I don’t mind losing you
Got the moon there for company each step of the way
And the rhythm in my shoes keep the blues away
When you ride Shanks’s pony you don’t have to pay
Walking the long miles home
[Verse 3]
O the party was grand
But I hadn’t quite planned
On staying so long
And while you accused me
The hours confused me
And my friends had all gone
[Chorus]
So I’m walking the long miles home
And I don’t mind losing you
And there’s nobody out but the cop on the beat
He’s snoring so loud that he don’t hear my feet
I just laugh to myself and move off down the street
Walking the long miles home
I’m walking the long miles home
O I’m walking the long miles home
Pretty Woman – Roy Orbison
Pretty woman walkin’ down the street
Pretty woman, the kind I’d like to meet
Pretty woman, I don’t believe you, you’re not the truth
No one could look as good as you
Mercy
Lodi -_Creedence Clearwater Revival
Just about a year ago
I set out on the road
Seekin’ my fame and fortune
Lookin’ for a pot of gold
Things got bad and things got worse
I guess you know the tune
Oh, Lord, stuck in Lodi again
Rode in on the Greyhound
I’ll be walkin’ out if I go
I was just passin’ through
Must be seven months or more
Ran out of time and money
Looks like they took my friend
Oh, Lord, I’m stuck in Lodi again
First Born – Kate and Anna McGarrigle
Yes he’s that first born son, he’s that son of a gun
Just hates to walk, just loves to run
He loves to run as fast as he can
With life held tight in the palm of his hand
Slim Dusty: Walk a country mile.
Glen!
Hi Dave. I just spent about half an hour writing an extended response to your last excellent bunch of ‘walking song’ selections, but an internet glitch meant I’ve unfortunately lost the whole thing. Suffice to say, your latest lot included some classics like ‘Gentle on My Mind’ and a personal favourite, Lauper’s ‘Time After Time’, from one of my favourite rock/pop albums, She’s So Unusual. Also, your iconic Orbison song made think me of one of my favourite songs from childhood, another Big O ‘walking’ number, which was an enormous hit in Australia if not various other places, ‘Penny Arcade’: ‘ “Step up and play,” each machine seemed to say
As I walked ’round and ’round the penny arcade…’
Thank you, Glen, for Slim’s ‘Walk a Country Mile’.
Wow, KD ~ the songs being unveiled in this theme are amazing ~ I’ll need to construct a multi-layered podium to award all the winning entries. Penny Arcade ~ gold!!!
Here’s a few more classic songs that are regulars in these themes proving you can’t keep a good song out of the spotlight:
Stairway to Heaven
‘And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold’
Alice’s Restaurant
‘You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant
Walk right in it’s around the back
Just a half a mile from the railroad track
You can get anything you want, at Alice’s Restaurant ~ excepting Alice’
Journey To The Centre Of The Earth
‘The Eastern route they had taken had come to a dead end. With three
days’ walk back to the fork to find Arne Saknussemm?s original
route, they found their water rations were limited to one day.
Knowing their only change of finding water was on that route, they
set off for the fork and there finally they fell almost lifeless on
the third day.’
You’re so right, Karl, about the quality of the songs so far listed for this theme – your podium will certainly need to be an architectural wonder to accommodate all the winners.
Thanks for your trio of classics – and theme regulars.
His Bobness wishes to add these Freewheelin’ songs to the theme:
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall
‘I’ve stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains
I’ve walked and I’ve crawled on six crooked highways
I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests……..’
‘…….I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty’
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Rigiht
‘I’m a-thinking and a-wonderin’ walking down the road
I once loved a woman, a child, I’m told
I give her my heart but she wanted my soul
But don’t think twice, it’s all right’
Some Tom T, with more to come:
Girl, You Sure Know How to Say Goodbye (You kissed me in a way you never did when love was right/Girl you sure know how to say goodbye/I stood and watched you walk away and I didn’t even cry/Girl you sure know how to say goodbye/You gave me that old pep talk as you cried on my sleeve/You said that you’d come running day or night/You said that I could call on you throughout my lonely life/Girl you sure know how to say goodbye)
It Sure Can Get Cold in Des Moines (The lounge was still open and so I walked in/In place of my food, I had two double gins/I looked ’round the room, as a tourist would do/That’s when I saw the girl in the booth/She sat there and cried in the smoky half-dark/The silent type crying that tears out your heart/Her clothes were not cut in the new modern way/And her suitcase had seen better days)
Ode To A Half A Pound Of Ground Round, does “shuffled” count in a walking theme, if not the song also contains a walk lyric (At noon, I realized there wasn’t any way to eat/For lunch, I just went out and shuffled up and down the street/At four o’clock, I had a funny feeling in my chest/How long’s it take to starve a man to death? … Thursday morning, I was nearly panicked on the job/I heard my stomach growling and my head began to throb/I contemplated murder of the folks that brought their lunch/The sudden smell of food would make me jump/Thursday night, they ran all food commercials on TV/I slept ’til nine or ten and then I walked the floor ’til three/Friday morning, I looked for some ketchup on my shirts/My mind was gone, my legs began to hurt)
Ballad of Forty Dollars, one of Tom Ts best songs, wrapping some quite deep contemplations with light humour, and yes I checked mosey is a synonym for walk (Well, here they come and who’s that riding/In that big ol’ shiny limousine?/Look at all that chrome, I do believe/That that’s the sharpest thing I’ve seen/That must belong to his great uncle/Someone said he owned a big ol’ farm/When they get parked, I’ll mosey down/And look it over, that won’t do no harm)
Thank you for your two Freewheelin’ Bobs, Karl – a couple of my personal Dylan favourites there, for sure.
Thank you, Rick, for your fine foursome from ‘the Storyteller’. (Shuffled certainly does count, too.)
This one HAD to go in, ‘Gloria’ by Them (singer Van Morrison, as most would know) – 1964. The image of Gloria ‘Walkin’ down my street…’ is central to this song.
A few bands that I got high on back then, and they hold up pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty well:
Happy, The Wrens, from their seminal album, The Meadowlands, the epitome of literate pop and roll (Is this how it’s gonna be?/Is this how you wanted me?/Broken down again/It’s almost over now/Is this why you wanted me?/To watch as you walk away/Kept on killing me/And you don’t even wanna touch me/You don’t even wanna touch me)
She Sends Kisses, also from The Meadowlands, and while these songs are good they aint even the best this album has to offer (Our shore town knockdown sure was fun/Yeah, white trash, what have you/I fired replies back gun by gun/Past seven wrecks I read four answers: “Your move/I’m tres involved, move on, love Beth”
/I walk it down/This tourist town/’Just thought I’d call ‘just friends’/She Sends kisses/And all at once back doors blow open/She sends kisses/In envelopes stamped with ‘Hope and Hearts’/Ripped right open/She sends kisses/But I’m corrupt/I wrote back ‘good luck.’)
Tonite It Shows, Mercury Rev, from their best album, Deserter Songs, saw this band at the Corner, what a wild rock and roll gig (Into a dream I took a turn and promised to return/The way we were, the way we met, the way I lit your cigarette/The way it trailed into a stream and lay down between/You had to choose a side to lose, and divide yourself in two/The way you were long before you were a walkin’ civil war/But you forget where the road goes, and tonight it shows)
The Dark is Rising, another Mercury Rev song, from their next album (I dreamed that I was walking/And the two of us were talking/Of all life’s mystery/The words that flow between friends/Winding streams without end/I wanted you to see/But it can seem surprising/When you find yourself alone/And now the dark is rising/And a brand new moon is born/I always dreamed I’d love you/I never dreamed I’d lose you/In my dreams I’m always strong)
A Damn Good Disguise, The Mendoza Line, I loved a couple of their albums, lyrics are literate and political, with a country rock sound, they guy who started this band went on to form one of the great countryish rock bands of the last 20 years, The Paranoid Style (You run very slowly, but not without purpose/You step in a verse, you walk always in rain/And me, some small token of your inaffection/That lingers unwelcome and then drifts away/We deferred to your parents, who gladly consented/Though you were pretending and I really meant it/If you turn a blind eye to a blank wall/And that’s our life, hey, you’re killing me with protocol/She acts just like she’s seen it all/But I do’t think she’s seen this/A big shot at the mini-mall/You learned it all before you could crawl/It don’t make you a genius)
Rock and Roll Just Can’t Recall, The Paranoid Style (I was a double agent on a submarine down on the Isle of Wight/I had the intelligence but I never really was all that bright/So many tricks that you turn on/You gotta walk before you can crawl/You might’ve been my Vietnam/But rock and roll just can’t recall/Now these days I shiver shake when I walk, and you can’t bear to see me dance/My life’s an outtake of an experiment and I blew the advance/But what do we do with Rod the mod? You don’t look so good yourself/Maybe you’ve still got the moves and the hooks but you ain’t got the health)
With ‘shuffled’ being officially acknowledged as ‘counting’ under this theme, I was instantly drawn to:
Crash Test Dummies ~ And God Shuffled His Feet (1993)
‘God shuffled his feet
And glanced around at them
The people cleared their throats
And stared right back at Him’
The Wrens, Mercury Rev, The Mendoza Line, The Paranoid Style … thank you for this highly interesting bunch, Rick – and now I’ve got a bit of listening to do in the ‘homework’ department!
Yep, Karl, shuffled counts. I’m happy to pay any form of movement on legs – or even arms for that matter – that can be seen in some way as walking. Thanks for the Crash Test Dummies’ ‘And God Shuffled His Feet’.
Two fine Oz numbers …
‘Hearts on the Nightline’ (1979) by Richard Clapton, from the album of the same name, contains both ‘stumbling’ and ‘walking’ in the opening eight lines:
‘Here on the razor’s edge, stranded here from my friends
Stumbling along through the canyons
Wasting away in shady cafés
I don’t have a smile I can turn on
And I don’t know if I can survive
Keep getting caught up in this arcade of lies
How can you have any sense of direction
Walking this street of mirrors?’
‘Just Keep Walking’ (1980), the only single from INXS’s eponymous first album – a really good song, and I bought this single at the time.
Son of A Preacher Man – Dusty Springfield
Billy Ray was the preacher’s son
And when his daddy would visit he’d come along
When they gathered ’round and started talkin’
That’s when Billy would take me walkin’
Out through the back yard we’d go walkin’
Then he’d look into my eyes
Lord knows, to my surprise
Ode to Billy Joe – Bobie Gentry
Was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin’ cotton and my brother was balin’ hay
And at dinnertime we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And Mama hollered out the back door y’all remember to wipe your feet
And then she said I got some news this mornin’ from Choctaw Ridge
Today Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
If You Could Read my Mind – Gordon Lightfoot (verse 3)
I’d walk away like a movie star
Who gets burned in a three-way script
Enter number two
A movie queen to play the scene
Of bringing all the good things out in me
But for now love, let’s be real
I never thought I could act this way
And I’ve got to say that I just don’t get it
I don’t know where we went wrong
But the feeling’s gone and I just can’t get it back
Meeting Cross the River – Bruce
Well, Cherry says she’s gonna walk
‘Cause she found I took her radio and hocked it
But Eddie, man, she don’t understand
That two grand’s practically sitting here in my pocket
And tonight’s gonna be everything that I said
And when I walk through that door, I’m just gonna throw that money on the bed
She’ll see this time I wasn’t just talking
Then I’m gonna go out walking
Hey, Eddie, can you catch us a ride?
And Finally a Pop Song from the Fifties
Walking In The Rain – Johnnie Ray
Just walkin’ in the rain
Getting soaking wet
Torturing my heart
By trying to forget
Just walkin’ in the rain
So alone and blue
All because my heart
Still remembers you
People come to windows (walkin’, walkin’)
They always stare at me (walkin’, walkin’)
Shake their heads in sorrow (walkin’, walkin’)
Saying, “Who can that fool be?” (Oh, oh-oh)
Just walking in the rain
Thinking how we met
Knowing things could change
Somehow I can’t forget
A Little Help From My Friends – Beatles
“What would you do if I sang out of tune?
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I’ll sing you a song,
And I’ll try not to sing out of key.
Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends.
Mmm, I get high with a little help from my friends.
Mmm, gonna try with a little help from my friends”
Good Day Sunshine – Beatles
“We take a walk, the sun is shining down
Burns my feet as they touch the ground”
Born To Run – Springsteen
“Oh, will you walk with me out on the wire?
‘Cause baby I’m just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta know how it feels
I want to know if love is wild, babe
I want to know if love is real”
Steppin’ Out – Joe Jackson
Sleepwalker – Kinks
Apeman – Kinks
“I think I’m sophisticated
‘Cos I’m living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybody’s multiplying
Till they’re walking round like flies man
So I’m no better than the animals sitting in their cages
in the zoo man
‘Cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ape man”
Australia – Kinks
“Opportunities are available in all walks of life in Australia
So if you’re young and if you’re healthy
Why not get a boat and come to Australia
Australia, the chance of a lifetime
Australia, you get what you work for
Nobody has to be any better than what they want to be
Australia, no class distinction
Australia, no drug addiction
Nobody’s got a chip on their shoulder
We’ll surf like they do in the U.S.A.
We’ll fly down to Sydney for our holiday
On sunny Christmas Day
Australia, Australia
No one hesitates at life or beats around the bush in Australia
So if you’re young and if you’re healthy
Why not get a boat and come to Australia
Australia sha-la-la-la sha-la-la-la
Australia sha-la-la-la sha-la-la-la
Everyone walks around with a perpetual smile across their face
Australia sha-la-la-la sha-la-la-la
Australia sha-la-la-la sha-la-la-la
Everyone gets around and nobody can ever get you down
We’ll surf like they do in the U.S.A.
We’ll fly down to Sydney for our holiday
On sunny Christmas Day
Australia, Australia”
Celluloid Heroes – Kinks
“Everybody’s a dreamer and everybody’s a star,
And everybody’s in movies, it doesn’t matter who you are.
There are stars in every city,
In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete!
Don’t step on Greta Garbo as you walk down the Boulevard,
She looks so weak and fragile that’s why she tried to be so hard
But they turned her into a princess
And they sat her on a throne,
But she turned her back on stardom,
Because she wanted to be alone.
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you’ve hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Rudolph Valentino, looks very much alive,
And he looks up ladies’ dresses as they sadly pass him by.
Avoid stepping on Bela Lugosi
‘Cos he’s liable to turn and bite,
But stand close by Bette Davis
Because hers was such a lonely life.
If you covered him with garbage,
George Sanders would still have style,
And if you stamped on Mickey Rooney
He would still turn round and smile,
But please don’t tread on dearest Marilyn
‘Cos she’s not very tough,
She should have been made of iron or steel,
But she was only made of flesh and blood.
You can see all the stars as you walk down Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you’ve hardly even heard of.
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Everybody’s a dreamer and everybody’s a star
And everybody’s in show biz, it doesn’t matter who you are.
And those who are successful,
Be always on your guard,
Success walks hand in hand with failure
Along Hollywood Boulevard.
I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.
You can see all the stars as you walk along Hollywood Boulevard,
Some that you recognise, some that you’ve hardly even heard of,
People who worked and suffered and struggled for fame,
Some who succeeded and some who suffered in vain.
Oh celluloid heroes never feel any pain
Oh celluloid heroes never really die.
I wish my life was a non-stop Hollywood movie show,
A fantasy world of celluloid villains and heroes,
Because celluloid heroes never feel any pain
And celluloid heroes never really die.”
A couple more from Bruce, specifically the album BtR:
Thunder Road – Well, I got this guitar, and I learned how to make it talk/And my car’s out back if you’re ready to take that long walk
Backstreets – Remember all the movies, Terry, we’d go see?/Trying to learn how to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be
And one of my fave songs, Dublin Blues, Guy Clark – Now I am just a poor boy, work’s my middle name/If money was a reason, well, I would not be the same/I’ll stand up and be counted, I’ll face up to the truth/I’ll walk away from trouble, but I can’t walk away from you
Cheers
Your latest lot are certainly a great bunch of highly fitting songs, Dave. Funny how the melody and tiny lyric snippets of Johnny Ray’s ‘Walking In The Rain’ were going through my head in the last couple of days, but I couldn’t for the life of me remember the song’s title!
Thank you for your excellent array of latest song choices, Swish – quality, thematically spot-on work! I particularly enjoyed the fact the Beatles got a couple of songs listed, as, surprisingly perhaps, the only other time in this ‘walking songs’ list (that I can recall offhand) was when you put forward ‘Magical Mystery Tour’.
Thanks for the early Bruce, Rick, as well as ‘Dublin Blues’.
What a pleasantly busy theme day it’s been today! Cheers!
Are You Receiving Me? – XTC
“ When we’re out walking
Your mouth ain’t where it’s supposed be to do the talking
Na-na-na-na-na
When we’re in kissing
Your lips are missing, are they out on loan to someone else”
Towers of London – XTC
“ Towers of London
when they had built you
did you watch over the men who fell
Towers of London
when they had built you
Victoria’s gem found in somebody’s hell
Pavements of gold leading to the underground
Grenadier Guardsmen walking pretty ladies around
fog is the sweat of the never never navvies who pound
spikes in the rails to their very own heaven
Bridges of muscles spanning so long and high
merchants from Stepney walking pretty ladies by
rain is the tears of the never never navvies who cry
for the bridge that doesn’t go
in the direction of Dublin
And I’ve seen it in a painting
and I’ve seen it in engraving
and I’ve seen it in their faces
clear as children’s chalk lines on the paving
Towers of London
la la Londinium.”
Like Wow Wipeout! – Hoodoo Gurus
“ I kiss the ground on which you walk
I kiss the lips through which you talk
I kiss the city of New York
Where I first met you
You’re my darlin’, don’t forget It
‘Cause I’m the guy who will regret It
I love you more than when I said It
When I first met you
I love the way you talk (ah-ah-ah)
You walk (ah-ah-ah)
You smile (ah-ah-ah)
Your style (ah-ah-ah)
Like now (ah-ah-ah)
Like wow (ah-ah-ah)
Wipe out (ah-ah-ah)
No doubt (ah-ah-ah)
That I was gone the moment I laid eyes on you”
As the weekend draws to an end, here a quintuple of lyrics from Paul Simon’s Graceland album:
1. You Can Call Me Al
A man walks down the street
He says, “Why am I soft in the middle now?
Why am I soft in the middle?
The rest of my life is so hard
I need a photo opportunity
I want a shot at redemption
Don’t want to end up a cartoon
In a cartoon graveyard”
2. Diamonds On the Soles Of Her Shoes
‘People say she’s crazy
She got diamonds on the soles of her shoes
Well that’s one way to lose these
Walking blues
Diamonds on the soles of her shoes’
3. Under African Skies
‘Joseph’s face was black as night
The pale yellow moon shone in his eyes
His path was marked
By the stars in the Southern Hemisphere
And he walked his days
Under African skies’
4. Crazy Love Vol.II
‘Somebody could walk into this room
And say, “Your life is on fire
It’s all over the evening news
All about the fire in your life
On the evening news”
I don’t want no part of this crazy love’
5. Gumboots
‘I was walking down the street when I thought I heard this voice say
“Say, ain’t we walking down the same street together on the very same day?”
I said, “Hey, senorita, that’s astute,” I said
“Why don’t we get together and call ourselves an institute?”‘
One Sunday morning,
as I went walking,
by Brisbane waters,
I chanced to stray.
From the old folk song Moreton Bay.
Glen!
Thanks, Swish, for the XTC (a band I liked a lot, back in the day) pair, plus the Gurus’ classic – is ‘classic’ too strong a word? (‘Bittersweet’ is probably my absolute favourite Gurus song, incidentally.)
Five theme-connected songs from the one album (Gracelands) constitutes a very fine batch, Karl. Many thanks for these!
Thanks for ‘Moreton Bay’, Glen – good pickup.
And now we move on from Born to Run to Darkness, where Bruce again feeds into KDs walk theme:
Darkness on the Edge of Town – Well everybody’s got a secret, Sonny/Something that they just can’t face/Some folks spend their whole lives trying to keep it/They carry it with them every step that they take
Factory – Early in the morning factory whistle blows/Man rises from bed and puts on his clothes/Man takes his lunch, walks out in the morning light/It’s the working, the working, just the working life … Through the mansions of fear, through the mansions of pain/I see my daddy walking through them factory gates in the rain/Factory takes his hearing, factory gives him life/The working, the working, just the working life … End of the day, factory whistle cries/Men walk through these gates with death in their eyes/And you just better believe, boy, somebody’s gonna get hurt tonight/It’s the working, the working, just the working life/Cause it’s the working, the working, just the working life
Streets of Fire – I live now, only with strangers/I talk to only strangers/I walk with angels that have no place/And don’t look in my face/Don’t, I’m coming home to this place/’Cause I’m stranded on the wire across/Streets of fire
Candy’s Room – In Candy’s room, there are pictures of her heroes on the wall/But to get to Candy’s room, you gotta walk the darkness of Candy’s hall
Following on from Rick’s excellent ‘fine four’ from Bruce’s ‘DotEoT”, here’s a ‘fine four’ from Bob’s ‘BiABH’:
Subterranean Homesick Blues
‘Look out kid, don’t matter what you did
Walk on your tip-toes, don’t try NoDoz
Better stay away from those that carry around a fire hose
Keep a clean nose, watch the plainclothes
You don’t need a weather man to know which way the wind blows’
She Belongs To Me
‘She wears an Egyptian ring
That sparkles before she speaks.
She’s a hypnotist collector
You are a walking antique.’
It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
‘My eyes collide head-on with stuffed
Graveyards, false gods, I scuff
At pettiness which plays so rough
Walk upside-down inside handcuffs
Kick my legs to crash it off
Say okay, I have had enough
what else can you show me?’
It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
‘All your seasick sailors, they’re all rowing home
Your empty-handed army is all going home
Your lover who just walked out the door
Has taken all his blankets from the floor
The carpet too is moving under you
And it’s all over now, Baby Blue’
Thanks for the Darkness on the Edge of Town songs, Rick. That was the album that introduced Springsteen to me, via a friend of my sister, who was an early Bruce fan – in relation to my teenage world, anyway.
And ‘Factory’ is one of my favourite Bruce numbers – I always think of my father when I hear it, and he’s still going strong, nearing his 88th birthday.
The Great Hank sung, ‘Are you a walkin’ and a talkin’ for the lord’.
A few years later Dorsey Burnette recorded, ‘ I just couldn’t let her walk away”.
In the years in between these songs there was Eddie Cochran’s tale of woe about a broken down lift in ‘Twenty flight rock’. It had the chorus commencing, ” So I walked one flight, two flight, three flight, more”, and we know the rest of his ascent.
Glen!
Thanks for your latest song choices and comments, Glen. Interestingly, in his mid-teens,, Paul McCartney impressed John Lennon with a rendition of ‘Twenty Flight Rock’ and the rest, as they say, is (music) history.
A couple of songs from musicals, as interpreted by Marvin Gaye when he was gunning to be a Nat King Cole / Sinatra crooner. Does a decent job but would take another 2 or three years before Motown and Marvin worked out that R&B best “sold” Marvin Gaye’s beautiful voice:
Walk on the Wild Side, from a lesser known film of the same name – You better cross over, you better walk humble or baby you’re gonna stumble/And I know Satan is gonna take your hand/You walk on the wild side, just to walk on the wild side/Away from the Promised, Promised Land, whoa/One day of prayin’ and six nights of having fun baby, that’s no good/The odds against going to heaven, six-to-one
On the Street Where You Live, from My Fair Lady – I have often walked down this street before/But the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before/All at once am I several stories high/Knowing I’m on the street where you live
Walk on By, Dionne Warwick, what a wonderful sad song – If you see me walking down the street/And I start to cry each time we meet/Walk on by, walk on by/Make believe that you don’t see the tears/Just let me grieve/In private, ’cause each time I see you/I break down and cry/Walk on by (don’t stop)/Walk on by (don’t stop)/Walk on by
Take a Stroll Thru Your Mind, The Temptations, where this signature Motown band get the psychedelic on and yes we’re talking 69/70 – One drag, that’s all it took, ooh-oh wow/One drag, that’s all it took/Take a stroll through your mind/You’ll be surprised at what you might find/Take a stroll through your mind/You’ll be surprised at what you might find, yeah
Lazy Harry’s – Traditional Australian Shearing Song
(first verse)
Oh we started down from Roto when the sheds had all cut out
We’d whips and whips of Rhino as w e meant to push about
So we humped our blues serenely and made for Sydney town
With a three-spot cheque between us as wanted knocking down
(First Chorus)
But we camped at Lazy Harry’s, on the road to Gundagai
The road to Gundagai
Not five miles from Gundagai
Yes we camped at Lazy Harry’s on the road to Gundagai
(Last Verse)
In a week the spree was over and the cheque was all knocked down
So we shouldered our Matildas and we turned our back on town
And the girls they stood a nobbler as we sadly said good-bye
And we tramped from Lazy Harry’s not five miles from Gundagai
(Last chorus)
And we tramped from Lazy Harry’s not five miles from Gundagai
The road to Gundagai
Not five miles from Gundagai
Yes we tramped flat broke from Harry’s on the road to Gundagai
Black Velvet Band – Traditional Irish Transportation Song, sung by a large number of Irish and Australian folk singers and groups
I took a stroll down Broadway
Meaning not long for to stay
When who should I meet but this pretty fair maid
Came a traipsing along the highway
She was both fair and handsome
Her neck it was just like a swans’
And her hair is hung over her shoulder
Tied up with a black velvet band.
Her eyes they shone like diamonds
I thought her the queen of the land
And her hair hung over her shoulders
Tied up with a black velvet band.
I took a stroll with this pretty fair maid
And the gentleman passing us by
Well I knew she meant the doing of him
By the look in her roguish black eye
A gold watch she took from his pocket
And placed it right into my hand
And the very first thing I said was
Bad ‘cess to the black velvet band.
Tramps and Hawkers – The Dubliners (it is actually a Scottish song and there are earlier recorded versions by Jimmy McBeath and Ewan MacColl, but Luke Kelly’s version on the Dubliners album was excellent)
Oh, come all ye tramps and hawker lads and gaitherers o’ blaw
That tramps the country round and round, come listen ane and a’
I’ll tell to ye a rovin’ tale o’ sights that I hae seen
It’s far intae the snowy north and sooth by Gretna Green
[Verse 2]
Oft times I’ve laughed intae mysel’ when trudgin’ on the road
My toerags around my blistered feet, my face as brown’s a toad’s
Wi’ lumps o’ cake and tattie scones, wi’ whangs of Braxy Ham
No gi’en the thought frae where I’ve come an’ less tae where I’m go’n’
And let’s finish with a Country song
Our Town – Iris Dement
It’s here I had my babies and I had my first kiss
I’ve walked down Main Street in the cold morning mist
Over there is where I bought my first car
It turned over once but then it never went far
[Chorus]
And I can see the sun’s settin’ fast
And just like they say, nothing good ever lasts
Well, go on now and kiss it goodbye
But hold on to your lover ’cause your heart’s bound to die
Go on now and say goodbye to our town, to our town
Can’t you see the sun’s settin’ down on our town, on our town?
Goodnight
Well done Dave; Lazy Harry’s, Black Velvet Band, two wonderful old tunes I recall from long ago childhood.
If we’re talking Australian folk music, from 6-30 pm this Saturday 7/3/26 CE, Footscray Folk are having a ‘sing out’ to commemorate the local folk music of the 60’s. Among those performing are Margaret Roadknight, David Lumsden, and the O’Hanlon’s.
The location is Bluestone Hall, 30 A Pickett St. Footscray. It’s $20-00 admission.
Glen!
Agree Glen, Dave N has added some ripper songs, like Black Velvet Band and Our Town, Ode to Billie Joe, If You Could Read My Mind, Gentle on My Mind, Pretty Woman, Time After Time and Lodi! Tip of the hat and grrrr, (that’s me wishing I had got to Lodi first! lol
A few more Bob songs where walking has a substitute:
Visions Of Johanna
‘And Madonna, she still has not showed
We see this empty cage now corrode
Where her cape of the stage once had flowed
The fiddler, he now steps to the road
He writes everything’s been returned which was owed
On the back of the fish truck that loads
While my conscience explodes’
Let Me Die In My Footsteps
Tomorrow Is A Long Time
‘I can’t see my reflection in the water
I can’t speak the sounds that show no pain
I can’t hear the echo of my footsteps
Or remember the sounds of my own name’
I Pity The Poor Immigrant
‘I pity the poor immigrant
Who tramples through the mud
Who fills his mouth with laughing
And who builds his town with blood’
Thanks Glen and Rick for your comments. I know about the concert in Footscray but I have had tickets to the Port Fairy Folk Festival for months. I would have loved to go to the Footscray gig.
Thanks, Rick, for your Gaye, Warwick and Temptations songs. Isn’t ‘Walk on By’, in particular, an iconic song of its era?
:
Thanks, Dave, for your latest choices. ‘Black Velvet Band’ exists in so many excellent versions, doesn’t it? – one of my favourites is by The Grehan Sisters, but this kind of thing is really in the ear of the beholder, if that makes sense!
Thank you for your Bob quartet, Karl. I think the Dubravs Podium is creaking now, with so many worthy award winners standing upon it, including your good self.
And thanks for a second quartet from the Bobster, Karl. While the first one included one of my favourite Dylan song titles, ‘It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)’, the second group included perhaps my personal favourite Bob lyric – ‘Visions of Johanna’.
Some iconic country songs and artists in this lot:
Your Cheatin’ Heart, Hank – When tears come down like falling rain/You’ll toss around and call my name/You’ll walk the floor the way I do/Your cheatin’ heart will tell on you
Egg and Daughter Nite, John Prine – And far across the prairie (prairie)/In the local cemetery (‘tery)/They already got your name carved out in stone/When all them nurses say/”Grandpa why you walk that way?”/Just blame it on that old Crazy Bone/Yeah blame it on that old Crazy Bone
I Still Miss Someone, Johnny Cash – At my door the leaves are falling/The cold wild wind will come/Sweethearts walk by together/And I still miss someone
A Good Year for the Roses, George Jones – But what a good year for the roses/Many blooms still linger there/The lawn could stand another mowing/It’s funny, I don’t even care/When you turned and walked away/And as the door behind you closes/The only thing I know to say/It’s been a good year for the roses
This is quite different to any song I’ve entered in this thread. It was a novelty song from 1959, written and recorded by a Brooklyn High School student named Linda Laurie. It was a minor hit in America and not in Australia despite receiving some airplay (I think mostly from Stan Rofe). Even at 12, I found it bizarre and vaguely threatening. It involves a conversation between a girl with a very young voice and her deep voiced boyfriend whose only comment is “Just keep walking”.
Wikipedia wrote ” Another of Linda’s songs was an odd tale of a girl walking through a dark subway tunnel with her boyfriend Ambrose, who implores her to “just keep walking.”[3] She recorded the number for Glory Records in late 1958 and took it around to radio stations, who liked the deep-throated Ambrose (which Laurie voiced herself) and bizarre non-sequiturs like, “We haven’t got a color telephone.”
Ambrose (Part 5) – Linda Laurie
Ambrose
It’s very dark in here
Ambrose
Where are you
Oh oh Ambrose hold my hand
Ambrose
Ambrose something’s vibrating
The walls are shaking
Ambrose we can’t go on like this
Why can’t we sit in the park like other boys and girls
Why do we have to walk in the subway tunnel
Just keep walking
Ambrose when you grow up
Why don’t you be a doctor?
You don’t wanna be a doctor?
You wanna be a disc jockey?
Oh Ambrose
You can’t spend the rest of your life avoiding responsibilities
Ambrose
How many times have you been in love?
Can’t you ever be serious?
Just keep walking
Ambrose
If I gave you my picture
Would you carry it in your wallet
Well if I gave you a wallet
Would you
I’ll put some money in it
What do you mean how much
Honest Ambrose
It’s not that I didn’t want to have the party at my house
I couldn’t
My mommy wouldn’t let me
She’s ashamed
We haven’t got a color telephone
Ambrose what was that
Oh Ambrose I’ve asked you a million times
Why do we have to walk in a subway tunnel
Just keep walking
Ambrose
Ambrose
Maybe
Maybe you’d like me better
If I peroxided my hair like Eloise
Eloise
Eloise you know Eloise
Your mother
You wouldn’t like me peroxided
Just keep walking
Ambrose
Ambrose just think
A comment on my recent Dylan covers article by Andrew G took me to a 1964 Gary Shearston song titled ‘Sydney Town’. The ‘on-theme’ opening verse goes:
‘Granddaddy walked a-long the street with a ball and chain a-round his feet and
That’s the way they’d like to see me walk just to give the toffs a chance to talk
yeah and the
More they try to keep me down the better I live in Sydney town.’
Thank you for your latest ‘iconic country songs and artists’, Rick – needless to say (but I’ll say it anyway) some absolute ripper songs here, such as that tree-in-the-country-music-Garden of Eden, ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart’, which shares some fundamental similarities with that classic American mid-nineteenth century Poe short story ‘The Tell-Tale Heart’.
That ‘Ambrose (Part 5)’ is some freaky, sinister song, Dave – I just listened to it. It’s all-the-more odd given that it was written and recorded by Linda Laurie when she was a teenager. Somewhat surprisingly, it was a minor American hit.
Thanks for ‘Sydney Town’, Karl (and I’m just about to check out your latest Dyan piece).
Agree KD the Poe reference adds a little more gravitas to what in the hands of a lesser writer could have turned into a song of self pity. The Poe connection is aided by the sublime choice of referencing the Ernest Tubb line, walking the floor.
Here are some more great country songs and the Dr John standard:
The Grand Tour, George Jones – Step right up, come on in/If you’d like to take the grand tour/Of a lonely house that once was home sweet home/I have nothing here to sell you/Just some things that I will tell you/Some things I know will chill you to the bone
I Walk on Guilded Splinters Dr John – Walk through the fire/Fly through the smoke/See my enemy/At the end of they rope/Walk on pins and needles/See what they can do/Walk on guilded splinters/With the King of the Zulu
Footlights, Merle Haggard – After twenty years of picking, we’re still alive/And kicking down the wall/Tonight I’ll kick the footlights out/And walk away without a curtain call
San Quentin, Johnny Cash – ]San Quentin, I hate every inch of you/You’ve cut me and have scarred me through and through/And I’ll walk out a wiser weaker man/Mister Congressman, you can’t understand
A couple more classic ‘on theme’ Bob songs (seeing you are in the mood!):
Ballad Of A Thin Man
You walk into the room with your pencil in your hand
You see somebody naked and you say, “Who is that man?”
You try so hard but you don’t understand
Just what you will say when you get home
Because something is happening here but you don’t know what it is
Do you, Mr. Jones?
Rainy Day Women #12 & 35
Well, they’ll stone you when you’re walkin’ ‘long the street
They’ll stone you when you’re tryin’ to keep your seat
They’ll stone you when you’re walkin’ on the floor
They’ll stone you when you’re walkin’ to the door
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned
Something contemporary from one of my 2025 Australian albums of the year:
“Keep walkin'” by WILSN, one of our finest soul singers.
Looking forward to seeing her in May.
Excellent, Smokie – thanks for this highly contemporary addition.
And belatedly, congrats to everyone involved on reaching another ‘theme century’!
The Only Way Out (Is to Walk Over Me) Dolly Parton – You don’t hear and you don’t feel/But I know you can see/And just to prove that I love you/I’ll crawl at your feet/Just look down at the ground/Where your footprints will be/’Cause the only way out is to walk over me
Kim’s Caravan, Courtney Barnett – I was walking down Sunset Strip, Phillip Island, not Los Angeles/Got me some hot chips and a cold drink/Took a sandy seat on the shore/There’s a paper on the ground, it makes my headache quite profound/As I read it out aloud/It said, “The Great Barrier Reef it ain’t so great anymore/It’s been raped beyond belief, the dredgers treat it like a whore”
Walk Right In, Cannon Jug Stompers (1920s) – Walk right in, sit right down/And baby, let your mind roll on/Walk right in, stay a little while/But daddy, you can’t stay too long/Now, everybody’s talking ’bout/That two way woman/Do you wanna lose your mind?/Walk right in, sit right down/And daddy let your mind roll on
to The Rooftop Singers (early 60s) to Dr Hook (1970s) – Walk right in, sit right down, baby let your hair hang down/Walk right in, sit right down, baby let your hair/hang down/Everybody’s talking ’bout a new way of walking/Do you want to lose you mind/Walk right in, sit right down, baby let your hair hang down
Miracle Man, Little Elvis – I could say it was the nights when I was lonely/And you were the only one who’d come/I could tell you that I like your sensitivity/When you know it’s the way that you walk/Why do you have to say/That there’s always someone/Who can do it better than I can?/But don’t you think that I know/That walking on the water/Won’t make me a miracle man?
Here’s another contribution from James Taylor ~ right on target thematically but lacks conviction IMO:
Walking Man (1970)
Walking man, walk on by my door
Well, any other man stops and talks
But not the walking man
He’s the walking man
Born to walk
Thanks, Karl, for listing ‘Walking Man’ – all relevant songs are welcome, but, of course, not every one of them can be an absolute winner.
Walk On By – Leroy Van Dyke (Sometimes called Just Walk On By to distinguish it from the Dionne Warwick song although actually Kendall Hayes wrote Van Dykes’ song a few years earlier than Bacharach and David wrote Dionne’s song.
If I see you tomorrow on some street in town
Pardon me if I don’t say hello
I belong to another, it wouldn’t look so good
To know someone I’m not suppose to know
Just walk on by, wait on the corner
I love you but we’re strangers when we meet.
In a dimly lit corner, at a place outside of town.
Tonight we’ll try to say goodbye again.
But I know it’s not over, I’ll call tomorrow night
I can’t let you go so why pretend.
Just walk on by, wait on the corner
I love you but we’re strangers when we meet.
I love you but we’re strangers when we meet.
He’ s a Rebel – The Crystals (written by Gene Pitney)
See the way he walks down the street
Watch the way he shuffles his feet
My, he holds his head up high
When he goes walking by
He’s my guy
When he holds my hand, I’m so proud
‘Cause he’s not just one of the crowd
Why is he always the one
To try the things they’ve never done?
Just because of that, they say:
“He’s a rebel and he’ll never ever be any good
Love Her Madly – The Doors
(I posted this in the “door” thread but it fits here as well)
Don’t ya love her madly?
Wanna be her daddy?
Don’t ya love her face?
Don’t ya love her as she’s walkin’ out the door?
Like she did one thousand times before
And that my be my last contribution for a few days. I am off to the Port Fairy Folk Festival later today.
Good Friday morning KD
I’ve put in my order for several tonne of tungsten (strongest pure metal) for the construction of the medal winners podium. Dave N’s latest addition (Love Her Madly) goes straight into the contenders list.
Here’s a few more Bob-inspired entries from the Highway 61 Revisited album:
Tombstone Blues
‘Now, the medicine man comes and he shuffles inside
He walks with a swagger, and he says to the bride
“Stop all this weeping, swallow your pride
You won’t die, it’s not poison”‘
From A Buick 6
‘Well, she don’t make me nervous, she don’t talk too much
She walks like Bo Diddley, and she don’t need no crutch
She keeps this four-ten all loaded with lead
Well, if I go down dyin’, you know
She’s bound to put a blanket on my bed’
Thanks for your latest three, Dave – fine selections, as usual. And I totally agree with what Karl just said about ‘Love Her Madly’.
I hope you enjoy the Port Fairy Folk Festival!
Good Friday morning to you, too, Karl.
Thanks for your Highway 61 Revisited choices. Bob is certainly walking without any sign of flagging in terms of this theme.
Walking Back To Happiness – Helen Shapiro
Walking In The Woods – The Pursuit of Happiness
Red Berry Joy Town – Wonder Stuff
“We knew we’d find you crying
on top of dustbin hill,
grinning at the passers by
through the flowers on your windowsill.
This is Red Berry Joy Town,
this is clown around town.
Only yesterday I saw you walking with Mr. Dog,
only last week I saw you praying at the synagogue.
Well don’t you worry about us,
we’re only acting out an epilogue,
And when you get home tonight,
you can stuff it in your…(say no more.)
This is Red Berry Joy Town,
this is everybody’s down town.”
(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding – Elivs Costello and the Attractions
“As I walk through
This wicked world
Searchin’ for light in the darkness of insanity.
I ask myself
Is all hope lost?
Is there only pain and hatred, and misery?
And each time I feel like this inside,
There’s one thing I wanna know:
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding?
And as I walked on
Through troubled times
My spirit gets so downhearted sometimes
So where are the strong
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
‘Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding?
So where are the strong?
And who are the trusted?
And where is the harmony?
Sweet harmony.
‘Cause each time I feel it slippin’ away, just makes me wanna cry.
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding? Ohhhh
What’s so funny ’bout peace love & understanding?”
Thanks for your latest choices, Swish. To select just one artist for comment…my recollection is that in the early 60s Helen Shapiro headlined a UK tour in which the Beatles were involved, before they’d made it really big.
Apologies, Rick, for somehow not commenting until now on your last two excellent sets of song choices – country, Dr John, Dolly, Courtney Barnett and the rest of ’em. Not sure what happened there, except that these songlists get so long (a wonderful thing!) and occasionally I miss something. Oops, and you know how much I appreciate your splendid contributions to this long-running theme series.
Hey all good KD, I can’t imagine how you keep on top of it! Great theme, and here’s some songs from Justin Townes Earle, a tragic loss, he died way too young:
The Good Life – Well since you’ve left I’ve had no place to be/I’ll spend most everyday doing as I please/I’ve got pockets full of money; hear a jingle when I walk/Yeah it’s a good life from now on/Now if I walk down the street everybody knows my name/They all step aside and let me go my way/They all smile and snicker and some won’t talk at all/Yeah it’s a good life from now on
Harlem River Blues – I’m on a roll, mama, I gotta go/Gotta get there while I still can/Troubled days are behind me now/And I know they’re gonna let me in/When you see me walking up the FDR/Just a-singing and a-clapping my hands/Tell my mama I love her, tell my father I tried/Give my money to my baby to spend/’Cause Lord, I’m going uptown/To the Harlem River to drown/Dirty water gonna cover me over/And I’m not gonna make a sound
Wanderin’ – Now my father was a traveler and my mama stayed at home/And she cried the day that he walked out and left us on our own/But now I’m older than he was when I was born and I don’t know/Which way is home so I’m wanderin’
There Goes a Fool – Now you go out on a Tuesday night/Not looking for a good time just sick and tired being at home/You pick a place you’ve never been not looking for a friend/Just wanna have a few drinks on your own/So you walk in down to the end of the bar/You sit down alone say/Mr. Bartender why don’t you give me three fingers of whatever’s strong/Whatever’s strong/He puts his glass down/He starts to pour you stop and say wait/You turn your back and slowly walk away/There, there go a fool/There go a man without a care oh who’s got nothing to lose
Maria – I remember when you used to make me happy/Just to look into your eyes/But now every time I try you’re lookin’ past me/And I don’t know why/So baby you don’t even gotta tell me no I already know/So don’t even say goodbye just walk on past me/I don’t want to hurt no more/Not for you Maria/Any way I turn I could find a better way to lose/Ah Maria
Thank you for this Justin Townes Earle five, Rick. I do like the songs I’ve heard from this artist, and he’s in the ‘more homework’ category for me in that it’d be a fine thing if I got to know his body of work better.
And of course there’s that well-known Prince song (just about my favourite of his), ‘Raspberry Beret’ (1985): ‘That’s when I saw her, ooh I saw her / She walked in through the out door, out door…’
Hey hey, it’s Saturday & time for a little more Bob:
A glimpse into the rarely quoted John Wesley Harding (1969) album:
As I Went Out One Morning
‘As I went out one morning/To breathe the air around Tom Paine’s
I spied the fairest damsel/That ever did walk in chains
I offer’d her my hand/She took me by the arm
I knew that very instant/She meant to do me harm
The Ballad Of Frankie Lee & Judas Priest
‘No one tried to say a thing/When they carried him out in jest
Except, of course, the little neighbor boy/Who carried him to rest
And he just walked along, alone/With his guilt so well concealed
And muttered underneath his breath/”Nothing is revealed”‘
Happy Saturday, Karl. Thanks for your John Wesley Harding pair. Any reason why this album has a lesser profile along the lines you’ve indicated?
Hi KD. Thanks for your question ~ the simple answer is word count.
Of the 12 songs on the album, 11 are 3 short verses each with no chorus or bridge or intro/outro.
The songs are simple tales, simple rhymes.
Plenty more to come From Bob ~ we are only 7 years into his 65 year career!
Thank you for the answer, Karl. Great, also, to hear that Bob has much more to deliver in relation to ‘walking songs’
At Port Fairy last night I heard the Irish singer Mary Coughlan give a magnificent performance of the song I’d Rather Go Blind. It was originally sung and co-written by Etta James.
I’d Rather Go Blind
Something told me it was over
When I saw you and her talking
Something deep down in my soul said, ‘Cry, girl’
When I saw you and that girl walkin’ out
Whoo, I would rather, I would rather go blind, boy
Than to see you walk away from me, child, no
Cheers KD.
Here’s an interesting foursome of songs from the early 70’s – what some may call Dylan’s (first) lost period.
Livin’ The Blues (1970 – Self Portrait)
‘Since you’ve been gone,
I’ve been walking around
With my head bowed down to my shoes.
I’ve been living the blues
Ev’ry night without you.’
Day Of The Locusts (1970 – New Morning)
‘I glanced into the chamber where the judges were talkin’
Darkness was everywhere, it smelled like a tomb
I was ready to leave, I was already walkin’
But the next time I looked, there was light in the room’
Watching the River Flow (Greatest Hits Vol.II – 1971)
‘What’s the matter with me
I don’t have much to say
Daylight sneakin’ through the window
And I’m still in this all-night café
Walkin’ to and fro beneath the moon
Out to where the trucks are rollin’ slow
To sit down on this bank of sand
And watch the river flow’
When I Paint My Masterpeice (Greatest Hits Vol.II – 1971): this lyric offers the suggestion of walking from long long ago.
‘Oh, the streets of Rome are filled with rubble
Ancient footprints are everywhere
You can almost think that you’re seein’ double
On a cold, dark night on the Spanish Stairs’
Thanks, Dave, for ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’. Great to get a song directly from the Port Fairy Folk Festival, so to speak.
Thanks for your latest Bob offerings, Karl. I loved the interesting way you included ‘When I Paint My Masterpiece’ – ‘ancient footprints are everywhere’ certainly indicates a helluva lot of walking.
Two excellent songs written and recorded by artists whose careers have basically been in Australia, but who were born elsewhere…
Tex Loves Daisy – Brent Parlane (1994 and 1999 versions exist): ‘I can see you now / Walking with your children / Fighting with your husband / It could have been me…’
Kavisha Mazzella – ‘Angel of Pompeii’ (1998): ‘I walked along your eerie lanes / And gathered wild herbs / Where they grew between stones…’
Some killing songs:
Turn it On, Turn it On, Turn it On, Tom T – People said John was a slacker/’Cause he wouldn’t fight in their war/A man wasn’t much if he wouldn’t fight/Back in nineteen forty and four/The doctor said, “John was just too sick to go”/But the people said that he was a coward/And one of the men makin’ fun of him/Was a fellow named Milton Howard/Milton was down at the cold spring/A-drinkin’ from a mason jar/He said, “John, you better get yourself to work/You’re gonna fool around ’til you get fired”/John blew the dust from his old .44/Put two holes in Milton’s head/When Johnny walked off to get some more shootin’ done/That ol’ cold spring was a-runnin’ red
Ballad of Hollis Brown, Bob Dylan, don’t think Karl has put this song forward – Hollis Brown/He lived on the outside of town/Hollis Brown/He lived on the outside of town/With his wife and five children/And his cabin fallin’ down/You looked for work and money/And you walked a rugged mile/You looked for work and money/And you walked a rugged mile/Your children are so hungry/That they don’t know how to smile
Red Headed Stranger, Willie, if you don’t know this song the following lyrics don’t give you any idea of what is to come, but it is bad and sad – The red-headed stranger from Blue Rock, Montana/Rode into town one day/And under his knees was a ragin’ black stallion/And walkin’ behind was a bay
Goodbye Earl, The Chicks, Earl is a fuckhead – Mary Anne and Wanda were the best of friends/All through their high school days/Both members of the 4H Club/Both active in the FFA/After graduation Mary Anne went out/Lookin’ for a bright new world/Wanda looked all around this town/And all she found was Earl/[Verse 2]/Well, it wasn’t two weeks after she got married/That Wanda started gettin’ abused/She put on dark glasses and long sleeved blouses/And makeup to cover a bruise/Well, she finally got the nerve to file for divorce/She let the law take it from there/But Earl walked right through that restraining order/And put her in intensive care/[Pre-Chorus]/Right away,/Mary Anne flew in from Atlanta/On a red-eye midnight flight/She held Wanda’s hand and they worked out a plan/And it didn’t take ’em long to decide that Earl had to die
Frankie, Mississippi John Hurt, another song about another man who done his woman wrong – Frankie shot old Albert/And she shot him three of four times/Said, “stroll back out the smoke of my gun/Let me see this Albert dying/He’s my man and he done me wrong” … Frankie and the judge walked down the stand/Walked out side to side/The judge says to Frankie/”You’re gonna be justified/For killing a man, and he done you wrong”
Continuing my previous comments … Parlane’s ‘Tex Loves Daisy’, I feel, is an Australasian country classic. (Parlane was born in New Zealand.) I prefer the earlier 1994 version on his Tex Loves Daisy album, as, to me anyway, it feels fresher and less overproduced than the rendition on his 1999 album The Closest, which was produced by Nash Chambers.
Mazella’s ‘Angel of Pompeii’ is from her ARIA award winning (for Best World Music Album) Fisherman’s Daughter in 1998.
Thanks for your very fine bunch of ‘killing songs’, Rick.
To select just two for comment: ‘Turn It On, Turn It On, Turn It On’ – this one is a typically superbly crafted Tom T ‘story song’, and has a fabulous, utterly memorable last line;
‘Goodbye Earl’ is one of my favourite (Dixie) Chicks numbers – blackly comic, with a highly effective contrasting (to the subject matter involved) sing-song melody and almost jaunty rhythm. (The ‘official’ film clip accompanying the song is well-worth seeing, too, particularly for its macabre conclusion.)
As Monday rolls around I offer two from the master songwriter Richard Thompson:
Ghost Of You Walks (1996 – You Me Us album)
‘The ghost of you walks right through my head
Sleepwalks at the foot of my bed
Sends old shivers over my skin
Love like that won’t let go
It’s got some kind of mind of its own
I can’t break out and I can’t break in’
From Galway to Graceland (1993)
‘Oh she dressed in the dark/And she whispered amen
She was pretty in pink/Like a young girl again
Twenty years married/And she never thought twice
She sneaked out the door/And walked into the night’
and two from His Bobness’s 1974 Planet Waves album; the latter documenting the remnants of walking:
Going, Going, Gone
‘I been walkin’ the road/I been livin’ on the edge
Now, I’ve just got to go/Before I get to the ledge
So I’m going/I’m just going/I’m gone’
Never Say Goodbye
‘Twilight on the frozen lake/North wind about to break
On footprints in the snow/Silence down below’
Thank you for the Thompson and Dylan pairs of songs, Karl. ‘Remnants of walking’ (footprints etc) is becoming an interesting sub-theme. I enjoy this kind of thing happening as a themed songlist grows longer.
Thanks KD ~ how about the promise of walking to come?
Mr Tambourine Man
‘Take me on a trip upon your magic swirling ship
My senses have been stripped
My hands can’t feel to grip
My toes too numb to step
Wait only for my boot heels to be wandering
I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade
Into my own parade
Cast your dancing spell my way, I promise to go under it’
Giants of their genres:
Streets of Bakersfield, Buck Owens and Dwight Yoakam, first recorded by Buck back in 72, then Dwight got Buck to sing it with him on his second album, in 88 earning both of them a No. 1 song, Buck’s first in 15 years! – I came here looking for something/I couldn’t find anywhere else/Hey, I’m not trying to be nobody/I just want a chance to be myself/I’ve spent a thousand miles a-thumbin’/Yes, I’ve worn blisters on my heels/Trying to find me something better/Here on the streets of Bakersfield/Hey, you don’t know me, but you don’t like me/You say you care less how I feel/But how many of you that sit and judge me/Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
I Got Dreams to Remember, Otis Redding, as sad as sad gets and that’s before Otis starts singing! – Honey, I saw you there last night/Another man’s arms holding you tight/Nobody knows what I feel inside/All I know, I walked away and cried/I’ve got dreams/Dreams to remember (listen to me)/I’ve got dreams (rough dreams), dreams to remember
This Town Gets Around Margo Price, from her break thru album ten years ago and she is still pushing the Nashville envelope and doing it on her terms! – Well, the very first manager I ever had/He was old enough, he could have been my dad/He took me out for drinks and talked a big talk/He said, “Darling, sign on the dotted line/You know, kiss my cheek and drink this wine/If you walk on me, then you can just walk”/I can’t count all the times I’ve been had/Now I know much better than to let that make me mad/I don’t let none of that get me down/From what I’ve found, this town gets around/C’mon/When I first came here, the streets were paved with gold/And you can walk that road, I’ve been told/But I won’t put out or be controlled/I don’t write the shit that gets bought and sold
All Too Well, Taylor Swift, one of the 5 best artists of the last 20 years and this song from 2012 is about her best, except for the 10 min Taylor version she released a couple of years back, that was even better! – I walked through the door with you/The air was cold/But something about it felt like home somehow/And I, left my scarf there at your sister’s house/And you’ve still got it in your drawer even now/Oh, your sweet disposition/And my wide-eyed gaze/We’re singing in the car, getting lost upstate/Autumn leaves falling down like pieces into place/And I can picture it after all these days/And I know it’s long gone and that magic’s not here no more/And I might be okay but I’m not fine at all/’Cause there we are again on that little town street/You almost ran the red ’cause you were lookin’ over at me/Wind in my hair, I was there/I remember it all too well
Thanks for ‘Mr Tambourine Man’, Karl – the song qualifies upon the basis of including the word ‘wandering’, which is (loosely) synonymous with walking. As for ‘the promise of walking to come’, well, thinking about that one makes my head hurt a bit – imagine trying to adjudicate on whether a song qualifies on that basis. Let’s gently – and in the friendliest manner possible – put that one aside.
Thank you for the four ‘giants of their genres’, Rick. I enjoy the ‘curated’ aspect of your groups of song selections, the sense that they’ve been thoughtfully and carefully placed together – and this lot is certainly not an exception. One note is that you’ve made me want to play ‘All Too Well’ immediately! (I mean, I know how much I like it, but sometimes a song seems to insistently call ‘Play Me!’)
It is a ripper of a song isn’t it.
And then there is The Streets of Baltimore, Gram’s version, the definitive version:
Well I sold the farm to take my woman where she longed to be
We left our kin and all our friends back there in Tennessee
Then I bought those one-way tickets she had often begged me for
And they took us to the streets of Baltimore
Well her heart was filled with gladness when she saw those city lights
She said, “The prettiest place on earth was Baltimore at night”
Well a man feels proud to give his woman what she’s longing for
And I kind of liked the streets of Baltimore
Then I got myself a factory job, I ran an old machine
And I bought a little cottage in a neighborhood serene
Then every night when I’d come home with every muscle sore
She’d drag me through the streets of Baltimore
Well I did my best to bring her back to what she used to be
Then I soon learned she loved those bright lights more than she loved me
Now I’m going back on that same train that brought me here before
While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore
While my baby walks the streets of Baltimore
And, Rick, I did play ‘All Too Well’ as I said I would – even got out the acoustic/electric bass I bought recently – didn’t plug it in, just played along to Swifty’s song ‘unplugged’. ‘All Too Well’ is very simple musically/chord-wise – the beautifully crafted, poetic lyrics are the thing, of course.
Thanks, also, for GP’s version of ‘The Streets of Baltimore’.
G’day KD
Here’s a very special treat to welcome in a Tuesday ` a triplet from Bob’s ‘Blood On the Tracks’.
Tangled Up In Blue
She turned around to look at me
As I was walkin’ away
I heard her say over my shoulder
“We’ll meet again someday on the avenue”
Tangled up in blue
Simple Twist Of Fate
They walked along by the old canal
A little confused, I remember well
And stopped into a strange hotel
With a neon burnin’ bright
He felt the heat of the night
Hit him like a freight train
Moving with a simple twist of fate
Shelter From The Storm
Suddenly I turned around and she was standin’ there
With silver bracelets on her wrists and flowers in her hair
She walked up to me so gracefully and took my crown of thorns
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”
…….
Well, the deputy walks on hard nails and the preacher rides a mount
But nothing really matters much, it’s doom alone that counts
And the one-eyed undertaker, he blows a futile horn
“Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm”
G’day, Karl. Thank you for Bob’s ‘Blood On the Tracks’ triplet – and, yes, of course I’m very pleased to see our old mate ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ included. It may interest you to know that my relationship to this song goes back to the late seventies – one of my sisters was getting guitar lessons at the time (on the six string acoustic) and ‘Tangled’ was one of her practice songs. Of course, every song she was given to practice was also practiced by me; in fact, I practiced a lot more than she did! Her acoustic guitar lessons were more mine than hers, even though I don’t think I ever met her guitar teacher. I just learnt whatever material she was given.
Kenny Rogers had three hits in a row in the late 70s, Lucille, Coward of the County and The Gambler and all three include walk lyric references.
My fave TS song is Mean, written when she was 21 – You, with your switching sides/And your wildfire lies and your humiliation/You have pointed out my flaws again/As if I don’t already see them/I walk with my head down/Trying to block you out, ’cause I’ll never impress you/I just wanna feel okay again
Thanks for the ‘triple Kenny’, Rick.
Re Swifty favourites, ‘Love Story’ is still right up there for me, though I concede that it’s not as sophisticated as stuff like ‘All Too Well’. For me, ‘Love Story’ occupies a similar role in TS’s career as ‘Wuthering Heights ‘ does for Kate Bush.
Here’s a thematically spot-on song – an almost perfect number, in its brief, beautifully understated way, “Just My Heart Talkin'”, written and recorded by Canadian musician Ron Sexsmith, appearing on his album Blue Boy (2001). (Sexsmith is touring Australia in April, incidentally.)
The words of this wonderful song are worth quoting in full:
Just My Heart Talkin’
My eyes are telling me leave well enough alone
These boots are telling me keep walking
Another voice is saying don’t let go
That’s just my heart talking
It’s always leading me where I do not belong
To doorways where I shouldn’t be knockin’
Trying to pass itself off for a song
That’s just my heart talking
It’s talking
Sometimes I don’t know what to say
I turn to look the other way
Are you talking, talking to me? (these four lines twice)
Some people tell me eyes are windows of the soul
But eyes can be like empty sockets
Maybe you’d be better off alone
That’s just my heart talking
Too much to say and don’t let go
That’s just my heart talking
That’s just my heart talking
Always a pleasure to bring Tangled Up In Blue to the song theme series.
The 4th song from ‘Blood On The Tracks’ that has multiple ‘walking’ scenes is:
Lily, Rosemary & The Jack Of Hearts
He moved across the mirrored room, “Set it up for everyone, ” he said
Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin’ before he turned their heads
Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin
“Could you kindly tell me, friend, what time the show begins?”
Then he moved into the corner, face down like the Jack of Hearts
…..
She slipped in through the side door lookin’ like a queen without a crown
…..
She’d come away from a broken home, had lots of strange affairs
With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere
But she’d never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts
…..
The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair
“There’s something funny going on, ” he said, “I can just feel it in the air”
He went to get the hangin’ judge, but the hangin’ judge was drunk
As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk
There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts
Walking on, we leave Blood On The Tracks behind and end up (half a decade later) in Bob’s ‘Saved’ period and ‘Every Grain Of Sand’ {note ~ more ‘ancient footsteps’}
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there’s someone there, other times it’s only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand
Thanks for ‘Every Grain of Sand’, Karl. As usual, I’m very much enjoying journeying through Bob’s career via a particular theme.
I tip me hat to Karl’s call, Lily, Rosemary and Jack, with its multiple takes on “walking”. Noice.
So we went to Annie and the Caldwells last night, a US gospel/soul family band, with the heavier lean on gospel. What a band. What voices. This atheist was almost converted. Not really but the rush was intoxicating. I could almost feel myself in a Baptist church down in Mississippi. And yes, they have a song for this theme.
Don’t You Hear Me Calling:
The very next day (your will be done)
The doctor went (let your will be done)
And got that heart (your will be done)
Brought it back (let your will be done)
To Birmingham Hospital (your will be done)
Oh, Lord (let your will be done)
Took him in surgery (your will be done)
Three days later (let your will be done)
Three days later (your will be done)
I said, three days later (your will be done)
The Father, one day (your will be done)
The son, one day (your will be done)
The holy ghost, yeah (your will be done)
They all made one (your will be done)
That were three days later (your will be done)
Mama went in the hospital (your will be done)
Looked down the hallway (your will be done)
Seeing her son walking (your will be done)
She said, it’s already done (it’s already done)
It’s already done (it’s already done)
My miracle is already done (it’s already done)
also
The Last Thing on My Mind, a Tom Paxton song, recorded by many, well everyone including Gram Parsons and John Farnham, but I’ll go with the Porter/Dolly version, with a slight change in the lyrics and a much more melodious tune. Paxton’s song draws on in a love and theft kinda way, the Dylan tune, Farewell and The Leaving of Liverpool:
As we walk along my thoughts are tumblin’
Round and round, round and round
Underneath our feet a subway’s rumblin’
Underground, Underground
[Chorus]
Are you going away with no word of farewell?
Will there be not a trace left behind?
Oh, I could’ve loved you better, didn’t mean to be unkind
You know that was the last thing on my mind
I also give a big nod to ‘Lily, Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts’ – thanks, Karl. I accidentally skipped this song just before, and it’s certainly full of thematic interest, as Rick indicates.
Thank you, Rick, for ‘Don’t You Hear Me Calling’ and ‘The Last Thing on My Mind’, as well as the interesting comments attached to these songs. Your comments about Annie and the Caldwells reminded me of John Lennon’s words about George Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ – along the lines that the song was almost enough to make you believe in God.
‘Blister in the Sun’ – Violent Femmes (1983): ‘ When I’m out walking / I strut my stuff / and I’m so strung out…’
‘Man on the Moon’ – REM (1992): Moses went walking with the staff of wood (yeah yeah yeah yeah)…’
Saw Ron Sexsmith in the late 90s at the Continental, big fan but (at least at that stage of his performing career) he was still pretty bland. Great songs though. Just My Heart is a ripper. Steve Earle produced the album, giving Sexsmith a (slightly) rockier feel and a tad more groove.
I’ll throw in Lebanon Tennessee from Sexsmith’s first (official) album in 95: There’ll be a job in Lebanon, Tennessee/I’ll work on a farm, I’ll work in some factory/And I’ll buy myself a home down there/You can get one pretty cheap/Get off the bus on the border of town/Head in from the east/Walk into a bar take a seat in the corner/Be a man of mystery.
Saw Violent Femmes at WAIT (now Curtain Uni, in Perth) in the 80s. I was dragged along. Reckon I was the only person in the 5000 crowd who was bored most of the show. I don’t hear the VF sound at all. Except for BitS, which is a corker, well the beat and riff are, paved a career for the band and certainly don’t begrudge them that. Great pick up KD.
As for REM, brilliant, lucky to see them a couple of times, sublime, all players top notch, songs top shelf. MotM, one of my faves.
Cheers
Thanks, Rick, for your comments and the additional Sexsmith song – your feelings about the artists mentioned very much align with mine. As I’ve indicated elsewhere in this themed songlist series, REM are one of my all-time favourite American bands.
Wow – no.160! Picking winners is gonna be tough!
We get into a strut as Bob releases ‘Infidels’ (1983) – some creative ‘walking’ concepts therein…..
Jokerman
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread
Both of their futures, so full of dread, you don’t show one
Shedding off one more layer of skin
Keeping one step ahead of the persecutor within
……
You’re a man of the mountains, you can walk on the clouds
Manipulator of crowds, you’re a dream twister
You’re going to Sodom and Gomorrah
But what do you care? Ain’t nobody there would want to marry your sister
…….
Well, the rifleman’s stalking the sick and the lame
Preacher man seeks the same, who’ll get there first is uncertain
Nightsticks and water cannons, tear gas, padlocks
Molotov’s cocktails and rocks behind every curtain
False-hearted judges dying in the webs that they spin
Only a matter of time ’til night comes steppin’ in
I&I
Think I’ll go out and go for a walk
Not much happenin’ here, nothin’ ever does
Besides, if she wakes up now, she’ll just want me to talk
I got nothin’ to say, ‘specially about whatever was
……..
Noontime, and I’m still pushin’ myself along the road, the darkest part
Into the narrow lanes, I can’t stumble or stay put
Someone else is speakin’ with my mouth, but I’m listening only to my heart
I’ve made shoes for everyone, even you, while I still go barefoot
Thank you for Bob’s Infidels material, Karl – I do like the ‘creative’ walking concepts this theme is eliciting.
And, yes, we’re up to 160 with no sign of flagging, either. That podium you’re designing for the ‘winners’ will have to be one of the architectural wonders of the world!
‘Jerusalem’, with words by the early Romantic poet, William Blake (c.1808) and music by Sir Hubert Parry in 1916, can be viewed as THE national song of England, often sung by large crowds at (for example) major sporting events. The song is highly apt in terms of our current theme.
Jerusalem
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England’s mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England’s pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark Satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spear, O clouds unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant land.
Good Thursday morning KD
The podium work is going well ~ a bit like the 52 story treehouse.
I am just having my morning tea break and thought I’d walk on by and say hello.
Before we wander into the 90’s, here’s a final 80’s nod from Bob:
Dark Eyes (1985 – Empire Burlesque album)
Oh, the gentlemen are talking and the midnight moon is on the riverside,
They’re drinking up and walking and it is time for me to slide.
I live in another world where life and death are memorized,
Where the earth is strung with lovers’ pearls and all I see are dark eyes.
Good Thursday morning to you, too, Karl. Glad your podium work is going smoothly!
Thanks for Bob’s ‘Dark Eyes’.
Tom Petty – Free Fallin’: ‘And all the vampires walkin’ through the valley
Move west down Ventura Boulevard…’ (1989 – Tom wrote this one with Jeff Lynne)
In 2018 Johnny Cash’s estate released the album, Forever Words. Over 20 country and countryish artists recorded Cash poems and lyrics from a book published in 2016, Forever Words: The Unknown Poems. As it is with a venture of this nature, the project is a bit hit and miss. There are in that mix some great interpretations of the heart and soul of the man in black. As well, as a bonus, songs that fit KDs latest theme:
Gold All Over the Ground, Brad Paisley – If I had you at my mercy there’s no telling what I’d do/But I’d sit and make you listen for an hour, maybe two/And then you’d know I need you every day that rolls around/And your feet would walk on velvet with gold all over the ground
Brand New Pair of Shoes, Ana Christina Cash, married JCs son and an artist in her own right – I’m breaking/I’m breaking in a brand new pair of shoes/Walking ’til I lose all my money blues/I spent my last dollar I’ll ever spend on you/So I’m breaking in a brand new pair of shoes
What Would a Dreamer Do, The Jayhawks – Have it all figured out I guess/I’m confused as all the rest/But I won’t live 8-5/I’ll be 8 to 5 alive/Even on the weekends/I’ve walked down a lot of streets/Get up and go when I eat/Throw away that business suit/Track mud on another man’s carpet
The Walking Wounded, Roseanne Cash – We’re in the church house kneeling down/We’re in the subways, underground/We’re in the bars and on the street/We drive a truck, we walk a beat/We’re in the mills and factories/We make the steel, we cut the trees/A thousand yards stare as a glass/But we will see you when you pass/We lost our homes, we lost our dreams/All our goals have turned to schemes/We hurt each other and ourselves/So after long traumatic spells/We are the walking, we are the walking/We are the walking wounded
I Hardly Ever Sing Beer Drinking Songs, Johnny Cash – I hardly ever walk the floor and cry/And I don’t think I’ve ever said “I feel like I could die”/I don’t ever lay awake/I never think my heart will break/I hardly ever walk the floor and cry
Forever Words sounds like a highly interesting album, judging by the thematically fitting lyrics you’ve just put forward, Rick. Thanks for these. The book which came before the album sounds like it’d be full of interest, too; in fact, I might even purchase it.
Morning KD…
As you know, I do like to give recognition to those who have recently passed in your song theme series.
Augie Meyers, who died on 7 March 2026, may not be a household name but I have come across him via my interest in Dylan.
In the 60’s, before the Dylan connection, Augie was a member of the Sir Doug Quintet, who had a minor Aussie chart success with ‘Mendocino’:
‘Mendocino, Mendocino
Where life’s such a groove
You’ll blow your mind in the mornin’
We used to walk through the park
Make love along the way in Mendocino’
Back on the Dylan trail, Augie played a variety of keyboard instruments on Dylan’s 1997 ‘Time Out Of Mind’ and 2001 ‘Love & Theft’ albums. These two albums have multiple ‘walking’ lyrics, but for now I’ll offer up the excellently on-theme:
Love Sick (1997)
‘I’m walkin’
Through streets that are dead
Walkin’
Walkin’ with you in my head
My feet are so tired
My brain is so wired
And the clouds are weepin”
Thanks for your latest input, Karl. The Augie Meyers and Bob songs are, of course, a welcome addition to our increasingly impressive, interesting and lengthy ‘walking’ songlist. Always sad to hear of a notable musician’s passing, too.
‘Diamond Dogs’ – David Bowie (1974): ‘In the year of the scavenger, the season of the bitch / Sashay on the sidewalk, scurry to the ditch…’. What a fine rockin’ song, listed before in our long-running theme series, including in the particularly memorable ‘songs featuring cowbell’ songlist.
Two fave songs mentioned in the last couple of posts. Mendocino by SDQ, and then again as the Texas Tornedos. And yes Karl, RIP Augie Meyers. Also, Diamond Dogs, up there in my top Bowie songs. Now, a bit of Bob and bob like.
No Time to Think Bob, from Street Legal, another song where Bob goes all expansive, and when it works, boy does it work and when it doesn’t, like this song, it gets hid/slid in one of his lesser albums – In death, you face life with a child and a wife/Who sleepwalks through your dreams into walls/You’re a soldier of mercy, and you’re cold and you curse/He who cannot be trusted must fall
Sleepwalker, The Wallflowers, the Bob lyric reminded me of this not bad song by his son, with this ripper of a lyric – Cupid don’t draw back your bow/Sam Cooke didn’t know what I know/I’ll never be your valentine/The sleepwalker in me/And God only know that I tried
Walk Out in the Rain Clapton, written by Bob, which he left off Street Legal, but even Clapton will take what His Bobness rejects – Walk out if it doesn’t feel right/I can tell you’re only lying/If you’ve got something better tonight/Then don’t mess up my mind with your crying/Just walk out in the rain/Walk out with your dreams/Walk out of my life if you don’t feel right/And catch the next train/Oh darling walk out in the rain
Devil’s Sidewalk Graham Parker and The Rumour, a Dylan acolyte if ever there was one, and we know Dylan loved GP&tR, first few records at least – Took a walk down hell’s pavement/Took a walk down, pulled by the tide/I had to make some new arrangement/Oh, I thought I’d reach the other side/Then someone opened up their mouth to talk/They said, “You ain’t where you think you are (Hey)/You just landed on the Devil’s sidewalk”
Thanks for your ‘Bob and Bob-like’ material, Rick. Interestingly, apropos of your mention of fave songs, this ‘walking’ theme seems to be one that continues to come up with the goods in terms of high quality songs, even though our list has become a very long one.
Re Graham Parker and The Rumour, one thing I that almost always comes to my mind about him is his association with one of my favourite song and album titles – ‘Heat Treatment ‘.
Just came across this song which I think (I hope) hasn’t appeared in this thread:
Pretty Flamingo (1966) – Manfred Mann
‘On our block all of the guys call her flamingo
Cause her hair glows like the sun
And her eyes can light the skies
When she walks she moves so fine like a flamingo
Crimson dress that clings so tight
She’s out of reach and out of sight
When she walks by she brightens up the neighborhood
Oh every guy would make her his if he just could
If she just would’
Song from the little elvis album, King of America:
American Without Tears – At a dock in Southampton full of tearful goodbyes/Newsreel commentators said “Cheerio, G.I. brides”/Soon they’ll be finding the cold facts and lies/New words for suspenders and young girls’ backsides/Now I’m in America and running from you/Like my grandfather before me walked the streets of New York/And I think of all the women I pretend mean more than you/When I open my mouth and I can’t seem to talk
Our Little Angel – So you mix your drinks and words/You make bad jokes you make bad time/The floors are there to walk over/The walls are there to climb/You swear that you’ll never go back again once you’re inside/You’re never the bridegroom she’s always the bride/And you’re not going to do a thing to our little angel/There’s nothing you’re thinking tonight that tomorrow won’t change
Jack of all Parades, and one of my fave Costello lyrics – When we first met I didn’t know what to do/My old love lines were all worn out on you/And the world walked round my mouth/They lit me up and they snuffed me out/And I was everybody’s boy/But soon that thrill just fades/To be the love of one true heart/Or the Jack of all parades
Glitter Gulch – Enter Madam X painted in a shocking pink spangled dress/Her teeth are perfect but her mouth is loose/Rubbing their hands together she persuades them that it’s better to confess/Which unpleasant fate they’d like to choose/Every step might be your last/Money signs are in your eyes sucker/You’ve been taken in this time/You might just get out alive if you’re lucky/All the vultures tuning in to Glitter Gulch/Are looking in on you/And they’re hungry
The People’s Limousine – The girl in the shoes/With the crystal heels went chaperoned by her brother/They raise a glass of amber wine/Take pictures of each other/Of the policemen in the fountains/And the sickle and the hammer/And they came with Uncle Romulus/With his walking cane and camera/She looked like someone’s girlfriend/She looked like a dream/She looked as unlikely/As the people’s limousine
Shoes Without Heels – This love of mine is packed with stepping stone/These shoes are made for walking in reverse/In the dead of night, you tiptoe out and leave me all alone/Putting on your satin slip-ons and your sultry French cologne/She’s wearing shoes without heels/She’s walking over the floor/She’s walking all over me/From here to there/And you know how it feels/When she walks right out of the door
Thanks, Karl, for Manfred Mann’s ‘Pretty Flamingo’, a classic sixties number, needless to say (but I said it anyway). It hadn’t been included in our songlist until you did so.
Thanks for the Declan half dozen, Rick, including, of course, the fine lyrics you’ve quoted at some length.
‘Fields of Gold’, written and recorded by Sting (1993): ‘You’ll forget the sun in his jealous sky / As we walk in fields of gold’
Happy Saturday morning KD.
Somehow we survived another Friday the 13th. Latest news from the judge & jury is that ‘Fields of Gold’ has been added to the medal longlist!!!
Now, as foreshadowed earlier, Dylan’s 1997 ‘Time Out Of Mind’ album is chock a block full of walking lyrics. Here’s three more:
Dirt Road Blues
‘Gonna walk down that dirt road ’til someone will let me ride
If I can’t find my baby I’m gonna run away and hide
…..
Gonna walk down that dirt road, until my eyes begin to bleed
‘Til there’s nothing left to see
…..
Gonna walk down that dirt road, until my eyes begin to bleed
‘Til there’s nothing left to see’
Standing In The Doorway
‘I’m walkin’ through the summer nights
The jukebox playing low
Yesterday everything was goin’ too fast
Today it’s movin’ too slow’
Trying To Get To Heaven
‘You broke a heart that loved you
Now you can seal up the book and not write anymore
I’ve been walking that lonesome valley
Trying to get to heaven before they close the door’
Happy Saturday morning, Karl. Glad that the judge and jury appreciated ‘Fields of Gold’. Many thanks for the three from Time Out of Mind – Bob certainly likes a bit of walkin’!
‘Kashka from Baghdad’, written and recorded by Kate Bush, from her Lionheart album (1978): ‘They never go for walks / Maybe it’s because the moon’s not bright enough…’
An Oz pub rock classic by the Choirboys, ‘Run to Paradise’ (1988): ‘Jesus says it’s gonna be alright / He’s gonna pat my back so I can walk in the light…’ (I particularly love the chanted / yelled background vocals in this song.)
The River was Springsteen’s attempt to create his live sound as a studio album. It fell a bit short of that promise but turned out to be something far more important. It set Bruce up for at least his next three albums. The records are Nebraska, BitUSA and Tunnel of Love. I would argue they include the best songs of his career. The River is an impressive sprawling set of songs, some that rock hard and some that are deeply sensitive and the beginning of Bruce’s adult voice. Some fall flat (Ramrod anyone) and some move you to tears (The River, Drive All Night, Stolen Car). And 13 of the 20 tracks include walking lyrics. Yeah 65% of the album:
1. The Ties that Bind
2. Sherry Darling
3. Two Hearts
4. Independence Day
5. Out in the Street
6. Crush on You
7. You Can Look (might be, if wiggled is a synonym for walk)
8. I Wanna Marry You
9. Point Blank
10. The River
11. I’m a Rocker
12. Fade Away
13. The Price You Pay
Cheers
And here are their reference:
1. You been hurt, and you’re all cried out, you say/You walk down the street pushin’ people outta your way/You packed your bags and all alone you wanna ride/You don’t want nothin’, don’t need no one by your side/You’re walkin’ tough, baby, but you’re walkin’ blind/To the ties that bind
2. And you can tell her there’s a hot sun beatin’ on the black top/She keeps talkin’, she’ll be walking that last block/She can take a subway back to the ghetto tonight/Well, I got some beer and the highway’s free/And I got you, and baby, you’ve got me/Hey, hey, hey, what you say, Sherry Darling?
3. I went out walking the other day/Seen a little girl crying along the way/She’d been hurt so bad, said she’d never love again/Someday your crying, girl, will end/And you’ll find once again
4. Now, the rooms are all empty down at Frankie’s joint/And the highway, she’s deserted clear down to Breaker’s Point/There’s a lot of people leaving town now, leaving their friends, their homes/At night, they walk that dark and dusty highway all alone
5. And Monday when the foreman calls time/I’ve already got Friday on my mind/When that whistle blows, girl, I’m down the street/I’m home, I’m out of my work clothes/When I’m out in the street, wo-oh-oh-oh-oh/I walk the way I wanna walk/When I’m out in the street, wo-oh-oh-oh-oh/I talk the way I wanna talk/When I’m out in the street, when I’m out in the street
6. Sometimes I spot a little stranger standing ‘cross the room/My brain takes a vacation just to give my heart more room/For one kiss, darling, I swear everything I would give/’Cause you’re a walking, talking reason to live
7. Well, I came home from work and I switched on Channel 5/There was a pretty little girly looking straight into my eyes/Well, I watched as she wiggled back and forth across the screen/She didn’t get me excited, she just made me feel mean
8. I see you walking, baby, down the street/Pushing that baby carriage at your feet/I see that lonely ribbon in your hair/Tell me; am I the man for whom you put it there?
9. That always end up point blank/Shot between the eyes/Whoa, point blank/Like little white lies you tell to ease the pain/You’re walking in the sights/Girl, point blank/And it’s one false move/And baby, the lights go out
10. Then I got Mary pregnant/And, man, that was all she wrote/And for my nineteenth birthday/I got a union card and a wedding coat/We went down to the courthouse/And the judge put it all to rest/No wedding day smiles, no walk down the aisle/No flowers, no wedding dress
11. Sometimes I get so hot, girl, well, I can’t talk/But when I’m with you, I cool off/I’m a rocker, baby, I’m a rocker – and I walk/I’m a rocker, baby, I’m a rocker – and I talk/I’m a rocker, baby, I’m a rocker – every day/I’m a rocker, baby, I’m a rocker – every day
12. You say it’s not easy for you/And that you’ve been so lonely/While other girls go out/Doing what they want to do/You say that you miss the nights/When we’d go out dancing/The days when you and I walked as two/Ooh, girl, I miss them too/Oh, I swear that I do
13. Oh, the price you pay, oh, the price you pay/Now you can’t walk away from the price you pay
Wow, Rick! Thank you for the wonderful array of highly apt material from The River. Of course ‘wiggled’ is entirely worthy of inclusion, especially in the context of the song concerned – and, after all, perfectly fitting sashaying occurs in ‘Diamond Dogs’, mentioned earlier in this thread!
Sunday morning already!
This song appeared to me overnight ~
‘Girls on the avenue
They’re tryin’ to get you in
Strollin’ by with their rosebud smiles
They’re all dressed up to kill
Lean on the window sill
Lookin’ your way with eyes of fire’
Meanwhile, Dylan keeps walkin’ although he is beginning to feel a bit tired now~~~here’s two more from 1997’s ‘Time Out Of Mind’ album:
Can’t Wait
‘I can’t wait/Wait for you to change your mind
I can’t wait/For you to walk the line
You ever feel just like your brain’s been bolted to the wall
That you’re drowning in your thoughtlessness and cut off from it all’
Highlands
‘Well, my heart’s in the highlands wherever I roam
That’s where I’ll be when I get called home
The wind, it whispers to the buckeye trees in rhyme
Well my heart’s in the highland
I can only get there one step at a time’
Yes, Karl, Sunday mornin’ is certainly comin’ down, though, thankfully, not in the Kris Kristofferson sense! (See how I did that?) And ‘Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down’ is on-theme, too, with its mentions of ‘sleepin’ city sidewalks’ and ‘…I shaved my face and combed my hair / And stumbled down the stairs to meet the day.’
Thanks for your latest songs: the Bob pair and the Richard Clapton classic. ‘Girls On the Avenue’ is a particularly good ‘get’ – and Bob, understandably, is starting to become a little tired after all the walking he’s done so far in this theme.
Early Taylor Swift (2008) – ‘You Belong with Me’, from her second studio album, Fearless: ‘Walk in the streets with you and your worn-out jeans / I can’t help thinking this is how it ought to be.’
I think you are on to something there KD ~ an expanded sub-theme with lyrics combining ‘days of the week + walking’. I wondered about ‘Saturday Night’, Cold Chisel style and was not disappointed – so ‘on theme’ it may have been mentioned earlier but, like Bob, I am too tired to check :):
Saturday night’s already old
Walking into Sunday, and I find
All desires are cold
I could walk forever, I don’t mind
Show me a light, your company
Goes a little way to help me see
The path on which I’m bound
Rather than the things I leave behind
As far as I recall, Karl (and this morning I spent a considerable amount of time going through the ‘walking’ songlist), Chisel’s ‘Saturday Night’ hasn’t been mentioned until now. Thanks for this one.
And I certainly agree with you about the interesting nature of sub-themes arising out of the main theme.
It’s Monday!…and here are three ‘walking on a Monday’ lyrics:
Rainy Days and Mondays – The Carpenters
‘What I’ve got they used to call the blues
Nothin’ is really wrong
Feelin’ like I don’t belong
Walkin’ around
Some kind of lonely clown
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down’
Come Monday – Jimmy Buffett
‘I hope you’re enjoying the scenery
I know that it’s pretty up there
We can go hiking on Tuesday
With you I’d walk anywhere
California has worn me quite thin
I just can’t wait to see you again’
Blue Monday – New Order
‘I thought I told you to leave me
While I walked down to the beach
Tell me how does it feel
When your heart grows cold?
(Grows cold, grows cold, grows cold, grows cold)’
BTW – Bob’s had a bit of a sleep in and will be back later in the day.
Thank you for your ‘walking on a Monday ‘ three, Karl – an interesting trio, indeed, in terms of variety, with, for me, ‘Rainy Days and Mondays’ being the standout classic among them.
Of course, Bob is entitled to a sleep-in, given the amount of walking he’s been doing lately.
Bob’s awake and has asked me to add a couple of overlooked songs from 1964 ~ accordingly, I abide:
I Shall Be Free No. 10
‘I’m gonna grow my hair down to my feet so strange
So I look like a walking mountain range
And I’m gonna ride into Omaha on a horse
Out to the country club and the golf course
Carry The New York Times, shoot a few holes, blow their minds’
Mama You Been On My Mind
‘I don’t mean trouble, please don’t put me down or get upset
I am not pleadin’, or sayin’ I can’t forget you
I do not walk the floor bowed down an’ bent, but yet
Mama, you been on my mind’
Some Slim:
Pub With No Beer – And old Billy the blacksmith, the first time in his life/Why he’s gone home cold sober to his darling wife/He walks in the kitchen, she says you’re early Bill dear/But then he breaks down and tells her the pub’s got no beer
Indian Pacific – Hear the whistle blowin’ lonely ‘neath the Nullabor star light/Saluting those who walk across the track she romps tonight/Callin’ to the railway camp and the fettlers on the line/I’m the Indian Pacific, right on time
Camooweal – Oh, the long road beckoned on, my feet said go/To search beyond the hills for what I find/Although I’ve wandered far this sunburned land/I’ve never found what I have left behind/Oh the burning fire of that other spring/Is now but ashes and the hurt won’t heal/Time heals all wounds they say, but leaves the scar/So I think I’ll not go back to Camooweal
Ghosts of the Golden Mile – On the west Australian goldfields down Kalgoorlie streets so wide/I walked one night and felt as though the past was by my side/The city lights were fading and as i stood awhile/A thousand candles seemed to shine across the golden mile
Thanks, Karl, for your pair of ‘overlooked Bobs from ’64 (the year, I recall, he introduced the Beatles to, er, ‘jazz cigarettes ‘).
And Bob’s certainly entitled to a sleep-in; after all, the man is almost eighty-five years old!
Great to get some Slim – thanks, Rick. Particularly good to see (just about) my favourite Slim song, ‘Camooweal’, in the mix.
‘Dreadlock Holiday’, written by Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman, recorded by 10cc (1978): ‘I was walkin’ on down the street / Concentrating on truckin’ right…:
Some Aussie songs:
Walking Into Doors, Archie Roach – So, my brothers/Don’t hurt her anymore/She’s got her hurt lord/You got yours/And she’s sick and tired of walking into doors/Her gentle spirit/Her sacred ways and her smile/May not be here/She may disappear in a little while
John Cain Avenue, My Friend the Chocolate Cake – Take the walk down to the railway station/See the young mothers stand in line/On any Wednesday you can hear/The grim adventure tales go round/But I don’t mind/No, I don’t mind/Just living in our backstreet/We all talk about the sky/And how the leaves will fall down soon/We just watch the days go by and the winter sky
Walking on a Dream Empire of the Sun – Walking on a dream/How can I explain?/Talking to myself/Will I see again?
John Arlot Makes Me Chuckle, Dave Warner – Still I sometimes feel I’m on the wrong side of a timewarp/My feet beat their retreat down footpaths never touched a sidewalk/I’m a no one in my loungeroom/But I’m sure I’d be a someone in New York
Thanks for this Aussie foursome, Rick. Always a fine thing, in general terms, to raise the Australian content in these themed songlists.
The 200 approaches!
New theme will appear this coming Friday 20 March.
Our final walk with Dylan in the 20th Century
Dylan – Things Have Changed (1999) – prophetic?????
I’ve been walking forty miles of bad road
If the Bible is right, the world will explode
I’ve been trying to get as far away from myself as I can
Some things are too hot to touch
The human mind can only stand so much
You can’t win with a losing hand
Next time, a few 21st century Dylan lyrics.
Bob’s in great form with ‘Things Have Changed’ Karl – many thanks for this beauty.
It’s St Patrick’s Day today – in recognition of this fact in general and my Irish forebears in particular, here’s a traditional Irish number that exists in numerous versions: ‘She Moved Though the Fair’ (also called, according to Wikipedia, “Our Wedding Day”, “My Young Love Said to Me”, “I Once Had a True Love”, “She Moves Through the Fair” or “She Moved Through the Faire”).
I know and love this song for its quintessential Irishness and great beauty, its wistfulness, its timeless quality, and its ultimately tragic story of love, loss, death and the spirit world.
Here’s version of the song with lyrics attributed to Padraig Colum, though, at bottom, the song, particularly the melody is of traditional origins with various lyrics put to it over the years.
She Moved Through the Fair
My young love said to me, “My mother won’t mind
And my father won’t slight you for your lack of kind”
And she stepped away from me and this she did say:
It will not be long, love, till our wedding day”
As she stepped away from me and she moved through the fair
And fondly I watched her move here and move there
And then she turned homeward with one star awake
Like the swan in the evening moves over the lake
The people were saying, no two e’er were wed
But one had a sorrow that never was said
And I smiled as she passed with her goods and her gear,
And that was the last that I saw of my dear.
Last night she came to me, my dead love came in
So softly she came that her feet made no din
As she laid her hand on me and this she did say
“It will not be long, love, ’til our wedding day”
And, importantly, big congratulations to all involved in us reaching our double century – excellent!
As we hit the double century I think it is well worth celebrating a rusted on Footy Almanacer in Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs and a few of his great toons, including a cover that may as well be his:
Summer ’78, in my top 10 Warner songs – Hey everybody there’s a dance at the hall tonight/I’m gonna dance till I drop I’m gonna sweat I’m gonna kiss gonna bite/I’ll be down at the burger shop soon as my folks go out/Oh these hot days get me so I gotta walk I gotta talk I gotta shout/And on these summer nights we’ll wind the windows down/Have a can or two and then we’ll cruise through town
Phantom, an early Warner song and a live fave – Ghost Who Walks strength of 10 tigers/Leave your Bay of Bengal/Come to Perth where we’ve got the Edgleys/And 2 pedestrian malls/Ghost Who Walks strength of 10 tigers/I implore you/Come land a skull mark on Charlie’s jaw/Before he progressides you
Yella in Me, a Troggs cover and another crowd fave – My advice to you, my friend, is that if you ever see/A fella walkin’ down the street, and he’s six-foot-three/Be sure to try and pass him, walk on down the other side/’Cause if you don’t, he’ll leave you in a state of suicide/I just didn’t listen, and look what happened to me/Now, this fella’s finished bringin’ out the yella in me
Doesn’t She Look Fine, a bit of fun – Doesn’t she look fine today/Doesn’t she look fine/When she’s walking this a way/And I know she’s mine/They say she killed her father/Shot her mother burnt her brother/Poisoned her young sister/And smothered her two lovers/But she is trapped forever in a cell/And the key is mine
London Girls – I met a girl in London and her name was Susan and she walked with a tropical air/She had a 60s look and a paperback book that was creased with an edge of despair/We loved and we hated and we capitulated/And we led a very torrid affiar/My heart was broken several times but I just had to hang in there
And my song for St Pats day:
Grace, Jim McCann, written by two brothers from County Westmeath, where my father’s family are from, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_(Jim_McCann_song)
As we gather in the chapel here in old Kilmainham Jail
I think about these past few weeks, oh will they say we’ve failed?
From our school days they have told us we must yearn for liberty
Yet all I want in this dark place is to have you here with me
Oh Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They’ll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won’t be time to share our love for we must say goodbye
Now I know it’s hard for you my love to ever understand
The love I bare for these brave men, the love for my dear land
But when Pádraic called me to his side down in the GPO
I had to leave my own sick bed, to him I had to go
Oh, Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They’ll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I’ll place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won’t be time to share our love for we must say goodbye
Now as the dawn is breaking, my heart is breaking too
On this May morn as I walk out, my thoughts will be of you
And I’ll write some words upon the wall so everyone will know
I loved so much that I could see his blood upon the rose
Oh, Grace just hold me in your arms and let this moment linger
They’ll take me out at dawn and I will die
With all my love I’ll place this wedding ring upon your finger
There won’t be time to share our love for we must say goodbye
For we must say goodbye
Well, Rick, our most recent input in terms of this ‘walking’ thread occurred at roughly the same time. Many thanks for your fine Dave Warner’s from the Suburbs material.
Thank you, also, Rick, for your beautiful St Pats selection – some will know the true story upon which it is based (and more will if they follow your link).
Here a couple of ‘Tuesday walking’ lyrics:
Love You Til Tuesday (1967) – Bowie
‘Just look through your window, look who sits outside
Little me is waiting, standing through the night
When you walk out through your door I’ll wave my flag and shout
Oh, beautiful baby
My burning desire started on Sunday
Give me your heart and I’ll love you till Tuesday’
Tuesday Morning (2003 – Michelle Branch
‘Hoo, hoo
I remember, stormy weather
The way the sky looks when it’s cold
And you were with me, content with walking’
Thanks for your most recent Tuesday lyrics, Karl – ah yes, I do recall the early Bowie song ‘Love You Til Tuesday’, as I’m sure many of us do.
Hi KD
To keep the sub-theme trundling/stumbling along, here’s a ‘Wednesday walking’ lyric:
Wednesday Morning – America (1998)
‘Wednesday morning was the last time we talked
I guess she figured it was better if she walked
It could’ve been me just the same
There’s no winner in this game
Oh, Wednesday morning was the last time we talked’
Thanks, Karl, for this America song. Good pickup! Walking (in the sense of leaving) is certainly a strong aspect of the quoted lyrics.
We’ve been here a number of times before in the long history of our themed songlists. Here’s that moment when the list has become very long and it’s hard to believe that a particular, highly fitting song has yet to included. In this instance, it’s ‘Stumblin’ In’ by Suzi Quatro and Chris Norman (1978).
‘Charlie Brown’, written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, released by The Coasters (1959): ‘Who walks in the classroom, cool and slow? / Who calls the English teacher, Daddy-O?’
Straight Lines – Silverchair
“Wake me up, lower the fever
Walkin’ in a straight line
Set me on fire in the evenin’
Everything’ll be fine
Wakin’ up strong in the mornin’
Walkin’ in a straight line
Lately, I’m a desperate believer
But I’m walkin’ in a straight line”
Seems like Bob has been timing his entries with finesse, as we enter his 21st Century songbook and the dawning of a new song theme on Friday ~ here’s his penultimate contribution (& it’s spot on target).
Mississippi (2001 – from the ‘Love & Theft’ album)
‘Every step of the way we walk the line
Your days are numbered, so are mine
Time is pilin’ up, we struggle and we scrape
We’re all boxed in, nowhere to escape’
‘…….
Walking through the leaves, falling from the trees
Feeling like a stranger nobody sees
So many things that we never will undo
I know you’re sorry, I’m sorry too’
Thanks for ‘Straight Lines’, Swish. I’m partial to a bit of Silverchair. Of course, the band also have an album called Frogstomp, but that’s not a song title.
Thank you for Bob’s ‘Mississippi’, Karl. He’s certainly covered a great distance in relation to this theme, as we’ve indicated already.
My fave Dylan song of the last 40 years, great call Karl!
Now this lot:
Harlan County Jim Ford, this is an incredible country soul song – You know what I did folks?/I’m gonna tell ya/I put the shirt on my back/In a brown paper sack/A big piece of my Mama’s cold cornbread/I hit the road Jack/Forgot to look back/I walked all the way down to somewhere/I’ve been all over this whole wide world/I’ve slept on a northwest mounty/The coldest place, Lord, I’ve ever seen/Is the hills back in Harlan County
Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line, Waylon – Everybody knows you’ve been steppin’ on my toes/And I’m gettin’ pretty tired of it/Steppin’ out of line/And a-messin’ with my mind/If you had any sense, you’d quit
We’re Going to be Friends, The White Stripes – Fall is here, hear the yell/Back to school, ring the bell/Brand new shoes, walking blues/Climb the fence, books and pens/I can tell that we are gonna be friends/I can tell that we are gonna be friends/Walk with me, Suzy Lee/Through the park and by the tree/We will rest upon the ground/And look at all the bugs we’ve found … Tonight I’ll dream while I’m in bed/When silly thoughts go through my head/’Bout the bugs and alphabet/And when I wake tomorrow I’ll bet/That you and I will walk together again
Long Walk Back to San Antone, Junior Brown, a good 90s neo-country act – I tried to take her out of Texas because I had to move along/She changed her mind somewhere near Dallas, left me on the highway all alone/And man it sure is a long walk back to San Antone
It’s Thursday and this theme, clocking it at a very commendable 2017 entries, is on the home stretch.
My ‘Thursday walking’ song is, unsurprisingly titled:
Thursday – Pet Shop Boys (2013)
‘I never tried to make you
Walk into the deep end
And now I find myself
Awake from all the weekend’
Now, a song that has been bugging me for well over a week ~ I could hear it in my head but my memory (& google searches) failed me until late yesterday. Just happened to be the opening track of Toni Child’s debut 1988 ‘Union’ album:
Don’t Walk Away
‘Time passes slowly,/time passes on
Waiting for my man to call/When there’s no man at all
Do I stand here waiting/For the earth to turn to dust
Give up my passion/Rendering my lust
Or do I walk away
Don’t walk away
Ripping out the root of love’
Um, typo error _ i wish it was 2017 entries but a sneaky ‘0’ slipped in ~ so, the true count was 217 (now 219) but who’s counting?
Thanks for your latest choices, Rick – as interesting and thematically fitting as ever.
Thank you for the highly apt ‘Thursday’, Karl, as well as Toni Childs’ Don’t Walk Back’.
Adding to Karl’s great sub-theme:
Disco 2000, Pulp – “Let’s all meet up in the year 2000/Won’t it be strange when we’re all fully grown?/Be there two o’clock by the fountain down the road”/I never knew that you’d get married/I would be living down here on my own/On that damp and lonely Thursday, years ago/You were the first girl at school to get breasts/And Martyn said that you were the best/Oh, the boys all loved you, but I was a mess/I had to watch ’em try and get you undressed/We were friends, that was as far as it went/I used to walk you home sometimes, but it meant/Oh, it meant nothing to you/’Cause you were so popular
Sunday Love, Springsteen, from the boxset of 83 unreleased songs that came out last year, this song is Bruce going for a bit of Burt Bacharach / Jimmy Webb magic and almost getting there – Never had, I never had/I never had a Sunday love/Flowers and champagne/I never had a Sunday love/Long walks in the rain/Each night I pray, each night I pray to God above/Oh, I’ve never had a Sunday love/Monday, Monday, Monday, the alarm clock rings/I drag myself to the sink, run a razor ‘cross my chin/A spray of cologne for each sin/Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, all goes gray/’Til you come walkin’ my way/God, give me the strength to say/Tonight, maybe you’ll stay/Come the weekend, I wear out the soles of my shoes/Trying to walk off these lover’s blues/Only to end up at your door/I’ll say a prayer/Just two steps more/I never had, I never had/I never had a Sunday love
Rootie Tootie, Hank, yeah a throwaway Hanks song, obviously not written by him because it is missing the Hank trademark wit – Met my future wife today/And her name is Kathy Mae/Rootie tootie/(Rootie tootie)/Rootie tootie/(Rootie tootie)/Rootie tootie, she’s my Sunday gal/Feelin’ dandy, doin’ swell/My gal is the village belle/Hotsy-totsy/(Rootie tootie)/Super-duper/(Rootie tootie)/Rootie tootie, she’s my Monday gal/You should see the people stare/When we walk around the square/Bouncy-bouncy/(Rootie tootie)/Upsy-daisy/(Rootie tootie)/Rootie tootie, she’s my Tuesday gal
Thanks, Rock, for this threesome, including the illuminating quoted lyrics – sub-themes, as we’ve indicated before, are a fine (and often, their own way, fun) aspect of these themed songlists.
Oops, I wrote ‘Rock’ instead of ‘Rick’!
There’s a first time for everything, I suppose!
And on this lyric, Bob bids thee all a find farewell until the next theme. He has appreciated the opportunity to showcase the vast array that ‘walking’ can be infused into modern song.
Ain’t Talkin’ (2006 – Modern Times album)
‘As I walked out in the mystic garden
On a hot summer day, a hot summer lawn
Excuse me, ma’am, I beg your pardon
There’s no one here, the gardener is gone
Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
Up the road, around the bend
Heart burnin’, still yearnin’
In the last outback at the world’s end’
Just for the record, this entry equals Bob Simpson’s 2nd highest test score of 225 v England at Adelaide, January 1966.
Bob (via your good self) has done some exceptional work in relation to the walking theme – many thanks, Karl.
And you forgot to mention – not that it was really that relevant! – that the other Bob (Simpson) was also, arguably, the best slips fieldsman Australia ever had.
A final ‘weekday walking’ entry:
Paul Weller – Friday Street
‘And I see myself
And it seems so clear
I can walk through the world
Like I’m not really here’
The judge & jury will now adjourn and return once the podium winners have been determined. Stay tuned (don’t walk away!).
Thanks for ‘Friday Street’, Karl.
(And I won’t walk away in relation to the podium winners!)
A late entry
Bye Bye Pride – Go Betweens
“‘Til you take your shoes and go outside
Stride over stride
Walk to that tide
‘Cause the door is open wide
Stride over stride
Walk to that tide
Bye, bye pride
‘Cause the door is open wide
The door is always open wide
The door is always open wide”
It may be a late entry, Swish, but it’s certainly a good one! Thanks for ‘Bye Bye Pride’.