WALKING IN MEMPHIS - Marc Cohn | classical musician's first time reaction & analysis

Comments · 302

• SI

  @SirHairless · 5 months ago · pinned

  Make sure to check out this one, also from the 90s, next 👀 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ThkfgGmYIv8">https://youtu.be/ThkfgGmYIv8</a>

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• PE

  @Peter-oh3hc · 5 months ago

  “Tell me are you a Christian child and I said “ma’am I a-a-a-m tonight “”. Makes me smile every time

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• FA

  @fatimasoares7261 · 5 months ago

  Bruce Hornsby, &quot;The way it is&quot;.

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• BA

  @BAD46660 · 5 months ago

  Few ever mention that the Reverend Green he references is actually American R&amp;B Soul singer Al Green who became a reverend later in life in Memphis.

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• AL

  @alaneolson1040 · 5 months ago

  I still get goosebumps when I hear this song. &nbsp;It&apos;s so well done. &nbsp;I really enjoyed your analysis and reaction, thank you.

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• DI

  @dianel222 · 5 months ago

  Referenced W.C. Handy, The Father of Blues.

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• CH

  @chelseahaley8350 · 5 months ago

  This song will forever be a banger!

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• RA

  @rachelmichele12 · 5 months ago (edited)

  Here are some Behind the Music notes. <br><br>Marc Cohn has said &quot;Walking in Memphis&quot; is &quot;100% autobiographical,&quot; detailing a &quot;spiritual awakening&quot; during a 1985 trip to Memphis. <br><br>The song is filled with real Memphis locations and figures. Beale Street, W.C. Handy, and Al Green are all name-checked. &quot;Muriel&quot; refers to Muriel Wilkins, a gospel singer who performed at the Hollywood Cafe near Memphis. <br><br>Cohn, who is Jewish, finds it ironic that he wrote a song with such strong gospel influences. He loves that the line &quot;Tell me are you a Christian child? Ma&apos;am, I am tonight&quot; could only come from a Jewish perspective. <br><br>Cohn was deeply moved by hearing Al Green sing in church, an experience that influenced &quot;Walking in Memphis.&quot; <br><br>Five years before &quot;Walking in Memphis,&quot; Cohn played at Caroline Kennedy&apos;s wedding after Carly Simon recommended him.

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• ST

  @stevesingkofer8879 · 5 months ago (edited)

  ⚫⚪ I visited Memphis last year with this song absolutely top of mind. It&apos;s all still there exactly as seen in the video, including a tribute to this song on Beale Street. There&apos;s even a physical line painted on the tribute wall marking the height at &quot;ten feet off of Beale.&quot;

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• SC

  @scwlc · 5 months ago

  I think the offset is serious rather than playful. That is, it&apos;s about his internal sense of being unsettled. When the beat drops, when the gospel choir comes in, these are moments where the lyrics suggest he is feeling uplifted or more settled. It opens with him arriving in Memphis, suffering from his writer&apos;s block. When he&apos;s walking up to Graceland and sees the &apos;ghost&apos; of Elvis, the line, &quot;There&apos;s a pretty little thing waiting for the King, down in the Jungle Room,&quot; sure the instrumentation drops out, but it&apos;s a triumphal sound, nonetheless with the second voice in harmony. It&apos;s a moment when he sees something that stabilises or uplifts him.<br><br>When we have the scene with Muriel, it starts with him uncertain, reflected in those offset arpeggios, but again becomes triumphant. We then get the choir during the chorus.<br><br>But there&apos;s a constant underpinning to the song, lyrically, which is a sense of uncertainty. &quot;. . . but do I really feel the way I feel?&quot;<br><br>So, musically it comes back around. Just as he asks over and over again if this is a &apos;real&apos; feeling or something brought on by being surrounded by this music he loves (Gospel/blues), in this trip that is a pilgrimage to a place that in some musical circles could be seen as holy (to drag that metaphor out unnecessarily), is he having a true transformative experience or just being caught up in a Moment?<br><br>And the song slows to a resolution, but leaves on those unsettled chords because we&apos;ve looped back to that beginning uncertainty. His trip is over, but he&apos;s right back where he started, just as unsettled.<br><br>Or, y&apos;know, something like that.

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• DV

  @dvsuperstar1234 · 3 weeks ago

  One of my favorite songs ever. &nbsp;Great reaction and analysis.

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• LA

  @LarryClement · 5 months ago

  This song has one of the great lyrics &nbsp;&quot;Tell me are you a Christian son, I said Ma&apos;am I am tonight&quot;. &nbsp; &nbsp;The Muriel who said that and helped him over his writer&apos;s block attended Marc&apos;s wedding sometime later.

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