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Streetwalking songs — 38 Comments

  1. The Road goes ever on and on,
    Down from the door where it began…

    The Highwayman came riding, riding…

    In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle,
    That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde…

    There is something evocative about roads in general. People moving along roads, how they are moving and the kind of road it is, also conveys poetic information to us.

  2. “Walk Away, Renee” – – the pain and loneliness so rawly, beautifully done. If this has happened to you, such a personal song.

  3. She walked up to me
    And she asked me to dance
    I asked her her name
    And in a dark brown voice
    She said, “Lola”
    L-O-LA Lola
    Lo Lo Lo Lo-la

    Well I’m not dumb
    But I can’t understand
    Why she walked like a woman
    But talked like a man.

  4. Tonawanda – that was my band’s signature retro song in the 70’s – we were the first to do 60’s retro. We looked at Sha-Na-Na doing 50’s throwbacks, said “it won’t be long before the 60’s get the same treatment” and thought Why not us? The song sounds sounds so personal because it has just a touch of a whine. Linda Ronstadt’s “Long, Long, Time” has the same quality, just below the edge where you’d notice – unless you have to sing it four times in one day, six days a week, at King’s Dominion.

    Paul from Houston tells me my link here is wrong. It must have been so for years. Fixed now.

  5. one thing is to look how musics subject has changed. i have mentioned this before.
    it went from love songs and songs of life, into what we have now.. narcissistic dreams, nihilism, etc…

    some of the best are most vile in the mental state they imply is normal..

    and you can add james taylor, walking man…

    and if you want old songs…

    those caissons go rolling along
    [also over hill over dale]
    When the saints go marching in

    I can literally list hundreds (from memory) if i take the time..

    fun ones to add
    stray cat strut
    walk on the wild side
    walk this way [talk this way]
    Walk On By (a fav from the past)
    Walking Slow

    Boulevard Of Broken Dreams (?)

    and cant forget jim croce
    walking back to georgia… 🙂

  6. and for interesting trivia, look up the reasoning behind the song. darling save the last dance for me.

  7. Artfldgr: “Walk On By” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” are already on the list I posted, with video links.

  8. There was a song in “Good Morning Vietnam” that I really liked. I thought the name was “Prima Ballerina”. That is, until now. I found it after clicking on “Walk Away Renee”. The real name is “Pretty Ballerina”. Thanks for the post, Neo!

  9. how could i miss them?
    like a gorilla on a basketball court with a red hat. 🙂

  10. In a more rustic vein: Dirt Road Blues by Bob Dylan

    Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
    Gon’ walk down that dirt road, ’til someone lets me ride
    If I can’t find my baby, I’m gonna run away and hide

    I been pacing around the room hoping maybe she’d come back
    Pacing ’round the room hoping maybe she’d come back
    Well, I been praying for salvation laying ’round in a one room country shack

    Gon’ walk down that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed
    Gon’ walk down that dirt road until my eyes begin to bleed
    ‘Til there’s nothing left to see, ’til the chains have been shattered and I’ve been freed

    I been lookin’ at my shadow, I been watching the colors up above
    Lookin’ at my shadow watching the colors up above
    Rolling through the rain and hail, looking for the sunny side of love

    Gon’ walk on down that dirt road ’til I’m right beside the sun
    Gon’ walk on down until I’m right beside the sun
    I’m gonna have to put up a barrier to keep myself away from everyone.

  11. I did not recall Dionne Warwick’s “Walk on By.” I was more familiar wsith Walk on By , by Leroy Van Dyke. Same title, different song, different genre.

    Other songs I recalled have been already covered on the DOT website.

  12. Neo:

    You do have “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”…

    But my favorite is “Love is Just Four letter Word” by either Dylan or Joan Baez.

    I played it on the 33rpm – full volume – and then proposed. Told her she was taking a chance.

    She accepted – soon fifty years ago.

  13. Since this post went up, the format of your front page just went to hell, when viewed by Firefox.

    If I switch it to an IE tab, it appears normal.

    Is anyone else encountering this?

  14. Don’t know how old it is, but a cheerful song “sunny side of the street”. One line is “If I never had a cent, I’d be rich as Rockefeller”. Or something like that.. I’ve never looked it up, just listened on stations that play stuff by Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, and Steve and Edie.

  15. How very nice Neo,
    Perhaps Robt. Earl Keene The road goes on forever and the party never ends.

  16. Who’s tripping down the streets of the city
    Smilin’ at everybody she sees
    Who’s reachin’ out to capture a moment
    Everyone knows it’s Windy

    — Windy, The Association

    How I miss melody in pop music…

  17. Here’s a beauty from Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span fame. Few people know it and that’s a shame.

    Somewhere along the road
    Someone waits for me
    Beyond these present storms that blow
    Waiting patiently
    No secrets held in an open heart
    A spirit that soars over mountains
    Somewhere along the road
    Someone waits for me

    Somewhere Along the Road, Maddy Prior

  18. The clincher in “He’s a Rebel,” if you ask me, comes in the last verse:

    “If they don’t like him that way
    They won’t like me after today
    I’ll be standing right by his side…”

    The late Gene Pitney wrote this, and it still enchants, all these years later, despite the total absence of actual Crystals on the record. (Phil Spector hurriedly cut this with the Blossoms – that’s Darlene Love on lead – in an effort to beat a rival version by Vikki Carr to the charts.)

  19. Listening to “Walk Away, Renee” sent me to “Pretty Ballerina,” which was the B side of the 45. Both these songs were so beautiful and serious in a way that only youth can be serious. What I feel listening to them now is more than nostalgia, which can be a falsifying emotion. It’s a true re-experiencing of emotion, a collapsing of time.

  20. mizpants: You may be pleased to know I’ve been researching “Walk Away Renee” and am so fascinated by what I’ve found that I plan a post on just that song. Coming soon to a blog near you.

  21. “The late Gene Pitney wrote this”

    Pitney, aka “The Rockville Rocket” was one of the few pop stars from central Connecticut where I grew up. He had a number of memorable hits from the era including “Town Without Pity”, “It Hurts to be in Love”, “Half Heaven, Half Heartache”, “Every Breath I Take” and many others.

  22. Ooooh! Huxley beat me to posting “Windy!” That was one of the first I thought of and it’s a favorite! (Once you hear it, you will be listening to it for days in your head!!!!!!

    Girl From Ipanema was another natural, and popped into my head immediately!

    And one of my other “most favorites:” Downtown, sung by Petula Clark

    When you’re alone and life is making you lonely
    You can always go – downtown
    When you’ve got worries, all the noise and the hurry
    Seems to help, I know – downtown
    Just listen to the music of the traffic in the city
    Linger on the sidewalk where the neon signs are pretty
    How can you lose?

    The lights are much brighter there
    You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
    So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
    Downtown – no finer place, for sure
    Downtown – everything’s waiting for you

    Don’t hang around and let your problems surround you
    There are movie shows – downtown
    Maybe you know some little places to go to
    Where they never close – downtown
    Just listen to the rhythm of a gentle bossa nova
    You’ll be dancing with him too before the night is over
    Happy again

    The lights are much brighter there
    You can forget all your troubles, forget all your cares
    So go downtown, where all the lights are bright
    Downtown – waiting for you tonight
    Downtown – you’re gonna be all right now

    [Instrumental break]

    And you may find somebody kind to help and understand you
    Someone who is just like you and needs a gentle hand to
    Guide them along

    So maybe I’ll see you there
    We can forget all our troubles, forget all our cares
    So go downtown, things’ll be great when you’re
    Downtown – don’t wait a minute for
    Downtown – everything’s waiting for you

    Downtown, downtown, downtown, downtown …

    Finally, Dionne Warwick singing just about anything — particularly anything by Burt Bacharach, is just the thing to send me back to a time and place I remember as special (even if I was then just an itty bitty thing thrilled to take ANYTHING my most revered neighbors –all the really cool older kids!) bequeathed to me…when their parents demanded pre-college closet clean outs!

    Fun post, neo…

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