WALK THE SONGS- WEAVE A LOVE STORY

This piece is dedicated to Vinnie Mama on his 93rd birth anniversary today 21st July. He put me on my lifelong walk of songs.

On my usual stroll one evening, songs with ‘walk’ in the lyrics started humming in my mind. An idea flashed- weave them into a love story.

My story starts with a song Vinnie Mama picked up soon after joining the Navy in 1948. It went, “Said Cockin’ Finn to Moffin’ Sue, walking down 5th Avenue, so honey, have a (sniff) have a (sniff) on me, honey, have a (sniff) have a (sniff) on me.”

Now I have no idea what ‘sniff’ meant and nor did Vinnie Mama. I’ll assume that it was a drink. Sue accepted and they started dating.

Johnnie Ray now takes up and sings-

“Gee, it’s late after staying out late, walking my baby back home,

Arm in arm over meadow and farm, walking my baby back home….

We stop for a while, she gives me a smile, and cuddles her cheek to my chest,

We start in to pet, and that’s when I get, her powder all over my vest.

Just when I want to straighten my tie, she wants to borrow my comb,

One kiss and then we continue again, walking my baby back home.”

Finn is now thoroughly smitten and starts frequenting the ‘Street Where You Live’ as in “My Fair Lady”-

“I have often walked down the street before, but the pavement always stayed beneath my feet before….

Does enchantment pour out of every door? No, it’s just on the street where you live.

And oh, the towering feeling, just to know somehow you’re near,

The overpowering feeling, that any second you may suddenly appear.”

The path of love is strewn with thorns and soon they get in the way of our couple. The relationship sours and Finn makes an unsuccessful effort to forget Sue. Back to Johnnie Ray-

“Just walking in the rain, getting soaking wet, torturing my heart by trying to forget,

Just walking in the rain, so alone and blue, all because my heart still remembers you.”

Pat Boone echoes the pain in another way-

“I’m walking the floor over you, I can’t sleep a wink, that is true.

I’m hoping and I’m praying as my heart breaks right in two,

Walking the floor over you.”

As does Fats Domino-

“I’m walkin’, yes indeed…. I’m hopin’ that you’ll come back to me.

I’m lonely as I can be, I’m waiting for your company, I’m hoping that you’ll come back to me.”

When she doesn’t come back, things get acrimonious and Frankie Laine holds out a warning-

“Your cheatin’ heart will make you weep, you’ll cry and cry and try to sleep,

But sleep won’t come the whole night through….

When tears come down like fallin’ 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.”

The girl will have none of it and returns the accusation in strong words. As Nancy Sinatra says,

“….You’ve been a’messin’ where you shouldn’t ‘ve been a’messin’

And now someone else is getting all your best.

These boots are made for walkin’, and that’s just what they’ll do,

One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you.

Are you ready, boots? Start walkin’”.

Thankfully, love triumphs and the two resume walking. In the words of Rosemary Clooney,

“So I walked to my door like a good girl should, he stopped at my door like I knew he would….

He asked me for a good night kiss, I said it’s still good day.

I would have told him more except, his lips got in my way….

So I walked down the aisle like a good girl should,

He followed me down the aisle like I knew he would.”

Now together, Finn and Sue are dreaming of kids toddling along in their home  listening to Henry Mancini’s delightful and cheerful fun song, “Baby Elephant Walk.”

Finn pledges his devotion to Sue and reassures her in the words of Johnny Cash in “I Walk The Line”,

“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.”

All of us need someone to watch over us from above and provide us with hope, comfort and encouragement, and so do they. This is expressed brilliantly by Rodgers and Hammerstein in their unforgettable musical “Carousel”-

“When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high,

And don’t be afraid of the dark.

At the end of storm is a golden sky, and the sweet silver song of a lark.

Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain,

Tho’ your dreams be tossed and blown, walk on, walk on,

With hope in your heart and you’ll never walk alone,

You’ll never walk alone.”

P.S. Aside from this story, I simply have to include a bittersweet song of old, “Walkin’ To Missouri” with somewhat ‘punny’ lyrics warning one not to be profligate and live too high a life but to be kind to someone who does and falls into bad times..

“Poor little robin, walkin’, walkin’, walkin’ to Missouri, he can’t afford to fly.

Got a penny for, a poor little robin, walkin, walkin’, walkin’ to Missouri, got a teardrop in his eye….

He flew from his old Missouri home, he fell right into the city ways….”

Then he falls in love with ‘a real bird of paradise’ who breaks his heart and finally,

“His dreams are battered, his feathers bent, now he hasn’t got a cent….

So if he ever walks up to you, please throw him a crumb or two,

‘Cause you could have made the same mistake.”