The Epic Track: “Walk of Life”

Editor’s Note: There are certain tracks that are, well, “epic” — memorable, larger than life, carved into music history. In this series, we look at one of them.

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Dire Straits was already a successful band with four albums under their belt when their 1985 Brothers in Arms LP rocketed them into the next dimension, selling 30 million albums worldwide. Helmed by songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist Mark Knopfler, the British band took their expertise into the realm of the MTV/VH-1 generation. Their witty single “Money for Nothing” was a video masterpiece. Knopfler (with help from Sting) took a conversation from a disgruntled worker that he’d overheard in an appliance store and turned it into a global hit.

But another Brothers in Arms track, “Walk of Life,” made a lasting impression on the masses as well. Charting at #7, “Walk of Life” is an affectionate ode to “Johnny,” a subterranean busker who plays guitar, caring more about the music than the money.

“Walk of Life” lures the listener in with a long synth keyboard intro (courtesy of Alan Clark) that combines Cajun music, church, and old-timey swing.  Knopfler serves up a series of “whoo hoos” and tells us about Johnny, the tunnel musician who keeps body and soul scotch-taped together while playing the old classics.

The muse for the piece was a specific image of an underground busker that stuck with Knopfler; he related to the young man’s efforts to maximize his sound in a way that he himself did in his early days. As he reported to Classic Rock in 2015: “I saw a photograph of a kid playing a guitar in a subway, turning his face to the wall to get a good reverb. When I started playing the guitar, because I didn’t have an amplifier, I’d put the head of the guitar on the arm of a chair and put my head on the guitar to try and get into a loud noise. It kind of reminded me of that, I suppose.” His empathic connection to this particular guitarist yielded the character of Johnny, a young man “down in the tunnels trying to make it pay.”

Mediocre street musicians are a dime a dozen, but Johnny has the “action, the motion…the dedication and devotion” to give his playing a special quality – “turning all the nighttime into the day” – as he shares his musical mojo with fellow tunnel inhabitants.

Johnny’s determination, combined with the stellar band work and catchy riffs, lifted “Walk of Life” beyond the mere B-side it was intended to be. There’s an ageless element to the melody but it wears a timestamp with the vintage tunes referenced in “Walk of Life”: “Be Bop a Lula,” “What’d I Say,” “I Got a Woman,” “My Sweet Lovin’ Woman” and “Mack the Knife.” These are standards that any 80s busker would be expected to trot out.

Dire Straits produced two videos for “Walk of Life,” one in the UK and one stateside. The UK version is close to a literal adaptation of the story: a young man playing in the tunnels to the accompaniment of commuter reactions, a small rain of bills and coins in his guitar case…and the arrival of the police, who shut him down and walk him off. Interspersed is footage of Dire Straits playing live.

Knopfler had something else in mind for the U.S. video, blending live footage with sports bloopers. The blunders might seem unmatched to the song’s theme, but they’re a hoot to watch. The live footage of Dire Straits is pure charisma with the band’s virtuoso back-up and Knopfler at his most appealing.

Both videos honor the wonderful “Walk of Life” in different ways. The English version is quirky and true to the narrative. And the U.S. rendition, with its celebration of gifted athletes giving it their all and flubbing it in the process, is a fair take on the “walk of life” that we all do in our daily lives.

“Walk of Life” is a classic that goes down easy, saluting the people taking risks and seeing where things land. It’s a life-affirming rapture of a song.

-Ellen Fagan

Photo: Getty Images