A very catchy song completely dis served by the sports footage based music video.
I understand that it’s about street musicians, and a lot of the lyrics are referencing songs commonly played by buskers.
But WTF is “I got a woman down in the tunnels trying to make it pay”?
Is Johnny some kind of coal miners’ pimp?
Here comes Johnny singing I Got A Woman (by Ray Charles and covered by the Beatles) down in the (subway) tunnels, trying to make it pay (trying to get his singing of that song to cause people to give him money)
No, underground tunnels. Like for subways and such. Johnny could be singing about a hooker working in the tunnels.
Yeah I suppose changing the pauses and punctuation helps.
You are conflating two different references.
Here comes Johnny singing oldies, goldies
Be, bop, a, lua, baby, what I say
Here comes Johnny singing I gotta woman
Down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay
“I gotta woman” is referencing a song Johnny is singing. “Down in the tunnels…” is describing where Johnny is busking, ie the London Underground tunnels.
Ninja’d by everybody.
“I Got a Woman” is a Ray Charles song.
The original (British) video featured a busker in a tunnel.
Is there a list of all the songs alluded to in the lyrics?
And what is the walk of life anyway?
I always took it to mean your life, and the path you choose.
“I Got a Woman” (Ray Charles)
“Be-Bop-A-Lula” (Gene Vincent)
“What’d I Say” (Ray Charles)
“My Sweet Lovin’ Woman” (Robert Nighthawk)
“Mack the Knife” (Bobby Darin having the most pop-based cover)
See post #2.
Yeah, I posted while post #2 was being edited.
…that video completely flips the internal context my brain associated with that song. The sports version never made any dang sense 
I think the organ intro gives it a sort of “baseball music” connotation.
Well, in a very general sense, you see all the baseball players screwing up and making mistakes, which has nothing to do with a busker but does have to do with what one might call the “Walk of Life” that is life’s constant struggle. Which is why the last chorus has the players making good plays at the end.
It’s a stretch, but I always liked seeing Ozzie Smith in there.
Also some folks may recognize it as the sample hook in Kanye’s “Gold Digger.”
Having just watched the original British video, I see there are people of lots of different social groups, ages, and occupations walking past Johnny in the tunnel – people from all walks of life. That’s got to be intentional word play there.