I was listening to the song “Walking in Memphis” today, and the line comes up in the song “Walking with my feet ten feet off the Beale” or “Beal” whatever the correct spelling of it is.
So what on earth is a Beale?
Thanks in advance.
Beale refers to Beale Street in Memphis which is known as “the home of the blues” according to Tenneseans and tourists alike.
Here’s a link: Beale Street.
I’ve been there once, and if you like live jazz, blues, and old-time R&R, this is the place to be.
Short answer: Beale St. is a thoroughfare in Memphis that has been home to clubs, music studios, and the music business in general, especially for black performers, for decades. Music history happened there. W.C. Handy wrote maybe the first blues song there.
It’s gotten commercialized, of course, in recent years, as this Beale St. link shows. Still, click on the "If Beale Street Could Talk link for more history.
As Exapno says, the reference is to Memphis’ famed Beale Street.
Basically, the song is about the thrill Marc Cohn got from visiting Memphis, the city where so many of his musical heroes had lived and played. He was walking on air the whole time, thinking “Wow, THIS is where Elvis lived… this is where W.C. Handy popularized the blues… this is where Sam & Dave, Booker T & the MGs, all the greats of soul got started.”
The final verse, however, isn’t QUITE about Memphis. The final verse is about a trip Cohn made to the Hollywood Cafe, in Robinsonville, Mississippi. “Muriel,” who has passed away since that song was a hit, was a pianist and singer there. Apparently, she sang gospel so thrillingly that even Cohn (who’s Jewish, and in theory, shouldn’t be singing Christian gospel songs) couldn’t help getting swept away by her fervor.
I went up to Beale Street last weekend and got so drunk I don’t remember getting beat up.
If you ever go there, have BBQ for your first meal. You won’t want to eat anything else while you are there. West Tennessee has the absolute best in the world. I live in Middle Tennessee and a BBQ place opened near me that made it reputation from claiming it tasted “like West Tennessee barbecue.”
IIRC, Riley King was nicknamed “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which eventually was shortened to “BB.” BB King.
No kidding! I’ve been past that place, on the way to the casinos in Tunica. I never would have made the connection to that song.
Moved to CS.
-xash
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