Marc Cohn’s “Walking in Memphis” is a 1991 song about a trip he took to Memphis as a struggling songwriter, hoping the city’s musical history might shake him out of a creative rut. He ended up leaving with more than he expected.
Below is a section-by-section breakdown of the lyrics in “Walking in Memphis.”
- Song: Walking in Memphis
- Artist: Marc Cohn
- Songwriter: Marc Cohn
- Released: 1991
- Album: Marc Cohn
- Genre: Soft rock, Pop
What Is “Walking in Memphis” About?
Verse 1: Arriving with Baggage
Put on my blue suede shoes
And I boarded the plane
He arrived dressed for the occasion, the way any serious Elvis fan would.
Blue suede shoes are a nod to the Elvis classic, worn here as an act of reverence before his journey begins.
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues
In the middle of the pouring rain
The Mississippi Delta is where the blues is believed to have been born.
Arriving in the rain sets a mood that’s far from triumphant.
W.C. Handy
Won’t you look down over me?
W.C. Handy is known as the Father of the Blues, and Cohn is invoking him like a patron saint of the genre, asking for guidance as a musician arriving in his spiritual homeland.
Yeah, I’ve got a first class ticket
But I’m as blue as a boy can be
Cohn took this trip in 1985 during a desperate period of writer’s block, convinced he might never write anything worth recording.
Chorus: Ten Feet Off Beale
Then I’m walking in Memphis
I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Beale Street is the most famous street in Memphis, home to a statue of W.C. Handy and a city block that became the beating heart of American blues.
Feeling “ten feet off the ground” means he feels like he’s right where he’s supposed to be.
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel?
The feeling is so overwhelming that he has to question it.
He went looking for inspiration and found something bigger.
Verse 2: The Ghost of Elvis
Saw the ghost of Elvis
On Union Avenue
Union Avenue is where Sam Phillips ran the studio that launched Elvis’ career.
Cohn is following the ghost of an origin story.
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland
Then I watched him walk right through
Elvis walked through his own gates, but Cohn had to stop at the entrance.
This could be pointing out Elvis’ immortality, or it could be a way of saying that Cohn hasn’t come close to making it in the industry yet.
Now security they did not see him
They just hovered around his tomb
This is probably another way of saying Elvis’ spirit is still very “there” in the house.
But there’s a pretty little thing
Waiting for the King
Down in the Jungle Room
As Cohn tours the house, he imagines Priscilla waiting for Elvis in the Jungle Room.
Bridge: A Prayer in Memphis
They’ve got catfish on the table
They’ve got gospel in the air
Food and faith are the hospitality of the South.
This is the scene at Reverend Al Green’s Full Gospel Tabernacle church, where Cohn had been told to go.
And Reverend Green be glad to see you
When you haven’t got a prayer
Cohn has described sitting in Al Green’s service for three hours, sweating and crying, completely undone by what he was hearing.
Green had left soul music in 1976 to become an ordained Baptist minister, and his church was something else entirely.
But boy you’ve got a prayer in Memphis
Whatever you felt like you were missing, you have a chance to find it in Memphis.
Verse 3: Muriel
Now Muriel plays piano
Every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her
The Hollywood Cafe was a small club in Robinsonville, Mississippi, about 35 miles outside of Memphis.
Muriel Davis Wilkins was a retired schoolteacher who played piano there on Friday nights. Cohn was told he had to see her.
And they asked me if I would
Do a little number
And I sang with all my might
He ended up onstage with a woman he’d never met, singing gospel songs he barely knew while she fed him the lyrics.
They closed the night with “Amazing Grace.”
She said
“Tell me are you a Christian child?”
And I said
“Ma’am I am tonight”
Cohn is Jewish, not Christian. But in that moment, in that room, with that woman, the distinction didn’t matter.
Cohn later said the line could only have been written by a Jew, and that he was proud to have practically announced his religion on the very first song he ever released.
“Walking in Memphis” Song Meaning: More Than a Trip to Memphis
Cohn has described “Walking in Memphis” as being about a Jewish gospel music lover who went to Memphis and came home transformed.
He arrived in Memphis feeling blue with writer’s block. He left having sat in Al Green’s church for three hours in tears, followed the ghost of Elvis to Graceland, and was told by a stranger that it was okay to let go.
The trip was supposed to help him write. It ended up doing a lot more than that.
Songs Like “Walking in Memphis”
Here are some songs with similar themes:
1. “Graceland” by Paul Simon
“Graceland” is about Simon’s own pilgrimage to Memphis in 1986. He was also stuck and looking for something he couldn’t name.
Related: Best Songs About Buildings
2. “Take Me to the River” by Al Green
Green wrote this 1974 track about wanting to be washed clean of everything that had a hold on him.
3. “The Weight” by The Band
The Band’s 1968 classic follows a traveler passing through a small town, picking up other people’s burdens along the way and wondering who’s going to carry his.
Related: “The Weight” Meaning
Conclusion
Cohn went to Memphis convinced he had nothing left as a songwriter. He came back and wrote the most important song of his career.
Most people who’ve heard “Walking in Memphis” dozens or even hundreds of times have no idea any of it actually happened.
Check out more 1990s Song Meanings!
