Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)

Subject: ADD: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 01 Apr 15 - 09:11 PM

I'm on working on Marc Cohn's "Walkin' in Memphis" for the upcoming Rise Again Songbook. To me, what makes this song so good is the piano accompaniment. It's four notes, over and over again - but what are those haunting notes?
Can anybody find an online recording of this song with guitar accompaniment that is just as effective?

Here are the lyrics I have. Any corrections? Any suggestions for chords?

WALKING IN MEMPHIS
(Marc Cohn)

Put on my blue suede shoes and I boarded the plane
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues in the middle of the pouring rain
W.C. Handy, won't you look down over me?
Yeah, I got a 1st class ticket but I'm as blue as a boy can be
Then I'm walking in Memphis, walking with my feet 10 ft off of Beale
Walking in Memphis but do I really feel the way I feel?

Saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue
Followed him up to the gates of Graceland then I watched him walk right through
Now security they did not see him, they just hovered 'round his tomb
But there's a pretty little thing waiting for the King down in the Jungle Room

(bridge) They've got catfish on the table, they've got gospel in the air
And Rev. Green be glad to see you when you haven't got a prayer
But boy you've got a prayer in Memphis

Now Muriel plays piano, every Friday at the Hollywood
And they brought me down to see her and they asked me if I would
Do a little number and I sang with all my might
And she said "Tell me are you a Christian child?" and I said "Ma'am I am tonight!"

Marc Cohn

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 01:47 AM

Loads of chords and tab only a Google search away -
For example, here

It's a neat twist on the old I VIm IV V for most of the time. Some nice chords in the bridge to add some spice.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 07:58 AM

Sheet music here.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 12:36 PM

The chord vamp is:

F-G-C-Am

The repeating notes are (surprise, surprise!) F-G-C-A-

In the interest of full disclosure, the bridge vamps from Bb-C four times, then goes E7-F-F#dim G7 and then no chord, then pops back to the vamp.

Calle Kristiansson does a nice version with a guitar accompaniment, but it is a half-step higher, same relative chords, though--

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 01:55 PM

Calle Kristiansson doing it on YouTube.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 08:52 PM

Thanks for posting that, GUEST#.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 02 Apr 15 - 09:32 PM

You're welcome, Stim.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 12:53 AM

Thanks a lot for that link, # and Stim. It's just what I was looking for. I couldn't imagine that the song would work with anything other than the wonderful piano accompaniment on the Marc Cohn recording. The guitar does work quite well on the Kristiansson recording, but I still like the piano better. It's a very simple but haunting chord progression. It will be the melody of my life for the next several hours.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 07:46 AM

Some songs or snippets of music do that to ya. The watermelon song did that to me a few weeks back. Unfortunately, all I could remember of it was

"Down by the bay (echo twice on 'by the bay')
Where the watermelon grows (repeat in descending bass line)"

Get that running through the boombox of yer brain at 2:37 AM. It'll happen to everyone at some point or other. The only advice I'd offer is to pick a good song or melody. The watermelon song was for demonstration purposes only. Don't try that at home . . .

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,Stim
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 01:22 PM

LOL, GUEST,#! I've had that same little snippet run through my brain, as well.

The truth is that musicians are simple-minded folk whose pleasure in life is to play those little bits over and over again...

And if you like that one, Joe, do you rememberBecause the Night ?

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: GUEST,#
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 01:58 PM

I like that, Stim.

I'm much the same about Badfinger's "Baby Blue" and the nine notes that end the brief intro. I always wrote it off to me being nuts. I'm very relieved to know it happens to others :-)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: michaelr
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 07:21 PM

Joe, I can't help but wonder why you'd want to include a pop song in a folk songbook.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 07:37 PM

Well, Michael -

Hal Leonard has a Folksong Fake Book still in print, and the out-of-print Folksinger's Wordbook and Oak publications are all folk - but Rise Up Singing wasn't purely folk. This one, Rise Again, has even less folk. There are chapters titled "British Invasion," "Motown," "Rock Around the Clock," and "Surf." Oh, and a chapter titled "Millennials." I confess that I love to sing a lot of the songs in four of those five chapters; and they work very well for group singing, which is the purpose of the songbook. I imagine we'll have fun singing "Walking in Memphis," which is our purpose.

I don't choose the songs - I just research 'em. And I confess the book includes many songs, particularly "singer-songwriter" songs, that I don't like and probably won't sing. If I were editor instead of researcher, the book would be entirely folk - perhaps with an appendix for "British Invasion," "Motown," "Rock Around the Clock," and "Surf."

-Joe-

Subject: RE: Tune Req: Walkin' in Memphis (MarcCohn)
From: michaelr
Date: 03 Apr 15 - 09:27 PM

Thanks for clarifying, Joe.