Het lied waarmee de Amerikaanse singer/songwriter Marc Cohn bekend werd is Walking In Memphis van zijn debuutalbum uit 1992. Hij speelt het hier tijdens een optreden in Austin in hetzelfde jaar.

Het nummer gaat over een Joodse gospel music lover die spiritueel geïnspireerd raakt door een reis naar Memphis in 1985. Hij gaat op pad nadat hij had gelezen dat James Taylor een writer’s block had overwonnen door naar een plaats te gaan waar hij nog nooit was geweest. Bovendien was het de plek waar zijn favoriete muziek vandaan kwam, zoals die van Al Green, Ann Peebles, Elvis Presley & Isaac Hayes. Een vriend raadde hem aan om tijdens zijn reis twee bijzondere gospelconcerten bij te wonen.

Als eerste was dat een gospeldienst van the reverend Al Green in de Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis op zondagochtend. Cohn zegt er over: “I had chills running up and down my spine. The service was so deeply moving that I found myself with sweat running down my face and tears in my eyes, totally enveloped by everything I was seeing and hearing. There was something incredibly powerful about Al Green’s voice in that context. Even after three hours of continuous singing, his voice only got stronger and his band only got better. “I sat there crying in the church, aware of the irony of how I used to cry in Synagogue in Cleveland as a kid because I wanted to get the heck out of there! Al Green’s service was one of the great experiences of my life.”

Daarna ging Marc Cohn naar een optreden van gospelzangeres Muriel Davis Wilkins (1923-1990) in het Hollywood Cafe in Robinsonville, in Tunica County in de Mississippi delta, 35 mijl ten zuiden van Memphis. Zij was een lerares die met pensioen was en op vrijdagavond optrad in het café. Hij vertelt het verhaal van die ontmoeting hier zelf: “When I arrived, Muriel, who was in her 60s, was onstage playing a beat-up old upright piano and singing gospel standards. I felt an immediate connection to her voice, her spirit, her face, and her smile. I was totally transfixed by her music. While many of the patrons were busy eating and not paying close attention to Muriel, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. During her breaks, the two of us would talk. Muriel was real curious, she seemed to have some kind of intuition about me, and asked me why I was there. I told her I was a songwriter trying to find inspiration. I also told her a little bit about my childhood — how when I was two and a half years old, my mom had passed away very unexpectedly, and about ten years later, my dad had passed away and I’d been raised by a stepmother. My mother’s death was a central event in my life, and I’d been writing a lot about it over the years, both in songs and in journals. I think a part of me felt stuck in time, like I’d never quite been able to work through that loss. By midnight, the Hollywood was still packed, and Muriel asked me to join her onstage. We soon realized that there wasn’t a song in the universe that both of us knew in common. A quick thinker, Muriel started feeding me by yelling lyrics to gospel songs, so that I could catch up in time to sing somewhat in rhythm with her and make up my own version of the melody. Some songs I was vaguely familiar with, and some I didn’t know at all. The very last song we sang together that night was Amazing Grace. Then at the end, as the applause was rising up, Muriel leaned over and whispered in my ear: ‘You’ve got to let go of your mother child, she didn’t mean to die, she’s where she’s got to be and you’re where you have to be. Child you can let go now, it’s time for you to move on.’ It was an incredibly maternal thing for her to say to me. Just like sitting in Reverend Al Green’s church, I was again transformed. From the time I left Memphis and went back home to New York City, I knew I had a song in me about my experience there.”

De reis naar Memphis had zo voor Marc Cohn de gedroomde uitkomst. Het was een “spiritual awakening” voor hem en zijn bijzondere ervaringen inspireerden hem tot het schrijven van zijn schitterende lied Walking In Memphis.

Walking In Memphis
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 first class ticket,
but I’m as blue as a boy can be.

Then I’m walking in Memphis.
Walking with my feet ten feet 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.
And then I watched him walk right through.
Now security they did not see him,
they just hovered around his tomb.
But there’s a pretty little thing
waiting for the King,
just right down in the Jungle Room.

Walking in Memphis.
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale.
Walking in Memphis.
But do I really feel the way I feel?

They’ve got catfish on the table.
They’ve got gospel in the air.
And Reverend Green be glad to see you.
When you have not got a prayer.
But boy you’ve got a prayer in Memphis.

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 then I sang with all of my might.
She said “Tell me are you a Christian child?”
And I said “Ma’am, I am tonight”.

Walking in Memphis.
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale.
Walking in Memphis.
But do I really feel the way I feel?

Walking in Memphis.
And I was walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale.
Walking in Memphis.
Do I really feel the way I feel?

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.
Touched down in the land of the Delta Blues,
in the middle of the pouring down rain.

Ik ben een groot fan van de Amerikaanse singer/songwriter Marc Cohn sinds ik in 1991 zijn nummer Perfect Love op de radio hoorde. Wat een fantastische stem. En toen kwam opeens ook nog James Taylor voorbij die meezong. Ik was gelijk verkocht en heb zijn eerste album uit dat jaar veel gedraaid, met heerlijke nummers als Walking In Memphis, Strangers In A Car en Silver Thunderbird.

Onlangs vond ik tot mijn grote vreugde een opname van een optreden uit 1992 samen met de geweldige gitarist Jeff Pevar, die o.a samenspeelde met James Taylor, Rickie Lee Jones, Ray Charles, Joe Cocker & Donald Fagen. Ze spelen hier Ghost Train en ik vind het weer helemaal top!

Ghost Train
Everybody talks about some fateful day.
I guess that this was mine.
I may be here to tell some kind of story,
but I think it’s gonna take a little time.
That’s all right.

See I’m rocking in a cradle,
down the hall somewhere
and I am lost inside a dream.
Maybe I am falling, maybe I am flying,
but I know if I am crying she is holding me.

And then the sky broke up,
and then the rain came down,
and it washed away everything on the ground.
Wash it away, wash it away, wash it away.

Now baby’s got that bottle
filled with lightning and rain.
He keeps calling out for someone,
but she’s riding on a train.
Riding on the ghost train.

And she keeps on riding.
She’s gonna keep on riding on.
Mama keep on riding.
You’ve got to keep on riding.

Some trains they leave there in the morning.
Some leave in the afternoon.
Some trains they leave here right on time.
And some they just leave too soon.
Way too soon.

But I’ve gotta keep on.
For as long as I can.

Baby’s got that bottle
filled with lightning and rain.
And he keeps calling out for someone,
but she’s riding on a train.
Riding on the ghost train

But every night she was riding.
You’ve gotta keep on riding on.
Momma keeps on riding.

Baby’s got that bottle
filled with lightning and rain.
And he keeps calling out for someone,
but she’s riding on a train.
Riding on the ghost train.