I’ve always been a Walker … not in the Walking Dead way, more in a fay
Thoreau way.
I just got lucky, I suppose. I was brought up on the edge of ‘Ravine Park’ in the heart of Manchester and spent most summer days down among the dumped trolleys and detritus in the ravine with my dog, There were drunks, tramps and preacher men down there, they went by like old flickering films.
I guess by disassembling their minds, sneering at bricks and mortar or bashing a Biblical story of redemption, they felt they weren’t walking the line.
But they were.
The line is always there, the way to go, the farewell conveyor belt.
Yep, the road ain’t long but it is entirely confined by lines … lines of lanes, lines of sidewalk, streets of coordinates, left and right turns, the aesthetic lines of cars and big trucks.
Walking down the line with only one place to end up.
Thank God I haven’t arrived yet!
In my late youth I got luckier. I became a writer for the rest of my life. I lived in my own confines of fact and fiction, the strict lines of news, broadcasting and travel. I once had a show on the BBC called Travels with Banksy.
The thing is, I got paid to be on the road, just expected to come up with
a few good lines every day that would sell newspapers and magazines. I was good at it!
But like most Walkers, I lost a lot of things along the way that I really needed, like a family and a couple homes. Often, I slept in my car, drank in cheap bars and ate out of old newspaper on street corners.
It was the way to go.
Then a few days ago, LA film director Bob Mori emailed me his new video of Canadian Mike O’Neill performing Bob Dylan’s 1963 song Walking Down the Line.
It is generally seen as a hobo song but its child-like poetry, its sense of joy against its elemental misery make it something extraordinary.
Mike O’Neill is a St Louis singer-songwriter, apparently. But I couldn’t track him down for a chat! So, little info on the man who created this very gentle, breathy slightly gruff version of a very old song… So, little info on the man who created this very gentle, breathy slightly gruff version of a very old song…
Get in touch Mike, let’s tell everybody about you!
#bobdylan #bobmori #mikeoneill #walkingdownthe;ine #1963 #hobo