Released 1985 Length 4:12 | Format 7" vinyl, CD Writer(s) Mark Knopfler | |
B-side "One World"
"Two Young Lovers" (live) Label Vertigo (UK)
Warner Bros. (U.S.) | ||
"Walk of Life" is a song by the British rock band Dire Straits from their fifth studio album Brothers in Arms (1985). It subsequently appeared on their live album On the Night (1993). It was released as a single in November 1985 but had first been available as the B-side of "So Far Away" released in advance of Brothers in Arms.
Contents
The track peaked at number seven in the US charts and was their biggest commercial hit in the UK, peaking at number two. The track also appeared on three compilation albums: 1988's Money for Nothing, 1998's Sultans of Swing: The Very Best of Dire Straits, and 2005's The Best of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler: Private Investigations.
History
The song was nearly excluded from the album when the co-producer Neil Dorfsman voted against its inclusion, but the rest of the band out-voted him.
A simple rock and roll rhythm is used, with chord changes limited to I, IV and V chords. The long introduction has become iconic in some circles, with an instantly recognisable melody played on a synthesiser organ patch, giving it a slight Cajun twist. The singer mentioned in the lyrics is said to perform "down in the tunnels, trying to make it pay", a reference to busking in the subway. The songs he plays are oldies, including "I Got a Woman", "Be-Bop-A-Lula", "What'd I Say", "My Sweet Lovin' Woman", and "Mack the Knife". He also plays talking blues.
B-sides
Having itself been used as a flip side for the European version of the "So Far Away" single, "Walk of Life" had many different B-sides across different formats of release in different territories. The two songs most commonly used were a live version of "Two Young Lovers", which had previously appeared on the 1983 EP ExtendedancEPlay and "One World", the eighth track from Brothers in Arms. A double Vinyl released in the UK in 1985 featured the band's 1978 breakthrough Top 10 single "Sultans of Swing", as well as live versions of "Two Young Lovers" and the rare song "Eastbound Train", one of the first tracks that Dire Straits recorded as a band in demo format but never appeared on an album or as a single.
Music video
The music video for the song shown in the UK features a busker or street musician wearing the same shirt as Mark Knopfler intercut with the band performing on a stage, while the US video features various sports highlights intercut with the performance footage.
In popular media
The song's original recording was licensed for the soundtrack of a national television commercial promoting the diabetes drug Farxiga.
In March 2016, Peter Salamone created The Walk of Life Project to prove the hypothesis that '"Walk of Life" by Dire Straits is the perfect song to end any movie'.
Track listings
- "Walk of Life" – 4:07
- "One World" – 3:36
- "Walk of Life" – 4:07
- "Why Worry" (Instrumental) – 3:56
- "One World" – 3:36