Monday 7 October 2013

Scottish Pedestrian Songwriters

Quite a few moons ago the Scottish group The Proclaimers had a big hit with "I'm Gonna Be (500 miles)" where they with much conviction sang:

But I would walk 500 miles
And I would walk 500 more
Just to be the man who walked 1000 miles
To fall down at your door


Roughly around the same time, Mike Scott, the main man of another Scottish band, the very fine Waterboys, was also willing to let his feet do the talking in his more impassioned and tortured song, "Too Close to Heaven", and towards the end of that, with great emotion and perhaps even a sense of martyrdom, he sang:

I walk a mile for you baby
I walk a mile for you baby
I walk a mile for you baby
so won't you smile for me baby?

To be honest I think Mike has an exaggerated idea of what's involved in walking a mile and the scale of self-sacrifice attached, and frankly, compared to the distances his Proclaiming compatriots were willing to step out, it's a pathetic distance. I suppose, tenuous though it might be, you could argue that in singing that line three times Scott is stating his willingness to travel not one but three miles, but even still that's not all that impressive.
You might still though, if interested, enjoy his song here.