1001 Songs Challenge #775: Walk (1992)

On 11 February 2019 I set myself the challenging of reading 1001 Songs You Must Hear Before You Die by Robert Dimery (ed.) and following the book’s advice to the letter. I’ve previously read 1001 Films… and started 1001 Albums… but felt 1001 Songs… would be a sensible place to start for what I have in mind here.

My challenge is to read about one song per day and listen to it (YouTube and Spotify, I need you tonight!) before sharing my own thoughts. Some songs I will love, others I’ll hate, and I’m sure there will be those that leave me perplexed but listen to them I shall.

I’ll also try, and most likely fail, to pinpoint the best song from the 1001 on offer but I’m nothing if not foolhardy. Instead of one song, I’m predicting I’ll have about 100 favourites by the end and may have to resort to a Top 10 so far to maintain any semblance of sanity.

So long as I post everyday (including Christmas) then this challenge should come to an end on Wednesday 8 November 2021. Staying with the Barney Stinson theme I am hoping that the whole experience will prove to be…

 

Pantera – Walk (1992)

 

 

We’re staying in the US today, dear reader, but leaving California and making our way over to Texas. Formed in 1981 Pantera were a heavy metal and thrash metal band that would later endure tragedy during their time together and afterwards. When we join them in 1992 it is with the release of their sixth album, Vulgar Display of Power, and 1001 Songs have gone with the track – Walk. 

Walk concerns the band’s feelings towards friends who began to treat them differently after they became increasingly successful. There was a feeling that friends believed them to be arrogant, different people now they were rock stars compared to the young men they had been growing up in their hometown. Walk is the band’s way of hitting back at these soon to be former friends and asking for them to show respect and to take the walk of the song’s title. Whether or not the band were different, only they can really say, but the suggestion certainly seems to have ruffled their feathers.

Pantera are yet another group I know by name but could not name a song prior to this challenge. Walk is an angry track with some stunning guitar riffs and it would be one of the band’s best known songs. Tensions crept into the band and ultimately led to a hiatus in 2001 before two members – Vinnie Paul and Dimebag Darrell – disbanded Pantera in 2003. Paul and Darrell went on to form Damageplan but Darrell was sadly shot and killed in 2004 during a concert in Ohio. Paul died of heart failure in 2018 leaving the remaining members – Phil Anselmo and Rex Brown – to look back on what might have been.

 

Favourite songs so far:

The Animals – House of the Rising Sun (1964)

Simon & Garfunkel – The Sounds of Silence (1965)

The Beatles – A Day in the Life (1967)

The Doors – The End (1967)

Pink Floyd – Wish You Were Here (1975)

Meat Loaf – Bat Out of Hell (1977)

Ultravox – Vienna (1980)

The Smiths – How Soon Is Now? (1984)

Tracy Chapman – Fast Car (1988)

U2 – One (1991)