"Walk of Life" is a song by the British rock band Dire Straits, being the third track on their fifth studio album Brothers in Arms (1985). It was released as a single in the US in October 1985 and in the UK in January 1986.
Mark Knopfler told Classic Rock in 2015 how the song came about: "I saw a photograph of a kid playing a guitar in a subway, turning his face to the wall to get a good reverb. When I started playing the guitar, because I didn't have an amplifier, I'd put the head of the guitar on the arm of a chair and put my head on the guitar to try and get into a loud noise. It kind of reminded me of that, I suppose."[5]
Knopfler had not originally intended "Walk of Life" for the album, but rather as a B-side to one of the singles. Dire Straits manager Ed Bicknell heard it when it was being mixed and convinced Knopfler to include it on the album at the last minute.[6]
Two music videos were produced for "Walk of Life": the first video features the band playing the song in concert while the character Johnny is playing 1950s songs in a tunnel; the second video features the band playing interspersed with clips of sports bloopers.
Reception
Cash Box said that song recalls "the band's '50s rock infatuation first heard on 'Twisting by the Pool'", but that it "is a more profound but equally energetic effort".[7]Cash Box later said that "a light sound is balanced by a meaningful lyric and wrapped in trademark Knopfler guitar accents".[8]Billboard said that "Knopfler and friends bob out to a cajun/zydeco track that might have sounded weird if Rockin' Sidney hadn't broken the ice."[9]