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Music

"Walking in Memphis" Is a Stone Cold Classic

I went to buy a bagel, and "Walking in Memphis" was playing.

On Wednesday, I went to get a bagel for lunch. I only had five dollars in cash, and I also had a rec league soccer game later in the day, so I needed some carbs, but cheap. I knew a bagel would do the trick, so I went to Bagelsmith, on Bedford Avenue. I ordered an egg everything bagel with jalapeño cheddar cream cheese. "Walking in Memphis" was playing. I sort of sung along under my breath to the part that goes "walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale." I paid for my bagel in cash. It was $3.80. I got two nickels and a dime in change. The counter person asked if I wanted a bag, but I said no and walked with my bagel to the park, where I ate it. It was good. I still had "Walking in Memphis" stuck in my head, and I sang it to myself some more as I walked back to the office. I realized I didn't know who it was by. That night, at my rec league soccer game, I wore the same athletic pants I'd worn during the day because my teammate forgot his shorts, and I'd lent him mine. I kept feeling something heavy in my pocket, but I knew my pockets were empty. At half time, I realized that the two nickels and a dime were still in my pocket. I took them out.

Stone Cold Classics is a new Noisey series that celebrates the songs that are stone cold classics: the songs you hear in supermarkets, the songs that everyone never listens to but still knows all the words to, the songs that make up the rich fabric of our shared common experience as Americans. These are the classics, baby. Stone cold classics.

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