Walk Like an Egyptian

Did the pharaohs walk around their pyramids raising up one of their arms holding it out in front of them, bending it at their elbow in a right angle, then bending their wrist, while holding their palm flat facing down at another right angle?  Did they place their other arm behind them and bend it the opposite way, with their forearm pointing down and their flat palm pointing behind them, so their two arms were pointing forward and backward at the same time?  Some may have held one arm horizontally at their side, with that arm bent at the elbow facing up, and the other arm horizontally at the side with this arm bent at the elbow facing down.  Real ancient Egyptians did not walk like this, although the ancient Egyptian murals depict this method of walking.  Researchers say that the Ancient Egyptians believed that their image had a direct impact on their entire body, so the artists of this time period would show the entire body at once, from several angles.  They would often show the face in profile, but the rest of the body was turned towards the audience.  Feet were always sideways and the arms were shown in that “walk like an Egyptian” position.

The Bangles sang, “Slide your feet up the street, bend your back Shift your arm, then you pull it back Life’s hard, you know (oh whey oh) So strike a pose on a Cadillac”.  Comedian Steve Martin did this first, wearing Egyptian garb and featuring an Egyptian dance in his 1978 novelty song ‘King Tut’ that charted #17.  In the novel To Kill A Mockingbird Jem’s class must have looked at some Egyptian art and Jem demonstrates this method of walking for Scout, who wonders how Egyptians got anywhere walking like that.  ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ became the biggest hit for the Bangles and they became known for this novelty song instead of their own compositions.  The Bangled formed in 1981, they wrote their own songs and were considered to be part of the Los Angeles Paisley Underground new wave scene.  The group was founded by Susanna Hoffs (vocals and rhythm guitar), Debbi Peterson (drums and vocals), Vicki Peterson (lead guitar and vocals), and their original bassist Annette Zilinskas joined later, but she was replaced by Michael Steele (bass and vocals) in 1983.

The Bangles recorded this pop music song ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’ in 1986 and released it as their third single from the album Different Light.  It charted #3 in the UK and went to #1 in the US.  In 1986, you would have to be living in the wilderness if you did not hear the Bangles song ‘Walk Like an Egyptian’, as it became the #1 song of 1987 according to Billboard’s year-end chart.  This song was written by Liam Hillard Sternberg who got the idea when he was on a ferry boat and saw people struggling to keep their balance.  The way they held out their arms and jerked around made it look like they were doing Egyptian movements, and if the boat moved suddenly, they would all topple over.  In 1978 and 1979 Sternberg wrote and produced ‘Yankee Wheels’, ‘Nasty Nice’, ‘Call Me Every Night’ and ‘Lazy Boy’ for Jane Aire & The Belvederes and in the same years he also wrote and produced ‘Fool Around’, ‘B-A-B-Y’, ‘Suspended Animation’, ‘Baby Let’s Play House’, ‘Wildwood Saloon’ and ‘I Go to Pieces’ for Rachel Sweet.

The Bangles were all attractive, but Susanna was a knockout and Prince developed a crush on her.  Prince wrote the song ‘Manic Monday’ for the Bangles under the name “Christopher” (the name of his character in his movie Under the Cherry Moon).  The Bangles were one of the top bands in the 80’s with a triple platinum album and several chart-topping hits, but in 1989, at the height of their popularity, they broke up over internal differences.  The members of this group all shared in the singing, the instrument playing, the writing, and the harmonizing, but the media singled out Susanna Hoffs as the star of the band and the rest of the group were considered support, which led to conflict laying the foundation for the storms to come.  The group decided that the pain of staying together was not worth the fame.  The Bangles ended when, Susanna Hoffs decided to become a solo act and without her in the group, the Bangles were no longer marketable.

All the old paintings on the tombs
They do the sand dance don’t you know
If they move too quick (oh whey oh)
They’re falling down like a domino
All the bazaar men by the Nile
They got the money on a bet
Gold crocodiles (oh whey oh)
They snap their teeth on your cigarette
Foreign types with the hookah pipes say
Ay oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh
Walk like an Egyptian
Blond waitresses take their trays
They spin around and they cross the floor
They’ve got the moves (oh whey oh)
You drop your drink and they give you more
All the school kids so sick of books
They like the punk and the metal band
When the buzzer rings (oh whey oh)
They’re walking like an Egyptian
All the kids in the marketplace say
Ay oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh
Walk like an Egyptian
Slide your feet up the street bend your back
Shift your arm then you pull it back
Life is hard you know (oh whey oh)
So strike a pose on a Cadillac
If you want to find all the cops
They’re hanging out in the donut shop
They sing and dance (oh whey oh)
Spin the clubs cruise down the block
All the Japanese with their yen
The party boys call the Kremlin
And the Chinese know (oh whey oh)
They walk the line like Egyptian
All the cops in the donut shop say
Ay oh whey oh, ay oh whey oh
Walk like an Egyptian
Walk like an Egyptian

The challenge today is to focus on this song and use it for inspiration in any form of creative expression (including but not limited to short stories, a piece of flash fiction, poems, lyrics, artwork, photography, (etc.) that you can share with the writing community.  Alternatively, if you are a musician, and you have played this song solo or in a group, it would be awesome if you could post a video to showcase your own work.  You could write about how you learned to play the chords or how you learned the lyrics. There is no need to stick with this song, as if you like to write about another Bangles song, or another song written by Liam Sternberg, or any song by Prince, that would work.  Since the Bangles were an all-girl group, you could write about another one like the Pussycat Dolls, the Sugababes, Girls Aloud, TLC, All Saints, Destiny’s Child, the Spice Girls, the Supremes or some other.  You could write about the pharaohs, or the pyramids or about a song that makes a reference to another culture besides the Egyptians.

The whole point of this MM Music challenge is to get you to think, to trigger something so that you can show how creative you are and everyone is welcome to participate.  You could write about being a waitress, or about why school kids hate their books.  Do you think that cops actually hang out in donut shops?  With all of the events that came out after the whistleblower Ukraine incident, I read that the Kremlin says it hopes that the US won’t release any of the Trump-Putin calls, which sort of falls in line with the lyrics, “The party boys call the Kremlin”, so maybe you could take a stab at explaining this.  You could write about Steve Martin or To Kill a Mockingbird, or why anyone would want to do that.  There seems to be plenty of topics that you could choose to write about today, so happy writing everyone.

Dylan Hughes has next Friday, October 25 with her First Line Friday and then I will be back on Friday, November 1 with another MM Music Challenge where we will discuss the song ‘Forever Young’.  When you are finished writing your post, create a ping back to this post, but you can also place your link in the comments section below if you desire.  This Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie MM Music challenge has a special feature called Mr. Linky, which will allow you to instantly link your post after you click the Mr. Linky Button, and then follow the directions that are given.