Walking Down Madison

"Walking Down Madison" is a 1991 song by Kirsty MacColl featuring Aniff Cousins. It charted at #23 on the UK Singles Chart and impacted a number of Billboard charts.

Background

The song was written after MacColl was searching for a new musical direction but instead found writer's block; she tried writing things and asked others to try but it failed to click.^[4] Meanwhile, Smiths guitar player Johnny Marr had just come away from the Smiths (they'd split up a week earlier) and had written a song with the intent of writing a dance-based guitar record. Despite it being the first song he had written after the split of the Smiths, he had kept it to one side for his own solo record after the presentation of some of his new material resulted in his friends stealing the tracks.^[5] Marr sent MacColl a tape containing the demo and other ideas as he was not interested in writing words at the time. Once MacColl had heard his guitar, she adjoined it with her lyrics and assembled a melody, and recorded the results at Electric Lady Studio.^[4] The track also sports a more hip-hop-influenced sound than her previous work and features production from her-then husband Steve Lillywhite. It also features rapper Aniff Cousins.^[2] A selection of remixes by Howard Gray appeared across the various single formats.

"Walking Down Madison" was released in 1991^[1] opening the album Electric Landlady, on which it is the longest song.^[2]

Music video

A music video was produced for the song. It was shot on location on Madison Avenue and features interspersed advertisements for Electric Landlady. It shows both a smartly dressed MacColl walking down Madison amidst smartly dressed business men during the daytime and a more scruffily dressed MacColl with women sleeping rough, the "beaming boy from Harlem with the air force coat" which is mentioned in the lyrics of the song, a man with a knife on the A-train and other assorted characters at night whilst Londonbeat dance. Cousins appears both during the day and at night. The night-time characters arrive in a chauffeur-driven limousine and depart in it at the end of the video.^[6]

Critical reception

Pitchfork commended the record as a "subtle, scathing takedown of the city’s neon facade".^[7]

Chart positions

Chartwise, the song made #23 on the UK Singles Chart,^[3] #4 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart,^[1] #18 on the Dance Music/Club Play Singles chart^[1] and #36 on the Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales chart.^[1] In Australia, "Walking Down Madison" peaked at #58 on the ARIA singles chart in September 1991, and spent 8 weeks in the top 100.^[8]

Uses in other media

MacColl performed this song on Top of the Pops. Alison Moyet has covered this song live^[9] having been offered the chance to record it.^[10] Co-writer Johnny Marr has also covered the track. In addition, Iain Banks included it on Personal Effects, a CD intended as music to listen to whilst driving.^[9]

References