A Walk on the Wild Side is a 1956 novel by Nelson Algren, most often quoted as the source for Algren's "three rules of life": "Never play cards with a man called Doc. Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own."
Algren noted, "The book asks why lost people sometimes develop into greater human beings than those who have never been lost in their whole lives."
Fitz Linkhorn barely managed to make a living pumping out cesspools, but his consuming vocation was preaching from the courthouse steps in Arroyo, a small town in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. He denounced all sins except drinking, because he was drunk as often as possible. Fitz had two sons, Byron, who was weak and sickly, and Dove.
Dove had no education because his father had not wanted to send him to a school with a Catholic principal. Instead, he was supposed to see movies with Byron to learn about life, but Dove never got to go; his brother did not have the price of a ticket. Dove got his education from the hoboes who hung around the Santa Fe tracks, telling one another what towns, lawmen, jails, and railroad bulls to avoid.
Walk on the Wild Side may refer to:
"Wildside" is a song by American hip-hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch. It was released in October 1991 as the second single from their 1991 album Music for the People. It heavily samples Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side". All vocals on the track are performed by the group's leader Mark Wahlberg.
The song was written and produced by Boston pioneer rapper M.C. Spice (Amir Quadeer Shakir), and describes the effects of America's greed, violence, and drug addiction on innocent, unsuspecting people. It referenced two notorious crimes that happened in Boston; the murder-suicide of Charles Stuart and his wife and the murder of 12-year-old Tiffany Moore shot as she sat on a stoop during a drive by shooting by a youth gang. The early portion of the video features a few seconds of the burning of an American flag.
Originally recorded and performed by M.C. Spice, "Wildside" aired on Boston's W.I.L.D. Radio for nearly two years before Spice agreed to allow Wahlberg to record the song for the actor's debut album. However, Spice removed content which referenced his best friend, Wesley "DJ Wes" McDougald and Wesley's violent death. M.C. Spice still records under the name Quadeer Shakur and M.C. Spice, and is founder of the BlackBerry Soul Radio online music station.
Wild Side is a 1995 film co-written and directed by Donald Cammell. It went straight to video and stars Christopher Walken, Joan Chen, Anne Heche, and Steven Bauer.
There are three different versions of the film. Cammell committed suicide shortly after seeing it drastically re-edited by its producers. A "director's cut" version by Cammell's wife and co-screenwriter China Kong, and his editor and sometime producer Frank Mazzola, was released in 2000 and was noted by critics. The film is perhaps best known for its graphic lesbian love scenes between stars Joan Chen and Anne Heche. The scenes proved controversial to the point that after Wild Side's initial airings on HBO, the network subsequently chose to air a version of the film with those portions deleted.
"Wild Side" is a single by the American heavy metal band Mötley Crüe. It was released on their 1987 album Girls, Girls, Girls.
Wild Side deals with life in the ghetto of Los Angeles, a familiar place for the members of Motley Crue. It came about when Nikki Sixx was chatting with a Hispanic school girl and asked her to recite the Lord's Prayer. It inspired him to write the song, twisting the words of the prayer into a testament of the "Wild Side". It describes the criminal activity associated with the neighborhood, such as pimping, organized crime, rape, assault, and armed robbery, and is told from the perspective of a gang member. Wild Side changes frequently in style, from a moderately fast pace to a slower, more blues-rock sound in the middle and at the end. The song ends with the repetition of "Wild Side" and various sounds of breaking glass, gunfire, screams, police sirens, and rap music playing.
Nikki Sixx described "Wild Side" as more complex compared to some of the simpler songs on the album. It is one of the few Mötley Crüe songs that changes in time signature.
"A Walk" is a song written by Greg Graffin from the punk rock group Bad Religion. It was the first single from their 1996 album The Gray Race. It was the album's only single to chart in the United States.
The terms A-side and B-side refer to the two sides of 78 and 45 rpm phonograph records, whether singles or extended plays (EPs). The A-side usually featured the recording that the artist, record producer, or the record company intended to receive the initial promotional effort and then receive radio airplay, hopefully, to become a "hit" record. The B-side (or "flip-side") is a secondary recording that has a history of its own: some artists, notably Elvis Presley, Little Richard, the Beatles, Chuck Berry, and Oasis, released B-sides that were considered as strong as the A-side and became hits in their own right. Creedence Clearwater Revival had hits, usually unintentionally, with both the B-sides of their A-side releases. Others took the opposite track: producer Phil Spector was in the habit of filling B-sides with on-the-spot instrumentals that no one would confuse with the A-side. With this practice, Spector was assured that airplay was focused on the side he wanted to be the hit side.
Sinner, hear what I'm sayin'
Sinner, you've been swingin', not prayin'
One day of prayin' and six nights of fun
The odds against goin' to heaven, six-to-one
You walk on the wild side, the Devil is waitin'
He's waitin' to take your hand
You walk on the wild side, you're walkin' with Satan
Away from the Promised Land
One day of prayin' and six nights of fun
The odds against going to heaven, six-to-one
You better cross over, you better walk humble or you're gonna stumble
And Satan is waitin' to take your hand
You walk on the wild side, you walk on the wild side
Away from the Promised Land
One day of prayin' and six nights of fun
The odds against going to heaven, six-to-one