Walking In Your Footsteps Lyrics
You walked upon the planet so
Lord of all that you could see
Just a little bit like me
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
You really couldn't ask for more
You were God's favourite creature
But you didn't have a future
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Don't you have a lesson for us
You thought your rule would always last
There were no lessons in your past
You were built three stories high
They say you would not hurt a fly
If we explode the atom bomb
Would they say that we were dumb
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
They say the meek that shall inherit the earth
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps
Walking in your footsteps {very low tone}
Walking in your footsteps
It's obviously a relic from the Nuclear Age (see "Russians"). Yet its wisdom carries onward. A somewhat common theme among Sting's songs ("History Will Teach Us Nothing") is how we ignore "lessons in our past." How does this play out in the Terrorism Age? A viewing of Steven Spielberg's "Munich" I think provides some ideas.
[Stephen Holden—Rolling Stone 1983] The cuts on Synchronicity are sequenced like Chinese boxes, the focus narrowing from the global to the local to the personal. But every box contains the ashes of betrayal. "Walking in Your Footsteps," a children's tune sung in a third-world accent and brightly illustrated with African percussion and flute, contemplates nothing less than humanity's nuclear suicide. "Hey Mr. Dinosaur, you really couldn't ask for more/You were god's favorite creature but you didn't have a future," Sting calls out before adding, "[We're] walking in your footsteps."
There's a part missing before the end...it goes like Fifty million years ago They walked upon the planet so They live in a museum It's the only place you'll see 'em.
And I love this song... especially this live performance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3yRtLBQUSc Stingo really goes into the song
there is a live version that has the following... It's really our distinction to laugh at our extinction, but you really have to think hard when you're walking in your graveyard. Fukushima is making this resonate.
there is a live version that has the following... It's really our distinction to laugh at our extinction, but you really have to think hard when you're walking in your graveyard. Fukushima is making this resonate.
This (to me anyway) is about how nuclear war can end humanity and our dominace quickly and become extinct.
And that leaves us with 'Walking In Your Footsteps', which most people hate but I don't understand why - catchy vocal melody AGAIN, plus Copeland is really going nuts with that electronic percussion set, and the song is NOT about dinosaurs, it's about people dying out like dinosaurs which is pretty grim if you ask me … [George Starostin]
I think it's about humans dying out just like the dinosaurs did. We're "walking in (their) footsteps", which hints at a nuclear blast, destroying humanity. And hey, we are headed there. :P
ahhh I love the African drums and the balaphone [or what instruments are they?] "walking in your footsteps" sound familiar, hmm... I guess it's how we're following the dinosaurs on our way to extinction?
I saw the Police back in '81 but this song flew under my radar in a time when I was gravely concerned about our species attraction to weapons of mass destruction.
Only recently did I discover this song and understand Stings' meaning in it but I also have embraced it as a warning against our inactivity to control climate change. When seen this way Walking in Your Footsteps becomes highly relevant.