Joe South – Walk A Mile In My Shoes

When I hear this song, I think of Joe South delivering a Sunday sermon on Southern philosophy. It was on the AM radio growing up, and I remember it well. This one and Games People Play were the two South songs I heard the most. 

This song is a little bit of everything with pop, gospel, country, and soul. Before his solo success, South had already built a reputation that most session players would love to have. He played guitar on Aretha Franklin’s Chain of Fools, wrote Billy Joe Royal’s Down in the Boondocks, and later wrote his own solo hit, Games People Play, which was a Grammy-winning anthem of its own. Joe South was Georgia guy who would write songs that people could relate to. His records were smart, soulful, and unafraid to say something.

Elvis Presley covered this song during his 1970 That’s the Way It Is concerts, giving it his full Vegas-gospel jumpsuit treatment, which helped carry Joe’s song to the mainstream. Everyone from Coldcut to Bryan Ferry to Otis Clay would later cover it, but none quite captured that mix of frustration and hope that Joe did on the original.

Joe South doesn’t get enough credit in the conversation about 60s/70s singer-songwriters. He wasn’t flashy, but was saying something worth hearing. The song peaked at #12 on the Billboard 100, #10 in Canada, #11 on the Canada Country Charts, and #56 on the Billboard Country Charts in 1970. 

Joe South is personal to me because of his connection to my family. He recorded some in my uncle’s studio. This is from 1964. 

Walk A Mile In My Shoes

If I could be you, if you could be meFor just one hourIf we could find a wayTo get inside each other’s mind

If you could see you through my eyesInstead of your egoI believe you’d beSurprised to seeThat you’ve been blind

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesAnd before you abuse, criticize and accuseWalk a mile in my shoes

Now, your whole worldYou see around youIs just a reflectionAnd the law of KarmaSays you gonna reapJust what you sow, yes you will

So unless you’ve lived a lifeOf total perfectionYou better be careful of every stoneThat you should throw, yeah

And yet we spend the day throwing stonesAt one another‘Cause I don’t think or wear my hairThe same way you do

Well, I may be common peopleBut I’m your brotherAnd when you strike out and try to hurt meIt’s hurtin’ you, Lord have mercy

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesHey, before you abuse, criticize and accuseWalk a mile in my shoes

There are people on reservationsAnd out in the ghettosAnd brother, thereBut for the grace of GodGo you and I, yeah, yeah

And if I only had the wingsOf a little angel, yeahDon’t you know I’d flyTo the top of the mountainAnd then I’d cry, hey

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesHey, before you abuse, criticize and accuseBetter walk a mile in my shoes

Walk a mile in my shoesWalk a mile in my shoesOh, before you abuse, criticize and accuseWalk a mile in my shoes, yeah…

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

41 thoughts on “Joe South – Walk A Mile In My Shoes”

  1. Pingback: Joe South – Walk A Mile In My Shoes – MobsterTiger

  5. wow! That is really cool that he knew members of your family and you had a studio! Fine song – I’ve not heard his version before but I am familiar with it. Anyway, he does it nicely – fine backing vocals give it that Gospel feel. And let’s not forget, he never promised you a rose garden!

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    1. I forgot that he wrote that one! Yea it’s pretty cool. Ricky, my cousin, sent me that receipt when I posted Games People Play but I forgot to post it. I remember walking in that studio as a kid…like I told Bruce…of course it was gone when I was a teen with my own band.

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  8. I love Joe South. I knew “Games People Play” and the songs that others covered, but I hadn’t heard this until it was on one of those Rhino Have A Nice Day 70s compilations I picked up. Words to live by. Very interesting about your uncle and the studio. Very good songwriter.

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  9. I remember my brother buying ‘Introspect’ which I then found myself listening to. Kid brothers get their tastes pre-filtered by older siblings I guess! It was damned well written, though my appreciation of ‘Rose Garden’ wilted thanks to a certain cover that got thrashed to death on the radio here. I particularly liked ‘These Are Not My People’ at the time, and I know I’ve mentioned his ‘Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home’ here before. Great personal recollection too.

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    1. I’ve only heard one version of Rose Garden…and that would be Lynn Anderson…I believe that was her name. I never heard his version until a few minutes ago.
      I just heard ‘Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home…that will be the next South song I post.

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      1. Yeah, the Lynn one was the one we heard and heard and heard over here. ‘Woah woah woe.’ I like a few of those ‘you don’t know what you had till it’s gone’ songs. I’m a maudlin ol’ cuss at times!

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  11. Don’t know if I should post this now or when you do “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home.”

    My favorite Joe South song is “Don’t It Make You Want To Go Home.” Not his version, the version by the Persuasions. I’ve already said I love a cappella, and the Persuasions were one of the greats. They have a great deal of fun recording it, and managed to get the feel of the fun down on tape. And who can resist of silly joy of Jerry Lawson (the Persuasions’ lead singer) changing the lyric to “We went skinny dicking there as a child.”

    Can I say that here? I hope so…

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    1. Thats me also…I read where something happened to him in the early seventies…his brother commited suicide and that affected him a lot…then drugs came in…. it took him a while to get back to music…that was when he was just really taking off.

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