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Walking on the Chinese Wall

"Walking on the Chinese Wall"
Walking On The Chinese Wall by Philip Bailey vinyl single cover.jpg
Single by Philip Bailey
from the album Chinese Wall
B-side "Children of the Ghetto (6:49)"
Released USA: 1985
UK: 1985
Format 7"
Recorded 1984
Genre Rock
Length 5:10
Label Columbia/CBS
Songwriter(s) Roxanne Seeman & Billie Hughes
Producer(s) Phil Collins
Philip Bailey singles chronology
"Photogenic Memory"
(1985)
"Walking on the Chinese Wall"
(1985)
"State of the Heart"
(1986)
"Photogenic Memory"
(1985)
"Walking on the Chinese Wall"
(1985)
"State of the Heart"
(1986)

"Walking on the Chinese Wall" is a song written by Roxanne Seeman and Billie Hughes. It was recorded by Philip Bailey and became the title track of his album Chinese Wall. Phil Collins produced, played drums and sang, as part of the backgrounds, on the song, however the song was not credited as a Bailey and Collins duet. The Phenix Horns and additional overdub recording took place in Los Angeles, with George Massenburg engineering and mixing. Josie James also sang background vocals on the song.

"Walking on the Chinese Wall" was the third single, released in 1985.

In 1998, Sony Germany released a Philip Bailey compilation album entitled "Walking on the Chinese Wall."

Seeman and Hughes met and began writing songs together just after she returned from a three-week journey through China. Soon after, Hughes went to Osaka to perform, staying in Japan for four months. Upon his return, they began a partnership and bought recording equipment. Feeling inspired by the East, for the first song Hughes composed on the new Oberheim OB8 synthesizer and DMX drum machine, Hughes asked Seeman to "write me something Chinese". Having walked on The Great Wall, on the Northern Gate outside of Beijing, Seeman came up with the lyrics "walking on the chinese wall" for the chorus. The next line "watching for the coins to fall" refers to the I Ching coins. Seeman draws from her studies of Chinese arts and literature, making references to the I Ching ("Book of Changes") and Dream of the Red Chamber (one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature), such as in the bridge lyrics "Red chamber dream, from the sky above, ancient tales of hidden Chinese love."

Seeman sent the song to Philip Bailey, then Seeman and Hughes flew to New York. From New York, Seeman called Philip Bailey, who asked Seeman and Hughes to meet him with a chord chart at JFK airport, where he was changing planes, on his way to London to record with Phil Collins at The Townhouse.

The video for this song was directed by Duncan Gibbins. It was filmed in the Santa Monica mountains.

Recorded at the Townhouse Studios, London, England. Horns recorded in Los Angeles. Mixed at The Complex, Los Angeles, California.


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