busker

[Grant Barrett]

On Thursday, May 25, 2000, Bruce Dykes <bkd at graphnet.com> wrote:

>>I first heard this word in the US circa 1985/1986, when "Walk of Life" was
>>released as the second single from Dire Straits' "Brothers in Arms" album.
>>One of the characters in the song is a busker, and they explained the term
>>in many of their interviews.
>>
>>I rather suspect that while you may find sporadic references prior to that,
>>you'll see a surge around that time, especially in the pop music press...

That might explain my knowledge of the word, and that of my friends, while so many
others have never heard of it or consider it unusual. I spent a number of years as a
music journalist and a disk jockey, and many of my friends are of a similar type.
Though I still believe a New Yorker would be more familiar with a word than one might
guess.

Grant