submissions

Katie Melua – The Closest Thing To Crazy Lyrics	13 years ago
Another Mike Batt written song. Understand, he was probably in his 50's when he wrote it, which means the girl was making him feel 22 and act 17. I've heard him sing the song. Katie has a much better voice.

submissions

Katie Melua – Nine Million Bicycles Lyrics

13 years ago

The song was written by Mike Batt, who discovered her and produced Katie's first three albums. He wrote many of the best songs on those albums. He has a wonderful way with his lyric rhymes. Rhymes double words like "most down" and "Ghost town". I've listened to the second verse many times and sometimes I hear the last line as "be with you", but other times it seems like it's "stay with you" which completes the double rhyme from the previous line "say it's true". In any case, it's a great song. Incidently I think we are closer to 13.7 billion light years from the ever expanding edge of the universe but the song line needs a one syllable word and like he says, who the hell knows for sure.

submissions

Katie Melua – Tiny Alien Lyrics	13 years ago
Seems pretty apparent she's talking about a new (or newborn) baby before it develops, shall we say, more human traits like talking, walking, etc.

submissions

Dire Straits – When It Comes To You Lyrics	13 years ago
Glad you got the line "the villain of the piece" correct. Most lyric site have it "peace" which makes little sense. A person with a background in journalism (as Mark has) would refer to a story as a "piece".

submissions

Mark Knopfler – Heart Full of Holes Lyrics

13 years ago

My understanding of the "Kill to get Crimson" album is that it's a book of biographical short stories (maybe a couple of them semi-autobiographical). I think this one is about an old pawn broker, probably in London, maybe a refugee from the Nazis (the reference to repair the officer's watch or die) Possibly based on a Knopfler relative, his father escaped to Scotland from the Nazis. There's a whole littany of things that would be found in a pawn shop. Block and tackle is a term for pocket watch, which would show time upside down if held that way. "rock and roll well I don't know" is a reference to Chet Atkins (music books and guitars) and the song "There'll Be Some Changes Made" from their "Neck and Neck" album. (Chet spoofs he's going to become a rock n roll artist like Mark, when he asks Mark "What do you think?" Mark replies "I don't know.) The next to last verse (If one of use dies, love) seems to be an aside from the story on a more personal level, and not an integral part of the pawnbroker bio. Just my take.

submissions

Mark Knopfler – Speedway At Nazareth Lyrics

13 years ago

Garth69 is correct, "crucify" was the word on the original realease on the "Sailing to Philadelphia" album. "Edify" was used on the "Real Live Roadrunning" album with Emmylou Harris from the tour of the same name. I saw him in Atlanta in 2007 and he went back to "crucify". Edify is probably the better term to describe the Indy driving experience and the general theme of the song: "To instruct especially so as to encourage intellectual, moral, or spiritual improvement".

submissions

Mark Knopfler – Speedway At Nazareth Lyrics

18 years ago

The album "Sailing to Philadelphia" was released in 2000, so a song about the 2001 season was fiction. The song is actually based on the 1994 CART racing season. The circuit changed the sequence of races every year and the only year that went from Phoenix to Monterrey in the order described in the song was 1994. CART did the Indy 500 until 1996. There were no reported serious injuries in the 9 crashes during 1994 Indy race, but in 1995 Stan Fox was critically injured. Knopfler got much of his background information from Swedish racer Stefan Johansson who ran the CART circuit from 1992 until it folded in 2003. Johansson had a successful CART racing career even though he never won a race. I agree the song has allegorical implications, as do many other Knopfler songs.

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