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Chumbawamba – On The Day The Nazi Died Lyrics 17 years ago
Chumbawamba have nothing against Italians. It's:
"but battalions of fascists
still dream of the master race"

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Mark Knopfler – Stand Up Guy Lyrics 17 years ago
I'm with celtsguy on this one. Snake oil salesmen was the first thing I thought when I heard the song. I honestly can't find any allusion to Stephen Hawking in the lyrics (except of course that he is, metaphorically speaking, a stand-up guy and a doctor). But I'd really like to hear your reasoning and any evidence, fuckandlarry.

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Dire Straits – Southbound Again Lyrics 19 years ago
It's obviously about a Geordie who works in the south of England

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Mark Knopfler – Imelda Lyrics 19 years ago
This song is obviously about Imelda Marcos, the wife of late Philipine dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
She was famous for her shopping tours in Paris, New York, etc. in the 80s.
She was said to have one of the largest collections of shoes in the world.
The song depicts one of her shopping tours paid for by the Philipine people.
The last line of the refrain foreshadows the revolution of 1984

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Dire Straits – Ride Across The River Lyrics 19 years ago
I agree with all of the above.
The song is either about all soldiers or, more specifically, about soldiers turned mercenaries ("Right becomes wrong").
The beginning of the intro reminds me a bit of South American folk tunes and instruments, so I always think of guerilleros (who sometimes fight for a better society and sometimes for drug lords) when I hear it, but of course that's only a personal interpretation and certainly not intended by Mark Knopfler.

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Dire Straits – Lions Lyrics 19 years ago
To me this song is taking place on Trafalgar Square.
"Dirty town" would be London, then (and believe me, it is dirty and would have been much more so in the 80s).
The "square" is pretty self-explanatory.
There are "flags" in front of the National Gallery sometimes and always on top of it and several other buildings around the Square.
The "church" would be Saint-Martin-in-the -Fields then.
The "station" would be the Charing Cross underground station which has an entrance on Trafalgar Square (near that entrance there is a traffic light also mentioned in the song).
And of course there are the "lions made of stone", the four huge stone lions beneath Nelson's Column.

Of course this is only my interpretation, influenced by the fact that I have walked across Trafalgar Square feeling lonely like the girl mentioned in the song myself several times.
But the similarities between this song and the location are striking and we know (from "Wild West End" on the same album) that Knopfler wrote about a location just 2 min away on foot.

Well, I can only say that whenever I hear this song it reminds me of those lonely times on Trafalgar Square at sunset I have experienced.

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