| Mark Knopfler – The Car Was the One Lyrics | 1 year ago |
| Love this song ... about getting your priorities straight. | |
| Mark Knopfler – The Ragpicker's Dream Lyrics | 1 year ago |
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This song is beautiful, mostly for the lyrics. Mark Knopfler is beloved for his keen interest in using music lyrics to give the listener colorful insights into a wide variety of timeless cultural references. Here, Knofler is not only commenting on the sadness of poverty -- of which alcohol abuse is only a symptom -- but a reference to the hardships of the album's theme, the Great Depression. A couple things I could perhaps add to the commentary below. First, I thought a "brass monkey date" was a spite of cold weather, which the two hobo friends considered liquor was the best way to survive. The whisky I don't believe is imaginary at all, but in fact essential to the painful story Knofler is about to weave. I didn't assume they were actually inside a lovely tavern, with warm service, good food and drink, but that they were actually leaning back imagining that they were -- part of the "ragpicker's dream" -- which imagines that the two also have considerable money to throw around, acting like the big shots they obviously are not. This didn't have to be a memory at all, simply a "dream" of a life only wished for by the two rail-bound men. |
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| Steely Dan – Brooklyn (Owes the Charmer Under Me) Lyrics | 15 years ago |
| I think in the earlier songs, these guys were trying to come off as being mysterious and clever with their lyrics when, to me, they come off as sounding pretentious. | |
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