| Dire Straits – Industrial Disease Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I was a student in London in the early 1980s, and the lyrics are a clever uplift of the typical rants you'd hear Sundays at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park at that time. "Dr. Parkinson is a reference to "Parkinson's Law" which states that "Work expands to fill the time allotted to it." |
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| Dire Straits – Portobello Belle Lyrics | 11 years ago |
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I don't think Belladonna sells herself to anyone. As she walks through the neighbourhood she's listening to reggae and walking through the "jungle" . . . where the Caribbean/ Jamaicans live in that neck of London. (Knopfler's delivery strips this lyric of any racially derogatory comment: it's that normal wry delivery of his that we all love as he pokes fun at stereotypes.) I think "window box" alludes to home grown ganja which was so frequently grown in small scale planters that when I was a youth "Windowbox" was code for "home grown, really weak weed". (Obviously, this predates grow-lites, hyrdoponics and Colorado in general!) I admit to being stumped about "buttonhole". Button mushrooms? |
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| Dire Straits – Portobello Belle Lyrics | 11 years ago |
| Her presumably braless breasts are swinging (or jiggling, depending on one's imagination), but not in a typical rhythm hence 'the offbeat'. | |
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