| Mark Knopfler – Heart Full of Holes Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
These lines support the Jewish refugee/concentration camp scenario: There's a ringing of bells, a dunderhead's curse Fingers are pointing at you And you take work in hell, be glad it's not worse And you get to the back of the queue I think the old man survived because he was a Sonderkommando, a prisoner made to do the terrible work of clearing up the gas chambers and ovens in return for being spared immediate death. He was identified perhaps for gassing, but chose instead "to take work in hell", and "get to the back of the queue". He was also identified as someone with watchmaking skills and the German officer, in that customarily callous way, said if you don't fix it, you die. Astonishing song, moving from the reality of 50s London, through surreal Fantasia-style scenes in the shop, to concentration camps and musings on heaven and hell. |
|
| Mark Knopfler – Heart Full of Holes Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| Ref my previous...change of mind. I don't think his glasses are grief-tinted. More sardonic than grief. He's seen it all, the very worst, and marvels at the triviality (and occasional violence) people enjoy now that there's peace. | |
| Mark Knopfler – Heart Full of Holes Lyrics | 8 years ago |
| I wonder if the holes in his heart are the members of his family that died in the camps...he's a sad, but stoic survivor who sees the modern world through his grief-tinted glasses. | |
| Mark Knopfler – Madame Geneva's Lyrics | 8 years ago |
|
@[mishel:19280] Very good, thank you. There's another wee pun in there. The English word gin is a derivation of the Dutch word genever, similarly an alcoholic drink derived from juniper berries. English soldiers fighting on the Continent are thought to have brought the drink back home when war ended. (They drank it before battle, leading - possibly - to the phrase Dutch Courage.) Of course, when William of Orange became William III, he brought much of Dutch culture to England and cemented gin/genever into English drinking habits. Today, gin is enjoying a strong renaissance in the UK, with many different and exotic versions available. |
|
* This information can be up to 15 minutes delayed.