| Mark Knopfler – Hard Shoulder Lyrics | 2 years ago |
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What a great song. The guy is a handyman whose work truck has broken down on the freeway entrance (man's broken down on the slip road). He's sitting by the side of the road (the hard shoulder). But, being a jack-of-all-trades, he will have the truck back on the road in a jiffy (Give me a minute we'll be going again. Sound as a pound, right as rain). But even though he can fix just about anything (windows, doors, floors, etc.), he can't fix his own relationship with the woman he loves. And when she actually leaves (I never thought you'd go), the breakdown of the truck causes him to lose his shit and he begins weeping on the side of the road (again, man's broken down on the slip road). Just like his work needs to be done "the proper way," his relationship should proceed in the proper way (I need you to stay). His assistant is wondering WTF he's sobbing for (it's a hard shoulder to cry on). The man pulls his shit together, gets out and fixes his truck, and is on his way (sound as a pound, right as rain), but emotionally, he drives away a broken man, still sobbing on the hard shoulder. |
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| Yes – The Gates of Delirium Lyrics | 3 years ago |
| I think the typical summaries fall so short of capturing the majesty and scope of this work. I mean SongFacts has "The song describes a battle, with a prelude, a charge, a moment of victory, and a peace." Well, duh.\n\nBut let\'s talk about the prelude. From "Stand and fight we do consider" to "Our Gods awake in thunderous roars and guide the leader\'s hands in paths of glory to the cause," you get a growing intensity of calls to war. But it starts softly. And at first there is no opposition to the rhetoric. Only when it becomes a holy cause is any opposition voiced: "Listen should we fight forever, knowing as we do know, fear destroys?" But even that calmer voice is ultimately swayed by the evil of the opponent before a final rallying of the troops to "Pound out the Devil\'s sermon."\n\nThen I love how, once the decision is made, there is no more time for words, and the entire battle sequence proceeds without lyrics. But even here, the simple "a charge" falls far short. The battle scene begins as a carefully planned attack that is met by the opposing theme. Here, for about five minutes of the song, the two themes sway back and forth, with no one getting the clear upper hand, but ever increasing in intensity. The shock troops on both sides are spent, the maneuvers have been attempted, the reserves have been deployed, and in the end, everything is thrown into that final frenzy with neither theme being produced - it is total chaos. Then there is one last valiant push through the enemy\'s lines (the drum run-up) before the top is reached and the victory is assured. But even here, the victory does not end the conflict. There is a period of jubilantly mopping up the battle scene, eliminating all pockets of resistance - that driving drum line keeps the intensity going for a while.\n\nThen at last comes "soon," the time to heal and recover. I won\'t go in to Soon since many words have been written about that part before, but suffice it to say, there is more to it than simply "peace." Led Zeppelin\'s Battle of Evermore comes to mind: "The pain of war can not exceed the woe of aftermath."\n\nI do agree that this is some of Jon Anderson\'s best lyrics and definitely my favorite Yes song. | |
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