| Mark Knopfler – Prairie Wedding Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| I agree. Knopfler's talent for lyrics lies in being able to tell a coherent story, but to do so obliquely through snippets, asides, and casually dropped phrases, as if you were gleaning someone's life story from just listening to them talk. | |
| Mark Knopfler – Everybody Pays Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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This is a real gem. It seems to be about the life of a card gambler and the cost that is exacted by such a life, whether in money at the table, a back alley beating afterward, or just simple lonliness. My favorite stanza is the last. He seems to be telling a more respectable friend to stay away and not get entangled with his problems. "You were never one for trouble/so get outta here/I knew the game was dangerous back then" calls to mind an unlucky instance where the main character's debts catch up with him and he's in for some severe trouble, and he doesn't want his friend to get involved. Very touching. |
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| Mark Knopfler – Back To Tupelo Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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A song about Elvis, seemingly situated at his career highpoint when he was both a rockstar and movie icon, but harkening all the way back to when he recorded his first song as a birthday present for his mom. Very bittersweet, as it highlights the way Elvis, always a simple country boy at heart, must've in some ways missed his humble beginnings when he became caught up in his own celebrity. I wouldn't be surprised if this song was also inspired by some Elvis biography that Knopfler happened to be reading at the time. |
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| Mark Knopfler – Back To Tupelo Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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A song about Elvis, seemingly situated at his career highpoint when he was both a rockstar and movie icon, but harkening all the way back to when he recorded his first song as a birthday present for his mom. Very bittersweet, as it highlights the way Elvis, always a simple country boy at heart, must've in some ways missed his humble beginnings when he became caught up in his own celebrity. I wouldn't be surprised if this song was also inspired by some Elvis biography that Knopfler happened to be reading at the time. |
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| Mark Knopfler – Back To Tupelo Lyrics | 18 years ago |
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A song about Elvis, seemingly situated at his career highpoint when he was both a rockstar and movie icon, but harkening all the way back to when he recorded his first song as a birthday present for his mom. Very bittersweet, as it highlights the way Elvis, always a simple country boy at heart, must've in some ways missed his humble beginnings when he became caught up in his own celebrity. I wouldn't be surprised if this song was also inspired by some Elvis biography that Knopfler happened to be reading at the time. |
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| Mark Knopfler – Song For Sonny Liston Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| This is another one of those songs that seems to be inspired by Mark Knopfler reading a specific biography or history book (similar to "Boom, Like That" and "Sailing to Philadelphia"). If I had to guess, it would be "The Devil and Sonny Liston," by Nick Tosches, which prominently recounts a lot of the things that Knopfler refers to, such as his abuse by his father, his virtual enslavement to the mob, his supposedly thrown fight, his heroin addiction, etc. | |
| Mark Knopfler – Boom, Like That Lyrics | 18 years ago |
| "dog eat dog, rat eat rat" is a quote from Kroc taken from his autobiography ("Grinding It Out"), which Knopfler seems to have read, as he takes a significant portion of the lyrics from there. The "put a hose in their mouth" is another Kroc quote, among several others. | |
| Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I'm pretty sure the lyrics were written with the American Civil War in mind, particularly from the perspective of the Southern experience. 1) The locations - "mist-covered mountains," "my home is the lowlands," "your valleys and your farms." 2) The description of battles is clearly referring to a pitched, line-oriented type of conflict. The Civil War is usually considered the first large industrial war, and the common historical consensus is that the technology in many ways outpaced tactical development. As a result, the practice of the two sides marching at each other in a line was often a horrific experience for the soldier required to keep his place next to his comrades and slowly advance while bullets and explosions were all around him. Hence, "you did not desert me," referring to his faithful comrades keeping their place in the line. On top of that, the other songs on the album evoke many of the same types of images approrpiate to a Civil War era. In "The Man's Too Strong," the main character is a drummer boy. "Ride Across the River" seems to reference the calvary. And of course, the title of the album/song itself is a likely reference to the "brother against brother" trope often used to describe the Civil War. |
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| The Kinks – Victoria Lyrics | 19 years ago |
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I think this song encapsulates pretty well the two attitudes that many of Ray Davies' most distinctly "British" songs often seemed to vacillate between. To say that he's just making some sarcastic or denuncitory satirical statements about Britain would be a mistake, I think. He obviously has a lot of affection for the England of "Victoria." Some people look at: I was born, lucky me In a land that I love Though I am poor, I am free When I grow I shall fight For this land I shall die Let her sun never set ...and assume that the message is completely negative, as in, "Look at the poor ignorant peasant tricked into dying for foolhardy British patriotism." I don't think that's the right way to look at it. I think Davies, while mindful of the drawbacks that Empire and the Victorian culture bring with them, is at least somewhat fondly disposed towards them. You can discern the same sensibilities in Muswell Hillbillies and Village Green Preservation Society, to name just two. |
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