| The The – This Is the Day Lyrics | 9 years ago |
| I think I may have found the final word on the interpretation of "This Is The Day." It's from the songwriter himself, Matt Johnson. In an interview with Uncut’s Michael Bonner,he says “… I’d got myself a sort of reputation in certain quarters for songs that were moody or depressing, but people found it [the song ‘Blind’] uplifting. ‘This Is The Day’, ‘Smile’ and ‘Giant’, they’re also supposed to be uplifting, but thoughtful. A poignant reflection.” | |
| The The – This Is the Day Lyrics | 9 years ago |
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"Well you didn't wake up this morning 'cause you didn't go to bed..." Much of the song describes hitting bottom, but there's that moment when "You watch a plane flying across a clear blue sky," and it is exactly then that the chorus cuts in with "This Is The Day, your life will surely change." Whenever the lyrics pore over the loss and the sadness, we come back to this line, and its companion, "This is the day when things fall into place." Now it could be that those lines are sung with irony -- there's no insight, no escape, no hope, just the illusion of it. But I don't buy it. One of the reasons is the music itself. It's in a major key, and the accordion part sounds like something falling into place, not something limping along, out of whack. They say you have to hit bottom before you can come back. It sounds to me like the singer is reflecting your feelings back to you, the feeling that you have had enough of burning bridges and chasing illusory pleasures. Today you finally realize it's all empty and now you know which way to go -- with the plane, taking the high road back home. But the melancholy accordion says it's not another case of getting high. This time, it's just getting things right. This is a song of redemption. |
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| Mark Knopfler – 5.15 A.M. Lyrics | 12 years ago |
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The bandit man -- purveyor of one-armed bandits -- came north to indulge in la dolce vita (the good -- literally "sweet" -- life). No doubt -- with his Mark X Jaguar, birdcage heaven (dolls danced in birdcages in the clubs in the '60s and you can still catch the practice here and there, in places such as Rum Jungle, Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas), and the pockets full of cash -- he held himself above the working men and women of Newcastle. What were they anyway but suckers? The irony built up through the whole song, then, is that he wound up dead among them, murdered by the same greed and inhumanity that built the coal mines (in their own way, a capitalist slot machine) and buried the miners, near the ghosts of the churchyard, discovered by a collier (coal miner) bicycling home from the pithead. Using all the language of Geordieland emphasizes that by seeking "heaven," la dolce vita, amid the coal towns, the bandit man found hell instead. He sank into the black pits, sharing the same fate as those on whose backs he left his Italian boot prints on the way "up," the lowly victims of the gambling games of the sociopathic rich. With several songs about heaven and several songs about hell, "Shangri-la" explores the contrast and what it all means. This is one of the "hell" songs. So is "Boom Like That," which is in a way a song from the Devil's point of view. Then there's "Don't Crash the Ambulance," a "tribute" to the Bush clan. Another bandit man seeks heaven and finds hell in "Postcards From Paraguay." More seeking heaven, finding hell: Sonny Liston's song. "Shangri-la" -- "it's the end of a perfect day" -- is one of the heaven songs. Love, as always, seems to be a reliable heaven, with or without riches. Likewise "All That Matters." There is irony in the title "Shangri-La." We all seek it, but, like in life, hell is more prevalent than heaven in "Shangri-La." Knopfler is a cynic -- "Everybody Pays" -- but a realist. No solutions, really, just rueful observations.The surfer's approach is more direct and sensual, which leaves the door open to an uncluttered love like that. But the vivid contrasts between what we seek and what we find, and of course the music, make this a great album. |
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