This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Belladonna's on the high street
Her breasts upon the offbeat
And the stalls are just the side shows
Victoriana's old clothes
And yes, her jeans are tight now
She gotta travel light now
She got to turn up all her roots now
She got to turn up for the boots now
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
She sees a man upon his back there
Escaping from a sack there
And Belladonna lingers
Her gloves they got no fingers
Yeah, the blind man sing in Irish
He get his money in a tin dish
Just a corner serenader
Upon a time he could have made her, made her
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Yes, and the barrow boys are hawking
And the parakeet is squawking
Upon a truck there is a rhino
She get the crying of a wino
And then she hear the reggae rumble
Belladonna's in the jungle
But she is no garden flower
There is no distress in the tower
Belladonna walks
Belladonna taking a stroll
She don't care about your window box
Or your button hole
Yes, and she sing a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Her breasts upon the offbeat
And the stalls are just the side shows
Victoriana's old clothes
And yes, her jeans are tight now
She gotta travel light now
She got to turn up all her roots now
She got to turn up for the boots now
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
She sees a man upon his back there
Escaping from a sack there
And Belladonna lingers
Her gloves they got no fingers
Yeah, the blind man sing in Irish
He get his money in a tin dish
Just a corner serenader
Upon a time he could have made her, made her
She thinks she's tough
She ain't no English rose
Ah, but the blind singer
He's seen enough and he knows
Yes, and he do a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Yes, and the barrow boys are hawking
And the parakeet is squawking
Upon a truck there is a rhino
She get the crying of a wino
And then she hear the reggae rumble
Belladonna's in the jungle
But she is no garden flower
There is no distress in the tower
Belladonna walks
Belladonna taking a stroll
She don't care about your window box
Or your button hole
Yes, and she sing a song about a long-gone Irish girl
Ah, but I got one for you, Portobello Belle
Lyrics submitted by Dasch, edited by doccolinni
Portobello Belle Lyrics as written by Mark Knopfler
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics powered by LyricFind
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If they asked me to make a chart of the discography of Dire Straits "Communique" would be at no 1. because all the tracks are very good except track 4. ; ) So i agree this song is one of their best.
In my opinion the song is about a good looking perky type of girl.
That can't resist the urge to go out on expedition in to the great wide open. She lives for a while like a rolling stone and in this time frame the text is set. On her journey she experiences all kind of weird situations. Like a tramp in a sack later on a drunk man screaming for attention etc. Unlucky for her i guess it ends up in selling her self to whatever. "Window box" can be a someones car and the "buttonhole" speaks for it selves.
Regards
Ps. let there be a last "Dire Straits" album with the legendary "Communique" lineup. Loungy like the end of "Why Worry"
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.)<br /> <br /> 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!)<br /> <br /> I admit to being stumped about "buttonhole". Button mushrooms?
Thanks for the reply. your are probably right about it, but its just the interpretation i always get listening this song. And maybe "windowbox" can still be a cryptic definition for a car. Where are you from? I'm from Holland. ; )
Check out my edit of "Calling Elvis and more tracks:<br /> <br /> soundcloud.com/yambii/dire-straits_calling-elvis
@Yambi "She don
t care about your window box or your button-hole" means that she has no time for social niceties, as in having a neat window box of flowers on your windowsill or having a flower in your (jacket/lapel) button-hole. Shes an outsider who doesn`t give a shit.