From the way that Knopfler sings this song it feels more melancholy than the above seem to believe. Although he seems to enjoy "cop tales" with songs such as "Private Investigations," his later solo works seem to have the same sort of melancholic tone with more transparent lyrics.
This song is certainly one of the most mysterious and interesting of all Straits songs. I think that the singer is looking for a recent ex-girlfriend with whom he had a terrible fight. Here's why:
"Your injured looks" -- this makes sense only for someone who has had emotional distress. For a dead person this would not make a whole lot of sense, unless it was a suicide. And even so, it doesn't seem like he would be at the July 4th celebration looking for her.
The ladykiller -- it is easy to imagine a hurt woman losing the love of her life throwing herself into a man for sexual pleasure only. From the ladykiller's apologetic tone ("what can I say") it seems as if he understood that she was distressed and looking just for sex.
The places -- the singer travels to locations, which could very easily have been where they spent time together. A fourth of July celebration at the Statue of Liberty? Sure makes sense for young lovers in their prime.
The defeatist tone at the end doesn't seem like an honest question that a detached PI would ask. Unless he's a very introspective and empathetic guy, he probably would not be completely concerned with the whereabouts of a woman like this. He is deeply connected to this woman, from the longing tones and the rhetorical question.
The last part of the song really hits home this interpretation -- as the man finds out more and more about his love's self-destructive path after their row he becomes more and more sad; who wants to learn about their love having a meaningless one-night stand with a tattooed hot shot? While he is accomplishing his goal of finding out what's happened to his soulmate (sweet), the things he is finding out are gruesome and hurtful since he cared so much for her (bitter).
From the way that Knopfler sings this song it feels more melancholy than the above seem to believe. Although he seems to enjoy "cop tales" with songs such as "Private Investigations," his later solo works seem to have the same sort of melancholic tone with more transparent lyrics.
This song is certainly one of the most mysterious and interesting of all Straits songs. I think that the singer is looking for a recent ex-girlfriend with whom he had a terrible fight. Here's why:
"Your injured looks" -- this makes sense only for someone who has had emotional distress. For a dead person this would not make a whole lot of sense, unless it was a suicide. And even so, it doesn't seem like he would be at the July 4th celebration looking for her.
The ladykiller -- it is easy to imagine a hurt woman losing the love of her life throwing herself into a man for sexual pleasure only. From the ladykiller's apologetic tone ("what can I say") it seems as if he understood that she was distressed and looking just for sex.
The places -- the singer travels to locations, which could very easily have been where they spent time together. A fourth of July celebration at the Statue of Liberty? Sure makes sense for young lovers in their prime.
The defeatist tone at the end doesn't seem like an honest question that a detached PI would ask. Unless he's a very introspective and empathetic guy, he probably would not be completely concerned with the whereabouts of a woman like this. He is deeply connected to this woman, from the longing tones and the rhetorical question.
The last part of the song really hits home this interpretation -- as the man finds out more and more about his love's self-destructive path after their row he becomes more and more sad; who wants to learn about their love having a meaningless one-night stand with a tattooed hot shot? While he is accomplishing his goal of finding out what's happened to his soulmate (sweet), the things he is finding out are gruesome and hurtful since he cared so much for her (bitter).
Just an absolutely beautiful song, I think.