I agree with the below in terms of it being about a biker engaged in a risky career and a wife who tries to stop him. However, I haven't seen anyone take on the central theme of the song which is about "news" and cliches.
This song is full of tropes/idioms. In fact, it is largely constructed from them: "sticks to his guns"; "takes the road as it comes"; "takes the shine off [his shoes]"; "gambling with his life"; "kicks it alive"; "it's a shame"; "won't play to lose"... almost all the lines are common phrases or, at least, devoid of individual detail; "he open the door / he take a sniff of the street" tells you very little about the biker as an individual person.
And yet, somehow the song becomes incredibly poignant and we are able to put the cliches together to form a complex picture of his character and his situation. A lot of this is subtle and through the music or intonation, but it's also through the lyrics.
I think there are a few key ideas we can get from this:
1) Behind every simplistic "line in the news" and the cliches or bland descriptions therein there are real, actualized people.
2) Alternately, it's an embrace of the cliche. We live in a world where every story has been told (to the point that it is a cliche), but that somehow doesn't diminish from the stories' power.
@corydeburd - it's about Evel Knievel and the book Evel Knievel on Tour by Shelly Saltman. "he take it over the top" is where Saltman is hit repeatedly over the head with an aluminium baseball bat. It's a Knopfler masterpiece.
@corydeburd - it's about Evel Knievel and the book Evel Knievel on Tour by Shelly Saltman. "he take it over the top" is where Saltman is hit repeatedly over the head with an aluminium baseball bat. It's a Knopfler masterpiece.
I agree with the below in terms of it being about a biker engaged in a risky career and a wife who tries to stop him. However, I haven't seen anyone take on the central theme of the song which is about "news" and cliches.
This song is full of tropes/idioms. In fact, it is largely constructed from them: "sticks to his guns"; "takes the road as it comes"; "takes the shine off [his shoes]"; "gambling with his life"; "kicks it alive"; "it's a shame"; "won't play to lose"... almost all the lines are common phrases or, at least, devoid of individual detail; "he open the door / he take a sniff of the street" tells you very little about the biker as an individual person.
And yet, somehow the song becomes incredibly poignant and we are able to put the cliches together to form a complex picture of his character and his situation. A lot of this is subtle and through the music or intonation, but it's also through the lyrics.
I think there are a few key ideas we can get from this:
1) Behind every simplistic "line in the news" and the cliches or bland descriptions therein there are real, actualized people. 2) Alternately, it's an embrace of the cliche. We live in a world where every story has been told (to the point that it is a cliche), but that somehow doesn't diminish from the stories' power.
@corydeburd - it's about Evel Knievel and the book Evel Knievel on Tour by Shelly Saltman. "he take it over the top" is where Saltman is hit repeatedly over the head with an aluminium baseball bat. It's a Knopfler masterpiece.
@corydeburd - it's about Evel Knievel and the book Evel Knievel on Tour by Shelly Saltman. "he take it over the top" is where Saltman is hit repeatedly over the head with an aluminium baseball bat. It's a Knopfler masterpiece.