This song is beautiful, mostly for the lyrics. Mark Knopfler is beloved for his keen interest in using music lyrics to give the listener colorful insights into a wide variety of timeless cultural references. Here, Knofler is not only commenting on the sadness of poverty -- of which alcohol abuse is only a symptom -- but a reference to the hardships of the album's theme, the Great Depression.
A couple things I could perhaps add to the commentary below. First, I thought a "brass monkey date" was a spite of cold weather, which the two hobo friends considered liquor was the best way to survive. The whisky I don't believe is imaginary at all, but in fact essential to the painful story Knofler is about to weave.
I didn't assume they were actually inside a lovely tavern, with warm service, good food and drink, but that they were actually leaning back imagining that they were -- part of the "ragpicker's dream" -- which imagines that the two also have considerable money to throw around, acting like the big shots they obviously are not. This didn't have to be a memory at all, simply a "dream" of a life only wished for by the two rail-bound men.
This song is beautiful, mostly for the lyrics. Mark Knopfler is beloved for his keen interest in using music lyrics to give the listener colorful insights into a wide variety of timeless cultural references. Here, Knofler is not only commenting on the sadness of poverty -- of which alcohol abuse is only a symptom -- but a reference to the hardships of the album's theme, the Great Depression.
A couple things I could perhaps add to the commentary below. First, I thought a "brass monkey date" was a spite of cold weather, which the two hobo friends considered liquor was the best way to survive. The whisky I don't believe is imaginary at all, but in fact essential to the painful story Knofler is about to weave.
I didn't assume they were actually inside a lovely tavern, with warm service, good food and drink, but that they were actually leaning back imagining that they were -- part of the "ragpicker's dream" -- which imagines that the two also have considerable money to throw around, acting like the big shots they obviously are not. This didn't have to be a memory at all, simply a "dream" of a life only wished for by the two rail-bound men.