A Mark In Time
Mark Knopfler Discussion => Mark Knopfler Discussion Forum => Topic started by: SlowLearner on August 28, 2024, 11:43:01 AM
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If we were to make an album of Mark's funny/silly songs, what would it be? And would it be an album you would listen to or find tolerable in any way?
I guess the list would include songs such as
Quality Shoe (?)
Old Pigweed
Punish The Monkey (?)
Good As Gold
Hot or What
Got to Have Something
Oklahoma Ponies
Hot Dog
Floating Away
My Bacon Roll
What I'm Gonna Need
Let me know which songs you guys find funny or silly :wave
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I find After The Beanstalk to be a really silly song. Not necessarily bad, just silly. Maybe Les Boys?
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Do America
Don't Crash The Ambulance
Hot Dog
are the only songs I would put in the categorie "meant funny but are in fact silly". But then again, the only funny song in general I find really funny and not silly is "Don't Worry, Be Happy"...
LE
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Add Knoxville! ;D
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Tall order baby
Early bird
Millionaire Blues
Heavy Fuel
Kingdom Come
Industrial Disease
Angel of mercy
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Badges, Posters, Stickers and T‐Shirts
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Badges, Posters, Stickers and T‐Shirts
Money for nothing
Romeo and Juliet
Ticket to Heaven
Pulling down the ride
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I’m surprised that Secondary Waltz hasn’t been mentioned.
It’s the only time I’ve actually seen an audience laugh at an MK song.
“a fat girl was left at the side.”
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I’m surprised that Secondary Waltz hasn’t been mentioned.
It’s the only time I’ve actually seen an audience laugh at an MK song.
“a fat girl was left at the side.”
Oh yes! :lol
Here's another one from that album: Scaffolder's Wife.
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I’m surprised that Secondary Waltz hasn’t been mentioned.
It’s the only time I’ve actually seen an audience laugh at an MK song.
“a fat girl was left at the side.”
Oh yes! :lol
Here's another one from that album: Scaffolder's Wife.
That’s not a funny song.
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I never thought Romeo and Juliet was funny :think
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I’m surprised that Secondary Waltz hasn’t been mentioned.
It’s the only time I’ve actually seen an audience laugh at an MK song.
“a fat girl was left at the side.”
Ah yes, the first time a few of us heard that beautiful song too! Good old Hay festival
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I’m surprised that Secondary Waltz hasn’t been mentioned.
It’s the only time I’ve actually seen an audience laugh at an MK song.
“a fat girl was left at the side.”
Oh yes! :lol
Here's another one from that album: Scaffolder's Wife.
That’s not a funny song.
Not silly-funny, but ironic or maybe even sarcastic, like a few of the others mentioned in this thread.
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Hm. No. More melancholic, empathic and very heartwarming.. a song about dignity... interesting to see that you seem to detect irony in it?
LE
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I never thought Romeo and Juliet was funny :think
It wasn't funny when he wrote it, of course, but he said somewhere that Romeo had become something of a comical figure.
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Hm. No. More melancholic, empathic and very heartwarming.. a song about dignity... interesting to see that you seem to detect irony in it?
LE
Absolutely, this is 100% correct. It's a great character study. These people are all over the UK, I guess other countries as well.
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I agree. I have a very vivid picture in my mind whenever I listen to The Scaffolders Wife. I can see her teetering along the street in her high-heeled shoes and her dyed blonde hair. A truly great MK song!
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Hm. No. More melancholic, empathic and very heartwarming.. a song about dignity... interesting to see that you seem to detect irony in it?
LE
Scaffolders have a reputation for earning very good money (because it's a hard physical job, and they're always in demand). Her husband is the one that probably did the hard work at the beginning, while she's been enjoying the benefits: a Merc convertible, clothes, free time and beauty treatment, and all she is concerned about is her looks. Doesn't sound like a "hard life", does it? ;-)
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Hm. No. More melancholic, empathic and very heartwarming.. a song about dignity... interesting to see that you seem to detect irony in it?
LE
Scaffolders have a reputation for earning very good money (because it's a hard physical job, and they're always in demand). Her husband is the one that probably did the hard work at the beginning, while she's been enjoying the benefits: a Merc convertible, clothes, free time and beauty treatment, and all she is concerned about is her looks. Doesn't sound like a "hard life", does it? ;-)
Not my interpretation at all. She is running the admin side of the business, dealing with problems like customers who don't pay. A sympathetic portrait from MK and in no way funny.
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Oh, I thought they were the ones who didn't pay (what they owed to contractors etc.), and with the money they were able to maintain that sort of lifestyle.
I mean, if you are really running a company in difficult times you don't waste your time at a beauty place or buy a luxury car that you can't really afford.
The "face that's as hard as a scaffolder's bar" is another indicator for irony imho, right at the beginning. I don't think we're supposed to like her ;-)
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Please, don't begrudge her the Merc! :lol
LE
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Please, don't begrudge her the Merc! :lol
LE
Well, living in Germany, I have a point of view about Merc drivers ;-)
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I see your point although that one would be about BMW drivers more.. ;D
I find it very interesting that you understand the lyrics in a complete opposite way. I know about language barriers (as a German myself) and very often need help in understanding exact meanings of lyrics sometimes. Sometimes one small word can change it all.
Her face being hard as a scaffolder's bar might have been the detail in MK's mind that made the song idea going off for a contrast to her quick little steps, the stiletto boots and her teint. She obviously was a woman thinking about problems in her mind which made MK go imagine how her life would be. I wondered always how the narrator knew it was the Scaffolder's wife and I came to the conclusion that she was a well-known person in her town, you don't know her personally but you know who she is.
LE
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I never thought Romeo and Juliet was funny :think
It wasn't funny when he wrote it, of course, but he said somewhere that Romeo had become something of a comical figure.
Yeah, I remember that too. But for me Romeo and Juliet is a different category:)
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I see your point although that one would be about BMW drivers more.. ;D
I find it very interesting that you understand the lyrics in a complete opposite way. I know about language barriers (as a German myself) and very often need help in understanding exact meanings of lyrics sometimes. Sometimes one small word can change it all.
Her face being hard as a scaffolder's bar might have been the detail in MK's mind that made the song idea going off for a contrast to her quick little steps, the stiletto boots and her teint. She obviously was a woman thinking about problems in her mind which made MK go imagine how her life would be. I wondered always how the narrator knew it was the Scaffolder's wife and I came to the conclusion that she was a well-known person in her town, you don't know her personally but you know who she is.
LE
Yes. my interpretation is the same as yours LE. I come from a family of people who work in the construction industry and customers paying, or at least not paying on time, is a big problem.
That said, it could be that it's the scaffolder and his wife who don't pay their debts, who knows?
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I see your point although that one would be about BMW drivers more.. ;D
I find it very interesting that you understand the lyrics in a complete opposite way. I know about language barriers (as a German myself) and very often need help in understanding exact meanings of lyrics sometimes. Sometimes one small word can change it all.
Her face being hard as a scaffolder's bar might have been the detail in MK's mind that made the song idea going off for a contrast to her quick little steps, the stiletto boots and her teint. She obviously was a woman thinking about problems in her mind which made MK go imagine how her life would be. I wondered always how the narrator knew it was the Scaffolder's wife and I came to the conclusion that she was a well-known person in her town, you don't know her personally but you know who she is.
LE
Yes. my interpretation is the same as yours LE. I come from a family of people who work in the construction industry and customers paying, or at least not paying on time, is a big problem.
That said, it could be that it's the scaffolder and his wife who don't pay their debts, who knows?
It's really interesting to see how everybody reads (good) lyrics in a different way, depending on your own experience etc. It's like poetry.
Re scaffolders: I remember that around the turn of the millenium there was a series of scandals in various EU countries, which was about hiring subcontractors, who would hire subcontractors etc.. In the end, the customers had paid a lot of money in advance and then the contractors went bankrupt (on purpose), so both the customers and the subcontractors were getting the short straw, while someone else got very rich (Paraguayyyy, anyone? :lol). This particular scaffolder could be anywhere along the line, of course.
What we do know though, is that MK doesn't like builders, and that might include their families. :lol