(4) No Can Do (4:54)

[shangri la 1]

No Can Do (Mark Knopfler)

LYRICS

Skint in a material world
I did a warehouse stint for southsea girl
It was Hong Kong clothes for cash
Everybody got treated worse than trash
Punch the card in the company clock
Load the trolleys and the company trucks
And around and around the whole day through
And you couldn't sit down when there was nothing to do

Well they had beaten up people from every land
Fools like me trying to be in bands
A little French girl so good to me
But I couldn't love her back so lonely
A backpacker travelling through
A lumberjack with the travelling blues
We had worn out shoes and worn out cuffs
And big ideas that were never big enough

He said the man wants you go wash his car
Hey you I'm talking to you
I said me, not me uh uh
No can do

No can can do no can
No can can do no can

Now some were grown up unlike me
And were dealing with reality
I was spittin' sulkin' smokin' shirkin'
While a lady from Jamaica was singing and working
I had everyone but me to blame
And every day was just the same
Well nobody ever said it was a righteous world
But if they did they never said it at southsea girl

He said the man wants you go wash his car
Hey you I'm talking to you
I said me, not me uh uh
No can do

No can can do no can
No can can do no can

Well I've made my bed on peoples floors
Opened up and closed some doors
Dreamed that if my dreams came true
Then I wouldn't do what I didn't want to
Walking through the gates to the outside
To dream some dreams that never died
And I walked the streets of London town
Looking for a place to put my head down

TAB

[Jules]

I always liked this song quite a lot, that drum beat, that guitar riff that MK already used on the end part of "Ride across the river" and with Clapton (can't remember the song).

I wonder what these lyrics are about, any idea?

[Robson]

About the job in a fruit warehouse, about the job on a farm, about the times when he earned his living in a different way than playing music, but he never gave up his dreams, as the last words say.

[SamGolden]

I would also add simply that the contrast between the verses and the chorus gives a nice melodic dimension to the song. 

[Jules]

About the job in a fruit warehouse, about the job on a farm, about the times when he earned his living in a different way than playing music, but he never gave up his dreams, as the last words say.

yes, you are right, the last verses gives the biggest clue, I readed the lyrics to close and didn't read those last lines...

I like a lot this kind of songs, with these lyrics, specially in that last lines:

Well I've made my bed on peoples floors
Opened up and closed some doors
Dreamed that if my dreams came true

The first line matchs very well with some of "Laughs and jokes", and the last with "Mathstick man"

And I walked the streets of London town
Looking for a place to put my head down

And he ended putting his head down on his brother's flat, and starting a succesful band!

[Robson]

A beautiful interpretation.