(2) Basil (5:44)

[shangri la 1]

Basil (Mark Knopfler)

LYRICS
   My Saturday job pays six and six down
A copy boy at the Chronicle
Five cigarettes and two silver half crowns
Meeting Vince at Mark Toney’s in town
Boy, do we get around

Basil sits there on the table for subs
But not a part of the Bri-nylon club
Ancient blue sweater, too old for the job
Bored out of his mind
With the Colins and Bobs

I’m a jack and a lad
And I’m up for the world
And I’ve kissed a Gateshead girl

He calls for a copy boy, grumpy as hell
Poets have to eat as well
What he wouldn’t give just to walk out today
To have time to think about time
And young love thrown away

I’m a jack and a lad
And I’m up for the world
And I’ve kissed a Gateshead girl

Starlings swarming
A cloud over Grainger Street
Over the black church
Over the Black Gate
And the shadowy Keep

He peers through his wire rims
At the fish and chip words
He’s supposed to dish up and forget
His drudgery now has become slightly blurred
By one of his Players untipped cigarettes

Bury all joy
Put the poems in sacks
And bury me here with the hacks

In the summer the fair
Will stretch over the Moor
Lovers will lie and make out in the park
Basil puts on his old duffel and scarf
And goes out into the dark

[geordie_60]

Basil (Mark Knopfler)

LYRICS



TAB

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/rock-star-mark-knopfler-copy-8695208   

This is a story my newspaper (and employer) has put out about it all in the past few hours!

[LoveExpresso]

Very nice. Thank you!

LE

[superval99]

Thank you, Geordie_60!     I do wish, though that newspapers, magazines, etc would get it right about where MK went to school, especially a Newcastle newspaper!    He lived in Gosforth and went to school there, not Blyth as is so often stated (copied from wrong info on Wikipedia)!   This was from the first blue link! 

[geordie_60]

Thank you, Geordie_60!     I do wish, though that newspapers, magazines, etc would get it right about where MK went to school, especially a Newcastle newspaper!    He lived in Gosforth and went to school there, not Blyth as is so often stated (copied from wrong info on Wikipedia)!   This was from the first blue link!

His mother came from Blyth i think and his parents were married there, but you're right he lived in Gosforth and went to school there. We at the Chronicle have plenty of archive pics of MK in his old classroom at his school in Gosforth.

[superval99]

Thank you, Geordie_60!     I do wish, though that newspapers, magazines, etc would get it right about where MK went to school, especially a Newcastle newspaper!    He lived in Gosforth and went to school there, not Blyth as is so often stated (copied from wrong info on Wikipedia)!   This was from the first blue link!

His mother came from Blyth i think and his parents were married there, but you're right he lived in Gosforth and went to school there. We at the Chronicle have plenty of archive pics of MK in his old classroom at his school in Gosforth.

Do you think we could see some of those pictures, Geordie_60?    I'm sure everyone here would be very interested!   

[geordie_60]

Thank you, Geordie_60!     I do wish, though that newspapers, magazines, etc would get it right about where MK went to school, especially a Newcastle newspaper!    He lived in Gosforth and went to school there, not Blyth as is so often stated (copied from wrong info on Wikipedia)!   This was from the first blue link!

His mother came from Blyth i think and his parents were married there, but you're right he lived in Gosforth and went to school there. We at the Chronicle have plenty of archive pics of MK in his old classroom at his school in Gosforth.

Do you think we could see some of those pictures, Geordie_60?    I'm sure everyone here would be very interested!   

I dont think i would dare put them up on this site due to copyright reasons!  They dont belong to me sorry!!

[superval99]

Thank you, Geordie_60!     I do wish, though that newspapers, magazines, etc would get it right about where MK went to school, especially a Newcastle newspaper!    He lived in Gosforth and went to school there, not Blyth as is so often stated (copied from wrong info on Wikipedia)!   This was from the first blue link!

His mother came from Blyth i think and his parents were married there, but you're right he lived in Gosforth and went to school there. We at the Chronicle have plenty of archive pics of MK in his old classroom at his school in Gosforth.

Do you think we could see some of those pictures, Geordie_60?    I'm sure everyone here would be very interested!   

I dont think i would dare put them up on this site due to copyright reasons!  They dont belong to me sorry!!

Yes, I realised that, but it was worth a try!       Thank you, anyway, for the link!   

[Jules]

I know that we don

[shangri la 1]

Basil (Mark Knopfler)

LYRICS
Five cigarettes and two silver half crowns
Pre decimalization
I

[Jules]

"To have time to think about time" is my favourite sentence not only from this song but probably from all the songs MK had written...

Thanks Shangrila!

[shangri la 1]

  Can't wait to hear the rest of this one. Sounds like a great song with moving lyrics and that Knopfler guitar "tone".

[LoveExpresso]

I think it's not Gateshead. "I'll kiss the g...  girl"... I can't make it out..

LE

[Bluebird]

LE, what about "I've kissed the gate's head now", what ever that could mean. I don't hear "girl". "Head" has so much meanings, for instance: headline, that fits to the newspaper business. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Just an idea.

Bluebird

[dmg]

LE, what about "I've kissed the gate's head now", what ever that could mean. I don't hear "girl". "Head" has so much meanings, for instance: headline, that fits to the newspaper business. Maybe I'm completely wrong. Just an idea.

Bluebird

Haven't really gave it a 2nd listen but I think some of our foreign friends may find it helpful to know that Gateshead is a town nearby Newcastle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gateshead