(04) Heart Full of Holes 6.36

[shangri la 1]

Heart Full Of Holes (Mark Knopfler) (6:36)

LYRICS

You can tell me your troubles
I’ll listen for free
My regulars trust me, it seems
You can come and see Uncle
to get through the week
leave your pledges with me to redeem
Some folk sell their bodies
for ten bob a go
Politicians go pawning their souls
Which doesn’t make me
look too bad, don’t you know
me, with my heart full of holes
All my yesterdays’ broken
a watch with no face
all battered and old
Bits of the movement
all over the place
and a heart full of holes
A heart full of holes
A heart full of holes

Brass knuckles and banjos
are out on the town
at the knees-up
in Teddy Boys’ Row
The gold block and tackle
tells the time upside down
Rock n’ roll – well, I don’t know
Dead people’s wedding gifts
walk out the door
A clarinet squeals to be free
Accordions hop
from the shelves to the floor –
start playing their polkas to me

There’s a ringing of bells
a dunderhead’s curse
Fingers are pointing at you
And you take work in hell
and be glad it’s not worse
and you get to the back of the queue
Handcuffs and hunting knives
clang on the bars
Air pistols shoot out the lights
I’ve a whole Wailing Wall
of electric guitars
could shatter the windows
down Brick Lane tonight

If one of us dies, love
I think I’ll retire
see my boys and my beautiful girls
A Garden of Eden
no gates or barbed wire
who knows, maybe gates made of pearls
Well, if we go to heaven
and some say we don’t
but if there’s a reckoning day
please God, I’ll see you
and maybe I won’t
I’ve a bag packed to go either way

Redeeming your pledge, dear
I’ll keep it for you
It’s not going to go anywhere
But your soul, your soul
that is not what I do
There’s not a lot I can do there
I remember the officer’s watch
in my hand:
‘Repair it or die’ I was told
It’s a wonder to me –
I still don’t understand
why I ever survived to be old
with a heart full of holes
A heart full of holes
A heart full of holes

© Mercury
Warner Bros. (USA)

CHORDS: For Album Kill to Get Crimson – By Foma
https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/m/mark_knopfler/kill_to_get_crimson_album_crd.htm

 

[Lis]

I am in love with this song; it has made it onto nearly all of my playlists.  (I have several different playlists for running, as I don't stop to change a CD, or to select a concert.)

Anybody else enamored with this one? 

[quizzaciously]

I am in love with this song; it has made it onto nearly all of my playlists.  (I have several different playlists for running, as I don't stop to change a CD, or to select a concert.)

Anybody else enamored with this one?

Sure Lis, this particular song I usually have on the "loop mode" for at least a couple of hundreds of loops and it always makes me cry.

[Knopflerfan]

Sooooo thrilled this lovely song/tune has been 'dug out' and played on what is likely the last tour...

Such a fabulous 'wordsmith' song which is so full of life, and I just love hearing it.......

[Jules]

This song had been always one of my favourite of all his career.

[Lis]

Sooooo thrilled this lovely song/tune has been 'dug out' and played on what is likely the last tour...

Such a fabulous 'wordsmith' song which is so full of life, and I just love hearing it.......

I feel so incredibly fortunate to hear this song played live.  When I heard it in Barcelona, I nearly fell out of my seat (but actually, I just left my seat to sit with Ingrid (thank you, Sweet Ingrid for making room for me!!  ).  This song is an absolute highlight for me of this tour. 
 

[Robson]

This song and these words are amazing...

...Well, if we go to heaven
and some say we don’t
but if there’s a reckoning day
please God, I’ll see you
and maybe I won’t
I’ve a bag packed to go either way...

[superval99]

This song and these words are amazing...

...Well, if we go to heaven
and some say we don’t
but if there’s a reckoning day
please God, I’ll see you
and maybe I won’t
I’ve a bag packed to go either way...

..... also, "If one of us dies love, I think I'll retire"   

[Robson]

Exactly ...

The live version was wonderful.

[Knopflerfan]

This song and these words are amazing...

...Well, if we go to heaven
and some say we don’t
but if there’s a reckoning day
please God, I’ll see you
and maybe I won’t
I’ve a bag packed to go either way...

Lovely, just lovely.....

[Robson]

Sometimes I think Mark wrote these words about himself. His thoughts, faith, doubt, hope...

[Knopflerfan]

Very possible. Such a wordsmith though....

[Robson]

And amazing ending. Echo, voice...? 

[Kris-b]

I always wonder if that song is for his uncle Alfred the brother of Erwin, Mark‘s dad. He was a watchmaker and died in the holocaust.
I know that Mark often talks about his uncle Freddie, but never heard him talk about Alfred.

[Robson]

Exactly. Journalists should ask about it. It's good that we know the story of Piper To The End.