(8) Watch me gone

[Jules]

And the hopscotch traces, well, you can still see 'em here
The chalk lines faded and unclear
Time for me to disappear
Put my old boots back on, whatever

The same boots as he refers to in Pale Imitation, also the same house? How can these chalk lines still be visible after 60 years or more?

And these lines made me think again that is about what had to left behind chasing his dream, and now the dream is ending, "time for me to disappear", sounds like he's thinking that his dream has been fulfiled and that's it, end of the road...

[Love Expresso]

Hello Val, I hoped for a post from you about this song, thank you very much. I guess a lot of my trouble with his lyrics of course comes from me not being a native speaker. Wouldn't the hopscotch traces not indicate childhood?

LE

[Kris-b]

It reminds me of One Song at a Time, which also covers different times.

[Love Expresso]

I read the lyrics again and I think I was wrong with Ruth, and his first marriage seems the most obvious. I don't know too much about it and it's time frame.  This seems to be the time like in Laughs &  Jokes when he left for London to make a living as a Musician. Was his first marriage not later, already during Dire Straits times?

LE

[superval99]

Hello Val, I hoped for a post from you about this song, thank you very much. I guess a lot of my trouble with his lyrics of course comes from me not being a native speaker. Wouldn't the hopscotch traces not indicate childhood?

LE

Yes, hopscotch traces did indicate childhood memories, but the rest of the song fitted in with him leaving the flat in Cardigan Road, Leeds for a life in music, dreaming of meeting Bob and Van eventually.   Of course that dream began when he was a child - remember him being one of the Everlys with a friend?

EDIT:   He married his first wife while he was at university in Leeds - 1973.

[Jules]

I read the lyrics again and I think I was wrong with Ruth, and his first marriage seems the most obvious. I don't know too much about it and it's time frame.  This seems to be the time like in Laughs &  Jokes when he left for London to make a living as a Musician. Was his first marriage not later, already during Dire Straits times?

LE

No, it was when he left Newcastle to work in Leeds at the Evening Post as a journalist, and they got divorced I think three years later when MK left to study Literature, early 70's.

[Kris-b]

I think they married quite young during Mark‘s time in university in Leeds. Mark then wanted to move to London,after a while they split up.

[Love Expresso]

Thank you, jbaent, Val and kris-b! That helps a lot! 

LE

[hunter v2.0]

It's not a bad song per se, but we have heard it all before, several times. The musical ideas, the topics, the revisiting of the past. I don't know. Is a song like this really worth recording, never mind releasing as a single? For a man who's always taken pride in never looking back; it's a bit of a joke, really. And I agree about the backing vocals. Awful. If this song and Ahead are supposed to be the high points of this album, then One Deep River will get a hard pass from me.

And, yes, I am grumpy today 

[holaknopfler]

This is one of those songs that need to be listened to quite a few times - it didn't grab me immediately, but those are the songs that stay,
 rather than those that are liked instantly.  This song is definitely a grower and I like it more and more with each listen.  Mark's guitar is beautiful all through the song.   I think it's about Mark's first marriage as others have said.

Exactly my feeling! Agree

[2manyguitars]

This has to go down as one of his most personal songs. Beautifully sad....

[Maxx]

Beautiful song. To me much more interesting than Ahead of the Game.

I really like his singing in this one, and to my ears he is actually putting some effort to it in some places. 

Lyricswise both very recognisable and also a bit odd in terms of MK. Can't really describe it but the second verse/bridge before the first chorus is different, yet refreshing.

And the songs were pushin' harder all the time
Wasn't your fault, then again it wasn't mine
Broke, frustrated, and obsessed
You saw me as ridiculous, I guess
And I didn't know from nothing
Not even my own voice

But I knew there was something
And I knew there was no choice
I was leavin', mostly heartache
But I was in no mood to rejoice
There was so much that was wrong, whatever

[Jules]

Beautiful song. To me much more interesting than Ahead of the Game.

I really like his singing in this one, and to my ears he is actually putting some effort to it in some places. 

Lyricswise both very recognisable and also a bit odd in terms of MK. Can't really describe it but the second verse/bridge before the first chorus is different, yet refreshing.

And the songs were pushin' harder all the time
Wasn't your fault, then again it wasn't mine
Broke, frustrated, and obsessed
You saw me as ridiculous, I guess
And I didn't know from nothing
Not even my own voice

But I knew there was something
And I knew there was no choice
I was leavin', mostly heartache
But I was in no mood to rejoice
There was so much that was wrong, whatever

That part of the lyrics definitely guide you to when he was married to Kathy White in Leeds, after he left his work as journalist to study, while playing the pubs with Steve Phillips and looking forward to be a musician, "Broke, frustrated, and obsessed".

[JF]

in the Oldfield book he says that his marriage "was going wrong" during the same period as Brewers Droop, so must be circa 1973

[goon525]

Very pleasant song which, like Val, I think will be a grower. It’s not always the songs that make the immediate impression that turn out to be the ‘keepers’. Some tasteful guitar noodling, always welcome. All the same, I do worry about the energy level of the new album - but we should bear in mind that these two releases are not ‘singles’ in the old meaning of the word, they’re just album tracks we get to hear a bit early. Anyway, even in the DS pomp, does anyone think So Far Away was the best or most representative first single they could have chosen from BiA?